I couldn't concentrate, think straight, or even start a sentence. My memory, poor as it is, stopped being any real use to me too.

I'm not kidding.

At the same time, I was constantly tired and didn't need any excuse to close my eyes for a nap. In fact, I was getting up in the morning, doing the school run with my wife and then that was it. I needed to go back to sleep.

Yes, I was a bit worried about it, but not to the point where I felt I had to see a doctor…

But it turns out it must have been a virus. Eventually it broke into a sore throat, sniffles and a headache. About the same time my mind started to clear up.

Also, my wife now has the same symptoms, which makes me feel better in a perverse sort of way as I know that my problem wasn't something more serious.

And because we were both in the same frame of mind for a while, some conversations have been a little strange.

The following joke is a good example of what it's been like in our house.

There's an old couple at breakfast time, and the lady says "I'd like something a bit special for breakfast this morning."

"Oh yes dear, what's that then?"

"I'd like some ambrosia rice pudding please. I know there's a tin in the cupboard, I saw it there yesterday."

"Okay, I'll do that then."

"I haven't finished yet. Write this down, you know you'll only forget it."

"No, I'm okay, I won't forget. What else do you want?"

"I also want some whipped cream on top."

"Okay. Ambrosia rice pudding with whipped cream on top."

"Write it down, I know you'll forget what I've said."

"No dear, it's okay, I won't forget. Is that all?"

"I bought some strawberries yesterday. I'd like two strawberries on top please."

"Right! Ambrosia rice pudding with whipped cream on, and two strawberries to top it off. Is that it?"

"Yes. But please write it down, you know you'll only get it all wrong."

"No, no, dear. I'll remember it perfectly well. Rice pudding, whipped cream, two strawberries."

"Ooh, okay then, if you're sure."

So off the old gent goes into the kitchen, and for the next twenty minutes comes the sound of banging and clattering, cupboards opening and closing and so on.

He finally returns with a plate, and on that plate are two rashers of bacon, two fried eggs, and a sausage.

His wife looks at it incredulously, one eyebrow raised, and with a look of total exasperation on her face. Finally she says "See! I knew you'd forget if you didn't write it down!"

"Wha… wha… what's the matter dear? What have I done wrong?"

She looks at him and says…

"You've forgotten the toast!"

-Frank Haywood

There are two reasons.

#1 – I've been helping Alex Jeffreys get his new site together, and it's taken a lot longer than either of us thought it would.  This is because Alex wanted to test out a few things, and so we had to take a bit of care over how the site was constructed, and more specifically the site flow.

#2 – My mom found out that her breast cancer had returned, so I've been very distracted and pre-occupied with that.  She had an op to remove the cancer and seems in good spirits.  A body scan (results came through yesterday) has revealed that there are no secondary cancers detected, but she'll still have to go through radiotherapy and chemotherapy anyway.

It turns out that for the last 3 years since her last lumpectomy, she's been taking a drug called Tamoxifen which has no benefits in her case.  They couldn't (or didn't) test at the time, but it appears that it has no effect on suppressing cancer for her.  It doesn't work for everybody.

So two weeks ago they put her on a different drug called Irimidex which they've tested on her cancerous cells they removed and can see that also has no effect.  The only one that has proved positive for her in tests is the so-called wonder drug Herceptin.  She's been told they'll put her on that during or more likely after chemotherapy.

So it's good news all round really, and a bit of a relief for us all.  Hopefully there's just 6 months of her feeling very ill due to the chemotherapy, and she'll be okay.

Time will tell.

On a much lesser note, I've been so distracted with other things that I just a few moments ago realised I wasn't feeling very well myself.  Now I look back over the last few days, all the warning signs were there, but this time I didn't notice.

I guess it's just a "summer" bug (it's just been announced that summer in the UK is on a Wednesday this year), but it's scrambled my brain, made me ache all over, and generally made me feel very tired.

So I've just had something hot to eat, half a pint of orange juice, a couple of ibuprofen and I think I'm going to take a nap.

Just one of the many benefits of working from home…

-Frank Haywood