My brush with COVID-19

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So I’ve had COVID-19, it seems. It started the Saturday morning before last when I woke up feeling lousy. I’d not felt 100% on Friday, but put it down to a big social week where I’d been out every night. [What a long time ago that seems now.]

How do I know it’s COVID-19? Well on Friday night I went out with a friend. We did the Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern, then wandered to a pub in Borough Market, then ate at Brindisi. After I got sick I checked on how she was doing, and when she got sick a few days ago she got tested (she’s a hospital doctor) and it came back positive.

So for 12 days now I’ve been sick, although I’m almost feeling right again. It wasn’t horrific, but it wasn’t nice. I’ve felt very weak and have spent a lot of time in bed, and my temperature regulation has been all over the place. I’ve had a slight cough, and worst of all my sense of smell has been affected. I can still smell a it, but it’s as if everything is masked, so all wines taste a bit the same and quite bad. I haven’t had a lot of energy for work.  

I’ve been serious about self-isolating, and I’ll carry on with this. I have no idea where I caught it from. On one level, it’s good to get it over with now. I really look forward to feeling 100% again and I’m hoping my sense of smell returns to normal. As a wine professional, the fact that all wines taste weird is the most disconcerting thing.

The longer-term picture is anything but clear at the moment. It’s hard to get perspective at a time like this. Life and death kind of trump other things. We’ll all have to adapt to the new future. We feel a sense of loss for a life we enjoyed, which suddenly is gone for ever. This will all take a lot of processing.

wine journalist and flavour obsessive

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