Thank you Mags!
I’ve had a bit of a cough for a couple of days and yet only tested positive this morning.
We have plenty of back up supplies and just ordered a delivery from Iceland to be on the safe side 
Cheers Dex!
I think I’ll stick with the paper chains for now.
Covid and powder burns are probably not a good combination 
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Aha, we’ve only just discovered that 60+ year olds get a (10% ?) discount from Iceland on Tuesdays. Some of you may know this already, but worth mentioning anyway. Back to topic.
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Snorting sulphur might actually be a cure. Don’t recall anyone trying it out yet. Worth a punt? If it works then you’d be up for getting a nobel prize. If it doesn’t, then we’ll throw some paper chains on your coffin as you descend.
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How very reassuring 
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Well I can finally say that I have now had it or (or at least had it and tested positive for it) …and I blame M&S!
I recently started ordering from Ocado because they have later deliveries which are handy for me in the summer (as it means I can go out hiking in the day) and the only 4 x 2L water they have is M&S 'Still Scottish Mountain water":
Which you’d assume is natural/mineral water from a mountain spring - but it is not! It is essentially treated/tap water!!!
Prepared water
Sometimes known as ‘table water’ or ‘mountain water’, this kind of water can originate from any type of supply (including municipal water) and can come from multiple sources.
It can also be treated so that it complies with chemical, microbiological and radiological safety requirements for pre-packaged water.It may also have things added to it, such as additional minerals or treatments. Prepared water is often the standard for emerging countries where purity means above all, safety. Depending on local legislation, it will be called “purified water” or “drinking water” on the label.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have contracted it if it wasn’t for this garbage - it tasted like tap water and my throat felt weird pretty much as soon as I started drinking it. I feel poisoned! 
While I did go out on the weekend and a hike with a friend from North Wales I have been in far riskier situations where I would have been more likely to contract it (such as in and out of hospital when my mum was in last year and where a number of people had covid on her ward) hence I feel it’s very odd that I caught it now and so do feel the water played a part (if not been the source itself). My friend started experiencing symptoms a day before me (which could mean they’re the ones who passed it on to me or we caught it together and my immune status was slightly better).
In terms of symptoms:
- Day 0 (day I think I picked it up) - No symptoms.
- Day 1 - Slight dryness in throat and then in the evening feeling like the very beginning of a temp (felt fine tho - was out shopping in Ikea).
- Day 2 - Symptoms above slightly intensified and felt a pain in lower back (I think kidneys - as I guess stomach was producing more acid to get rid of anything in the GI tract) but still did not feel ‘ill’.
- Day 3 - Flu-like feeling of aches and pains but not quite as much a full blown flu (temp never got that high). I say ‘flu-like’ only because that’s the best way to describe it, even tho at the same time it was not flu-like, i.e did not feel what a normal flu feels like (even in the early stages). Started feeling quite weak and also getting pretty bad headaches behind eyes/temples.
- Day 4 - Symptoms from day before slightly intensified and felt more weak.
- Day 5 - Similar again, but also got pains in upper back (I guess, lungs) - this made it feel quite menacing. Still feeling quite weak. Sometimes feeling like I needed to cough.
- Day 6 - Similar to day 5.
- Day 7 - Less temperature and achey feeling, but upper back/lung pain got worse so I decided to take some deep (but slow and controlled) breaths of Birch and Pine essential oils… and within an hour the pains reduced massively!!! Lungs/deep breathing definitely felt more fragile than usual. (Further day of breathing in oils and the pains pretty much went, tho that feeling of fragility is only slowly subsiding.)
What I find super interesting is that while I did feel like I had a couple of small night sweats, I did not (or at least not have yet) get a full blown temperature. This could be that the virus is similar to one used in one of our childhood inoculations because when you have an infection for a long time (or sometimes when you are born with one) your body stops treating it as a pathogen so stops producing antibodies. So if Covid-19 was a man made ‘gain of function’ experiment then they knew exactly what they were doing as it could be the perfect way to target a whole population who you know have had certain childhood vaccines! (Nothing would surprise me - especially in this age of grotesque greed that we live in).
One thing I am sure of tho, for the first week it did not feel like a natural virus - while in some ways it was ‘flu-like’ or ‘cold-like’ it was never similar enough for me to say it’s a flu or cold, it definitely felt more menacing even if the symptoms weren’t as bad and overall I got the sense that my body did not recognise it and was perhaps going into overdrive trying to determine the best way to deal with it (which is why it ‘felt’ menacing). I’ve heard from a few people that the 2nd or 3rd time is often worse, so I am definitely not looking forward to getting it again!!
After a week the symptoms feel more like a cold, perhaps with some gastric-flu type symptoms. I think it’s possible I did not experience it as bad as some people as I used a lot of anti-microbials and other natural approaches, such as:
- Echinacea capsules
- St Johns Wort tea
- Chamomile and Liquorice tea
- Epsom salt baths
- Kefir (fermented foods/probiotics)
- Clean food - nothing sweet as sugar/carbs always feed viruses
In week 2 now and it feels like a cough/cold, strength seems to be improving and digestive ‘niggles’ seem to be going thanks to drinking kefir.
Anyway I hope this information might help someone - it’s certainly been interesting!
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I hope you get better quick Azz 
We’ve all had it but not as bad as you.
I’ve never bought water in a bottle,I’ve never believed the labels.
Perhaps you shouldn’t read this though:
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Ha ha, I’ve never had it either and I was just going to post about how American research has confirmed Australia’s finding that one in five take longer than the average 20 days to recover… blah blah.
And there you are and it’s already old news, such is life!
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Firstly i hope you recover quickly Azz , i hope you dont lose your sense of taste and smell . It takes a few months to fully return . I ended up in hospital with heart pain for the day . I’m very surprised about this Scottish Water label though .
Best wishes
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Yeah, wishing you a speedy recovery Azz👍
That really is a bit of an eye opener regarding the bottled water!
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Sorry to hear that Azz, and surprised to read about the ‘Mountain Water’ I rarely buy bottled water and take it out of a filter jug from the tap, but like yourself, it is more convenient to buy bottled water when going out on a ramble.
A friend buys this from Sainsbury’s and it’s supposed to be pure. It gets a 100% on my Yuka App
(you scan the barcode and it tells you how good it is and what additives there are are what they do) It is in a glass bottle though…
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If you are going to drink still stagnant water what do you expect? Bottled water is madness, nothing wrong with tap water - not that I drink water anyway I prefer to dilute it with something like tea, coffee, hops, Milo etc
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I hope you feel better soon, Azz…
Fortunately no Covid in our house. 
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Hoping you feel better each day, Azz.
Nope, Covid hasn’t dared to touch me yet, but then, mosquitoes don’t like me at all, either!
Suits me fine.
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You shouldn’t be snorting that stuff @Azz, we need you to keep us on the straight & narrow.
Don’t they say the only way to catch Covid is to inhale the airborne particles … it attacks your lungs, living there, multiplying. Research shows that the virus can live in the air for up to 3 hours, in the real world, a lot less.
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I hope you recover well Azz, 
I loathe this nonsense of “Scottish Water” being a promotion for rancid tap stuff. If anyone has tried actual Scottish water, the difference is like chalk and cheese!
Anyway, get better soon! 
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Always best straight out of The Clyde, a good swig indeed! 
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Hoping you are back to full health soon Azz.
We rarely buy bottled water. A couple of water bottles filled from the tap and put in the fridge in advance of a trip is the usual practice.
No positive tests or symptoms of Covid for us yet.
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Filter jugs seem to be pretty effective but the filters need changing every so often.
I’ve never been tested positive for covid but I’m sure that many people have had mild symptoms.
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