Today

Actually, instead of the sneezing, I've developed laryngitis. A great boon, given my propensity for excessive talking, some might say. We've got our friends the Stewpots visiting this weekend, as well as our daughter Becky, so I expect they'll all report coughs and colds in a day or so. It's surprising what a strain it is when you can't actually talk, except in a hoarse whisper. I felt quite tearful last night.

There's no reason why Paul should whisper as well, but that's exactly what he was doing this morning, as though someone had decreed that we should all be sotto voce for the day! "Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Dunno." was the reply (in a whisper).

In My Day

When I was singing with Musica Antiqua, back in the 70s, we had a concert as part of the Brighton Fringe. Very excited, we were, at this opportunity to increase our audience. However, I developed laryngitis, as now. Now I realise that you don't sing with your throat, but you do need to be able to pass air over the vocal chords in a controlled fashion and you can't do that with laryngitis. So I explained that I coudn't sing.

Clearly this was just seen as a feeble excuse (though why I should want an excuse not to sing, I can't imagine). Our musical director told me to stand with the others and mime! This I attempted to do for the 1st half (It's not as easy as it looks so I take my hat off to all those pop groups on TOTP). However, it's quite a strain (see above), and I became much more exhausted that I would have done with actual singing. So I rebelled for the 2nd half and went home.

Could that be why the group never achieved international recognition?