KW-07 The dog who can't turn his head

In the 201st week on the Barracks

I have done nothing this week. Almost three years after the first Covid lockdown, it finally got me. Today, I have the foggy mess of a fluey head, a sore throat and weird lack of object permanence (like a dog - when I turn my head, the things I can’t see disappear from my mental model of the world), I’m alright again.

am i doing it rite?

But, I am a good four or five kilos lighter than I was last time I wrote a newsletter, and the first few days were truly horrific.

The sweats started Sunday night - I actually have no recollection of writing last week’s newsletter at all - and Monday and Tuesday nights were an overheating, paranoid sleepless mess of fear and awfulness. Wednesday, I managed to turn my brain down a little by listening to the world’s most boring podcasts, and by Thursday, I was able to eat a little. Now, a week later, I feel rough, but ready to get on with the barracks again.

Some how, the pigs got fed twice a day. I’m not sure how that happened all the time either, but I do know that I did it.

I guess everyone’s had it by now, and the ‘Rona seems to be part of everyday life. And I know that people end up in hospital and die, but I didn’t really have any idea how bad it is.

Anyway. I went into town, got coughed on, brought it back to the barracks. I know the exact moment, the exact cough which did it. I know who the guy was. I didn’t pay him any attention, other than to judge him for being disgusting. The ‘Rona didn’t come into my head at all. Well it did in the most literal sense of the word, but not the figurative one.

It’s not over, folks.

My birthday present sewing machine. It’s the exact same model as the one I had borrowed previously, but it’s new and shiny and glides like a baby swan on the ice!

So this week:

It’s still too early to sow seeds around here - but not too early to prepare where they are going to go and make a nice warm space for them. So I shall do that.

And last night, I got the sewing machine out and I’m looking forward to finally fixing the curtains in the study.

With even more sincerity than usual, look after each other! And I will see you next week

Much piratey love

Your Pirate Ben xoxo