Have you been out today?

Before I begin I would like to stress that the following is Not What Normally Happens when you give blood. It's usually virtually painless and no great inconvenience and only leaves you with a small plaster on your arm and a smug feeling of virtuousness. Plus you really do get tea and biscuits afterwards.

However, for some reason when I gave blood on Tuesday it had slightly more of an aftermath to it. Specifically, my left arm now looks like this:







I apologise for the rubbish quality of the photos but I think you can just about make out the interesting colour combination of curry yellow and raspberry ripple purple. And, yes, it is a bit painful, thank you for your concern. So I hope my pint's gone to someone deserving because for probably the first and last time in my life I have truly given until it hurts.

Anyway, according to National Blood Service advice this is not really anything to worry about and should sort itself out soon enough.

The superstitious among you may like to note that this was, apparently, the 13th time I'd donated blood. I'm averagelystitious myself though so I'll pay that no heed.