Yup, like Ella said, I've had crypto, except I caught it in Libya, not Galway. It was not fun. My weight dropped over a stone in a week. I will spare you the colourful description of the symptoms, except to say that the middle of the desert was the last place I wanted to be. When it is 3am and sub-zero temperature and liquid is coming out both ends and you've only a bucket with a crack in it to vomit into, and the mozzies are circling but you don't have the strength to avoid them... that's endurance.

I got taken to hospital in the back of a pick-up truck because the symptoms are not dissimilar to amoebic dysentry. I lived on Halal chicken stock cubes for two weeks. When I returned home I was banned from my local swimming pools for a month, not that I had the strength to swim.

The West of Ireland is still my favourite place on earth though so I'd have no qualms visiting. And I'm going back to Libya next year too.

(I have not noticed any more mental retardation than usual.)