Goodness, what happened there?

I am slowly emerging back into the light, blinking in a slightly dazed fashion. Today was the first time I've aired my voice at ALL for - let's see - twelve days (an eternity for a singer; a little voice deep in our brains invariably shrieks that we'll never sing again, which as you can imagine does not speed up the recovery process). A morning run-through with new conductor for the Offenbach - having cycled slowly to the theatre, ice crunching underneath my bike wheels, stopping only about fourteen times to hack my lungs up as the freezing air hit my throat, I stood in the rehearsal room wondering what was going to come out when I opened my mouth to sing.

Luckily my voice appears to still exist despite the combined efforts of flu and bronchitis, although the muscular support was utterly and weirdly lacking; I'll have to build that back up. I think I need to take things carefully, too; although it wasn't a long or strenuous rehearsal, after I came back to the flat and had a spot of lunch I virtually passed out for an hour. I'm notoriously bad at taking things slowly and gently, though, so this will be a test of my patience!