I'm never quite sure how to spell that word, but it's certainly what I have got at present.... I've spent most of the weekend in bed, and came home at 4:30 pm today, because my head was spinning. There have been so many people at work that have got winter illnesses that it's not surprising that I have succumbed. I thought I was doing all right until last week, then I felt a bit strange and then the howling gale over the weekend really finished me off. Frankly I think I will go mad if the wind doesn't stop!

I may well stay home tomorrow, even though I hate being sick in a hotel, just so that I can recover before the weekend, when I will be flying to Melbourne on Friday night, then New Zealand on the 10:45 am flight on Saturday. No long flights, but I won't get to my mother's until about 8pm on Saturday night, there are not so many flights on Saturdays. The funny thing is that my sister will also be passing through Auckland airport on Saturday, on her way to Vanuatu, I think we just miss each other. At least the flight from Melbourne to Auckland is on one of Air New Zealand's nice new planes with really comfortable seats, and no-one sitting next to you, so it shouldn't be too stressful.

So it's only two weeks until I sleep in my own bed again - I'm looking forward to all the mail that will be piled up for me. I ordered a whole lot of Carriage House Samplings charts from SBB, at the last opportunity (I'm devastated that CHS is no more), and I can hardly wait to see them. When I get back, it will be summer holidays and hardly anyone will be in Paris. Having spent all my travel budget on trips to Perth and New Zealand, I will not be joining the exodus to the south of Europe this year, so will be staying at home. I don't have to go back to work until September, as I have so much holiday banked up.

While I'm in New Zealand, I won't be online at all, or be able to answer emails, so if you need to get hold of me before about 10th August, it's this week or not!