I guess it was inevitable. Why should I be different from everybody else? Why was I special? The answer is that I wasn’t. Almost a third of the population have had it, and now I can add my name to the list, I’m Covid-19 positive.

Yes, I am writing this text infected.

“I can’t believe you haven’t had it already?” said a friend, well a couple of friends had the same line of questioning. “I mean you mix with so many people that you’d have thought you’d have caught it already,” usually came the follow up. Yes, I know I’m a little late. Just as the pandemic seems to be dying I get infected.

In fact, will it actually be declared as over, it looks like it’s kind of been swept under the carpet. It’s been moved from the front pages by an egocentric Russian and now nobody it talking about it.

Day One – I felt a small headache coming on and my bones felt a little achy. I really felt like a case of the flu. Even the flu seems to have died. Just to be on the safe side I tested myself. Negative.

“Yeah, it’s probably some kind of virus, I’m sure I’ll be great tomorrow,” I said to my wife.

Day Two – BOOM! I felt like somebody had driven a tractor over me as I slept. I awoke on day two as if I was in a swimming pool. My mild temperature had been turned up to the max. 39.5!

“I feel absolutely terrible,” I said. Adding “Is it cold in here?” Clearly it wasn’t cold otherwise I wouldn’t be swimming in my own pool of sweat.

“Let’s take another Covid test, your eyes are always a mirror into your health and yours look awful,” she replied. No sooner had the drops of liquid hit the testing box then the two lines of positivity appeared.

Now, I know that Covid has effected people in different ways, I have people close to me who have had differing reactions, from super mild to squashed by a tractor.

Day Two continued with my temperature swinging from 38 to 39, my body thermostat swinging from cold to hot to freezing to boiling, and my body was losing fluids quicker than I could put them in. Even though I felt like I’d been pushed under a train I didn’t have some of the classic symptoms. My sense of smell and taste were still intact, I had no cough, sore throat or any of those classic symptoms. Although for some reason I couldn’t stand the taste of coffee, literally just the smell made me feel sick.

With the restrictions and regulations around Covid changing on a regular basis I had to read up on the latest info. Yes, it was going to be five days in self-isolation. And if this sweating continued I was going to finish my five days looking like a ghost.

I’m not really one for lying in bed, even on a Sunday morning. I’m the “early to bed, early riser” type. So the thought of being bedridden for a few days didn’t fill me with any joy. I dropped in and out of conscious as I tried (and failed) to binge watch another Netflix serial. I was going to have a bigger problem with aching muscles and bones than from the virus. “Unless I get up and walk around a little I’ll be stuck here,” I said to my wife as I tottered like a new-born.

And of course you try to wind the clock back and work out where you got it. I had no idea. As I don’t really know when I got it. Day Three – the road to recovery was slowly beginning. It looked like being a short (but not sweet) experience for me. I’ll still be in self-isolation when you read this, but hopefully with a more normal temperature. Does that now mean I can add another 6 months onto my Covid passport? Is anybody even looking at these things anymore? Probably not.

If anyone tells you that “don’t worry it isn’t that bad” than don’t believe them. It’s like the flu but multiplied a few times, my only hope it that after the vaccines and after catching it, is that I have so many anti-bodies in me to last for at least another year.

Read more Englishman in Dubrovnik…well, if you really want to