On Tuesday afternoon, I had my third dose of C-19 vaccine, the ‘booster shot’.

This was a different vaccine to the Atra-Zeneca innoculations I had been given previously, as this time it was the Pfizer version. Because of the possibility of any side effects from giving different vaccines, we were all required to wait in the GP Surgery for fifteen minutes before leaving, in sight of the receptionist.

Other than the needle being quite painful going in this time, and leaving a small spot of blood that was covered by a dressing, I felt fine. After I sat out the required fifteen minutes, I drove home as normal. That evening, I cooked dinner, relaxed as usual, and went to bed at a reasonable time.

On Wednesday morning, the outside temperatures had dropped considerably, and there was a lingering mist here in Beetley. But I woke up in bed feeling unbelievably cold, despite being covered by a thick duvet. I got up and put the central heating on, telling Julie how cold I was feeling. All morning, I couldn’t get warm. Despite adding extra layers of clothing, and the heating turned up to twenty-three degrees, I remained uncomfortably cold inside the house.

By the time I had to take Ollie out, it had started to rain. So I wrapped up well, and walked briskly for just over an hour. When I got home, I was still feeling cold, especially my hands and feet. It wasn’t until after dinner, by seven in the evening, that I started to warm up. The heating has been on for almost twelve hours by then, and I didn’t turn it off until nine o’clock. Just after ten I was feeling worn out, so went to bed, falling asleep immediately.

This morning I woke up with a niggling headache, and it won’t go away just yet. My arm is painful at the injection site too. My conclusion is that both the feeling of intense cold and today’s headache are indeed side-effects of a different strain of vaccine entering my system.

But if that’s the worst it is going to get, I am still very glad that I had the booster.