We interrupt our metaphysical reflections to announce that I am sick. I became queasy during the night, but was too sleepy to act on it, and kept sleeping and dreaming queasy dreams until the alarm woke me at 7.

As usual with my nausea, I was unable to actually throw up, as my gag reflex is very poorly developed. Besides, what would it have helped? My stomach was surely empty after 10 hours without eating. Still, I tried, just to see if there was any blood.  I gave up though.

I had to skip work again.  I had only been there two days since the flu. Poor job! -_-  It does not have any economic consequences for me, since I live in Norway, but I feel bad about not being able to do anything at all.  I don’t think I could have worked even if I had brought the work laptop home, truth to tell. I was pretty foggy.

Over the next hours, the problems gradually moved further down the digestive tract. Around noon I was able to lie down without much pain, and slept for more than four hours. I woke from a long dream about two young women who were friends, one of them was a suicide bomber on her way to blow herself up in a church on Christmas, but after meeting her friend outside, she ran away and managed to reach a deserted place before her timed bomb went off. I did not feel like staying in bed after that.

I still did not feel like I wanted to eat or drink ever again, but that did not last. Over the course of the evening, I refilled my stomach, with no apparent ill effects. Of course, there were no apparent ill effects last night when I went to bed either, so let’s wait and see.  One thing I avoided today was bread. There can go months without bread (although I eat pasta), but lately I have eaten bread for almost every meal.  I have a delicious oats-mixed bread at home, and one with sunflower seeds at work.  I have been eating them with jam and thoroughly enjoying it. It’s been so long, after all.

Perhaps I should try to be more gradual when I change my diet. Or perhaps it was some kind of freak accident. Or perhaps something I don’t yet know. There are bound to be such things. I am still only 52, after all. How much can I possibly understand about human life?  I just recently came to this world.