Nope, SARS it ain't

Sometimes, being sick enough to stay home is like getting back a little slice of childhood.

I went into work yesterday to drop off documents and bits and pieces others might need after Canberra, then went home again and put myself to bed. (If only it were that fast. My train was cancelled and getting home took about an hour, not 30 minutes ... ) In the afternoon, I found a GP in the yellow pages, got slotted in between appointments, and said: "Doc, I need to know - am I sick, or just malingering?"

I have a sensation of an elevated temperature and a dry cough. I clearly have a virus. I was in Canberra last week. So, did I come into contact with anyone who'd been travelling overseas? asked the Doc.

"Hell yeah," says I "at my ten-year school reunion there was a guy at my table who lives in Malaysia. He was sitting right across from me."

I blink.

"He seemed healthy at the time."

I still don't know how my cheerful admission didn't get me confined to quarantine, but it probably had a lot to do with my absence of any real temperature - 37.1 centigrade, merely the high end of normal. A dose of SARS will put you at 39 and over it seems.

But I was told that unless I was absolutely essential at work, I should take a day off, sleep in and rest. So that's what I've been doing, slowly and through a brain-fog of low-energy, poor-quality concentration, but it's been fun.

So far I have:

gotten up late (well, for me 8 am is late);

drank coffee and read the paper;

washed my sheets and done a load of laundry;

rang the girlf at work so she could snaffle up the internet deal on accomodation for our Sydney jaunt (5 stars, Darlinghurst, boutique apartment with spa ... mmmm ...);

tortured girlf with news of my morning of shallow self-indulgence;

showered;

lay on bed, read a little of "Fight Club", dozed;

made lunch and came to local library to blog a little.

Later on I plan to read in a canvas chair in the back yard in the sun, trying not to bring a lung up. And to continue my childish daydreaming and unhurried pottering about the house. I may watch some cartoons if I feel the urge. I have a lot of "Invader Zim" on tape. I may re-read some comics. And there will be an afternoon nap, oh yes.

Feel free to hate me now.