Perhaps I am getting old or it is just being middle age, or may be this year is different, but I have been suffering quite badly from hay fever for the past few days. The weather has become generally sunnier and warmer in London since last week, though cooler and cloudier today, so there may be more pollens in the air compared to previous years.
One-a-day loratadine 10 mg tablet keeps me functional. I shudder to think what I would be like without anti-histamine tablets as I would be a total wreck, struggling to complete the simplest of tasks. With loratadine, I can do most things at a reasonable level of competence, however it is as if I can only work or concentrate up to 75% or 80% capacity at most. Rarely do I need to be 100% alert to finish a task, knowing that I can have bursts of concentration or effort to complete something is reassuring. Without that assurance, a task takes longer. Instead of double checking, I feel compelled to triple check. As I am working at a slower rate, tasks take longer, and I am working rather inefficiently.
Incidentally I don’t trust those who claim to give their 100% all the time or commit to doing more than 100%. You can’t sustain or give more than 100%. Claiming to give their 110%, 120%, or 200%, as the level of commitment inflates continuously, is either a lie in the sense of promising that cannot be delivered or a sign of ignorance in that one wonders whether they actually grasp the idea of percentages. Equally it may be a reflection of inefficiency, in the sense that if you have to give your 100% all the time to do a job, then clearly there is little scope to do any extra amount of work. Obviously these expressions are figures of speech, but they rile me up for some reason, perhaps because they have been overused and are now banal and meaningless.
In most years, I suffer from hay fever around now for about two weeks and another fortnight in June. I hope that this bout of hay fever will end soon, enabling me to go for a long walk as leaves are starting to unfold.