Had my jab

 I had my COVID vaccination Monday afternoon, the Astra Zeneca variety.  The screeners spend a lot of time telling you about how you might have various side effects of the flu type.  I only had a sore arm for about 30 minutes and was fine the rest of the day, so went to bed feeling pretty relieved.  Only to wake up feeling cold at 1am, which deteriorated into violent chills for over two hours - and by violent, I mean my entire body uncontrollably jerking and convulsing like I was having electric shock treatment, and my teeth literally clacking together.  I put on several more layers of clothes and still couldn't get warm - and it was even difficult getting dressed because of all the jerking and twitching.  Luckily I had some paracetemol, which is what the screeners had recommended, and after taking that, things finally subsided about 3am.  I dozed off, only to wake up an hour later burning hot and feverish.  Also wide awake for some bizarre reason.  So all the layers had to come off, no more sleep, I gave up at 6am and got up and had breakfast since I was also quite hungry.  I napped a few times during the next day and felt stiff, sore and exhausted all day, bed at 8pm.  So the learning point here is make sure you have paracetemol before getting your jab!  Of course, DH had the other kind and had no problems at all other than a sore arm, but several of my work colleagues have had similar issues with both types of jab.  It's better than getting COVID though, and apparently the second jab (mine's in June) isn't as bad. Let's hope.

I finished my March Bag of the Month bag.  It's not perfect but I feel a sense of achievement to have gotten it finished and it looks fairly alright. It's definitely the most complex bag I've tackled so far.  I think I could do it better if I made another one, but I don't know if I will since I don't need another one.  The bag is an example of how much nicer things look when you spend out on the correct type of zipper, the nice metal zipper ends finishing the ends of the top zipper, the mesh, the vinyl, the frame etc.  Bagmaking is not a cheap hobby.  But oddly satisfying to turn quilting fabric into a robust practical item. I like all the compartments and pockets.

Also this week, I tried sewing a simple summer blouse that just pulls over the head, in cotton broadcloth.  It's come out a bit short and I think next time I might put some darts in the front, but it's cute.

We've got a blackbird nesting in our garden!  When DH first spotted her hopping into the rose and ivy stems on the back fence, not that high off the ground, we thought it was a pretty risky place to build a nest.  That's until we saw our cat perched directly above her on the fence top, obviously wanting to reach her, but totally unable to because of the thorny rose stems that shelter her, but don't give any purchase for a cat's weight.  This photo is a bit blurry because it's taken on extreme zoom from our kitchen window.  She is probably sitting on eggs now because from time to time she gets up and fluffs herself and pokes about underneath before settling back down.  We were out doing a bit of gardening today and we were careful not to go too close, we could see her watching us from the nest.  We've never had a nest that we could see before, it's quite a delight.

The sumo is back on in Japan so I am knitting on the second Autumn colour sock while I watch the highlights in the evening.  My online Japanese course came to the end of the textbook so now I am revising for the tests which will be released starting next week I think.  I've completely forgotten everything we did in the earlier chapters so I'm not expecting to do very well. It's also very tempting to spend too much time playing video games:  I finished Dishonored twice (to get both endings) and am now on Dishonored 2 which I'm enjoying.  But it's very bad for time-sucking: I sit down after dinner thinking 'I'll just play for 40 minutes or so while I digest' and suddenly it's 10pm. DS thinks it's hilarious after all the nagging I did when he was younger about spending too much time playing computer games...