under another sun

Lorraine and I both rubbish again today. This is a gloves-off flu that has wiped us both out. Mark, our next door neighbour phoned Lorraine to see if there was anything we wanted, which was kind. Otherwise, watched the TV most of the day. Hard to find anything of interest. Instead we watched The Color Purple on DVD, which is one of my favourite films, and always makes me cry.  Whoopi Goldberg is fantastic in the film, although it is emotionally manipulative in the patent Spielberg way, I still love it.

Lorraine really ill in bed with flu, so we are lucky we planned a low profile Christmas. Coaxing her with porridge, paracetamol and other more appetising foods as the day wore on. Looked after her as best I could, and went shopping. Sainsbury's full of festive barbarity of the elbowing and barging variety. Survived this for a quiet evening in with Lorraine sneezing and shivering on the sofa. Chelsea won 8-0 today, which was exceptional, so Match of the Day was an unexpectedly fab.

Under pressure Crawled out of bed and arranged to see the doctor. Lovely Anna picked me up and took me there. Waited for an hour to be seen, while Anna bless her sat outside in the car. Was given precautionary antibiotics, and had my blood pressure taken, which was very high. This means I have to get their home testing kit next week and sit about taking my blood pressure to work out if it is white coat syndrome or if I actually have high blood pressure. I can hardly wait. You go into the doctors with flu and spitting blood, and come out with a morbidity. Bobby bargain. Actually felt a bit more compos mentis today which was about time. And went down to the shop later in the day without the repeat of yesterday's wussiness. I need to get back to work. I need to get my health sorted out. I need to get a grip.

The grapes of scoff Still ill. Went to the shop and suddenly felt submerged. I thought I was going to pass out like a Victorian maiden. I had to put my basket down in the shop and stand outside to gulp some air. Stuff like that can get you a reputation for strangeness. Rats to this flu. Otherwise a very low key day lounging on my gold sofa picking at a bunch of grapes like a chubby Caesar. Mum told me she has been asked to show her paintings to a dealer which is exciting. Also spoke to Sarah at length. She was similarly holed up at home. Skype is a great invention for invalids. And at the end of our last conversation she had the idea of creating a Wikipedia entry for me, which is something that would never have occurred to me. She is full of nice surprises. Anna called offering to give me a lift down to the quack's tomorrow. Trying not to think about the work implications.

Escaping into Twin Peaks Still very rough, but was able to stand up long enough to have a shower and lurched down the fifty yards to the shop with a spinny head to get a few provisions. Told work I wouldn't be in till next week. Migrated from bed to sofa this evening to watch the Twin Peaks DVDs. It is perfect feverish viewing because it is so easy to drift into the bizzare and beautiful scenes. It remains one of my all time favourite shows because there are scenes and an atmosphere about it that you have never seen anywhere else.

Today's blurg... Is from bed. Feeling horrible with flu and a temperature currently at 102, lungs on fire and body aching like mad. Don't like it. Got a card from Sarah with an octopus on it. Listened to Radio 4 and slept.