Flu, tissues and foaming at the mouth

Been distracted from blogging and my social life by a lot of work and a nasty flu.

I hate flu in all its manifestations, and I have never even had a stomach flu. This one has been of the kind that starts at the throat, makes it really sore for a couple of days, then proceeds to the nose and makes it sore for a few days more, after which it usually disappears and leaves you with a sore nose because you have rubbed the skin really raw.

One thing I really miss here is the American tissues. I mean, I usually manage to rub my nose raw even with them, but they are not nearly as rough as the Finnish ones. On the other hand it makes them fragile and not very good for blowing your nose, so the only sensible strategy is to blow your nose into the Finnish tissues and then wipe it with the American ones.

I shared this observation with another American once. His eyes went round and he said "You worry about the tissues? Look at their toilet paper! Doesn't it make your ass sore?" It doesn't, and I played an old Russian macho card and told him about growing up wiping my ass with a newspaper called Sovetskaya Rossiya, which was marginally softer than Pravda but left brighter pictures of Lenin on its user's ass. I am sure he regretted ever raising the subject, and we never talked about it again, but now I started wondering: are there any real live people besides him whose asses are more sensitive than their nostrils, paper-wise?

Yesterday during a bout of coughing and sneezing green foam came out of my mouth and nose. At first I was somewhat surprised, then realized that I was drinking matcha latte (for those who doesn't know, it is very green). It is a very soothing drink, and I finally found the right recipe, and I would like to drink that at work, too, but I am not sure how the coworkers will relate to the green foam. Maybe I better wait till the flu is over.