January 2022 - An exciting weekend & an unwelcome guest

 The rest of January brought a well deserved weekend off, and I was determined to have a good one, and get rid of those pesky christmas vibes. And what better, than to have a weekend in London? I swear a weekend in London can be a tonic for all sorts of maladies. Post christmas exhaustion? Weekend in London. Bad breakup? Weekend in London. Looming despair at life? Weekend in London. Fixed.

This is probably a controversial view, but I love Camden Town. Yes it's horrendously busy, expensive, full of tat and people on weekends in London fleeing their normal lives. But I think that's why I like it. James isn't so keen, I mean he still enjoys going, but he first went as a teenager in the late 90's where it was a very different scene. He says it's been overtaken by hippies, tourists and people wanting to sell you things. But what's wrong with that, right? At Camden, you can literally eat sweet and sour chicken on noodles while walking under umbrellas. I'm very easy to please!

We spent the afternoon at Camden, and James managed to prevent me from buying anything he considered "tat". I'll let your imaginations run wild!

We then headed over to the Coal Drops, one of my favourite places in London. It's just a fantastic place to be, full of little boutiques, restaurants and bars, and you can spend all day here. Which we pretty much did, as before we knew it darkness was coming and we were needing to head to our dinner reservation!

I love all the little details left, the railway arches, the old signs where goods would be unloaded. It's got such a fun vibe there, especially with the old and new blending so seamlessly together.

The beautiful artistic light up centrepiece. We couldn't stay long, we had to run back to Kings Cross, where we were having dinner at the German Gymnasium. Was a great place to eat, the food was really good, although even for London felt a bit on the pricey side. But it was the best German style food we had eaten since being in Germany, so well worth checking out if that's the sort of cuisine you fancy, especially as there is not a lot of German places to eat.

Sunday was a whirlwind, we headed into the British Museum for a exhibition on Inca sculpture and art. Some really beautiful pieces, including these very life like heads, made out of wood. I think they were drinking vessels. I would love to know more about the Inca's. I have a bit of background knowledge but not much, so I ordered a book of Amazon about the Inca's to learn a bit more. At some point I will get around to reading it!

We then headed along Southbank, grabbing some early dinner and admiring the lit up tree's, before heading back to the car parked at the hotel and coming home. Why does time fly while you're having fun?

We came home, and rather hysterically found a for sale sign attached the railings outside our house. We had no idea, and Monday morning James rang them to ask why it was there, and they apologised as it was actually the house opposite for sale. That nearly gave me a heart attack!

The week went rapidly downhill from then. I felt ok Monday & Tuesday, and then Tuesday night started getting these really weird dreams. Like really weird dreams. Bizarre things happening, and I couldn't work out why. It was like being in a fever dream, but otherwise I felt fine. Wednesday night brought more of these incredibly strange dreams, and I was beginning to think I was starting to have some sort of psychosis. On Thursday it was my day off, and I was planning to visit my Nan & Granddad. I always did a covid test before I went to see them, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I had given them Covid. 

I was sat with James on the side of the bed while I did the test, and we were chatting away until I noticed it was positive. I did a second one to be sure, and there it was, positive. We had a bit of a panic then, and he did one, and it was negative. I then wiped all the surfaces down, grabbed my phone charger and locked myself in my bedroom. He tested again that night and the next morning, again all negative. 

I however, began to deteriorate. That first night in isolation, again really odd dreams, but the next morning I woke up and felt like death. Please don't think I am exaggerating, but that is the most unwell I have ever felt in my life. And I had been doubly vaccinated by this point. I could not get out of bed, and I could not get warm. I had two duvets, every spare blanket in the house on me, and I could not stop shivering. That was for about three days, and just as I started to think I needed to call for help, it started to get better. I had minor other cold symptoms, runny nose, headache etc. Once the fever had broken I felt ok, and spent the last few days just reading and taking it easy. James looked after me, leaving me food and bottles of water outside the room for me that I would grab when he had gone upstairs.

It was a very strange experience, and one I would like not to have again! I felt awful phoning into work and reporting sick. Especially infuriating was the fact I only had to work Friday & Saturday then would have two weeks off on holiday! But luckily James took care of that, cancelling reservations and other plans.

But thankfully, I was ok, and after a few days later began to test again. I then tested negative for five consecutive days (as was the guidance at that point) and was then able to leave isolation, and return to the real world. And what a feeling that was! But most bizarrely, no one else in the house caught it. Everyone else remained negative. Just me, which is typical!