That explains it

After feeling like poo in really weird ways since last Thursday (excruciating bone pain, anyone?) it became obvious on Tuesday that I have some sort of viral illness, which finally defeated me today & I had to phone in sick.

Which I've not done since February and is thus probably a new record for me, but I still feel bad about it.

On the one hand, it's kind of a relief that there's a *reason* for this other than my body saying Screw You loudly. On the other hand, that last flu virus that I had in February not only laid me up for two weeks, but it was May before I was back to my previous activity levels. I can live without that kind of setback again.

This was the weekend I had hoped to be going to see the Cruxshadows and Agonised by Love in Poland. Good thing that came to nothing, or it would have been a waste of air fare.

Well, I'd do it

I meant to mention this yesterday but it slipped my mind.

Scientist courts controversy with call for women to donate eggs

It's not like I'm using them for anything else. Chances are, however, than I'm too old and not in good enough health.

Putting aside my predictable feeling that the religious group protesting should just go live with motor neurone disease before making such pronouncements, the "critics" here seem to think that women are too stupid to make informed decisions about their own bodies:

Critics yesterday turned on Prof Wilmut's proposal, claiming it turned human eggs and the women who provide them into commodities. They also warned that any woman considering donating eggs must be fully informed of the health risks before undergoing the lengthy and sometimes painful procedure.

Because we certainly couldn't care about making progress in curing disease and thus making a contribution in some small way to making the world a better place now, could we?

It's at times like this I wish my brain still functioned & I could still write coherently, because I'd quite like to write an open letter to the papers pointing out how bloody patronising this is.