Blessing in Disguise

I had been looking forward to last weekend, getting Highflyer to request time off work well in advance. We were going to spend it at my parents', going skiing (both of us had got a ski pass for Christmas for my staple Carinthian ski resort), eating cake on the occasion of my recent birthday, etc. Well, then I noticed a certain, very familiar "off" feeling at the back of my throat as I was out for dinner with friends on Thursday night and immediately took an antigen Covid test when I got home that came up with a faint pink test line. Bingo. I took another test on Friday morning when I already had a full-on throat ache and yep, there was no denying it. All winter I had joked that I felt like a scorpion or cockroach, being the only person who did not fall sick before Christmas when everyone in the office came down with the flu or Covid. It was just bad timing as we were all set to go, my Mum had prepared everything and the weather was picture-perfect. Bummer. Then I saw the positive side. What, if I had only realised I was sick when I was already there, had kissed my parents "hello" and passed the virus on to them. My dad, who is turning 80 this year, has a severe chronic illness and so far - at least as far as we know of - managed to avoid the virus, so I really would have beaten myself up if this had been the case, regardless of the outcome. Neither the mountains nor the cake or my presents are running away so it's just a matter of postponing something nice and I am very grateful I only had a sore throat and runny nose, but no other symptoms.