Empty nest once more

A month felt like such a long time when the family arrived, in the middle of December. The weather was pleasant, and although their main aim was to relax and have 'family time', with a few walks and games, we had other plans, when opportunity arose: perhaps a first dip in the sea for David. Perhaps a day or two out somewhere other than Larnaka. Richard had a few household jobs to do which he thought would be more enjoyable with Daniel. And they had a list of people they wanted to see.

But there was plenty of time....

The first few days were spent settling in, letting David become accustomed to us, establishing some kind of loose pattern to the day. There were Christmas gifts to wrap, mince pies to make, and general shopping and cooking. We played a few games, saw our close local friends once or twice, and looked forward to a Christmas as a complete family.

Christmas was good. Boxing Day was relaxing, other than Tim getting to the airport for ten days in the UK.

Then suddenly New Year's Eve was upon us. We spent a few hours with our good friends but were all tired; none of us stayed up to midnight. On New Year's Day we had some other friends for lunch, and that was good too. But we couldn't figure out what had happened to the intervening days... did the end of December just vanish, wiped out by the history monks?

Never mind, we thought. There were still two-and-a-half weeks together. Lots of time to get things done, without the distraction of Christmas.

But the weather was bad, so rather than going out we stayed indoors. And the practicalities of life with a baby mean that more mundane things don't get done. I spent a lot of time shopping and cooking and cleaning the kitchen, and we sat around meal tables eating and chatting and enjoying being together. David progressed to eating three 'solid' meals each day: an adult-sized portion of porridge with a mashed banana at breakfast, and usually something like stewed/pureed apples and pears at lunchtime, carrots and sweet potatoes, or home-made soup for dinner. I enjoyed making his main meals and freezing increasingly large sized portions; but with that, and family cooking (both meat and vegetarian), and extra things like making ketchup, lemonade, granola, coconut milk (etc) the days filled up rapidly.

David is an absolute delight, but is quite an intense baby needing a lot of attention. He keeps his parents busy at night, still waking at least twice; more when he's teething. He's cut one good tooth and several others are about to poke through. We've seen him put on weight and a little chubbiness, we've seen his balance improving when he sits, and a determination to walk before he crawls. His babbling has turned into attempts at individual words. He loves to smile at Grandpa and play with Grandma (yes, that's me!) It's been the most amazing privilege to spend the past month with such a delightful little boy and see his progress.

A week ago, three of us (thankfully not including David) caught the flu. Mine was relatively mild; Daniel's was unpleasant but short-lived; Richard's was draining and left him with a nasty cough. So there were no trips out. Most of the planned household jobs didn't get done. Daniel and Becky managed to see a couple of people on their list, but no more. The sea was far too cold to think of David taking even a tiny paddle.

And then it was their last day.

I was about to text Sheila to arrange when to meet for our early morning walk when Daniel and David appeared in our part of the house. They decided to come with us, David in the 'ergo' carrier which Sheila has lent them. It was lovely to have them with us and they both enjoyed four kilometres along the trail, though it started to spit with rain by the time we got home.

We decided to go out to lunch, to a little cafe Daniel and Becky had been to on their own a couple of times,. We took his last container of fruit puree and David demonstrated just how much he liked it: 

We thought about ice cream afterwards but it was still chilly so we came home. Then the afternoon flew past while they packed. 

We had a sandwich at the airport before saying goodbye, and although I felt sad, we knew it was time for them to return home and to their own lives. Adult children have to move on and we were so thrilled that they had been willing to spend so long with us. We watched them go, and I remained dry-eyed. 

I got up this morning and determined to catch up with email, and photos, and write a blog post. And everything was just fine... 

... until I sat down for lunch. 

I caught sight of the empty high chair. 

And I broke down completely. 

The end of Summer in Cyprus

It's strange how quickly the weather changes between the seasons in Cyprus. A week ago, it was still hot and somewhat humid. Richard and I both caught some kind of 24-hour stomach bug over the weekend, which wasn't very pleasant. Mine started with feeling very shivery on the Friday night; I could hardly stop my teeth chattering, and was convinced it was getting chillier already. But the thermometer on the kitchen scales read 26C even at 8pm, and Richard assured me it was still warm. He's the one who usually wants a sweatshirt and other warm clothes long before I do.

The weekend stayed warm, too. And Monday. On Monday afternoon I took three small children for a walk in the Salt Lake Park, since their parents were both ill; one with something like we had, and one with a flu bug like the one I had a fortnight previously. It was about 4pm when we went out, and sunny. Perhaps a little less humid, but certainly not at all chilly.

Tuesday morning I walked to Tots with the same three children, as their parents were still not well. We went somewhat slower than I usually would, but still I was very warm by the time I got home.

Then, within the space of about half an hour, the sky changed from glorious blue to this:


Richard was on his way back from Nicosia, and phoned to say that it was hailing: the fields were all white. By the time he arrived home, it started raining here. For fifteen minutes, it poured down. Then, as usual in Cyprus, it stopped and the sun came out again. At first it felt quite humid, as the rain evaporated, but that eased, and by the evening, there was a wonderfully refreshing breeze.

Tuesday night we almost felt chilly. So on Wednesday, when I changed the sheets, I found our thin (4.5tog) duvet and put it in a cover. I thought it might be too warm, but it was wonderful. It rained more in the afternoon.

On Thursday, rather than getting dressed in shorts and flip-flops, I got dressed in jeans and trainers. I didn't feel too warm at all. It rained again. And on Friday. And Saturday. And today. As I type, I can hear thunder rumbling around the hills, and hear a patter of rain outside. It's gentle rain, exactly what we need, and I'm enjoying it. Today I've been wearing a light fleece. The temperature must have dropped ten degrees or more in the past week.

The only people I feel sorry for are the families who came out from the UK for their half-term break, hoping for warmth and sunshine.

Ups and downs of the last fortnight in Cyprus

It feels like a LONG time since we returned to Cyprus after being in the UK. I felt refreshed, and relaxed at first; happy that the weather was no longer humid, and a little cooler than it was when we departed. I was also pretty tired, but by the weekend was feeling ready to get into a new routine.

I spent a week working on our family website, which I moved from the almost defunct Geocities a few months previously. It still needs many of the pages updating to match the new theme, but instead I worked on the home education diary pages, which are new to the site; I'd made notes, and written down what we did at the time in messages, diaries and random documents, but had never turned it into something readable. I don't know how interesting it is to anyone else to read about our home education adventure, a month at a time, but it was fascinating to me to read how I felt, or what we did nine or ten years ago, and to see how my attitudes changed.

Then I caught some kind of cold or flu bug. I don't think it was from the UK, as it was about ten days after we got back to Cyprus. Perhaps I caught it from a child at Tots, the toddler group where I help on Tuesdays. I have no idea if it was the swine flu or just a really bad cold, but I felt fairly rotten for a few days. I didn't quite take to my bed, but I didn't do anything constructive. It left me feeling tired, and achey, and lethargic. It also left me with sinusitis, something I used to have about once a year, but haven't suffered for a while. Not as bad as a hacking cough, but exhausting nonetheless. I took echinacea/goldenseal, and mega-doses of Vitamin C, and plenty of garlic, and honey when my throat was hurting. I used Olbas Oil at night, but still didn't sleep very well.

Last Friday was Richard's birthday. He had a pile of presents to open:


I made some chocolate cup-cakes for lunch, and a chocolate fudge cake for the evening, when we met with the cell group we are now part of, where we start with a meal. Someone else had made a very good carrot cake.

I did my usual activities when they didn't require much brain-power, but didn't do any work on websites or stories, other than updating my page on home education in the media, and writing a new one about how British home education is currently under threat, due to a recent government report.

In the meantime, the bird of paradise plant is still blooming:


The bougainvillia, also in a pot, is doing quite well too:



We've played several games of Settlers of Catan in evenings with some friends. They happened to mention that there are adjusted unofficial rules to enable only two people to play.

So I did some research, and discovered at least ten variations on the theme. I noted the similarities, and we've now come up with our own house-rules for the two-player game, playing to fifteen points. We tried it out, with Richard noting on his computer the variations we made as we played, adjusting once or twice as we realised what did and didn't work:


I won both games; the first time I was simply lucky; the second time he made a strategic error that we both realised in retrospect. Easy to do.


The weather has been much too hot for late October. It was a pleasant 28C when we got back from the UK just over three weeks ago, but has risen to 32C in the last week or so. It's even become somewhat humid again. We haven't used the air conditioning - it seems ridiculous to do so after the end of September! - other than one night recently, when we did switch it on in the bedroom for twenty minutes as we both felt so hot and sticky.

A few days ago, the forecast said it would break on Saturday, with rain for about five days. Yesterday, it said it would break on Monday. Now it's showing Tuesday. I do hope it rains soon; since we were in the UK (where it was dry for three weeks) when it rained heavily in Cyprus, we haven't seen more than a few spots of rain for about five months now.

Fighting a cold

I don't get many colds. The occasional sniffle, but it's usually gone within a day or two. At the first sign of a tickly throat or runny nose, I start taking echinacea/goldenseal drops in water (vile taste, but worthwhile) three times per day, and mega-doses of Vitamin C. Several grammes per day. I also cut out all dairy products, and sugar for a day or two, and increase my garlic intake. If I feel as if a cold is starting in the evening, I stir some honey and the juice of half a lemon into hot water, and drink that last thing at night.

It usually works well. Within 24 hours, the cold virus appears to have retreated into oblivion, cowed by my immune system and all that Vitamin C. Or so I imagine.

This usually only happens once or twice during the winter, at least since we've been living in Cyprus.

But this year, I've had to fight the battle at least three times already - and it's only mid-December. The worst of winter is yet to come. Indeed, one would hardly know it's Winter in cyprus, with daytime temperatures still around 20C, and almost continual sunshine.

But two weeks ago, I felt worse than usual. My assault on the cold virus did not seem to be working for a couple of days. I nearly gave in and went to bed late one morning, but then phone rang and I had to deal with something, and the moment passed. The following day, I felt fine again.

Then it happened again, on Sunday evening this week. I took some Vitamin C and one dose of echinacea/goldenseal. It seemed to be better, so I didn't take any more. I woke in the night with a tickly throat, and pondered going downstairs to get some more ammunition, but the night was chilly and the bed was warm... so I didn't. A foolish mistake.

On Monday, my throat was distinctly ticklish. But I had to get to the Post Office. So I took my drops and Vitamin C, and had some extra freshly-squeezed orange juice for good measure. I didn't put any yogurt on my muesli, and by the time I set out around 9am I wasn't feeling too bad. I had to walk rather further than I expected, but got home feeling as if I'd succeeded in throwing off the cold.

Alas for my expectations. By lunch-time, I felt shivery. Although my throat felt better, my nose felt worse. I continued taking the echinacea and Vitamin C, and eating clementines in between meals. I had some rather hot chili hummous at lunch-time. I ate three raw garlic cloves in the afternoon, as well as putting garlic in our supper. I had hot lemon and honey at bedtime. I even put some Olbas Oil drops on my pillow, to ease congestion and help me sleep.

I knew I had to be well for Tuesday morning, since it was the day of the toddler group Christmas party. And when I woke up, I did feel somewhat better. Still sniffly, but no longer shivery or achey. The walk there was fine. The party went well. The mothers has excelled themselves with the food, representative of their different countries. And the children ate barely half of it.

So, I gave in to the temptation to have a small piece of sweet potato cake, and a small piece of banana cake, and two totally amazing chocolate truffle balls. And then as I was clearing things away, I saw a Mr Kipling mince pie with the pastry top all broken. It called my name. I LOVE Mr Kipling mince pies. Then, when I asked the chocolate truffle ball maker what the ingredients were, she said 'chocolate and cream'.

So much for giving up all sugar and dairy products for the duration of the cold.

After the party, I walked down to the main Post Office, and it was packed with people. The queues were at least four or five people long, and there's hardly anywhere to sit. So I walked through the town, the reverse of Monday's route, to the small St Lazarus Post Office. Only one person in the queue there, so I got my stamps fairly quickly. Then I sat down at the table, where there was only one other person engaged on the same activity, and got all my stamps stuck in record time. I was greatly relieved to have everything in the post at last, even if they do end up being late.

Then I walked home. And in the afternoon, I felt achey, and tired, and decidedly brain-fogged. So I repeated all the cold-fighting procedures. Surely, I thought, the cold would have to give in sooner or later.

Alas, it still hasn't done so. On Wednesdays we usually have a colleague or two for lunch, and I tend to do some baking, and make some soup (in the winter). So I made some curried chicken soup in the slow-cooker, and some tomato bread in the breadmaker, and some gingerbread in the oven. Then I made another 24 mince pies. Every so often I left the kitchen to sneeze or cough somewhat, but I'd found some Ricola Honey and Lemon cough lozenges, so I sucked those off and on, and they helped suppress the cough (which was hacking and painful rather than productive).

In the event, nobody came home for lunch with Richard, which was probably just as well as I'd hate to give anyone else this nasty cold.

This afternoon, once again, I felt tired and very achey, and not really with it. And here I am, Wednesday evening, with a cold that has lasted three days. I don't remember ever having one that went on so long. It hasn't knocked me out, and I don't think it's turned into the flu, but it's distinctly unpleasant. I now have neck-ache so I think I'm going to make my hot honey and lemon drink, and get into a nice warm bed.

The current flu in Cyprus

I didn't escape. I suppose it was too much to hope for, having looked after Tim with the flu last week.

Yesterday I felt really grim... I didn't do anything, other than read, and a few things on the computer. Tim cooked, tidied up, and generally looked after me.

I took lots of Vitamin C.

I went to bed at about 8pm, with paracetamol for the general headache/neckache/sore throat, and yet more Vitamin C.

This morning, I felt decidely more human again, despite waking about 5am. I now have a streaming cold - very annoying, and I'm getting through hundreds of tissues. But I no longer have that achey, exhausted, shivery feeling that's been with me - off and on - for the last few days.

Having talked to several people who have had this flu in Cyprus, there seems to be a general pattern:

- a few days of slightly aching joints and tiredness, with extreme lethargy
- then a dry throat - not painful exactly, but making it hard to swallow
- then a bit more achiness, and some shivering, and a bunged-up feeling
- then a day or two of complete collapse, feeling appalling
- then several days of a streaming cold, accompanied by a cough

These vary somewhat in intensity - Tim's throat was a lot worse than mine, for instance - and occasionally it's also accompanied by a stomach bug in the first few days. But people are calling it a laryngitis/flu virus, and I guess that describes it well. On the whole, I've got off lightly.

I just hope I'm no longer infectious when Richard and Daniel get back to Cyprus... in three days time!

Still hoping to fight off the flu...

I haven't yet succumbed, but I still don't feel 100%. Woke up this morning with quite a sore throat, and extremely lethargic. I've done almost nothing today. Tim did all the cooking. But I haven't felt bad enough to collapse in bed and sleep, either. Although I think I shall probably get to bed by about 9pm tonight.

Weird. I just hope it doesn't get worse at the weekend.

Fighting off the Flu in Cyprus... perhaps

Tim had the flu for most of last week. He felt under par on Monday and Tuesday morning, though he kept going. Then for two days he had a high temperature, swollen glands, a sore throat, and felt totally rotten. He slept for several hours, drank a lot of juice, and a couple of smoothies, and had a bit of chicken soup. And lots of Vitamin C and garlic.

By Friday he was considerably better, feeling as if he simply had a cold. He went to band practice and youth group, and seemed to be fine. On Sunday he played twice in church services, including a big one for Christian Unity Sunday in the evening. He's still coughing somewhat, but basically is back to normal.

It's spreading rapidly around the churches. Apparently at least half of Tim's congregation have been struck down with the same thing, some of them more seriously. On Saturday I was asked if I could take the youngest Sunday School class at the church I go to, as the usual teacher had also succumbed.

A friend, who was supposed to be preaching that morning - and who never seems to get ill - had it too. I suppose it wasn't a good day for a Christian Unity service, with representatives of about twelve different congregations worshipping together in the evening, and no doubt sharing their germs as well as fellowship.

I am not usually very susceptible to colds and flu. But I've been looking after Tim, and breathing the air he's breathing, and also meeting other people who have been struck down. On Saturday morning, I felt lethargic and had a ticklish throat. I took a gram of Vitamin C and drank a lot of fresh orange juice.

By Saturday evening I felt rather weak and shaky, with a bit of a sore throat. That's just how this flu has started for many people. But I knew I had to go out to church on Sunday morning, to teach the under-fives, and I also wanted to go to the Christian Unity service in the evening if I possibly could.

So I took an extra gram of Vitamin C and ten drops of echinacea/goldenseal tincture, which tastes vile but is generally fairly effective. And two delicious roast garlic cloves (the very best way of eating garlic, in my opinion!)

Yesterday morning I had a bit of a cough and my throat was very ticklish, so I took another gram of Vitamin C and more fresh orange juice. I managed the walk to church - a little over a kilometre - and the class went well. I was pretty tired by the time I'd walked home again, but Tim cooked lunch, as he usually does on Sunday, and I did very little during the afternoon.

I felt reasonably OK by the time I had to go out again and walk to the Christian Unity service - also just over a kilometre, as Tim's church is just over the road from the one I go to - and back again, although I then went to bed with a hot water bottle around 9.30pm feeling utterly exhausted, shaky and shivery, and convinced I was going down with the flu.

However, before I went to sleep I took another gram of Vitamin C, and another ten drops of echinacea/goldenseal.

On Monday mornings I usually go out to the Post Office to collect our mail - that's about a 2km walk each way. When I woke up this morning, I felt achy and tired, and had a headache. So I took some Solpadeine, as well as Vitamin C, and then went out. My legs felt shaky by the time I got back again, but I managed it. I did my various housework jobs too, put on laundry, threw ingredients in the breadmaker, etc. By lunchtime I was feeling shivery, though Tim assured me it was warmer than it has been. I didn't do much at all this afternoon.

But... gradually I started feeling better.

This evening some potential new home educators came to chat about home education, and I felt (mostly) fine. It's now 10pm and I'm a bit tired, but a lot better than I was. My throat doesn't hurt, and doesn't feel clogged. I haven't coughed more than a couple of times in the past few hours.

I'm not sure if I've really succeeded in fighting it off, or if this is merely the calm before the storm.. but I shall be taking more Vitamin C and echinacea/goldenseal before I go to bed. The combination seems to work. I hope.

(PS - I phoned UPS this morning when I got back from the PO, to let them know our street address, and they delivered Tim's Christmas present around noon. So that's good!)

Sickness in Cyprus

I like a bit of alliteration. Hence the dramatic title. It's not really that bad.

In fact, mostly things are going well. The gas man came on Monday evening, and filled up our gas barrel. The central heating now works. It's still very cold - for Cyprus, anyway. I don't remember such a lengthy cold spell before, so we're pleased to have it working again. Apparently the gas man did call round about three weeks ago: he first phoned Richard's mobile, but it was switched off, for some reason. He then knocked on our door, but nobody was in. And he says he also left a slip of paper in our mailbox, but we never saw it.

So, getting no response, he assumed we must have gone to the UK for a while, and wouldn't be needing gas. Instead of which, as we had various people in the guest flat in December, we used more gas than usual. He did apologise, and said he should have checked the levels.

Also on Monday, Tim completed and submitted his UCAS form, applying for UK university places. He had quite a hard time logging onto the site, which had reached its maximum capacity. He succeeded eventually, much to his relief. On Tuesday, the actual final deadline, he tried to get on the site and found it jammed all day. Presumably thousands of people were also submitting their forms at the last minute, and probably panicking because they couldn't get there...

On Tuesday morning, Daniel flew out of Manila on the first stage of his route back to the UK prior to starting his furlough. He even managed to write about it on his blog, from Kuala Lumpur airport. He has been updating us with telegram-like texts ('ARRIVED KL STOP LUGGAGE 16KG STOP EXPECTED DEPARTURE TIME 1650'). This morning he was in Frankfurt, and shortly after lunch I had an even briefer, but very welcome text, saying 'ARVD BHAM SAFE TINY PLANE'.

He does write regular texts at other times, never using 'txtspk' but regular grammar and language, but always does the telegram style when travelling. Just in case anyone thought his capslock key was stuck.

From Birmingham International airport he is - we hope - catching trains to Shropshire, so he can spend a few days with his UK office, de-briefing and getting to know some of the staff. Then he's going to spend a few days with my mother, and a few days with Richard's mother, before flying to Cyprus in just under two weeks. He's hoping to get to see a few of our friends in Birmingham, so if anyone happens to read this who would like to see him in the next fortnight, and is suitably located, please do get in touch...

Meanwhile, Richard is also in transit. Yesterday afternoon he flew to Heathrow Airport, and was hoping to stay the night with his mother before flying out of Gatwick Airport this morning. Unfortunately there were serious floods and since he landed late anyway, it was going to prove almost impossible to get to his mother. So he went straight to Gatwick, and found somewhere to stay nearby. I don't know the details, I just heard the outline - also via text messages.

Strange, I was convinced I would never want a mobile phone. Then, after a couple of occasions early last year when it would have been useful, I bought one with some birthday money at the end of last April. I have still only used it about four times to make phone calls, but I do like being able to send and receive text messages, which are very inexpensive in Cyprus.

So... Tim and I are looking after the house and cats. And Tim is not well. He has been mentioning a sort of lump in his throat for the past week or so, making it hard to swallow. Naturally we looked up all kinds of horrendous possibilities on the Internet, as you do, but the most likely seemed either a nodule from too much singing and talking, or something stress related.

Yesterday morning, he woke up at 2am with lots of mucus in his throat, needing to cough, and cough, and cough.... and didn't get back to sleep again.

Also yesterday morning he was scheduled to teach a music lesson at the local English-speaking private school where he has been volunteering for the last few months. They don't have much in the way of music lessons normally, and the teacher Tim is working with currently had asked him if he would do some singing with her class. So despite feeling a bit fragile yesterday morning, he went in and taught a lesson. He seems to think it went well, and said the teacher was pleased.

However when by the time he had finished, his voice had almost gone. By the time he got home, he was feeling completely shattered, and as if he were catching the flu. He was also coughing a lot. He had some hot soup, and vitamin C, and hot orange juice, and slept for about three hours in the afternoon, with a hot water bottle.

Then the mobile phones came in useful once more... around 5pm I had a text from Tim, still in bed, asking if I could take him some pineapple juice and soluble paracetamol!

He got up in the evening, had something to eat, and we watched some 'Jeeves and Wooster' from his DVD collection. He went to bed at 9pm and slept for nearly 12 hours.

This morning he said that the strange lump in his throat had disappeared, but it was very sore. And he had a streaming cold.

So he had some juice and yet more vitamin C, and a hot bath, and went back to bed. All he wanted for lunch was a smoothie (I had kept some frozen soft fruit from the summer, so that was easy enough) and watched an hour of 'Fawlty Towers' - then went back to bed again.

There are a lot of bugs going around. We don't usually catch them - we seem to have fairly good immune systems in our household, on the whole. But I suppose with Tim going into school twice a week, it's not surprising that he's finally come down with something.

Cold?

Yesterday afternoon, my throat began to feel a bit scratchy. Not painful, just not quite right. I took a megadose of Vitamin C a couple of times, and this morning felt much better.

This afternoon, around 5pm, I suddenly felt cold. Really quite icy cold and shivery. Very odd. I went to put a fleece on, on top of my sweatshirt, and thought that perhaps the weather had got chilly again despite having been sunny for most of the day.

Tim made us a curry this evening, and even that didn't warm me up. Afterwards the three of us squeezed into one of our two-seater sofas, and watched an episode of Quantum Leap. Cleo sat on top of me for some of it, and I still didn't feel warm. Even odder, when I commented that it was chilly tonight, Richard - who usually feels the cold far more than I do - said it was reasonably warm.

So Tim reckons I'm finally getting the cold/flu that's been going around. Great. What's odd, though, is that I feel absolutely fine other than so cold!

I suppose I should get some hot lemon and honey, stir in some more Vitamin C, take some echinacea, and maybe even make the first hot water bottle since we moved to this house (which usually is pretty warm.). But I don't feel ill....

Monday miscellaneous

On Friday we went to Metro as usual, and found that some of the missing items were back on the shelves: cat litter (though not our usual brand), blackcurrant-and-green tea, and almond milk. Still no Linda McCartney sausages or cannelloni, but we can do without those. Really, we ought to be thankful that we can get such a variety of 'English' foods in the supermarkets as well as the excellent local produce. Living in Cyprus is a lot easier than it would be in many countries from that perspective.

On Sunday evening, I was in the kitchen, heating up some frozen soup to have with bread rolls. Sophia was making a loud noise, clearly demanding something, but I wasn't intelligent enough to understand. She didn't want to go out, she didn't want cat food, or fresh water, or yogurt. She didn't even want the leftover gravy from the roast chicken Tim made at lunch-time. But she clearly wanted something. Her mews were getting louder and louder, which was rather irritating, until suddenly I realised what the problem was...

Usually on a Sunday night, Richard makes us some salad-and-cheese-filled bread rolls to eat. While filling these rolls, he gives Sophia a piece of cheese. Despite Richard not being in the kitchen, and despite no cheese having left the fridge, she knew it was Sunday and expected her treat.

So I opened the fridge, cut her a piece of cheese, and sure enough that was what she wanted.

This morning I walked to the Post Office as I usually do on a Monday, and was pleased to find that the replacement for the two theology books Tim needed, which hadn't arrived (as described here) were awaiting me. Along with the book which I didn't need to replace... oh well. I shall have to send that one back. Tim was pleased and spent the morning reading one of them (by John Stott) which he said was lighter than he expected and very interesting.

Richard has a bad cold (which is why he wasn't in the kitchen last night). He thinks he caught it from a colleague in Egypt who had a streaming flu-like cold, and spent a lot of time with him the week before last. Richard doesn't often get colds, and this is a particularly bad one. Not bad enough to keep him in bed, but he feels pretty rotten. It started properly on Friday; he felt bad enough by lunchtime that he took the afternoon off, which is quite unusual, and had a couple of hours sleep. He didn't do much on Saturday, stayed in all Sunday, and went to work today 'for a short time', some hours ago.

Tim and I hope we don't get it...

Yet another week

Isn't it odd how January usually vanishes so rapidly? It seems like Christmas was only a few days ago, yet we're nearly in February already.

It's been a quiet week, with Richard away. Not that he's had a quiet time - he 's had a steady round of meetings, first in Malta and now in the UK. He usually tries to pack about a month's worth of work into a week away - maybe that's where my January went. He gets back early Monday morning, and will then probably try to catch up with the week he's missed here...

Daniel has also been very busy - there's a new post on his blog giving an outline of three days which explain why he's so often tired. And Tim has been working hard on his degree course, preparing for three more assignments that are due in a fortnight. He mostly works in the mornings, though he does extra reading too.

But I'm not entirely sure what I've been doing. Oh, the usual housework stuff, going to the PO Box, emailing, various other things online, sorting paperwork, doing laundry, cooking, helping and mothers-and-toddlers a couple of mornings, hosting house group one evening.... It doesn't seem like enough to fill up a week, yet I rarely seem to have much free time. Tim and I haven't switched on the television at all this week, and I've only read two books (in evenings only). I have some knitting which I've started, and a tapestry picture I began work on about three years ago, but haven't picked either of those up this week, either.

It hasn't helped that I've been fighting the flu, I suppose. It's been going around, and I thought I was starting it on Tuesday, but Vitamin C in megadoses and some paracetamol seemed to ward it off, and I was fine by the evening. On Friday I woke up with a streaming cold, which again I fought off with even more megadoses of Vitamin C, but forgot to take any at lunchtime and by the evening I felt achey and brain-foggy and even a little shivery. By the time I realised I wasn't well, it was only half an hour before the house group arrived, and since we have a meal together before the discussion part, it was too late to cancel. I didn't breathe over anyone, and didn't feel quite 'with it' - they prayed for my health among other things, and I went to bed about 9.45 with some hot lemon and honey (the real thing, of course, not the horrible powders).

I woke this morning feeling blocked up and headachey again, so had yet more Vitamin C, and sprinkled a few drops of Olbas Oil on a tissue. Smells awful, but works wonderfully and eased the congestion. Oh, and I took some echinacea and goldenseal, which is vile but remarkably effective. By mid-morning I felt fine again. So I don't know if I really have fought off the flu, or whether it will fight back overnight, or whether I was just imagining it...

Fatigue or Flu?

All three of us are exhausted this evening.

Really odd.

Yesterday I felt very energetic; I got quite a bit done in the house, and was asleep by about 10.30pm. I had a good night's sleep, and this morning was still reasonably energetic. I made lemonade, and ran the washing machine a couple of times to wash all our winter jackets, since I'm pretty sure we won't be using them again until about November. It was warm and breezy enough that they were dry by about six o'clock this evening.

At lunch-time, Richard said he felt very tired and a bit achey. But he went back to work, and I (still feeling basically fine) went to the quarterly jumble sale at St Helena's church. I picked up four books (for a pound) but nothing else struck me. It was fairly warm walking there and back, although it's not far, and I was surprisingly tired by the time I got home. But when I sat down to read for a bit, I became more tired, not less. By the time I was starting to cook supper, my legs felt as if they had heavy weights in them. I didn't feel as if I could think straight. I made something simple and Tim helped a lot.

Richard got home from work saying he felt really rotten, took some paracetamol, and went to bed. He didn't even want to eat anything. Tim and I sat down to eat, but by then Tim was feeling really tired, too.

So now all three of us feel utterly exhausted. As if we had the flu, but without any regular flu symptoms - no colds, no coughs, no sore throats.

We've had this kind of thing happen before, though not usually to the whole family at the same time. We even dubbed it 'Cyprus flu' since it's so like regular flu in some respects.

But how could we all have caught the same virus at the same time? And who from?

So maybe it's just fatigue, brought on by the continued stress of not knowing what's happening about our house sale in the UK, or when we're going to move.

But then - why would we all suddenly succumb on the same day? That doesn't make sense either.

Ah well. We'll take vitamin C and hope we feel better tomorrow.

(... and I'm so tired and brain-foggy I even managed to publish this in my books blog rather than here, so I had to move it!)

Self-indulgent moan about a sore throat

For most of last week I had an unpleasant mouth ulcer, and a slight cold (a bit sniffly, the occasional sneeze, but nothing worse). Both requiring Vitamin C but as neither seemed serious I only took 1g per day (doubling my regular daily amount) and assumed they would get better.

After lunch today, I discovered I had a sore throat. Not the tickly kind that usually precedes a cold, but the deeper sort, the kind that makes it painful to swallow, and feels almost like a bruise. Ugh. I don't feel ill, so I don't think it's the flu.

I've taken 3g Vitamin C so far today (two doses in powdered form, stirred into juice) and will take one more before I go to bed, in some hot lemon and honey. I picked a couple of lemons earlier in preparation. For some reason, this drink is wonderfully soothing when I have any kind of sore throat, but doesn't appeal at all at other times. (Juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 good tablespoon of honey, 1g vitamin C, all stirred into some freshly boiled water in a mug).

I even took some of that dreadful tasting (but effective) Echinacea and Goldenseal. Since it's chilly still I shall get into bed with a hot water bottle in about half an hour, and hope to sleep.

What puzzles me is where I can have caught this from. Nobody else in the family has a cold. I don't think anyone at our house group on Friday did, either. I haven't seen many other people in the last few days, other than church yesterday, but that's too recent.