I'm still here!

Even I am getting sick of looking at the stocking I almost made before Christmas, so I thought I'd do a quick excuse update for my prolonged absence. Besides, Keely's been bugging me!

Basically it comes down to computer issues (hopefully now resolved, fingers crossed!) and illness. I'm normally a very healthy person, but I've been ill off and on since a week before Christmas when I came down with the flu. That laid me out for a few days, but I was well enough to do our traditional Christmas gingerbread house (and man) bake the day before Christmas eve, and then then help the kids decorate them on Christmas eve - messy and fun! All was well for Christmas day and boxing day, but at the end of boxing day I came down with a nasty gastro bug. That laid me out for another couple of days. Recovered from that and all was well for another few days when poor Georgia came off her scooter and knocked out one of her front (permanent) teeth. Fortunately the ED was not busy and we were seen to very quickly, and a dentist attached a splint to hold the tooth to the adjacent ones for a couple of weeks, and now we just cross our fingers that it takes. And THEN a few days later, the crowning event - I came down with pneumonia. How a fit, healthy 40 year old woman gets that I don't know, but I've been told that the bugs which can cause it can be already in your body and being run down or having your immune system overloaded can give them a chance to take hold. Anyway, I spent four days on the sofa feeling utterly wretched, getting a stab in the back when I tried to breathe deeply, before I finally realised that David was right and it wasn't just the flu and let him take me to the doctor, who diagnosed pneumonia and sent us to the hospital. Where I spent two days in the respiratory ward being very grateful for antibiotics, and very, very, very thankful that I have never smoked. Not even a sneaky puff behind the bike sheds in my youth. I shared a room with three lovely women, all older, and all staring down the barrel of premature death due to their lifelong smoking habits. I decided as a young child that I would never smoke, and seeing firsthand what it had done to these women made me so thankful that I have stuck to my decision.

So there you have it - good enough excuses for absence? I have done a little sewing during the well phases - sheer organza curtains for our living and dining rooms (I hate net curtains - most of them are just plain ugly. The organza is so much nicer), and nice bright red curtains with black stitching for Georgia's room, and a hat begun for her months ago and waiting for something to stiffen the brim. Amazing how sympathy for an injury will spur your Mum on to finish your stuff! I also have a couple of Oxshott tots things photographed, but to post those I have to reload the camera software onto the computer, upload the photos and videos (quite a few) taken since we last had a working computer, and deal with them, and quite frankly while I'm well over the worst of the pneumonia, I'm still pretty tired and lacking in energy and the thought of doing all that just isn't appealing. I'll do it soon though - I miss blogging!

In the immortal words of Arnie, "I'll be back...."