My goodness, December already. As my brother put it in an email, Christmas is “rushing up like the ground at the end of a parachute jump!” except that in my case I forgot to pull the ripcord. I lost most of the last week to flu, and the rest of it to helping a friend with a particularly traumatic house move (which still isn’t over.) But the overseas cards and…

Why do people say they’ve got the flu? It feels like the flu’s got me – in hard, sharp talons. Mind you, at least my son is ten now. I got flu when he was about two, and he used to come and hit me on the head with a toy car so I’d get up and play with him. Now he gives me hugs and sympathetic little pats. Once…

Yesterday I took my son Julio to the oculist. He’d been complaining of headaches and seeing funny things. I thought it was probably just that he needed new glasses, but we both thought it was best to get it checked out properly. Why do they give people an appointment for 3:45 if they’re not going to see you until 4:30? and then after the briefest look he said that Julio…

Things are going rather well here. Inky’s face is getting better. The infection’s gone, the wound’s scabbed over and shrunk, and she has a little bit of fur growing back where the vet had to shave her. Believe me, on a black cat, 1 mm of fur looks a lot better than bare skin. She’s happier too, and very affectionate. I finally made a little money with Adsense – the…