Covid hangover has left me unable to stomach a curry, while Johnson’s Partygate hangover has left him calling for his dog’s execution
Having Covid was unpleasant but mercifully brief. The worst of the symptoms gone in just over a week. But recovering from the after-effects has turned out to be a bit of a haul. Even four months later I still have some signs of long Covid. Given the chance I would have a nap every afternoon, and I am still unable to go to the gym without feeling totally wiped out. Even a walk around Tooting Bec Common can finish me off. Coupled with this, my concentration has been all the place and it’s only recently that I have been able to finish my first two books of the year. Step forward Sasha Swire’s wonderfully gossipy Diary of an MP’s Wife, which gave the inside view of the Tory government between 2010 and 2019, and Abi Morgan’s This is Not a Pity Memoir, her unsparing yet loving and uplifting account of the devastation her husband’s illness caused. Do read both if you haven’t already. But if the fatigue and lack of concentration have improved somewhat over the last few weeks, my sense of taste hasn’t. My mouth is unnaturally dry – the doctor has given me an artificial saliva spray – and almost everything I eat is reduced to a tasteless, hard to swallow mush. Like chewing my way through cardboard. The one exception is curry – even a korma – which burns my mouth so badly as to be inedible. It doesn’t make me the best lunch companion and no one seems to have a clue when or if my taste buds will ever return to normal. Still, it’s nice to know that, according to the government, Covid is over.
