I Had Plans For The End of 2023, Then I Got Covid
How a month of illness helped me focus on what I really wanted to do in 2024
As 2023 drew to a close, I was feeling ready to get back to writing. I’d had a bit of a slump towards the end of the year after finishing my walk of the Essex Way, but as December rolled in and the days became shorter I was getting more inspiration.
A few posts to wrap up the year, I thought, those will go down well. Something looking back at my walks from the year, another one about the books I’d read, maybe something else about the milestones I’d achieved that year. Fit that in around other commitments and my burgeoning social diary for Christmas and I’d come out of the end of the year feeling accomplished and motivated for the next one.
And then I got Covid.
As far as I can tell, it happened on my first night out in December, an end of year beer and curry night with the team from the Colchester eCargo Bike Project. We had an absolute feast of a buffet and at some point when I paused for breath between bhaji and biryani I inhaled a lungful of coronavirus.
I contracted Covid almost exactly four years after the first cases of it were reported in Wuhan. It was the first time I got it, the first time I saw a second line develop bold…
