Jo and I have been suffering the last four or five of days from some strange virusey thing. Freya has also suffered a bit, though her white blood cells are more eager than ours, and didn’t appear to be in pain for more than a day or so.

In the beginning I thought I’d just burned the tip of my tongue, but after a day of tingling it spread slowly around the sides of the tongue and up to the roof of the mouth, leaving a trail of ulcers and spots in its wake.

The outcome of this has been that almost all food either tastes like a shodow of its former self, or worse, tastes disgusting and causes pain with each mouthful. This makes cooking a real pain in the arse, knowing that I’m spending time on something that I will not enjoy. Even wine tastes greasy and undrinkable (almost).

There are, however, certain things which seem to have retained their enjoyability: Soya yoghurt, coffee and snus. Not the most healthy of consumables, but I’m certainly glad for the addition of caffeine and nicotine in my weakened state.

I don’t know how I’m going to survive with both Sweden and England playing their first World Cup matches today, but I’m a trooper, so I’ll do my best to ignore the pain of beer-drinking for the greater good. Wish me luck!