Sussex columnist: Instagram influencer I am not, but I've been busy (and ill) in Sussex

“I haven’t had too many colds this winter,” I gleefully told him, happy that my nana-sized tablet organiser and its contents were doing their job efficiently.

Fast forward to the end of last week when I noticed I had a scratchy throat. Hoping I was imagining it, and trying to ignore it, I carried on with life.

I met friends for coffee, went for dinner in Brighton with my ‘Hove’ friends, took the children to clubs, the roller disco (second week in a row), playdates, mopped the floors, did washing, ran around doing chores, shopping and general life admin.

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“All is fine,” I thought, as by Saturday afternoon I was still just about getting by. “I can be sick and still rock being a multi-tasking mum,” I decided, almost smugly.

“Haha, not so,” decided the illness gods. For it was the second I got home late on Saturday afternoon, having taken my son out on his scooter to buy some Pokémon cards, I realised I felt horrible.

Lethargic, snotty, coughing a bit, tight chest, headache and blocked ears. Nothing too serious, but in combination, these symptoms of what I presume was just a bog-standard cold made me feel really yucky.

Apparently, even if you try to do it all, it’ll get ya in the end!

Said cold meant I had to duck out of a day out with my family at Sheffield Park on Sunday. After weeks of trudging around town in the rain and wind, it was particularly galling that Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day.

I’d have loved a walk in the woods but, alas, it wasn’t to be.

Instead, I mooched round the house and got a moderate case of FOMO for missing out on fresh air, nature, fun with my family and the coffee and cake I absolutely would have consumed in the café!

But never mind, there absolutely will be more National Trust days out this year, because you can’t beat a day out in the British countryside.

At home, I don’t know about others, but even when I’m ill I find it hard to relax. It’s hard to sit down and do nothing when the overspilling washing basket upstairs is practically calling your name.

And what about all the things that need doing that you start spotting when you actually sit down and look around in your home? Staring at dusty surfaces, fluffy floors and piles of clutter, coupled with the thought of administering the kids’ homework later that day, is about as far from being zen as you can get.

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So, I pottered around as best I could. Moving little and often, getting the ‘must’ things done and trying to put anything else on the back-burner.

I don’t know why, but I suddenly got the idea I should dust the skirting boards – but let’s face it, they’ve waited months already at this point, so why worry about them on a day when you’re not feeling top-notch?

I also stupidly watched a video on Instagram of somebody cleaning out their washing machine filter and scrubbing around the seals with a toothbrush. It became just another way in which I felt inferior about my not-as-perfect-as-on-Instagram home and my seemingly sub-par cleaning abilities.

Do people really clean with this level of forensic detail? Please tell me that most of the rest of you clean around things, don’t dare look under the sofas too often and don’t even own a steam mop or window vacuum?!

I’ve talked about it before, but social media is not the place to validate your life. For that reason, I deleted the Facebook app from my phone about six months ago. I haven’t really missed it, and I must waste a lot less time.

Now, I just need to work out how not to get sucked into watching other people dust their walls (?!) and use Zoflora and bicarbonate of soda in their houses on Instagram (they really do love those products!).

Baby steps, and all that...