Cheltenham wrap-up, featuring The Dreaded Lurgi

Right, so I've finally got round to summing up my Cheltenham experience. And my experiences since, which will go some way toward explaining why my Cheltenham write-up is so late.

I was there for all four days, and my personal highlight was meeting so many like-minded (and often blog-minded) writers. Martin Adams, Jason Arnopp, Paul Campbell, Stuart Perry,Helen Smith, and Danny Stack, it was wonderful drinking beer and discussing John Barrowman's Bumming Carousel with you. (If you don't know what John Barrowman's Bumming Carousel is, trust me, ignorance is indeed bliss.)

My personal lowlight was nursing a cold throughout the entire week. I'd been off work with The Dreaded Lurgi the day before the festival, I felt a bit peaky for the first three days (to the point that I spent part of every afternoon in my hotel room watching Wimbledon and resting up), then I woke up on the Friday morning coughing up a lung.

The lung situation lasted another week, resulting in three more days off work. Then I got better for a week, only to come down with a throat infection this week and beg off work yet again. My doctor pumped me full of penicillin today, and I hope that'll clear things up by Friday, but I've been ill for about a month continuously now. This is most annoying and has prevented me from doing any writing work of consequence. Bah, I say!