Oh dear reader, have I been sick lately? Yes, very, very, very ill. The worse flu bug I’ve had since the one that pole-axed me on the way back from Los Angeles after my 30th birthday back in 2001. I spent a whole flight dying in my seat, sweating the sweat of the damned, only to have my bowels open as we made our descent into Heathrow. I remember begging the flight attendant not to kick me out of the cubicle as they forcibly opened the locked door as I was in mid-explosive movement. Shaking and distressed, I returned to my seat, literally empty and waited for the landing. When we left the plane, I asked The Missus to feel the fabric of the seat I’d been occupying. It was sodden as if I’d pee’d all over it, such was the forcefulness of my sweats.
Well a similar bug got me recently and I’d been struggling to fight it off ever since my mother had been in hospital. So for about a fortnight, I’d been struggling on and then whammo – it got me last Friday afternoon. Weekends are busy here, lots of newspaper bundles to lug and a multitude of inserts and unfeasibly dense sections to stuff. I felt like the proverbial “Death warmed up”, but I struggled through like a trouper. The 4.45am starts were a killer, but I kept returning to my sickbed after all the heavy lifting was done -to lie in bed, sweating and gasping and sweating and having numerous fever dreams.
In one such dream, I was still in the shop but the lights were out and I had to open up the shop again (for what seemed like the seventh time). Outside it was pitch black, but mothers were taking their children to school and they looked at me dead-eyed, zombie-fied. It freaked me out and in the dream, I left the shop in a hurry.
Anyway, after a couple of days sweating and suffering and dealing with the most terrible diarrhea, I am almost making a recovery and almost enjoying serving the great unwashed, one of whom I obviously caught this evil bug. Luckily, Baby Verity and The Missus have remained unscathed from such germ warfare.
With my mother out of action and this awful illness knocking me down, I feel like this is all become a test. The sick part of it is that I am enjoying rising to the challenge. And even though it is hard work, low paid and tough, I like to think it is bringing back the better qualities of my character and I’ve managed to drop some of my other, more destructive traits.
In between running a busy shop, raising a baby and still writing my little bit of freelance work, I am still managing to record some tunes. When I’ve knocked them into a suitable shape, I’ll post some clips here soon.

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