"You sound very laid back," said the ageing rock star, whose latest tour of regional venues made him worth my interviewing for 'whatever happened to them?' column in Sunday paper.

The reason he thought I sounded very laid back (instead of my usually slightly obsessive-compulsive, liable-to-interrupting-people self) was that I said very little in response to his musings, about why he was hitting the road again and why his new songs were better than anything Blue or Blur or anyone actually more contemporary than that would ever write.

He obviously interpreted my noncommittal silence as a kind of drug induced coolness, whereas in fact it was because I was literally laid back.

On my bed, with the phone, down which I was interviewing him, lying next to me on the pillow, tape recorder on bedside table, list of things I was supposed to ask him lying on stomach, Rugrats downstairs watching Little Mermaid (as far as I knew - I hadn't actually been to see what they were doing for over an hour).

In this position, I couldn't really muster the energy to respond to his musings on the state of the music industry with anything more than a brief sigh, just to let him know that I was still there.

Whether this is a generally conducive interview technique remains to be seen. It is the first I've conducted in this way, though it didn't seem to prevent ageing rock star from sharing his thoughts on various matters I hadn't asked him to share with me, albeit punctuated by a few pauses, in which he obviously expected me to say something.

When I didn't, he simply held forth quite long enough to give me plenty of copy to write the piece, even if it was a bit disjointed. Whether any other interviewees would respond quite so admirably, to a total lack of questions, remains to be seen.

Although I am not sure if I will be testing the technique at all, as it was not an intentional ploy on my part but one brought about by bout of sickness.

Above bout of sickness took me by surprise in the middle of the night and, since Thomas was away on business for said night, forced me to single-handedly negotiate minefield of getting Rugrats up, dressed and to childminders, where they were supposed to be while I conducted interview, while having to repeatedly refer to bucket.

In the end it all got too much for me and Cbeebies took over while baby Rugrat and self napped and I kidded myself that, on waking from nap, bout of sickness would have gone and I'd be able to jump up, whisk everyone away and be back in time to prepare for and do interview.

Sadly this was not the case and I woke to sound of baby Rugrat demanding to be got out of cot, feeling sicker than ever and with clock shining in face telling me I should be calling ageing rock star in ten minutes time.

So it was a large packet of biscuits, Little Mermaid and a lock on the door downstairs for childcare and retiring to bed - where, prone, I didn't feel quite as nauseous - with phone tape recorder and no prepared questions for interview.

"I hope you've got everything you, err, wanted?" said rock star, who I'm sure in his heyday would never have given a journalist who'd asked him nothing at all such a hesitant pay off.

I think I might have managed a "mmmm" before I put the phone down and, not hearing howls from below, tried to sleep a bit more.

The hard bit was yet to come, though, as I was expected to write the piece up in the next 24 hours, a feat I somehow managed in between further bouts of sickness and in the privacy of own home, without any colleagues being able to see me to appreciate just how ill I was and just what a valiant effort I had made in order to meet deadline.

When editor phoned later on, I wasn't entirely surprised. I hoped that after he'd given me a hard time I'd be able to make him repent by repeating to him the difficult circumstance in which I'd had to do all of the above, but never got the opportunity.

"Fantastic piece," he said, breezily. "You've totally managed to capture his somewhat disjointed, kind of, too many years of LSD, barely there, train of thought. How did you manage to tap into his psyche so well?"