Mike's musings

An actual temperature

(backposting) Woke up not feeling very well at all. Shaky, achy, and running a bit of a temperature. Sleeping most of the morning really helped: thanks very, very much, darling Moo.

However, got up and was feeling much better, so light gardening duties beckoned. And a barbecue. So, all-in-all, with the shredder, it went well, though I did need to have a bit of a sit-down from time to time. Very nice to get the barbecue going - though the girls seemed in two minds about the chicken to start with.

Labels: barbecue, illness

More films, and a visit

(backposting) Sitting in the restaurant yesterday, we noted via Facebook that a friend of ours (of my sort of age *gulp*) was in hospital. A flurry of text messages later, and the reason, it transpired, was that he'd had a heart attack while training for a marathon. Apart from the obvious justification we felt for our general view on the dangers of excessive (read "any") exercise, we were naturally rather concerned. I rang him this morning, and offered to pop round to see him in hospital: he accepted the offer, and I popped round in my clerical collar (aka "access-all-areas costume"). It turns out that it seems to have been a fairly minor one - to the extent that any heart attack is "minor" - and he was in pretty good spirits. We had a very good chat and I lent him a few DVDs.

On leaving, I found myself near Colchester centre, and at a loose end, as Moo had taken the girls off earlier in the morning to her parents, to make sure that they'd get a chance to see their cousins this weekend. I'd already had a sleep after they left, so I decided to go and watch How to Train a Dragon again: this time in 3D. Even better, I have to say, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Easter Eve vigil in the evening, watched some Blackadder Goes Forth, and headed to bed. Easter Day tomorrow!

Labels: Easter, films, illness, services

Emergency, ice-cream and barbecue

I was due to preach at and celebrate the 0930 Holy Communion at Greenstead Green this morning, and pulled up at the church at 0901, in good time. There were more cars than I would have liked, and as I came past the church noticeboard, I noticed that it was a 0900 start... Ah. Geoff, who'll be leaving soon, kept things going until I was vested, and he took the first part of the service. I then preached, and as I preached, I saw that one of the congregation seemed to be in tears, head in hands. I finished the sermon, and went to check that she was OK. And then called an ambulance: she wasn't in tears, but feeling very faint. Geoff took the rest of the congregation up to the choir, and finished off the service with a few prayers and a blessing, rather than completing the Eucharist. I coordinated with the Emergency First Responder who turned up very quickly, and the ambulance crew, who weren't far behind him. We heard from the crew then that her blood pressure had got very low, but they'd stabilised it, and she was doing better. They then took her to hospital, and hopefully she'll be OK.

So, got home, and the girls had ice-creams while we sat outside in the sunshine. A glorious day, so we headed off and bought some products to clean the barbecue, some meat and some sausages. Barbecue time! We even ate outside, and then gardened afterwards. It's lovely to start back on the garden. I'm hugely into gardening an sich, but I don't mind it, and it's lovely to be able to start using the garden again.

Labels: garden, illness, prayers

"Toddler" and "Vomit"

(backposting) These are never two words that you want to associating with each other of a morning. Unluckily... Poor Miri. Anyway, it seems to have helped a lot - as did the 2 hour sleep she had in the morning.

I headed into London in the morning, and had a very productive day. A couple of things came up which I thought were going to be a nightmare, but both of them turned out OK. And I was able to help a number of other people with issues, too, which is always rather pleasing.

Labels: illness, work

Chickenpox - everywhere

Poor Miri; she's really suffering. As of this afternoon, she's got spots in her mouth and throat, too. I don't really expect her to last the night - by which I mean sleep through, of course! - but that's fine. If she's poorly, she can sleep with one of us.

Labels: illness, miri

Chickenpox

Well, it's probably been coming for a while: Miri has chickenpox. It does explain her being off colour recently.

Oh, and this morning, the girls were awake a bit early, but stayed in their room. And when I went in, I found Jo reading to Miri. And she was reading a proper book, on her own, for the first time. What we've been calling a "chapter book": one of these. Not great literature, but well done her.

Labels: books, illness, Jo, miri

Actual illness

(backposting) All right, so Jo was properly ill today, poor thing. Real throwing up. So she had a day at home, and Mel managed Miri. On a couple of occasions I came and worked downstairs with a very quiet and compliant Jo, so Mel could deliver/collect Miri from pre-school.

Sounds like Moo needed restraining in a meeting this afternoon. Sometimes I wish I could there. Other times I come to my senses and am glad I'm not.

Labels: illness, jojo, Moo

*Bzzzzzzzt* We apologise for the interruption

Normal service should now be resumed. Blogger announced about a month ago that there were going to cease supporting FTP anymore. So, I thought I'd try moving to SFTP, but when I tried to rearrange things, it turned out that I couldn't set that up correctly either, and nor could I return to FTP. Thought about a variety of fixes, and decided to set up a redirect from the old site to here, so you'll now fine Mike's Musings at http://p2ptrust.blogger.com/. Not perfect, but I didn't want to relinquish control of the p2ptrust.org domain, so that's it from here on in.

From the first post, there's not been a single day without an entry up till now. Some of them have been backposting, and that'll probably continue, but there's always been a posting. I'm afraid that a month is too much to make up, and it's been a useful hiatus, I think. I was half-wondering about stopping blogging, but I've missed being able to comment, chat, gossip, whatever, so this has strengthened my resolve to keep blogging on a daily basis. It's a discipline, and sometimes a chore, but I think it's worthwhile.

Of particular interest and relevance? Oh, I don't know: I'm getting over a nasty bout of cellulitis, which I'd not had before, and would prefer not to have again. Painful, and not just that, but a proper infection, not like gout, which I originally thought it was. Had to take some time off, and I'm still not 100%.

Finished off a scarf: I'll post pictures soon. Managed to reverse both the picture of Tux the Penguin (which doesn't matter) and the "Linux" lettering (which does), but it's done, and I'm really not reknitting over 3 feet of yarn to sort it out.

Girls well, Moo well, good birthday party for Kate and Jojo, at which I gave Jo my Dell laptop (suitably "pinked up").

Glad to be back.

Labels: blogging, illness

A quieter day

(backposting) Well, we went out for coffee and cake at Wheatcrofts, a local garden/whatever else store, and we had a quiet day. Moo got better slowly.

Labels: family, illness

Off to the in-laws

(backposting) Moo woke up not at _all_ well, poor thing. Not a hang-over (she definitely didn't drink enough), but really suffering. Mum, Dad and Leo got off OK and we headed off to Kate and Mac's around 0930. I drove, Moo dozed. Jo didn't sleep: but on the other hand she announced about halfway through the drive that she could count in 2s. And she could. It's something that Simon, her god-father, spent time with Jo on the other day. And, it turns out, she can count in 3s, 4s and 5s, too. Quite a bright cookie.

Jo and Miri were so pleased to see their cousins when we got there, and everyone enjoyed the present-opening. Well, Moo generally just tried to stay upright, and she left to lie in bed once we were done, servicing only after the children had gone to bed.

Hopefully she'll be better soon.

Labels: family, illness

Jojo ill again

As she was better this morning, Jo got to go to school, but by the time she got home, she was coughing badly again, and was running a temperature. Poor little thing: I think she did the classic thing of keeping herself well enough to be able to do school, but the effort really took it out of her. Poor little thing: took her nearly 2 and a half hours to get to sleep.

Oh, and ordered Moo's Christmas presents.

Labels: illness

Poorly Jo and Service of Light

(backposting) Jo woke up with a very nasty cough and we took her out of school for the day. She seemed quite a lot better by the end of the day.

In the evening, we had a Service of Light, organised by St Helena Hospice, where I did a placement a couple of years ago. It was aimed at people who'd be unlikely to come to church otherwise, and we sang to carols, had the St Andrew's School choir/band/recorder consort, and then got everyone who wished to light a tea-light and put it on one of the altars. It was a good service, and we had a nearly full church, which was excellent. One of the local funeral directors had invited all the people who'd been their clients over the past year (the families of those they'd buried or cremated, that is), and this meant that we had lots of people.

Labels: illness

What a day

Worked till 1030. Partly because things are very busy, partly because I had to take breaks during the day to: 1) let the electrician turn off all the power in order to finish off fitting the new radiators 2) deal with the fact that my main server died, loudly (*phzzzzzzzzzt* + ozone smell) when I turned it on, necessitating emergency DHCP procedures 3) pick up Jo from school, where she'd come down with severe stomach pains (fine by bedtime) 4) fail to have a haircut (see 3 above) 5) meet other members of the clergy and reader team for prayers, discussion and lunch (though I ended up using Sally's office for 45 minutes for a work call) 6) the realisation that I had a computer that I might be able to cannibalise for a new PSU, which just _might_ be all that had broken on my main server (and was). So, a busy day, and I'm not quite sure why I'm still awake. Time, in fact, for bed.

Labels: clergy, geekery, illness, jojo, work

Bad news

A friend is very ill. She and her husband know where things are headed, and it's all understood, but it's hard, so prayers, please.

Labels: illness, prayers

Finland, via hospital again

(backposting) This time, the trip was to see a friend and member of our congregation, who's been in hospital for quite a time, and is expecting to be there for quite a long time more. I took a detour on my way to Heathrow airport for another trip to Finland, and was very glad that I did. She really needed some TLC, and it was good to see her as a friend, too.

An OK journey to Finland - the usual work stuff.

Labels: friends, illness, travel

Poor Miri

The little one's very, very tired today (not that Jo hasn't been, but she's been at school), and we've had lots of tears and clinginess. It's a sign of exactly how tired she really is that she went straight to sleep this evening after two separate naps during the day. I suspect she's got a little bug of some type, and hopefully she'll be better soon. But I'm going to take all the cuddles I can while she's like this!

Labels: illness, miri, sleep

Gibber

(backposting) First, I wasn't feeling very well. And then we lost Internet access for about 9 hours. Gibber indeed.

Labels: illness, Internet

Most important day of the year?

It's St Michael's day: the day that we celebrate St Michael and All Angels. What day could be more important?

As it happens, I've been suffering from the lurgy: sore throat, headache, and even a little bit tearful when discussing the shopping list. That's pretty standard for the course when I get a bit ill: not really sure why. Moo's laughing didn't _really_ help, though I knew I was being silly.

Still got lots of work done, though.

Labels: illness, saint

Moo away

(backposting) Moo's Nan was in hospital overnight, and coming back today, so after a meeting in Peterborough, Moo headed up to her parents for the night. So it was me and the girls tonight, and they did really well. Until around 2155, when Miri woke up, just as I was about to blog, which is why today was a backpost. I managed to get her back to sleep after a couple of attempts, but it was getting late by then, so I headed to bed.

Labels: illness, work

A day off

(backposting) I could have done with more sleep, but I did OK. I was beginning to stream with the cold, and had stuff I really needed to be well for, so took a sudafed. I'm not supposed to do this as I've got hypertension, but I decided I wouldn't die from just one (in fact, I decided that my head wouldn't even explode a little bit, and it didn't). I had a good day, anyway, and it was worth it.

Labels: holiday, illness