I've come down with a cold recently, and all I've wanted to do is stay in bed. However, I had to work Friday and Saturday, so I really needed something that could help me through the day. My mum recommended lemsip. It's a powder that when added to hot water, forms a hot lemon drink. It contains paracetamol and Phenylephrine HCl a decongestant. I've heard it also comes in blacurrant flavour.
The drink itself doesn't taste nice. You can taste the medicine, and the lemon flavour isn't that great either, but it becomes bearable with a little sugar/honey/sweetner. But five minutes after drinking it, I did feel a lot better. It works much quicker than usual paracetamol, and got rid of pretty much all my symptoms. It also lasts for quite a while, although after four or five hours I start to get a headache again, and the cold starts to return after that. It doesn't actually get rid of the cold, only the symptoms, but works really well and enabled me to go to work when previously, I wouldn't have been able to.