Got out of work Tuesday night feeling a bit stiff and achey, had promised Talia I’d go review a band called the Wave Pictures at the George as it’s 5 mins from home, so even though I couldn’t really be arsed and felt a bit shit, I decided to do it anyway. Band were good, their guests were good, I’ll probably post the review here later for amusement value. Got home, went to bed, woke up about 6 needing to go to le toilet, swung out of bed, stood up and then promptly collapsed back onto the bed again in a huge amount of pain. And that’s how it’s been every single day since. no mobility in my neck. My wrists feel like they’ve been twisted. My joints feel weird. I can’t walk very far. I’ve only left the flat once since Wednesday, that was to see a doctor on Thursday. I had to be helped downstairs and into a cab there and then back again. “Flu, or a flu like virus” was the diagnosis, plus a load of printed sheets of paper telling me all the fun things to expect and what to do about it. And that it’d last 2-3 days and then I’d start getting better. Only this seems not to be the case at all. My temperature yesterday was higher than it was on Wednesday. I’ve not managed to get much more than two hours sleep a night, I’m hallucinating in a sort of half asleep half awake way and all of me hurts, so if I do manage to get to sleep all I need to do is roll over and I’m woken up in pain. It’s horrible. Tomorrow I’m going to have to take more time off work. And I can’t see me being back on Tuesday either. Not good. So next time, when I’ve got a bit of a sniffly cold, I think I’ll refrain from claiming flu. The real thing is really really hideous. I think now I know why it kills old people. I think I also know now what arthritis feels like.