… thankfully. Not perfectly, but well enough to sit at the computer and work as long as I swill my eyes with Optrex every few hours (and use my medicated drops in the bad eye, of course). Boredom over, hurrah.

Just as well, because it’s raining. A lot. Nothing new, of course, in Northern Ireland, but it look as if our summer has been and gone already with the warm, sunny weather we had in May and early June. Again, nothing new. That’s usually when we get our summer; then once the kids are off school at the end of June, it rains nonstop till they go back at the start of September. Keeps them out of our garden, at least…

… due to an infection in my right eye. Luckily, I was fine all last week when we were in Wales; we got back on Saturday and on Sunday morning I woke up to find that I couldn’t see properly out of my right eye. I didn’t get anything for it till Monday (stupid closed pharmacists) but it’s been getting better since I got the antibiotic eye drops. Yay.

I shouldn’t really be on the computer/watching TV/reading, in case I strain my good eye - the bad one is of course covered up - but what else is there to do when it’s raining, aside from housework?

Also today, I am mostly … pretending that it isn’t more than three months since I last blogged

… because that doesn’t really bear thinking about. Well, I have been blogging - just on Sharp Words, not here.

Too much personal crap has happened anyway for me to want to write up or even really remember. The salient points are probably:

• We had a round of redundancies in work including my junior though my job is safe even if I am now managed by someone in Canada.
• Colin’s stepdad passed away at the beginning of May after many weeks in hospital/hospice and finally home; the leukaemia and the other cancers finally caught up with him.
• We’re getting married on Friday 12th September this year.

.. with work, with my lack of weekend, with my general lack of motivation, with my lingering cold.

Well, that last isn’t too bad compared to the week before. I finally made it back into the office on Tuesday, and although I’m still coughing a lot and getting through way too many tissues and menthol lozenges, I’m functional. Mostly. I’m still really really tired as I haven’t had a proper convalescence, but I managed to stay in bed till after noon today which has helped.

I have a lot of work to do though, including yesterday and today. I was in the office yesterday, which meant listening to Wales beat Italy via internet TV streaming, and then a lot of listening to the radio on the way home for the Ireland v Scotland match. 3 out of 3 for Wales so far though… but with our toughest matches to come (Ireland and France), I don’t think we’ll get the Grand Slam this year. We’re in with a good shot at the overall Championship though.

Although my work deadline is this coming Friday, I have a suspicion that things won’t be over by then. Although I wouldn’t say no to a couple of extra days to get everything done in…. Argh. Tired. Fed up. Can’t wait till my time off in March…

… because I am sick sick sick: I ache all over, my throat feels like someone’s forcibly shoved a cheesegrater down my neck, and I’ve lost all ability to control my body temperature.

I’ve felt like this since Monday, in fact. I stuck it out working from home for two days, but today I gave up more or less entirely and spent the day in bed, more or less, hoping that that would make me feel much better.

It hasn’t. Aaaaarrgggghh.  Still, I have to do some work tomorrow as I’m slipping behind on our deadlines for the end-of-month release.

… to the point of calling in sick in favour of spending as much time as possible in bed and warm. Although I did have to go out to collect my antibiotics - the temperature registered by my car’s thermometer was 2 degrees C and the windchill made it even colder, which was not good for the pain in my face. I did go to the library while I was out though, so I have new-to-me books to make languishing in bed more bearable….

At least it’s not snowing like it has been over in Britain. Fingers crossed we don’t get any tonight because I really do need to get to work in Belfast tomorrow.

… again. It’s just the left-hand side - at least it was, I’ve just realised that the right side is hurting slightly now - and the pain has been enough to stop me sleeping properly.
Thankfully, although I couldn’t get a doctor’s appointment, there’s a prescription for antibiotics waiting for me to pick up first thing tomorrow. That should see me right, even if I don’t like taking antibiotics because of the problems of building up too much immunity to them etc. I can’t remember the last time I had any though - possibly when I had tonsilitis, and that was over 4 years ago - so I don’t really think I have a problem there.