Z sneezes

I don't have a cold - in fact, I've just got over one and it isn't the sort of sneezing that heralds a cold, but it's as if I've got an allergy. Not hayfever - I'd recognise that. Just half a dozen huge sneezes and then that's it for a while. Last night and again this morning. Oh well.

Dilly rang me up to say that Al had terrible earache in the night, to the extent that he was crying with pain. They rang NHS Direct (this is a splendid service; I've never used it but Dilly and Weeza have several times and always had helpful advice, including 'get straight on to the doctor') and, especially as by then the pain had diminished but his ear was bleeding, their diagnosis of a perforated eardrum seems the likely one. He's had an attack of laryngitis in the last few days and his voice has just about disappeared, which has not stopped him going to work (cold weather, unheated shop) and maybe a couple of days' rest would not have been a bad idea. It's difficult when you're almost a one-man band and you don't want to let down your customers - or, indeed, turn away business. Fortunately, he's not working, until the end of the day, on Monday so he'll have a couple of days break and I've got some time to spare next week so if he's still suffering I'll take over.

I'm nearly ready to go - I don't have to leave for another hour and a half. I've packed plenty of painkillers. If I'd booked into a hotel I'd only have a little case, but as it is I've got a large suitcase, which means it'll be a nuisance to go shopping when I arrive, so I've put in a packet of Ryvita which will be breakfast. I will, however, eat out tonight if I can be bothered. If ever I lived alone there is a considerable chance that I would become reclusive and peculiar. And very thin.

Anyway, what I won't get around to is going to the local internet cafe, so I won't see you for a few days. Have fun.