Thursday 16th July 09

Woke feeling quite a bit better. Both boys feeling a bit poorly so they stayed off school. If I have had Swine 'Flu, it was very mild and just affected me for about 24 hours. I phoned my GP as I wanted to chat about whether I should be tested as I've been in indirect contact with Ali's daughter, who has a weak immune system. The NHS Direct website said I had the right range of symptoms for Swine 'Flu, and so did the GP when she rang back, and as I'm taking medication to prevent asthma, she offered me tamiflu. I declined as I was already feeling much better, and I wonder if indeed I have had this virus. The NHS are not testing people anymore, just diagnosing using a tick-list, so I was told to tell Ali that I had exposed her to Swine 'Flu. The GP also suggested looking on the Health Protection Agency website, on their page about H1N1 Influenza.
Ali rang her daughter's doctor. The advice was to wait until she had a temperature and then get some antivirals. A bit worrying, but we're all in the same boat, as even healthy people might get struck down badly.

I did quite a lot outside today, shredding the hedge clippings I chopped yesterday, collecting some garden waste from Gladys round the corner and shredding them, chopping up a huge pallet which a chap with an overfull skip gave me, posting some cardamom tea sachets to a freegan contact over in Ireland, checking the progress of the money I've sent to the Netherlands for my questionnaire, visiting Raj, and more!

Whilst on the laptop, I wrote some of my blog and checked the Feedjit widget and found several referrals from http://www.totalpolitics.com/, and I had a look through this website... it is really good. I enjoyed the blog list by party section, as this is where my blog is, but there's a lot more and I'll be going back there to check it out...

Had a lovely tea, linguine (like spaghetti but slightly thicker and flatter) with quite a bit of home grown veg, including broad beans, broccoli and spinach. Delicious.

A quiet evening, boys still feeling a bit ill, maybe they have Swine 'Flu.