Flu's silver lining

First came a rather painful saw throat on Wednesday evening. Then on Thursday I headed to work as normal only to start sweating and then shivering alternatively in the afternoon. I picked up the ringing phone only to drop it on my desk. I was not feeling well !

Red-eyed and exhausted I stood on the train home due to the lack of seats and almost staggered through my front door.

Somewhere in London I had caught the flu. Flu is never nice but with a young baby presents an additional complication. The threat of infecting a baby is a real one so I was confined to a "sick" area by Mrs. Donatella.

As my luck would have it I had booked Friday as holiday anyway. To claim sick leave on a pre-booked holiday may look a bit dubious so I didn't bother.

However in my sick room with a small television and a rather shrivelled brain I discovered for the first time in many weeks or even months the diverting but rather shallow joys of television.

With a temperature a bit higher than it should be I first watched a programme about a 56 year old lady who was a school teacher and wanted to look 10 years younger. Through cosmetic surgery, dental implants and a fashion makeover I followed her before deciding that even if I was dying there have to be standards so I switched over before she had her hair done !

I made some headway on reading but then returned to television seeing Jonathon Ross for the first time since I became a Father ! Oh what a lot of free time I used to have ! Jonathon Ross sporting a new Charles I style beard was rather entertaining with guests including Trinny and Susannah, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L Jackson.

Later I saw a rather smug self-satisfied middle class retired couple plan what French villa was best for them to retire too. They decided they had enough "in the budget" for a home in East Kent too and the presenter was delighted for them.

Last evening I stumbled accross a US series I had never seen or heard of before. It is called Heroes and is the tale of people who discover they have extraordinary powers apparently necessary for a mission to save the world or at least New York ! There was a catch up weekend on BBC so I saw at least 5 episodes back-to-back before falling asleep at 1.30 am. It was rather good or at least it seemed. However Mrs. Donatella seemed sceptical and explaining about men who could fly and a cheerleader who could walk through fire didn't sound very convincing ! Worse too was mentioning the Japanese office worker who could stop time !

Nonetheless, disbelieve suspended, it seemed well done and a bit of shallow escapism. Sadly I think I shall rarely know such escapism apart from at times of flu. I feel better now so I think a return to reality and away from the shallow make believe of reality TV is due. Here however is a brief taste of Heroes which I think is for me at least one silver lining from a long weekend of flu.......