It’s just totally unfair, being ill on a weekend. What’s the point of being sick if you can’t take a day off?

I’ve just spent one of the least pleasant weekends ever – pretty much the entire of Saturday was spent with a cloth over my eyes, fighting a migraine that was being fuelled by a racking cough. A hacking cough raises the blood pressure in the head, you see, and guess what that does to a migraine headache? I thought the top of my head was going to come off.

I was basically existing between doses of painkillers – unfortunately, I didn’t happen to have any cold/flu medication lying around, and the thought of the trip to the shops was beyond horrifying. Perhaps in retrospect, doing something about the cough would have made my life a lot easier.

Today wasn’t quite as bad; I was able to survive just by turning down the brightness of the TV and the computer as low as it would go and sleeping through the bright bit of the day (unfortunately, the flat doesn’t have curtains as such, just Venetian blinds that diffuse the light without actually impeding it in any way).

Some may question the wisdom of turning the brightness down on things instead of turning them actually off; however, I can tell you from experience that being ill and bored is far, far worse than just being ill. Boredom can, no matter how bad you’re feeling, prompt you to do unwise things, like open your eyes.

And that heavens for Cable T.V. There’s nothing better for being-ill-in-front-of-the-TV than a David Attenborough documentary marathon. Even if you’re not watching the pretty pictures because light hurts your eyes.