I told you I wasn’t well, yesterday my doctor told me that there seemed to be something in my left lung.  He asked if the mucus I’d been coughing up (proper “gold watches” as my Granddad would call them) contained blood (no) or if I’d suffered any weight loss (I wish!!!!).  He said he thought it was “only an infection”, perhaps the one time “only”, “infection” and “lung” can ever be used in the same sentence then proscribed me penicillin with a heavy duty cough syrup but told me that if those didn’t work after seven days he’d send me for a blood test and an x-ray.  Gulp.

Whenever we are on medication we have a legal requirement to declare it to whoever is passing us fit for duty, in our case the DTSM on the desk.  It was only when I was booking on that I discovered that the cough syrup I’d been glugging down contained codeine, a restricted medication, and that I could not l work on the railway while I was on it.  So I’m off work for the next seven days until I complete my course of medication.  So loads of time to blog!

Apart from that just as predicted ASLEF have called off their two extra strikes for “meaningful talks” which we all know won’t happen and we’ll be going on strike Boxing Day 2013.  Over on the Bakerloo Line the ASLEF TOps have voted to strike over the lack of station staff to assist with closing up when reversing after the incident with the kid back on 13th October last year.  As RMT are likely to benefit from more station staff I’m amazed that they’ve not joined ASLEF in a dual strike but then maybe this is an example of the rivalry between the unions.