The Inner Child Keeps on Growing

So I got my pills for the vertigo on Monday. Yes, like everything else they have a list of possible side-effects as long as my arm!

Anyway, I ended up working from home most of the week. I've been mainly okay as long as I sit still, but driving was very uncomfortable and the computer screen was also weird. The worst part of it is not really the vertigo, but the constant feeling of being sea-sick that goes with it!

Anyway, I'm not definitely starting to feel a bit more human. I admit that this hasn't been my most productive week ever; I've just been keeping things ticking over and playing lots of Final Fantasy XIII-2 on the PS3 (finished the main story yesterday, now finishing off some of the side quests.)

We were thinking about going to the cinema today, but I'm feeling fairly light-headed again so maybe not...

On the mend, though!

So I've been off work all this week with the cough from hell. I actually drove part way to work in Reading on Tuesday and had such an awful coughing fit that barely kept the car on the road and at the next opportunity I turned around and came back home again.

I phoned the doctor to sort out a sick note (for the first time in at least fifteen years, possibly longer) and he said that I actually had bronchitis - the coughing following on from a cold is a bit of a clue. And there's really nothing you can do about it except rest and wait for it to clear up. That part is taking its time; I'm not really feeling any better than I was a week ago - I get a few good hours maybe and then have some ferocious coughing fits. Anyway, back to work on Monday and see how I get on - I have a feeling that they might send me back home again! But we'll see.

The main reason I need to get better as soon as possible is that we are only just over three weeks away from Scrooge and with the number of rehearsals I've ended up missing I'm feeling really unengaged with it. We've got a rehearsal tomorrow (Sunday) and I'm planning on going along so I can at least catch up on some of the bits of 'setting' that I've missed or only done once. I doubt that I'll be able to do any actual singing, but at least I can get a reminder of where to stand.

So in the meantime I've spent a couple of weeks getting through Clarke award reading and playing computer games from the comfort of the living room sofa. I finished 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' (verdict: better than many of the reviews seemed to think but still way too long) and played through 'Mini Ninjas' which was fairly slight but just about what my brain could cope with. And now, after a second attempt I've finally given up with 'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' on the Wii. There are things about it I like a lot but the nunchuck-controlled direction controls is just not working for me - I continually screw up the platforming and fighting sections because I just can't get the fineness of control that I need - it also leaves me with a slightly sea-sick feeling. I guess it's just me as others don't seem to have the problem!

I've also come to the end of Season 3 in my project to watch 'Alias' through from the beginning. It remains a) great fun and b) dumb as a very dumb thing. A great game to play is 'who is holding the idiot ball this week'...

So I finally thought I was over all the long-running illness I've been enjoying. But alas it was not to be.

On Saturday we drove to Bristol for a signing at Forbidden Planet (desperance , la_marquise_de_ and jemck ) and I was feeling a little chesty. By Sunday morning I was losing my voice and starting to cough (just to entertain the visiting wrdnrd  & the_andy ).

I worked from home on Monday afternoon as I was pretty sure the coughing was really going to annoy my colleagues. And then the last two days I've been off. Again. And missed another rehearsal. I'd be surprised if I were to feel well enough for work tomorrow as well, given what I've been like today: I had to give my mum a lift home to Andover (a twelve mile round trip) and it completely exhausted me.

I think I've probably got what pennski had: a post-viral cough - talking and dry air make it worse. I don't think it's a chest infection - any gunk I'm coughing up is clear. If I'm still as bad tomorrow I suppose I ought to see the doctor, just to be sure (and no, it's not swine flu. I've got a bit of a temperature - for me anyway; my baseline is around 35.5 rather than 37 - but not a particularly high one)

Can I just say how completely fed up I am with this now? I've got a show in just five weeks and it would be really, really nice if this all cleared up again before then.

Bah.

Yep, the cough is still not going away. It's been a bit of a miserable week frankly - last night was the closest I had to a full night's sleep for most of the week. I've being exiling myself to the sofa the last few days so my coughing doesn't keep pennski awake. Luckily we have a very comfortable sofa!

I think it is gradually starting to get better but it is taking its own sweet time about it.

Worst in some ways is because of this, and the cold I had a couple of weeks earlier and the course that came in between, I haven't been to the gym for nearly three weeks now. I've only put on a couple of pounds (could be worse) but I'm starting to feel out of shape again. Bleurgh.

Okay I admit that was misleading! I don't mean I've been looking in the mirror and going 'eugh' (although I did look in the mirror today before I shaved and thought 'my god, I'm looking like my dad'!)- though I will be if I don't get back to gym sometime soon - but my body's current tendency to pick up every illness going at the moment.

Yes, I'm ill again. I got over the last cold fairly quickly but woke up Friday morning with a sore throat, by Friday lunchtime was feeling like crap and Friday evening had a nice temperature which has continued into today. I was supposed to be taking pennski to my work Christmas 'do' Friday evening but that didn't happen.

Today (Saturday) we are going to my mum's sixtieth birthday party and this is a three line whip - there's no way I'd get away with not going to that! Having slept half the afternoon I'm feeling a little more human now and I'm just about to have a bath which will help!