infoxicated

This week we’ve had visitors in the form of Crazy Uncle John, who came down mid-week for a night out on the run, and Fliss’ dad Ted who arrived a few hours after CUJ left and is with us until next Thursday. In the old house, or even pre-Elisha in this one, it wouldn’t have been too much of an upheaval.

However, now that the spare room is both the computer room and Elisha’s room, we just don’t have the space to comfortably cope with guests. Due to that, Crazy Uncle John and father Ted have had to sleep on a mattress on the living room floor. THe pair of them have said it’s a very comfortable mattress, but it’s still not quite as convenient as having a room they can call their own for the duration of their stay.

^*Next weekend Cousin Iain and his hot chick friend Nicola are coming up for a visit, too, so it’s going to be another challenge putting them up in relative comfort. I’m sure we’ll manage, but after just under a year in the house I’m starting to feel like it’s closing in around us at times.

^*(offensive words removed) ex-girlfriend types who may or may not take the above information and use it to emotionally torment Cousin Iain should be warned that, well, maybe the contents of this site aren’t for you any longer.**

**Oh, I’m sorry. Somehow the above was misconstrued as “call Cousin Iain up and pack his bags for another guilt trip.” Let me make it perfectly clear – if the contents of this site are going to cause you to plumb the depths of emotion and prompt you to call members of my family and offload a guilt bomb onto them, then the contents of this site are not for you. Not. For. You.

My sister Hazel called a week ago to tell us that her and her husband Ian are expecting their first child in November. Turns out that looking after our wee Elisha back in January was enough to convince them that babies are really good fun.

Great believers in doing things in the traditional order, Hazel and Ian have just had an offer accepted on a new flat, too, with more bedrooms and the space required for an expanding family. With us having set off on the slightly different path of buying a house, having a baby and maybe getting married at some point in the future, it makes Hazel and Ian’s approach of marriage / house / baby seem particularly well thought out.

Congratulations to the both of them on all their good news. Oh, and to my mum too – it’s less than a year since she found out she was becoming a gran and now it happens again. If little brother Andrew can pull the same stunt this time next year that’ll be a hat trick. ;o)

Last weekend, Fliss and I both took ill after eating a suspect steak pie on Saturday evening. Fliss was first to feel the effects on Sunday, seeking shelter under a duvet on the sofa before sprinting for the bathroom a couple of hours later to eject the contents of her stomach.

In between splutters she gasped “I haven’t been sick in a while.”
“Yes”, I offered, “It shows, too – the quality of your wretching isn’t very high.”

A few hours later and that would join the long history of smart ass comments that have come back to haunt me over the years, as I too ended up doubled up on the bathroom floor. Fliss noted that the quality of my wretching was indeed of a good standard. Touché. I ended the evening shivering and curled up in bed as my lips went blue and my body thermostat went all over the place.

The 48 hours that followed weren’t pleasant at all – whatever we got I seemed to end up with a far worse dose than Fliss. I had headaches, stomach cramps, and times when my body temperature would just drop for no apparent reason. I’m still not quite over it towards the end of the week, but I came back to work all the same. That’s something we’re both suckers for – you get people who kick the arse out of sick leave and somehow get away with it, but if either of us have any more than a couple of days off the guilt just adds to the suffering and we both struggle back in.

Anyhow, I’m hopeful that I’ll be feeling a bit better by the weekend, as Fliss is fine now and off on a night out tonight with her work mates. I’ll be hoping that Elisha takes it easy on me – she had her first batch of inoculation’s yesterday, so she’s a little bit under the weather herself.