Tag Archives: Sick

Cocktail Corner – Cold Comfort

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We all have memorable stories of being sick. They become part of our own folklore. The tales can be sad, inspiring, funny or combos of many feelings. Here are some of the Sip Advisor’s most unforgettable illness anecdotes:

The Bad Kind of Shot

To get immunized against Hepatitis B, students in my neck of the woods received a series of shots in grade six and again in grade nine. Following each of the shots delivered in grade six, I became very ill. We’re talking delirious dreams, high fever, chills, the whole gamut. The family theory is that my undiagnosed kidney issue was to blame for times when my body was also working through the immunizations. After having my failing kidney removed in grade seven, I never experienced any issues during the grade nine treatments.

Double Hatty

On another occasion, I was feeling sick enough to not go to school, but missing sport commitments was another thing. That season, I was chasing the league lead for goals and points in roller hockey and nothing could stop me from suiting up that night. In the end, I managed to score six goals, pushing through all the symptoms that were affecting me. Following our game, it was back to bed rest, completely spent.

Hat Trick

Travel Troubles

One of the worst times to get sick is while travelling. When Mrs. Sip and I were in Egypt in 2008, I fell ill on the day before our week-long tour was set to leave. I spent the rest of that day downing water and sleeping, trying to flush whatever ailed me out of my system. It mostly worked, but I spent the rest of that trip being apprehensive about what was safe to eat and always cognizant of where the nearest bathroom was located.

What Happens in Vegas…

In a similar vein, when Mrs. Sip and I spent New Year’s Eve 2009 in Vegas, I caught a case of food poisoning that hit when I arrived home. Somehow, I survived the plane ride back, but knew something was up. Both ends were affected by this bug, which was made all the more funny/embarrassing when I discovered late at night, while trying to switch bathrooms, that I wasn’t alone in my parent’s home, as I had originally believed, my brother and his girlfriend also at the abode.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

In 2010, Mrs. Sip and I were celebrating our first Christmas while living together. It was going to be that much more special, as I had planned to ask her to marry me on Christmas morning. One problem: we both felt terribly sick with colds on Christmas Eve. We retired to our bedroom early that night, taking doses of various medications. This was during the brief time we had a TV in our room and decided to watch Babes in Toyland. You want to talk delirious dreams!? I considered bumping my proposal, but everything was already set in place, so I soldiered ahead. By the end of the day, which included telling both our families of our big news, Mrs. Sip had completely lost her voice and we were both running on fumes.

Christmas Engaged

More Than All-Inclusive

Sadly, I’ve become ill on a few of our all-inclusive getaways and not from over-indulging. In Cabo (2013), the Dominican Republic (2014) and Mayan Riviera (2023), something did not agree with my system and I was forced to spend a day or more recovering. A true highlight of these occasions, was when I arranged for a special romantic multi-course dinner to celebrate Mrs. Sip’s 30th birthday, but was unable to eat any of the amazing food offered to us. When I raced to the railing of our gazebo setting to be sick, our server thought I was simply suffering from heat stroke and dumped a pitcher of cold water over my head. It was hilarious and humiliating all at the same time!

Covid-iot

2020 saw a great change to everyone’s lives, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The Sip Advisor was finally afflicted by the disease in July 2021 and man did it knock me on my ass. Mrs. Sip and I were to attend an adult waterpark event the first day I felt ill and in an attempt to get my body right, I cracked open a vodka soda after my work day finished. Well, not even that could cure what ails me, so Mrs. Sip suggested I take a Covid test. Sure enough, it was evident very quickly that I was positive. I missed four days of work, completely glued to the couch. Even when I returned to work, I needed midday naps to get me through the shift.

Cocktail Corner: Cold Comfort

Cold Comfort

  • 1.5 oz White Rum
  • Splash of Lime Juice
  • Dash of Honey Syrup
  • Garnish with a Lime Wedge

Thankfully, I’ve never suffered from any serious illnesses, kidney removal aside. Hopefully this trend continues for your friendly neighbourhood Sip Advisor!

Mixer Mania #23 – Word Play

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Have you ever wondered where some of our sayings for approval come from? Well, as we feature Peach Juice as this week’s mixer, let’s take a look at some of those sayings and delve into their origins:

Peachy Keen

Sometimes shortened to simply ‘peachy’, the term can often be used ironically, when things aren’t going as well as originally hoped. Radio DJ Jim Hawthorne is credited with making the term popular and it was even used by Rizzo in the movie Grease.

Cool

Saxophonist Lester Young is credited with first popularizing the word cool as slang. Nicknamed Prez, Young encapsulated the African-American jazz scene of the 1940’s and the culture it inspired. The musician can also be recognized for coining the term ‘bread’ to mean money.

Being Awesome Takes Practice

Groovy

Most often heard from the cast of Scooby Doo, groovy is also a jazz slang term from the 1920’s, referring to the grooves in a vinyl record. It returned with a vengeance in the 1960’s and became a big part of the hippie counter-culture of the time.

Sweet

While diabetics and those dieting try to avoid things that are sweet, for the exact same reasons, the word has become a slang term used by folks to describe something great. After all, we all love things that are sweet… some of us just can’t have those things.

Gnarly

After going through a couple incarnations, including being used by surfers in the 1970’s to describe a dangerous wave, it was picked up by teens in the 1980’s to describe something that was excellent. The same backstory explains the word ‘Tubular’, as well.

Gnarly Test Answer.jpg

Wicked

Much more than a Broadway play, wicked can now be used to describe everything from awful to amazing things. Apparently, the concept was born and bred in Boston, Massachusetts and now that I’ve pointed that out, you can totally hear a New Englander saying it.

Awesome

Literally meaning “something which inspires awe”, with the word becoming more used as slang, it has lost some of its original significance. That said, it has brought to the world such enhanced terms as awesome sauce, awesomeness and awesometastic.

Hip

Once again, we go to the African-American jazz scene and their vernacular for this one. Meaning “fashionably current”, Wikipedia reminds us that what is hip is continuously changing. As Grampa Simpson once said: “I used to be with it, but then they changed what ‘it’ was”.

Mixer Mania #23: Shanghai Sunset

Shanghai Sunset.JPG

  • 1.5 oz Orange Vodka
  • Top with Peach Juice
  • Splash of Lemon-Lime Soda
  • Dash of Grenadine
  • Garnish with a Maraschino Cherry

Put most of the words together and this sounds like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles work. Of course, some honourable mentions go to terms like tight, sick and bad, which imply the opposite of their original meaning.

Sip Advisor Bar Notes (3.5 Sips out of 5):
The Grenadine didn’t show up as well as I’m used, but perhaps that’s because I went very light with it, not wanting the cocktail to become too sweet. The little fireball in the sky, courtesy of the Maraschino Cherry garnish, was still present, though.