I was pacing myself well, I really was. Long shifts, plenty of hydration while at work, a quick meal when I got home and early to bed....with no alcohol! Christmas 2019 in retail was proving to be a doddle. Then, at the end of my lunch break about two weeks ago, when I popped out my ear buds, I quickly became aware that the company staff room actually sounded much more like a doctor's waiting room. Coughs, splutters and sneezes echoed around the walls. 24 hours later I felt the first sniffle and 24 hours after that I really started to go downhill. From then on each day became a massive vat of treacle to wade through. How much actual use I was to anyone at work I really couldn't say. I was a feverish mess, hardly able to hold my head up, but somehow I didn't miss a shift. I couldn't eat and survived throughout on a diet of water and milky tea. Then at night I'd wake absolutely drenched in sweat, alternately roasting or shivering violently.
For weeks I'd been planning a long Christmas Day circular walk to get me out of the house and keep me occupied. In the event, the weather on the day was so unseasonably glorious that, crap as I felt, I forced myself out the door for a very brief stretch of the legs in the fresh air. I collapsed into a deep sleep on the sofa when I got back, waking just in time to go to bed! My Christmas dinner was half a cheese sandwich and a bag of crisps. On returning to work on Boxing Day I discovered that my own Christmas Day experience was far from unique, as many of my colleagues had also been ill - some a great deal more unpleasantly so than me. On Friday 27th the fog suddenly lifted, my appetite returned and I enjoyed my first full cooked meal in what felt like ages. My God it tasted amazing!
Here's a bit of uplifting African highlife to celebrate my return to fighting fitness - is there anything quite like the feeling of being well again after a period of being particularly under the weather? 'Sickness' is taken from the latest instalment of Strut's ongoing and fantastic 'Nigerian 70' series, 'No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987', released in March this year. This one goes out to anyone else who also felt a few degrees under during the festive period.
Happy new year to visitors and friends old and new. I look forward to catching up with what I've missed around the blogs over the next few days, as all this madness finally subsides.
Prince Nico Mbarga & Rocafil Jazz - Sickness
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