Smell update

Older readers may remember that just before xmas I reported on a strange odour that seemed to be pervading my house.

I now need to hold up my hand and admit that it wasn't the house.

It was me.

This is after my wife kindly washed and ironed every single curtain and piece of fabric we had.

Turns out I was suffering from a side effect of Omeprazole, which I'd been taking for my persistent and ongoing stomach acid problem (15 years and counting, cheers, thanks, ta). These tiny little pills are very effective, but you are warned not to take it for longer than 14 days, nor more frequently than every 4 months. Being so clever, I'd adopted a policy of just taking it every few days. I was thinking I could get it down to one a week, and that I could control my symptoms that way.

So I was halfway through my second course of 14 tablets in a row when it occurred to me that my ongoing "what's that smell?" problem was strangely coincident with my taking the tablets.

It must work by building up in the system, hence capability of one course being effective for months. And it was coming out on my skin, fingernails, hair, beard. This happened before, when I took it for the first time, too. Back then, we'd just got some pet fish for the kids, and I decided the smell of the fish food and tank water was sticking on my skin.

So - not before time - I stopped taking the fucking pills, and, within 10 days, the smell is gone from my life. I feel like a stupid dumb sun on a beach, but they really worked!