No wonder I'm a happy drunk

See, the thing is, I have a cold. I think I'm over the worst stages, so I'm left with the slightly spaced feeling you get. I also had a doctor's appointment lined up today for unrelated reasons, so I had someone to wail at and get some professional grade sympathy from, some steroids in my foot and a suggestion that I take Nurofen.

Whooeee! I took a pill with lunch and spent most of the trip home giggling. I got a lot of strange looks at the bus stop, and on the bus, and at the garden centre I stopped on the walk home. That's good stuff, man...

(I've never felt the urge to take illegal narcotics, I can get pretty high by legal and non-alcoholic methods just by myself.)

Also, regarding happy happy joy joy moments, I've been watching the early episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura, an anime series that my sister really likes. It's very bouncy stuff. Interestingly, the truly fine and quite tragic fan fiction Cat's been writing based on Cardcaptor Sakura isn't much interested in the characters but is in fact informed by a deep and abiding love for the back story such that it's almost but not quite entirely original fiction. I highly recommend it for all, whether you know the anime or not: http://cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com/tag/faces+of+the+moon

Auckland, Ho!

I'm now in Auckland, and will be for several days in case any of the residents would like to get in touch, catch up, or generally socialise. ;-)

Mum is out of hospital and was looking OK when I saw her, although she's on a restricted diet for a while.

Christmas Holiday Special

You know how in soap operas just before the Christmas shutdown they have lots of exciting (and usually bad) stuff happen to people so that the audience will be interested to find out what happens when the show restarts? I had a Christmas Holiday Special a few years ago - lots of people around me were having a lot of drama in their love lives, and from my safe seat of audience I was interested in a sympathetic kind of way. This time round, lots of people are being sick, ill, depressed, or otherwise miserable, and it's pretty sucky. Mum has been admitted to hospital for the second time in three days, and we're off to visit as soon as we know what ward she's going to.

To everybody else who's ill: Get Better. And Happy.
To the people who aren't ill: Merry Christmas.
Actually, to everybody: Merry Christmas.

ETA: Mum's still in hospital, but seemed relatively chirpy when we visited. To add some, she's ill, but as far as anyone's saying, not in danger, and expected home tomorrow. And there's nothing like walking through a hospital on Christmas Day to know that there's always someone with a worse story than yours. Merry Christmas, and to all a good night.

I Have the Sinus Infection That Never Ends...

Or rather, the bally thing just keeps on coming back. My latest visit to the doctor netted me antihistamine tablets, a different kind of nasal spray (which interestingly uses the same active ingredient as my asthma inhaler), a sinus wash and a script for a third round of antibiotics if the above doesn't help after a couple of weeks. I feel like a lily-livered hypochondriac never happier than when laden with pills, except I'm not imagining the symptoms. Bah humbug. Actually, sinus washes are fairly weird to use - they squirt salt water up your nose in a more controlled imitation of dunking your head in the sea, and although most of the liquid runs out just as soon as you squirt it in, I found it took a good five minutes for my nose to stop running.

And in a note of surrealism, here is a music video by a group of fresh-faced, probably mild-mannered, possibly inbred folks singing in praise of a god who, if he exists, strikes me as a deity to be hated, feared and resisted with all one's being. Kind of weird to see this stuff 2000 years after the lynchpin of Christianity stood up and said "Hey, why don't we all try being nice to each other for a change." Scarily, I don't think it's a parody.