Winter Wine? . . . Or Whine?

Here’s the thing: I do enjoy a cheeky red. Or a grunty red. I especially like a winter wine – you know, when you’re all rugged up with a book/kindle in hand and a smoooooth glass of red within easy reach? It almost makes winter bearable.

So it’s one of life’s injustices that all winter, every winter, I find myself fighting off colds, flus, and other vile ills. And I’ve tried that old kill-you-or-cure-you remedy, the one where you slug back alcohol in an attempt to drown the damn bug, and I’m here to tell you: It. Doesn’t. Work.

Ever.
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House Shifts and Other Sucky Stuff

Sometimes I have the strongest feeling someone upstairs is laughing at me. They’re hanging about, devising crisis after crisis to throw at me, just for kicks. Then they watch me doing my headless chicken routine. Their latest idea: let’s make her shift house with only a week’s notice. What, she’s coping? Hmm. Let’s throw in a sick kid as well. And work that is critical and can’t be delegated or put off. Mwah-ah-ah. Cackle. Snort.

Thanks, cosmos. Thanks a blinkin’ lot.
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Want To Know Why I’ve Been AWOL?

You’d think God would be kinder to me. I mean, s/he’s thrown half a dozen significant earthquakes at me in the past nine months (hell, by comparison even pregnancy’s fun), and we’re being put through thousands of aftershocks, not to mention the loss of job security. Our city’s broken. Isn’t that enough?

I took on a part-time job. Just a little one. Hell, it barely even counts as a job! But it’s enough to let us have takeaways on a Friday night without a dose of the guilts – and that, folks, is a Big Deal for us just now.
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My Lifeline With Sanity

On the odd occasion – you know, like 90% of the time – when things seem as if they’re going from bad to worse, or from worse to desperate, it’s good to know I’ve got friends who’ll help get me through.

Take this week, for example. It wasn’t enough that my Beloved was working out of town. Little Miss 13-month-old (aka The Destroyer) decided this was a good week to come down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.

No, our ancestry does not include any cloven-hooved beasts. (Though I do have a devilish Read More…