The previous day in the office, I had felt slightly weak and light-headed. I felt that I was slightly ill, though it seemed to be hard t rise above the illness. I nicknamed the condition - "Total Gayness Disorder". This flippant nickname is more meant to sound like kid-speak than any act of homophobia on my part. It was "man flu", it felt like hypochondria... I really wasn't planning to take it seriously... until I woke up this morning and felt completely incapable of moving. It wasn't tiredness in itself. I'd been fairly well relaxed since the trip to Reading on the weekend. The gigs leading up to the trip to Reading had been exhausting, but I'd had chance to catch up on sleep. This was something else.

I called in sick. I sounded ill. My throat was sore. I had virtually no energy to move around. I had fever, aches and the occasional bout of the shivers. Luckily I also had a willing nursemaid in house. I spent plenty of time in bed sleeping the bug off. I was off work for two days and spent the weekend trying to recover. I don't like being ill. Who does? I liked less the sense of weakness - had I lived alone (as I normally do) and not had a visiting girlfriend (as I normally don't) what state would I have gotten myself into? Well, I think I would have managed to totter around a bit, but the late night shivers as my body temperature dropped to a point where all I could do was shake uncontrollably, too weak to get some extra clothes on to warm me up, would have been a lot worse.