Forgive me for going personal for a minute…

A quick one. I don’t know if I’ve got you-know-what. Symptoms don’t entirely match – only a very mild tightness in the chest and a very occasional cough. But my temperature is north of 38 most of the time, my heart rate (normally resting at about 60) is hovering between 80 and 90. And weirdest of all, I periodically start shivering so hard my teeth actually chatter and I can’t hold a mug without spilling. A genuinely new experience. Fascinating.

Other family members have it, or have had it, too. Although sometimes with less shivering and more coughing. (One is coughing a bit more today. Trying not to let myself get too worried.)

I guess we won’t know for ages (given the truly outrageous failure of our government to test – oh, to be in Taiwan right now, like a good friend of mine…) whether we’ve actually got CV or not. But all I can say is: if I have got it, then given what a royal pain in the backside even this stupefyingly mild dose is proving to be, I’m actually stunningly fortunate. At least I can still work, if for shorter stretches than usual and with longer breaks.

This thing isn’t messing.

The funniest thing of all: the only paracetamol left in the house is multiple bottles of Calpol. And I’d had NO idea just how gross it tastes…