I've been to the doctor, and he confirmed bronchitis - so I've been languishing in bed a lot, taking various drugs, and going out only for a short while each day.

Everything is very quiet, I think most people in the building are away for holidays still, except for my upstairs neighbour, whom I hear, but do not see. The restaurant on the ground floor is being entirely redecorated, and I am wondering if it has been sold, as the people who were there are nowhere in evidence, plus the flat on the other side of the entrance (they owned this, and used it as an office) is being redecorated, and a man I am pretty sure is a real estate agent has been hanging around.

The news is that I am going to the Netherlands (Apeldoorn) to start work on 1 September - I had a phone interview with them, and it went well, so there we are. It seems the much talked about Paris project, which was supposed to start last December is still not ready to go. I'm not terribly upset, because our Special Snowflake was going to be in charge there. I'm pretty sure she will not be in the Netherlands. There will be one of the Silly Girls there, but I think she won't be too bad without her leader.

Actually I am fairly happy about Apeldoorn, because I can get there by train, which is much less stressful than the whole CDG horror story. And it seems there is a fair bit to do and see around that area, and I can always go to Amsterdam or wherever at the weekends if I feel like it - I will have to stay there some weekends.

Now I'm going out for my daily walk and shopping, I hope I can catch up again over the weekend.

I finally arrived yesterday afternoon, in fact the plane was early, and I was home with my luggage all upstairs by 3pm. I've slept most of the time since then, apart from a short trip to the supermarket, and three hours last night when I was awake. Now it's nearly 11am, and I am sitting here, thinking of having a shower and getting dressed and doing a few things.


The journey was long - first from Sydney to Melbourne. I have to say I think Sydney Airport is much nicer than Melbourne, there are much nicer shops in the domestic terminal. And even when I arrived at the international terminal on Friday afternoon from New Zealand, they were much nicer and lifted the cases through the machine themselves, there were strong men there to do it specially, instead of like at Melbourne, where you have to do it yourself.

Melbourne international terminal is really dreary, there's nothing to do while you wait at all, and I had to wait three hours until Etihad check-in opened. I just sat there, and read, then checked in as soon as they were there. They made me pay excess baggage as well, work are going to love that! However, in Melbourne Etihad use the Qantas lounge, and - once I actually found this - it was comfortable and great, with free internet.

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I left this post yesterday to go to sleep again - combination of jetlag and the Tasmanian plague, which is still with me - I am seeing the doctor this afternoon about it all. I slept through quite a lot of yesterday as well, and all through the night, waking up at about 7 this morning. So perhaps I am getting back to normal, I certainly hope so.

To continue with my journey, the trip from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi was very turbulent, apparently this is normal on this route, but I was petrified the whole way, nearly. When we got to Abu Dhabi, I was extremely relieved, and rushed straight for the shower and had another breakfast. Then the plane to Paris was extremely empty, only three people in business class, so I had some more sleep and more breakfast, the third one for the day. This was a much shorter flight, only about seven hours, and I was met at the plane door by an Etihad chauffeur hostess, who took me to get my bags, and out through the staff queues, so that I was with my chaufffeur very quickly and home much earlier than I had expected. The dear man carried my cases upstairs as well, not that I have unpacked a thing since.

I had a load of mail, including all my CHS charts from SBB, and the last Loose Feathers from Blackbird Designs as well - I have even put a few stitches into this one. Apart from that, I've just been lying around sleeping or reading! Apart from talking to a project manager yesterday, who called me and said he wanted to assign me to a project in the Netherlands in September, which came as a huge surprise to me. He actually wanted me to go there on Thursday and be interviewed, which I have said no to - it's my holidays and I don't feel well. I've very kindly said they can all me later in the week, I think that's very good of me!

I am now twenty-four hours away from departing the Southern Hemisphere, and am still sick! Not as bad as I was in the last week in Tasmania, thank goodness, but still with lingering cough and terribly tired. I managed to get myself to New Zealand and my mother's house in one piece, but I hadn't been across the threshold more than five minutes when she asked me if I had made a will - which was enough to make me have a relapse, of course. It turns out she had been thinking about wills for some other reason, not my pale, scary face........... but even so, it was a bit off-putting.

Yesterday I flew back to Sydney, and am now here until tomorrow afternoon, when I fly down to Melbourne to get the plane back to Paris. I haven't really done any of the things I planned to in Sydney, apart from calling various family members ( I have an aunt who is over 90 years old, who lives here, and of course I can't visit her with a cold, but she loves to talk). I also did manage to get myself on a bus to Mosman Needlecraft, where I bought the latest SANQ, also charts from Blackbird Designs, Goode Huswife and CHS. I've never seen a Goode Huswife chart in a store before, and there was only the one, it's called Eliza Parry 1898, and it's a sampler with spot motifs, I like these.

While I was at my mother's, I finished the stitching for my LHN Stitcher's Pocket, also made some progress on "Of Female Arts" by Primitive Needle, which I am doing in Vicki Clayton premium silk, much nicer to use than the non-premium, in my view. This is coming on the plane with me, although I hope I can get some sleep, primarily. I'm not allowed to sleep all the way, though, as my doctor insists I get up and move periodically. Melbourne to Abu Dhabi is fourteen hours, or something ridiculous like that, so I hope the movies are good as well.

I'm now about to go and try to make sense of my packing, and weed out the things that I don't want to take back, like stockings with holes in them, etc, etc. Everything is so exhausting when you're feeling below par - I'm hoping my lovely doctor will decide I need more vitamins or something to hasten my recovery. My plans for the return are first, to survive it, then to go to bed for at least twenty-four hours (having first bought food and collected anything from the post office), and only then to go out, to the doctor and to take my expenses to the office.