Coughing cats and speedreading

While we were in warm and wonderful Egypt, Unix was in cold and snowy Berlin... in a "cat hotel". So after we got back, we picked him up and the poor cat developed somewhat of a cough/regurgitating reflex and almost completely lost his voice. The fact that now we didn't wake up in the middle of the night due to insistent meowing had its appeal. But the fact that he then became really lathargic (even more than he already is) forced us to face the fact that it was time to take him to the vet. The vet listened to him with a stethoscope for quite a while, which could've been because she wanted to be very thorough or the fact that she had a hearing aid. She then concluded that his heart and lungs are ok, but she doesn't know what's wrong with him - "could be anything". Not the sort of answer one expects from a professional animal doctor, but anyhoo. She then gave him two shots of general antibiotics and a de-worming pill.

He seems to be doing better now, but doesn't have his voice completely back. I know how he feels, 'cos I got sick last week as well and yesterday was at a point of losing my voice - something that often happens to me during colds. So here we are - a homo sapiens and a feline - together in sickness and health.

In other news, I sacrificed my Friday night along with Saturday to do a speedreading course at uni. In the beginning we measured our current speed and mine was at 125 words per minute... which the teacher explained made me equivalent to a primary school child. Never mind - I thought... that's in German, so I am probably like a school child anyway. The course was actually better than I thought - it was full of practical exercises and by the end of it I was up to somewhere above 500 wpm. BUT I couldn't actually understand anything I read. They believe that people can train to read up to 2500 wpm!!! I don't believe it. For starters it's almost impossible to even skim over one word in a line at that speed, and then you only understand the mere gist of what the author is trying to say. Afterwards you still need to read over it, to understand the details. Overall the course was useful because it helped me think about how I read and what I can do better. Whether I will be a speedreader - I doubt it.