I think it is the last observation that interests me most. I am fairly sure it describes what I had back in February. It was like a 3 or 4 day 'flu - aching muscles and joints, and few hours of high fever. It is also what many others have reported. For me the worst seemed over after about 4 days, and I think I thought I was completely clear of it after about a week. Since then I have had other rather isolated symptoms. A couple of weeks after the initial infection I had the now classic loss of taste (and to a lesser extent, smell), but nothing else. Since then I have had odd days when other (possible) symptoms have popped up.

  I may be suffering a few aches and pains caused by it today, but it could equally be caused by a bad night's sleep, and a change in the weather. It now seems probable that my rather strong hayfever last month was caused by it. I have also had a dry cough, but not a persistent dry cough, and sometime not even dry. It seems that like my eyes and nose became very sensitive to pollen and possibly some pollutants, my throat has become very sensitive to irritation. Like the hay fever, it is an annoyance, but far from incapacitating. Although it can be very embarrassing if it happens at the wrong time - for instance when in a shop. Fortunately the most likely time has been during the night when waking up with a dry mouth.

  I could possibly twist things around enough to blame Covid-19 for feeling sort of depressed yesterday. It seems that is possible, but I was not exactly depressed, and more sort of lacking enthusiasm. I feel sure, based upon years of experience, I can blame the weather for it. I did have a brief moment of forced enthusiasm when I tried to copy a short clip from a VHS tape to a digital format. I first tried to transfer it to my DV camcorder, but that kept going into "copy protection" mode. The original was definitely not copy protected because it was all my own work, but noise and glitches at the bottom of the picture can seem like the copy protection signal.

  I next tried to use a tiny little video converter that records onto an SD memory card. That seemed to work, but the sound quality on that recorder is atrocious. Fortunately that didn't matter because I could overdub high quality sound. The picture quality is a bit naff too, and there was nothing I could do about that. I got the point when I was starting to do the sound overdub in my video editor before I realised that only half of the video had recorded. I think it was at that point that I gave up, and decided I would treat myself to a takeaway for dinner.

  It was also the time I decided to crack open the first of what would be a total of 4 cans of the Löwenbräu beer I had bought in the morning. I noted that it had been brewed in the UK, instead of being imported like it used to be, and inevitably it didn't taste as good. It was still quite drinkable, and I shall have no problem drinking the remaining 20 cans ! At least I still had the pleasure of a takeaway for dinner.

  Actually the chicken shish kebab I had was not the best I've had, but still very acceptable. It is surprising how very different some kebabs can be. Sometimes it is just a different recipe for the accompanying salad - as it was this time. As well as a spare for today, I also ordered am Adana kebab. To be honest I was not absolutely sure what it would be. I knew it would be meat in some sort of sauce. It turned out to be grilled lamb in a tomato gravy on a bed of "something". I think the "something" was probably a type of pasta, but initially I thought it might be chips. Then I thought it might be cubes of a dense bread, but it probably was some sort of pasta. It was neither good or bad. I suppose it was good as an extra thrill when I was feeling down, but that was rather offset by the guilt of overdoing it.

  Last night was a tricky night temperature wise. I felt quite hot when I went to bed. Some of that was the spices I had eaten for dinner earlier on. It felt more comfortable to sleep uncovered. It may have felt more comfortable to have left the window open, or put the fan on, but only initially. After a few hours of sleep I woke up feeling a little cool, but pulling the empty duvet cover over me felt too warm and restricting. I was soon asleep again uncovered. I stayed uncovered through the night despite waking up a few times feeling cool (bit not actually cold).

  I am sure I was thrashing around a lot in the night, and possibly I was awake for longer than I realised. I woke up at around 6am feeling stiff and aching. The aching included my chest where I must have crunched my ribs in the night. My chest has been a bit delicate for a week or so now, and it takes little to provoke it. Some Ibuprofen calmed it a bit, and an hour (or two ?) later I went back to bed to try for more sleep. I am not sure if I actually got any, and I was up again half an hour later. My chest feel OK now, but other bits of me feel stiff and ache. My right shoulder, another bit that is prone to aching, is, or was aching a lot.

  Today I am pretty sure that what I have to do is to go for a long walk, but I do not feel very enthusiastic about it. I just want to lie on my bed quietly reading, and I am sure I will do a lot of that today, and I am also sure it will make me feel worse. Sometimes life can be terribly complicated.