Wow, it's been nearly a week since you heard from me, you'll all be getting withdrawl symptoms. Hope my lack of entries didn't spoil your respective Christmas festivities too much :)
I travelled back up to Manchester on the Geriatic Express. Well, it was actually the 11.15 to Piccadilly, but I think I was the youngest traveller by about 35 years. Old people on trains are even more annoying than screaming brats. The grannies spend the entire trip popping up like mearcats everytime we approach a station, trying to see if someone has moved their suitcases from the luggage rack. They moan and whinge across the aisle to each other: 'Isn't this train crowded!', 'trains weren't like this in my day', 'ooh, it looks like it might be raining in Reading, I wonder what it's like in Oxford?', 'I'm 76 you know'. Then the have the audacity to expect someone to help them with the twelve suitcases they each decided to bring with them. I should be tolerant I suppose, I'll be old one day....
...I'm sure I would have been a little bit more sympathetic if it wasn't for the bout of flu I was developing. I could feel it getting steadily worse as the journey went on. Squashed into my seat by Mrs Doubtfire didn't help, nor did the overpowering smell of lavender and mothballs but by the time I got to my destination I was officially sick. It didn't pass until towards the end of Boxing Day, so most of my Christmas break was spent sniffing Olbas Oil tissues and sneezing.
By the 27th I was back to my usual self, and managed to get my sister, brother-in-law and Dad playing Wii tennis. In one heated match between myself and my sister I received a blow to my right elbow caused by a viscious back-hand shot. My first Wii injury. Probably serves me right for implying she boxes like she's ringing a set of handbells.
I travelled back last night by car, thanks to Gibson's taxi service. Heavy traffic, cold winds, local radio stations, but nothing too exciting. After rustling up a meat pie, chips and peas supper for us both I went to bed.
So now I'm back in work. 4 days of 12 hour shifts on my own. Should really use the time to get a few more chapters drafted for the Magnificent Octopus, but at least I have a little trip to Shannon to look forward to now, and the threat of catching the flu bug has past. Sarah and Caoimhe are due to meet up with me in Manchester for a couple of days and I also want to come back on the 24th for a football game in Flixton, and perhaps meet my Scrabble buddy from Wigan for the first time
...so all in all a busy January in prospect.
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