Last Thursday night I developed a tickly throat, and by Friday morning it was burning up & I lost my voice. It’s been on and off ever since, with a painful throat and terrible cough. Unfortunately, this week as well as my GMTV slots (which are short, so I can manage through them), I’ve also had filming scheduled in for an upcoming ITV1 Tonight on mortgages.
Both filming days have left me exhausted; I’ve been running a slight temperature and if it was anything else I would’ve cancelled. Unfortunately the nature of these programmes means interviews, filming permission, case studies and more have been set up on a heavy schedule and with the programme deadline looming, cancelling simply isn’t an option.
Today I was at Brent Cross shopping centre doing a ‘Martins Mortgage Minute’ clinic, in other words meeting people and talking through what was happening with their mortgages. This was made more difficult, as I was slightly worried about spreading my lurgy to anyone who came close, so I ensured everyone was warned first.
In one chat with a lovely woman called Angie, I got that unstoppable cough moment and simply couldn’t carry on. I tried again far too soon and made a few hastily aborted attempts, but when you’ve gotta cough, you’ve gotta cough, and it wouldn’t go away.
There were no more drugs to take; I’d done all the cold ‘n’ flu, cough syrup and tablets possible, and water wasn’t helping. It took a good twenty minutes before I was able to continue, and thankfully I managed to prevent it going to the next coughing step (decorum prevents me writing what that is). Then with a cup of hot water and lemon I carried on and managed another hour, before coming home and flumping on the sofa.
Who says telly is glamourous…