The Cold

Why do people (men, usually, I admit) claim to have the 'flu when what they have is the common cold?
I've had influenza perhaps twice. You're poleaxed for ten days or a fortnight; the muscle fatigue alone makes it impossible to move during the worst two days of it. But that ought not to diminish the rubbishness of the cold which, if you have several young children, you may well get twice a year.
Cold sweats, fever, the headache period when the sinuses are knackered, the nuisance of sneezing all the bloody time, the loss of your voice, the inability to eat, the general miserableness of it.
Yet if you say I was off for three days with the cold, you look rubbish.
Well, enough is enough. The cold is bad, bad news. I'm nearly over the cold. It's like toothache. You forget how bad it was once it's over.
What we must all remember is:

Hier Ich stann' Ich have the cold.

And I'm staying in my bed.