venta: (Default)
[personal profile] venta
So... we still have no government, so I still have a cough. On the way to work this morning, I bought some cough mixture - said cough isn't particularly painful, but it is noisy and I thought I ought to make the attempt not to irritate my colleagues.

Actually, I seem to have irritated them anyway, because they're all wildly indignant that I paid for cough mixture when "it doesn't work". I'm vaguely aware that there have been news stories claiming that cough mixture was ineffective, but am vague on the details. It certainly appears to have made some difference. I bought the least expensive bottle available in Boots this morning and its ingredients list doesn't include "placebo", so it can't be that.

Anyway, I am mildly outraged by my cough mixture. It is a sort-of branded, sort-of ownbrand affair, being somehow "Boots Nirolex Chesty Cough relief Linctus". The capitalisation is theirs.

Firstly I was outraged because the box didn't contain a spoon. Don't you even get a free spoon these days ? Admittedly, sensible grown-ups with medicine cabinets don't need another spoon, so I suppose it reduces waste. However, as an immature type who hasn't bought liquid medicine in years I found myself in the unfortunate position this morning of swigging it out of the bottle. And it was rather nasty. More outrage. I always expect cough mixture to be nice. Junior Benelyn was (when I was a kid) lovely stuff - more or less worth having a cold for.

Anyway. Swigging from the bottle, as it turns out, meant I didn't realise until just now how quite how outraged I was. Post lunch, I thought it was about time for another dose so used the small purple pottery spoon which lives on my desk. Pouring the gloopy stuff out... I realised it was clear. Transparent. Totally colourless.

Everyone knows that cough mixture should be red. Or brown. Maybe reddish brown. Possibly - on appeal - yellow if it's that buttercup stuff. But colourless ?

No wonder it doesn't bloody work.

Date: 2010-05-10 01:47 pm (UTC)
lnr: Halloween 2023 (Default)
From: [personal profile] lnr
The modern stuff has an added ingredient to make it less appetising to alcoholics. Or so it's rumoured. It may just be an extra decongestant.

I've tried several cough medicines, and to be honest none of them work very well, and Benylin is still my favourite. I hate with a passion the bottle of nasty licorice flavour stuff I have at the moment that you're supposed to take as a teaspoon full dispersed in warm water. Grim. And I *like* licorice! The trouble is I feel I really ought to finish it.

My GP prescribed me one with codeine in which was a little more effective, but that was for a cough that just wouldn't go away, and which was pronounced to be mostly now just irritation caused by too much coughing.

Hall's mentholyptus extra strong cough sweets are my friend.

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