Ow.

I haven't posted here for a while now. Fate has conspired against me. However, fate has also lain me up in bed so, with netbook on lap, I can at least get a post off.

What am I doing lain up? Well, it all started with last weekend. Under stress, I returned to smoking and went from darn near nothing, to downing a packet of twenty in two days. That didn't do me any good.

Wednesday morning then saw me crouching under peoples desks. In IT, desk exploration is part of the job and you never quite know what you're going to find. Lost coin of the realm, paper clips, drawing pins (which you can only hope to find by sight before physical contact) and very, very rarely the scurge of any office building, the eight leggedy, of which I'm absolutely terrified.

Desk exploration comes with its usual hazards, namely head and back bumping; the former happens more often, but because of my unusually dense skull and the lack of anything therein that is fragile, I usually get off scott free. However, you know those odd occasions where you can put your back out by merely picking up a pen? Well, that happened to me. My back suffered pain for most of Wednesday and breathing wasn't the easiest, but I struggled through.

Thursday was much easier, but that only proved to be the calm before the storm. I had also permanently borrowed a few more cigarettes that evening; which probably proved to be the straw that broke the camels back. Or in my case, the smoke that reacted in the lungs.

My back muscles screamed with pain. Having used up all the deep heat on a previous walking trip, there was only relief in Mum's cream for her joints.

If there is one thing worse than having a back pain which knifes your nervous system every time you move, it is having lungs that are insistent that a violent cough is needed to expel the poison. Needless to say, it was 4am before I got off to sleep and I woke again a couple of hours later.

So, Mum has gone to the pharmacist and I'm stuck here in bed, trying like hell not to cough. Well, at least it has given me chance to write, but due to the odd position I'm currently in, it has taken so much time to pen this sorry tale that I almost want to hand back my certificate for touch typing in shame.

More updates as and when they don't happen. Ouch.