WELL, it got me in the end.
As I write this, I’m on my settee at home, battling to get everything done in time for the deadline, having tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday morning.
It seems as though the virus is finally picking off those of us who had managed to avoid it for the past two years, as I know quite a few friends who’ve succumbed too. It was nearly two years to the day from the announcement of the first lockdown in 2020, which simultaneously feels like yesterday and about 100 years ago.
I think I blame Hull City. It was the first time that they had opened the West Stand Upper in nearly five years, and the first time that I’ve been up there with the press when we haven’t had the entire stand and concourse to ourselves. It’s quite likely I caught Covid while making my way through the crowds. Talk about adding insult to injury – we go down 3-0 and I go down with coronavirus.
I don’t feel too bad, considering. I’m sitting here snivelling and making my way through Lemsips and a family pack of Mini Eggs. One of these may be a better remedy for Covid, granted, but the other makes me feel better, so there.
It’s the first real test of putting the paper out entirely remotely on a “deadline Wednesday”, and, well, we were close to the line, I will admit. I am echoing what I said a few weeks ago when I had a stinking cold – which was, if anything, worse than this – and sincerely apologising for anything that might not look right this week. Hopefully I’ll test negative soon and get back in the office, where it’s far easier to communicate on busy deadline days.
And there are still loads of donations for the Ukraine appeal that need to be collected from the Gazette office. I had done two loads in my other half’s estate car before I was confined to barracks (and taken lots of the clothes/bedding, which were not needed by the Ukraine appeal any more, to the Emmaus charity in Hull). Please do keep donating, though – even if it means Rebecca will have to cram her little Citroen with stuff. You can read more about when she helped at the Eastside drop-off centre on page 8 of this week’s paper.
