Wednesday 20 December 2023
I’ve only gone and got Covid. I thought I had a cold, a bit of post-travel sniffle and headache. Then I noticed a headline on an online newsfeed about less common symptoms of the current Covid variation. Hmm, that headache, not as interested in snacking as usual, occasionally feeling a bit pukey, mouth tasting bitter, voice sounding underwater, hands and wrists (ie my weak points) hurting – I should have realised that that many strange symptoms has always meant Covid for me. I feel absolutely fine, like I’m operating as two people, one fine and carrying on as normal, one with strange symptoms that don’t make me feel unwell in the “normal” way. I was still surprised to see the two Covid-test lines though.
So I’ve had to cancel my only fixed pre-Christmas plan for tonight and I have no idea if I’ll get to see my mum on Christmas day. I had factored weather into my Christmas plans, but not Covid.
We lived in London during Covid and my walks usually took me up to Blackheath as I really appreciated the open space and the wind, which made me feel I was in the open rather than in the midst of a city. Yesterday, I went for a walk of about 14,000 steps (well, I’d only intended about 10,000 but I had a destination in mind which was clearly a bit further away than I envisaged). Apart from a few passing vehicles, waving hello to someone in their garden and chatting to some cows (hmm, it didn’t seem weird chatting to the cows, but it definitely feels a bit strange writing it! They responded well, standing and staring at me) I saw no one. It felt really good to be outdoors and knowing I wasn’t going to be spreading germs to anyone. I remember when Covid first really affected us in the UK, I thought it would be four years before things were Covid-free based on things I heard and read about the Spanish flu pandemic. We’re pretty close to the four-year point and Covid is still very much around. But I suppose we are largely living as if it isn’t around, which in most respects is a good thing, though how best to deal with it seems complicated to me.
Fortunately, I have plenty of food in the house and no dilemmas about whether I need to go to shops or not. However, for various reasons tomorrow is the day I will drive down to London. I don’t know that I’d inflict myself on the general public in a train but I’m driving and will need only to stop for a toilet break, which I can manage fairly easily without feeling like a mobile germ spreader. I expect, however, that a lot of people out and about at the moment will either knowingly or unknowingly be moving around with Covid. The end of Covid does not seem imminent, factoring in my four-year thing.