Urgh.

I have spent the last day and a half between bed and bathroom with a horrible gastro bug. This is the second time this year! At least it's taught me something - if we ever redesign our bathroom, it should be so that I can sit on the loo and throw up into the basin or bath at the same time.

Sorry for that charming mental picture.

My cats and my husband have been wonderful. TSC has sorted himself out for food (me standing in the middle of the kitchen bent over, trying to control my gag reflex was probably some indication that I was not up to the task of cooking), done the pharmacy run for me, fed me dry crackers and Lucozade (the only things I've been able to keep down), undertaken all chores and generally been an absolute sweetheart. I don't like being crowded when I'm sick, so although his instinct is to cuddle me, he's learnt to give me space.

My cats, the darlings, plonked themselves on each side of me on the bed and put up with my feverish tossing and turning, taking turns to follow me to the bathroom each and every time I got up. They seemed to know I needed their furry distraction, although Sapphire did take it too far at one stage.

I had just showered and washed my hair (not by choice - it had puke in it. Lovely) and ventured into my office to check emails (I have a big story deadline coming up and I was waiting for some responses from interviewees). I suddenly felt very hot and dizzy, so I lay down on the carpet. I still had my towel on my head and Sapphire thinks that all towels are hers, so when I lay down, she promptly climbed onto the towel, on my head, and happily starting kneading away and purring. She wasn't even fussed by the strange noises I was making - somewhere between a moan, a gag and an attempt at a giggle.

Today I'm feeling a bit better. Thank you Lucozade and Petrolyte (an amazing concoction, that besides tasting and looking like banana-flavoured cement mix, worked wonders for my stomach). My stomach is still bloated, aching and generally unhappy, but at least projectile activities have ceased from the various orifices. The fever comes and goes, but the nausea is much improved.

The caffeine from two glasses of Lucozade has given me more of a buzz than my usual morning coffee, and although the head is fuzzy and the body sore, this self-employed chick has got to get back to work, so off I go.

But I thought seeing I've probably grossed you out with this post, I'd leave you with something from my inbox to make you smile: