Blogging’s not a job – it’s an expensive addiction

It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this.

It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this. I think it might really suit you.’

No, of course not. What Damian actually introduced me to was something far more addictive, expensive, energy-sapping and injurious to health than crack cocaine. He asked me to join his elite team of bloggers at the Daily Telegraph. And now I’m having to go cold turkey and I don’t like it one bit.

The reason I’m going cold turkey — i.e. giving up blogging for a while — is that I’ve been quite ill for rather too long. It started over a year ago with a bout of swine flu, then degenerated into a debilitating condition I could never quite shake off: dry cough, headaches, bouts of nausea, shortness of breath, you name it.