(no music) I have Covid | LMBYTS #1398 | Jason Newland | 26th July 2025

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name's Jason Newland and this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Big thank you to Mary for your very kind PayPal gift.

And until this very moment, I didn't realise quite how I sounded. And if you're wondering why I sound like this, it's because I have COVID. Yes, I do, I have COVID.

So, I'm just gonna kind of update you on what's been going on the last few days. That's it. There's no Q&A Friday from yesterday.

The last time I did a recording I think was on Tuesday. It's now Saturday. And unless it was Monday, I don't know Monday or Tuesday.

So yeah, now it's Saturday. There's a few a few weird things happened this week. Oh, man.

It's weird. Never had COVID before. It's not the novelty I thought it would be.

Not quite as enjoyable. Blimey. It's so what what happened? Okay, so what did we started off Monday, Tuesday fine.

Now I knew that I was getting tired. You know, I pretty much nearly completed five weeks of going backwards and forwards to the hospital to see Uncle sausages. So nearly five weeks and I knew that it was getting to me.

Stress wise, it was really pushing me, you know, I was having to push myself to do it. And I really felt it on Monday. I felt it on Friday.

Last week. Also, it took like nearly three hours to get home, because the buses some problem on the buses. So Friday was hard.

And then Monday, again, it was difficult to sort of get the effort to go. But I did came home. Tuesday I was at home, did some laundry.

Woke up Wednesday. Kind of normal. A little bit, you know.

I'd have a half four or five and had my breakfast. And then I listened to a, I think it was a YouTube orchestra video. You know, the top, some of the top, whatever you want to call them.

Classical music songs, something like that. And because I felt tired. And I've been listening to those for a while now.

Just helps me relax. I like classical music. But on this occasion, this is Wednesday morning, I didn't feel better having listened.

So a little bit weird. Not weird as in how I normally am. But just weird, a bit, a bit off.

But I knew that I needed to go to the hospital for another journey and go and do another visit. Now, I had a something to take up to Uncle Sausage's, which was a package that had been delivered from his friend in another country. So I was going to take that up to Uncle Sausage.

And also I had the bag of sugars to take up to him as well. So I get ready to go and I don't feel, I didn't feel particularly good. Didn't really know what it, well, what I thought it was, to be honest.

I thought it was just a stress. When I say just a stress, I mean, it, I've been ill before with stress, like really ill physically. And I thought, oh no, I thought I'd hit breaking, I thought I'd hit breaking point.

I was worried then. And then, so I went, dropped Vinnie off with a neighbour, because he was going to stay there for the morning. Went and got on the bus.

And from then on, things started to go downhill. And I thought, oh no, I really thought I was kind of, I thought, I said the word I thought a lot. And I, I kind of figured that I pushed myself too far.

And not, I'm not really taking care of myself over the last five weeks. And then, you know, he's kind of just hit me. That's what I thought was going on.

But I managed to get to the hospital, two buses. I go into the hospital, get to his ward. When I get there, he's asleep.

I was so relieved. So I put the stuff on his, on his table. Didn't want to wake him up, because last time I saw him, he was saying that all he wanted to do was sleep.

So I thought, I'm not waking him up. And at this point, I was feeling so ill, that I wanted to get out of there. So I did.

I had no, not one particle of me thought it was COVID at all. I really didn't, it didn't even enter my mind that it would be COVID. So I've never had COVID.

I didn't get it when it was rife. Why have I, why have I suddenly getting it when it's hardly about anymore? I mean, it's about still, but it's not, you know, like it was. But I've actually been around people that had COVID and I still didn't catch it.

But then going in and out of hospital, it's just, there's thousands of people that are unwell, isn't there? And just, I guess it's a bit of a breeding ground. And so I, I get out of there. I said, I speak to the nurse and I said, look, he's asleep.

Can you let him know that I visited, please? And I'm going. Now, I didn't say anything about, I didn't feel well. I just got out of there.

I didn't spend any time with anybody. I didn't think I needed to do it. It's not because I thought, oh, I don't want to spread my germs to anyone.

Because I didn't think I had any germs. It really did feel like I was about to have a, like a breakdown, like my, like I was going to have a, an emotional crumble or whatever. So I get on the bus back and I'm starting to get palpitations.

Oh yeah, I had a, I had a panic attack on the way. I said, I forgot about that. Had a panic attack on the bus on the way to the hospital.

So that was like, oh, and then on the way back from the hospital, I'm getting pains in my chest and I'm thinking I'm traveling in the wrong direction. I should have stayed in the hospital. I'm moving away from the hospital.

That's where I should be, you know, but I just thought, no, it's just stress. You know, I, I mean, this probably isn't the most relaxing recording. So perhaps don't listen to this to go to sleep.

Maybe, I don't know. I just thought I'd update you on what's going on. Things will be back to normal soon.

But I've been to the A&E at least twice, maybe three times in the past with pains in my chest and it was a panic attack. So, you know, it's not that I should ignore it because of that, but just still, I don't know. I just thought, well, I tell you something really weird was happening though.

I couldn't stop yawning. Could not stop yawning. I'm talking like, to the extent that the bus people on the bus kept looking back at me.

There was almost like an exaggerated yawn. It was a real yawn, but it seemed to be exaggerating itself. And my muscles in my back were, were, I don't know how to, what the word is, but they were sticking.

They were kind of, something was going wrong. It was everything, you know, so I was yawning and my, and the muscles were contracting in my back and they weren't going back. They were kind of, everything was weird.

The muscles in my back anyway, my upper back, I could not figure out what that was going on. You know, I was doing some relaxing exercises for my muscles and I've got a few things I can do from the past. I know how to relax and stuff, but ultimately I was really, really not, not feeling it, feeling ugh, really, really ugh.

So in the end I get home. I didn't sit next to anyone. It's a very quiet bus because where I was going, you know, the time I was traveling in, not really much about.

And so at least I know I haven't spread it to anyone. It was quiet on the way there, quiet on the way back. There's a chance I could have spread it to someone in the ward, you know, but it would be accidental.

So I get back, I walk across the field, across the park to get home. It seemed like it took me an hour to walk, to walk a five minute journey. It's like, it was weird, man.

It was really weird. I pick up Vinnie and I said I need to take him. And he said, are you all right? I said, no, I don't know what's just.

I still at this point figured it was just stress. My stomach, my chest and my head was starting to hurt a bit. So it's just stress.

I just needed to go to sleep. It was a yawning. That's the weird thing.

I was just yawning. I'm yawning now and it's just fine. But on Wednesday, the yawn was like three times bigger.

It was like it was forcing my mouth to open, but my mouth doesn't open very wide. It, my jaws kind of, it's not, I don't know if it's locked or whatever, but it doesn't open very wide, my mouth. So I, I don't know why that's funny.

Yeah, it was very uncomfortable. So then I grabbed Vinnie, I said, I'll take him back home. Well, you know, bring him home.

I probably got some breakfast cereal because I was hungry. I had a little bit of that and then I went to bed and I was in bed all day from midday, Wednesday, all day, all night, all day, Thursday, all night, Thursday, all day, Friday, all night, Friday, and now Saturday. So I did get up occasionally, go to toilet, have something to eat, still had to take this little one out.

So I managed to take him out twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. He hasn't had much of a fun time, to be honest, he's just been sleeping with me. But, and you know, I'm limited to what I can do with him really.

But we went out about half four this morning. And it was actually light, so it's quite nice. It was just about light enough.

And we just spent some time in the park. Just slowly, he was sniffing the grass and he was, he was happy to do that. There's no rush.

We probably out for about half an hour or so. There's no one around. So that was good.

We'll go out again tonight. If he needs a toilet, I can always take him into the, what's it, the garden, if he needs a wee-wee. So on Wednesday, I developed this headache.

It was hard. It was like, wow. And then on Thursday, I, I was getting up and my legs were giving way, but my ankles were weak, my knees were weak.

It's a song, isn't it? I think, it's some lyrics. My knees are weak, my ankles are weak. And muscle fatigue, aching muscles, all that stuff, which is basically flu, isn't it, I guess.

But I can't remember the last time that my ankles gave way. I've got quite strong legs and most people have, haven't they? To hold the body, the legs have to be quite strong, especially all my fat. So my ankles were literally giving way as I was trying to walk to the bathroom.

It was weird. A little bit worrying, but weird. I mean, it might also be the fact that I'd spent a lot of hours just lying down.

So that probably wasn't particularly great for me. Got through a lot of water. I didn't have any tea for two days, any cups of tea, just water.

I'm back on drinking tea again, but not huge amounts, just a couple of cups a day and water. And I don't know why I'm mentioning that. There was a reason, my brain's not working.

It's a normal day then. Yeah. Oh, so Monday to Wednesday, Thursday, that was the worst of it.

Seriously, worst of it. Um, Thursday I ordered, the only reason, Uncle Alex, Uncle Sausages, sorry, Uncle Sausages, his friend, Auntie, I forget, I forget what I called her now. Anyway, his friend said she would visit him and she said she was unwell.

And she said, maybe it's COVID. To me, she texted me said, maybe it's COVID. I said, I didn't even consider it.

Genuinely, I mean, I know I'm not always the quickest, the quickest person. But I didn't, didn't think, I didn't, just didn't consider that it might be COVID at all. And I thought, oh, shut up.

It's not COVID. Why would it be COVID? I've not been around anyone sneezing or coughing or I've not kissed anybody for years. Blimey, thanks for, glad I mentioned that in public.

Yeah, that's fine. But she said, well, you know, she said, I'm going to do a test. Because she was also well.

And she's been up there. I think last time she was up there was Saturday night. Or she might have been Sunday night.

So she said she was also unwell. And she was going to do a COVID test. So I thought, fair enough.

So this is Thursday, we texted each other. I sent off to Amazon for a COVID test. I got a few, few of them actually.

And they they arrived, I paid for it to be here by 11 o'clock. And I then when I woke up Friday, which was yesterday, I actually felt a lot better. The only difference is I had a sore throat now, which I didn't have so much before.

And I haven't had much coughing, which is good. That's one of the things I've kind of had problems with over the years when it comes to I've just had a lot of chest infections in my life. But fortunately, when there's been a bit of coughing, but not a lot.

And just some normal kind of flu stuff, you know, general stuff, but not too much coughing. But I had a very sore throat on Friday, Thursday into Friday. Still sore, but it's not as sore today.

So I got the COVID test comes, I do the test. And it comes out as being positive. It's like, really? Because I've done a lot of those tests in the past, like lots of them back in the day, as it were, over like a two year period.

Do you remember that? Well, it's like every, every single time, either I had a little bit of a sneeze, I'd do a test, or someone else had got COVID, then I'd have to go and test, you know, it's like constant. Always, always came up clean. Until now.

It's the first time ever. So I mean, I was kind of due to have a bit of illness because I haven't had anything physical stuff for three years. Apart from the odd day cold, you know, other than that, that's it.

So it's, I guess I was due to have a little bit of a, because it's kind of like a detoxification, isn't it? Sometimes it feels like you know, when, when I've got flu or cold, it's just all the toxins built up. And now they're kind of being released in the mucus in the mucus. What a weird word mucus is.

But yeah, it's kind of been released, I think mainly through sweat, to be honest with you. Wow. Perhaps I should turn the heating off.

So it's a lot easier to deal with this during the summer though, during the winter. I just, yeah, or what other things. So yeah, it came up positive on the test.

So I had to make a few phone calls. And I phoned up Uncle Sausage's hospital ward. And I spoke to the woman who actually I saw, I saw on the Wednesday, because they kind of got to know me now because I'm up there so often.

And I explained to her, look, I had no idea. I had COVID just literally, you know, 10 minutes ago, got the results, did the test. You're the first person I'm telling because I was on your ward on Wednesday.

And there's chances is I could I could have brought it into the ward. And she said, Thanks for letting us know. And she'll just test everyone, get everyone tested.

And there's no, I'm not, I think it's, I would say, I would say at least it's a very high percentage that I caught it in the hospital. Bearing in mind, I don't. I mean, there's a chance I could have caught it whilst traveling to the hospital and back from the hospital.

That's the only two places really. And I haven't had contact with anyone else. No one's been in my flat.

Recently, no one's Yeah, so I think it must be. Oh, by the way, Uncle Sausage's friend, the other one, the ones that's mentioned COVID, she came clean, so she didn't have COVID. So, luckily, she mentioned otherwise, I wouldn't have had a test.

I'll just put it down to just having a cold. Once the symptoms started, like really kicked in, I realized that it was flu or, you know, whatever. And like it was, it wasn't just stress.

I mean, the chances, maybe the stress is reduced my immune system, or made it a little bit more fragile. I don't know. But yeah, so that's where I am.

So few weird things that happened. No, yesterday, right? Because Uncle Sausage's, all he said to me is why can't I go and visit him? And I said, I can't, because I'm ill. I'm not allowed to visit when I'm like this.

It's against the law, actually. And he said, No, you can just come in, I need to get some drinks. So he wasn't really listening to me, if you know what I mean.

So I don't know if he's taken it personally that not visited, I'm not visiting him because I don't want to. It's, which isn't the case, it's because I can't. I can't physically visit him.

Anyway, even if I was allowed, I couldn't. Because I'm not up to it. But once I'm better, I still have to leave it a few, a few more days.

According to some rules, NHS rules, when it comes to going into hospitals. You know, I mean, there's people in there that immune systems practically zero. So getting COVID could be catastrophic.

And I'm not going to nowhere in the world, am I going to risk that for someone else, just so I can go in and visit someone to take him some drinks. And besides, he's also at risk, because his immune system is probably really, really low, due to his extremely serious condition. So it could, if I'd have actually sat in there with him on Wednesday, and spend an hour sitting on his bed talking to him.

That could have been him, that could have, that could have been the end of him. I'm not being dramatic. I mean, it was literally could have, if he'd have caught this off me.

I don't know if he'd survive it. Because of how ill he is. And that would destroy me, that'd be just, well, so yeah, I know I'm being all serious, I should stop being serious.

But sometimes, sometimes I can't just, this is how it is. So the yesterday, because Uncle sausages kept going on and on about, oh, I need some drinks. I've had any drinks for three days.

All I'm drinking is water. Like, okay, well, that's what I choose to drink. But I do, you know, I understand he's bored.

It's so boring in there. And he wants to drink some drink, you know, he likes his fizzy drinks and stuff. But I can't go in there.

So I did. Oh, man, I can't even believe, you know, I did. Went into the Uber Eats app, ordered a bunch of drinks, you know, just juice drinks.

Fanta and stuff like that. To be delivered to his ward. I put instructions on there, please deliver to Uncle sausages on this ward.

And I said, I'll pay an extra 10 pound tip on top. If you deliver to the ward, everything like that. And when it went through, I just tried to call a bloke that delivery just to make sure he read it.

Because I don't know if they can if they're able to read English or not. I just I mean, it's a lot of the people that deliver English is their second language. I can't speak another language, never mind read another language.

So I just want to be able to explain it verbally. In the end, he did call me when he was at the hospital. And he said, I'm not taking it to the ward.

So that's the whole point. He said, No, there's too much stuff. I'm not taking it to the ward.

I said, Well, I'll give you a tip. I'll double the tip said no. And he said, I can just leave it here in the car park.

Put it on the floor, take a photograph and just leave it if I want. And well, he told me he was going to take it back to the to the shop to the supermarket. But then I received a picture of the bags on the floor with delivered next to it.

So he just put them on the floor in the, you know, basically near the entrance of the hospital, put them on the floor, took a photograph and just drove away. And he still got my 10 pound tip. And I paid for all those drinks.

And I was, I couldn't believe that someone would do that. I, I just, when he knew that I wasn't there, he knew that I explained to him that I had COVID. I was indoors, I couldn't leave the house.

I was delivering these drinks to someone who was terminally ill. I needed just a bit of help. I'll pay for it.

But can you but no, wasn't interested. He just said no, not going to do it. And he just left the stuff on the floor.

So I'm guessing a few people had a had a nice little drinky poos. Probably shared them out amongst the staff, maybe the in the you know, the hospital, which is not a bad thing. Let me know, but it had my name on it.

Say no, they know who bought them the drinks. I had my telephone number on the thing. No one called me.

You thought someone wouldn't you see something they've got a name, telephone number, let's just phone this person to see where they are. Perhaps I'll let them know that their deliveries just the Uber Eats knobhead has just left them on the floor. Maybe phone him up and just see if he you know, if he wants to come and get them.

No, no one contacted me. So that was quite a bit of money as well. Actually, I wasted on that.

All because uncle sausages kept going on and on and on and on and on and on about wanting drinks. When can he come up? I can't, I'm unwell. And just like kept going on and on.

All he was only thing he was interested in. And I actually went online and checked that I could get deliveries to the ward. And they said I could not Uber Eats.

I didn't check them. But I just I don't know, I just assumed that we've with the delivery services, give them a good tip, they'll make the extra effort. I was wrong.

And so put a complaint into the app, whether or not they'll even take any notes of it. And never ever going to use Uber Eats ever again. And it's absolutely, it's not I don't know, I can't even get there's a degree of stupidity that I can't get my head around.

I've made some I've done some really, really dumb things over the years. But that's I just, I was I think about it, I can I compare it with what happened in the comedy club at Christmas one year, when the staff they we had these Christmas parties, and people would have their dinners booked for a certain time. So sometimes people, I think we'd open it up in half five, half six, something like that.

And then they'd be served at seven, then half seven, eight, half eight, you know, those kind of different times. So this everything's not served at the same time, because people chance to get in and, you know, just it was quite well organised. Well, there's one table, and they were running late, which is fair enough.

So you know, they're coming by coach. Sometimes, you know, traffic jams, things like that. This is how dumb I'm sorry, this, this, this is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in my life.

And it was ridiculous. It was pedantic, pathetic, it was really, really sad. And I couldn't believe that the staff did it.

The customers hadn't turned up on time. So they put all the dinners out on the table, an empty table, cooked dinners on an empty table. And just left him there.

And I was just dumbstruck by that. I've never I've seen some really, really stupid I've not done. I've probably done.

I've done probably worse, more stupid things than that in my life, probably loads of times, but I've never viewed it before. I've never seen someone else be that silly. And I think it's that kind of level of absolute.

Yeah, that. Yeah, I remember going and saying, look, no. I took the plates back into the kitchen.

So this is ridiculous. This is pathetic. And put someone's dinner, they're paying hundreds of pounds to be here to come tonight.

They're running late. It's not the end of the world. You know, just take the food back in.

Don't put it out when they're not even at the table. It's different if like, maybe one person not turned up, perhaps put their dinner out for them. Because they're on the way, perhaps.

But to put 20, I think there's like 25 plates of food, all down this big, long part of the club. Empty table. Because even if they get there now, you know, even if they get there when they still got to kind of get their coats off, get some drinks in, go to the toilet and all that stuff.

They're not ready to eat, like straight away. And it's just amazing. Although there was one vegetarian.

Remember, that was this is a weird one. She was angry because she hadn't eaten. So basically, I haven't eaten meat for 18 years.

And now you've given me turkey. They said, Why did you eat it? If you knew it was turkey? She still ate it. She ate the whole meal.

I haven't eaten meat for like, but why did you? You don't, you don't eat it do you? If it's if it's something you don't want to eat, you don't eat it. It's like, come on. I was a vegetarian for about a year.

But I had something to eat. I didn't realise it was meat. What was it? Salami.

I didn't know salami was meat. Salami and cheese baguette or something. It's like, oh, oh, well.

So there's definitely been a few little learning experiences this week. One is I can't, it's hard to get. See, I didn't want Uncle Sausage's to feel sorry for me because I'd because I was ill.

I didn't want that. I didn't want anyone to I don't care. But I know that, you know, he's not, he's in a situation where whatever's going on with me is nothing compared to what's going on with him.

I understand that. So I wasn't after sympathy. Just understanding that I'm not allowed to go into the hospital when I'm ill, and I'm too ill also to do it.

I'm also, you know, I have feelings too. And all he wanted was the drinks. So I tried to solve that situation.

I really racked my brains. Trying to think of a solution for his problem. And I came unstuck.

And it cost me money. And and dignity, maybe I don't know. It's, it's a funny story, I suppose, isn't it? But I'm never ever going to use Uber Eats.

I'm not using any of those anymore. None of those delivery services. I use Amazon.

And also, I've got a few little grocery bits coming this morning or this afternoon. And Amazon because they use Morrison's supermarket. So I'm going to get bits and bobs from there.

Now do me. The good thing about that is they can just leave on the doorstep and I don't have to answer the door. Because of Uber Eats, it's all about answering the door.

They don't even want you to go down and help them. Which defeats the object of getting a delivery really. So yeah, when when I'm sorted, I'll probably look into maybe I need to find a delivery that delivers with bags and delivers where I don't have to see them.

Well, they can just like leave them outside and that's it. Yeah, that would be ideal. There so they can just deliver.

I haven't got a deal with the deal with a person. Because at the moment, there was a time it wasn't long ago, a few years ago. All supermarkets would deliver in carrier bags.

They'd be in crates, but the carrier bags would be in crates and then you could just take the carrier bag out. And it's done. Keep the bags, they take the crates, give them a big kiss and they leave, they go away.

And then they stopped that. So everything's loose in the crates. So I have to spend time bending over continuously and putting stuff into bags, my own bags, because that puts pressure on my back to do that.

And also it means I have to spend talk to the person or be what they'll just watch me do it. It's not an ideal situation. So when will you stop moaning about everything? When will you stop having a moaning time? Yeah, it's a bit moany.

My voice is so croaky at the moment. I watched Happy Gilmore this morning with my breakfast. I haven't seen it for decades, because the new Happy Gilmore 2 is out on Netflix.

And I thought, I'm going to watch the first one. And the weird thing about it is kind of big. Okay, there was in the 90s.

There was a few really big comedy stars when they're like, what's his name? Just like some big, okay, movies that kind of represented. So Adam Sandler. He did quite a few movies in the 90s.

That was his period, wasn't it really? And then you had what's his name? Ben Stiller. That was his period as well, wasn't it? I guess. 90s, 2000s, 2000s.

And then, of course, Jim Carrey, who was, I'd say, the king of the 90s comedy movie in the 90s. So that there was all those. I would say the 90s was a really, how many more times can I say the 90s was a really good time for comedy movies, I would argue.

But then, I was having a conversation with a neighbor lives downstairs, she's 20. And this is a couple of weeks ago, and I was trying to tell her that there's some really great movies from the past that she hasn't seen. If she hasn't seen them, and they're really good, worth watching.

And she said, give me a give me a name of one. And I couldn't think of any. And what she did ask was, what's the picture quality like? And that's a problem.

Because the picture quality wasn't particularly good on any movies. And really, at the cinema, but not on DVD or video, weren't great pictures, even in the 2000s. Special effects, was it the Matrix is probably the first time special effects really? Well, I mean, I know special effects were good during Star Wars and Superman.

And, you know, back in the early days, compared to how they previously been. But I would, I'd say the Matrix was, it was a jump forward with the old special effects. And then, I mean, special effects are really good now, aren't they? They've been really good for a long time.

But yeah, yeah. So that's it really, I just, I got COVID. That's it.

That's all I'm really for. I just do do an update. I will upload this at some point today, probably.

Yeah, probably. And then, then I don't know. Then I go back up, probably going to go and get some, I might lay down, have a little bit of sleep, or maybe just chill out here.

Because this has been the longest I've been awake for days. I'm normally not up for more than about half an hour. But I've actually been up since half past four.

And it's now quarter to eight. So yes, over three hours, which is pretty good. Because I mean, genuinely, it's the first, I've not been up this long since Wednesday morning.

Three hours in a row. I feel like I can focus a bit now as well. Which is nice.

I don't know what I'm going to focus on, but I feel like I can focus on summer. So I do believe that is it. That's my little super interesting story.

So thank you for listening. Remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve to be happy. And be gentle with yourself.

You deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Take care.

Bye. Bye bye bye bye bye bye. I'll do another COVID test tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon.

And if it comes up as positive again, I'll do another one on Tuesday. And if it comes up positive, I'm going to have to go and buy some more because I've already given one away. So I've got four tests.

I've used one, gave one to my neighbor downstairs because she had some contact with me the other day. So you want to make sure that she's all right. And I've got two more.

So unless I wait till Monday and do one on if it's not clear on Monday, maybe do another one on the follow. I don't know, Friday or Thursday or something. Give it a few days.

But it should be should pretty much be clear. I reckon the it's feeling feeling so much better than I was. So that's good.

So thank you for listening. Bye. Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye.