M I A

December has been 'full on' as the phrase goes hence the radio silence. We spent the first weekend in Stockholm, then brought an unexpected visitor back to Orkney with us. She left on Saturday, we thought she had just worn us out so did the usual round of church and shopping on Sunday morning while feeling a bit weary and flat after her departure, only to wake up on Monday well and truly lergified.

We have a bug which we picked up from our son in Glasgow, where we stayed on the way to and from Stockholm. It seemed to me initially that it was confining itself to the Central Belt as various friends and acquaintances down that way had suffered with it. However I understand that it is in fact Scotland wide and is currently decimating the population of Orkney.  I learned this from the OH who had to take back an Inter Library Loan book to the college library this morning on my behalf and got chatting to the assistant librarian. According to her it is vile, it keeps coming back and generally seems to knock people out for about 10-14 days. This is sad because although I have only had it properly since Monday I feel as though it has been with me for over a week already and the thought that it will be an unwelcome visitor all the way up to Christmas is daunting.

 

The ILL book incidentally was a faff to get as the librarian located several copies in various libraries around the place, none of which were actually willing to let them go. I have no idea why but eventually she hit on Strathclyde which was sanguine about sending it. I was horrified when I picked it up - I have since measured it, which is a sad thing to do, but it was literally 2 inches thick inside the covers. I knew it was THE book on the subject (Bipolar disorder and Unipolar Depression since you ask) but hadn't really appreciated, and I can't think why not, looking back, that it's basically a text book for practicing psychiatrists. I had been meandering my way through the relevant parts in a gentle sort of a way before we went away, not knowing we were going to have a visitor straight way afterwards, and then not appreciating that it would have to go back to college two days before it was  due back in Strathclyde which is Friday. I spent most of Monday and all of yesterday reading and then precis-ing large swathes of stuff; however it was probably better to do that while anaesthetised by the bug from hell, since it was a slog.

 

Next up - Stockholm.