Day 36 18 April 09

I'm finding life a little disorientating at the moment. I've landed firmly in the word of Twitterdom with emails coming in from strangers declaring that they're delighted to be following me and with Tweets coming at me from all angles, or so it feels. Four pages this morning on top of seven unchecked hanging over from last week. Add to this the fact that sometimes I'll say something to someone and it's clear that what I'm telling them is already old news. I don't know whether this is because I'm getting old and have forgotten what I've told someone barely two hours before or due to the fact they've read my blog.

Praziquantel is the name of a drug that prevents a rather horrid infection manifesting itself in all those that have swam in Lake Malawi. This includes me last December. Wikipaedia says of it "Praziquantel is not licensed for use in humans in the UK; it is, however, available as a veterinary anthelminthic".

You have to take Praziquantel some four months after your last dip in the lake and that for me is now. The pills were purchased in Malwai and came with no instructions at all. I think I remember being told you had to take them all at once (all five of them and sizeable at that). If I've got this right from lunch time today I should be immune from the worst this lake can throw at you or, if I haven't, thank you for reading my last blog.

I say the worst this lake can throw at you but I guess that's not entirely true. It's full of crocs and some rather unfriendly hippos not that they troubled someone who rarely swam further than the safety of 3 meters from the shoreline. I'm of the Jaws film generation afterall when me and all my classmates kept out of the waters off the Devon coastline for a good part of the late 70s after seeing that terrifying film.