
Despite my very imperfect state of health, now that it’s more than 10 days after my positive diagnosis, the Belgian health authority has issued me with a Certificate of Recovery which I can brandish at anybody who asks. (Nobody will. The double vaccination certificate has more weight.)

A couple of people have asked whether I may have caught the omicron variant. The first case in Belgium was not detected until 26 November, and I was diagnosed on the 17th, so it seems unlikely. Anyway I don’t particularly care; I just happen to been unlucky in how hard I have been hit, and there’s not much point in speculating further.
Other people have been much less lucky. A lot of you knew E in Belfast who died suddenly on Tuesday. She and her husband I had both had COVID last month, which for E came on top of a series of other long-term health problems. Much sympathy to I at this devastating loss; she was only a couple of years older than me.
Stay well, you guys. Get vaccinated, if you haven’t been; get boosted as soon as you can; and try not to get the damn bug.