Aaron Vocals

Christmas and New Year were really strange this year.

I spent Christmas Eve with my friend Andres and his girlfriend at her parents house in Woodford (East London).  We ate some beautiful food, watched films, told jokes, laughed a lot etc.  I stayed at Andres' house as they had asked me to go to church with them on Christmas morning.  Lying in bed, I felt a little ill, not like I was going to throw up, but just ill.  I managed to finally get some sleep but woke in the morning without much appetite and really tired.  We attended the church service which was nice but I was just feeling so weird.  I took a cab from Andres to my house on Christmas morning after church and when I got in I just collapsed on my bed, watched films like the Railway Children etc.  I was all alone, and I had never spent Christmas alone before.  I started to get a little emotional because I missed my family, and because I was feeling under the weather, I really just wanted to go home and get some good old "parent care".

I managed to book a flight that evening for the next day to go up to Newcastle and did!  I was so happy to be going home.  I actually had told mum and dad that I would be coming home on New Year's Day but thought I would surprise them.  I took a cab from Newcastle Airport to their house and they sure did get a surprise.  The next day I felt worse.  Something had gotten into my system and wasn't letting go.  The next five or so days that followed were awful.  I was so ill.  I had no appetite, temperature was fluctuating between cold and hot really rapidly, sweating lots but being freezing cold.  It really was not a nice thing.  Then these little red blemishes started to appear on my skin, they didn't itch, they just were there and it worried me, so I made an appointment with the doc.  She said that I was run down and overtired and that this viral infection had creeped in as my body was at a low point.  She thought the little red blemishes looked like chicken pox but as I'd had them already when I was little, she was doubtful it was that.  To get chicken pox a second time is apparently quite rare.

Well it turns out that the red blemishes got worse before they gradually began to disappear and then the virus started to subside too.  I was due to fly back to London on 30th Dec as I had a gig on 31st, but the doctor had advised me not to fly, let alone work.  So as my sister Nicola was with us and was going back to London in her camper van, I decided to get a lift back with her.  Which drove back on 2nd Jan.

Without a doubt the worst Christmas I have ever experienced.  It was really nice to be at home though and see my parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephew, aunts and uncles, cousins etc. and get some nice home-cooked food (even though I didn't want to eat half the time).  This year, I wanna do something really exciting for Christmas, something that involves a different country and perhaps lots of snow, and perhaps also a log cabin and all our family.  We'll see.  I apologise for the length of this post, and the fact I have no pictures to put with it is pretty sad too.  Next post will be a lot more interesting and won't be in 5 years time!