ho(a)rse flu?

Thanks for all your get well messages. Anne, does cider count as "lots of fluids"? (NB this is just wishful thinking on my part, current drug of choice is lemsip max).

Twice this morning (before voice totally vanished and I was forced to return home) I had people say "ooh, a spring cold, they're nasty they are, hard to get rid of". First time I just fumed silently but the second time I had a bright thought: "I imported these germs from South Africa, so it is an Autumn cold, not a Spring one!". Ha! But then my very dear colleague said "you haven't got South African horse 'flu have you? Mum was just telling me that there's a big outbreak of horse 'flu and its like bird 'flu." Am happy to relate that whilst I may be decidedly hoarse I didn't have anything to do with horses whilst away. I did get quite close to same tame zebras, though... (Perhaps I should also point out that I'm not aware of horse 'flu being transmitted to humans, although mosquitoes are the vector and I have some rather dazzling bites!)

More bizarrely still, twice within the last 24 hours I've had people telling me how pretty I look! This is unheard of. Clearly the lank, greasy hair/no make-up/red rimmed eyes and slightly fevered flush look is coming back into fashion. (Don't think anyone of my build could be called consumptive, but do feel that there's an echo of Victorian novels here). Or maybe it is because the last 3 weeks (holiday and bug) have forced me to rest?

Now I'm off to cough...
(ps post edited to add pic of tame zebras!)

suspended animation

Grr, have been felled by germs. Had to give up on work yesterday afternoon and have just escaped from bed for first time in 24 hours. It must be about 3 years since I last felt as grotty as this...

Will aim to upload pix on Tuesday now. Meantime Laura (Graham's daughter) has been working away on this computer all day as her laptop has died. She's planning to buy a reconditioned one tomorrow.

the travel socks are off...

Feeling more than a little tired after a 23+ hours in transit but just wanted to report that I'm back in the UK after 2 weeks meeting Graham's family and friends in South Africa. Amazing hospitality from so many people (we stayed with Denzil, Bobby, Jenny, Colin and Mary and enjoyed a memorable meal and drinking/old photograph viewing session with Aunt Earna). Spectacular scenery and wildlife (am intending to upload inadequate pix and info on Sunday). But most of all I want to thank Graham for tipping his friends off about my passions: crafts and wildlife. As a result of this David took us on a whirlwind tour of Durban's nature reserves with lunch at a craft gallery thrown in; Kay drove us through the Valley of 1000 hills and took me to the yarn shop in Hillcrest (have some lovely new yarn to report); Bill and Mary took us to Umgeni Valley (zebra, hartebeest, blasbok), and St John (who shared our trip to the Drakensberg mountains) made sure that we took in some fabulous shops/workshops on the way there and back (beads, embroidery). alert readers will notice that one of my top interests is missing; South African cider is, alas, underwhelming with only 2 brands widely available. Their flavour seemed to have more in common with lager than apples. So I enjoyed gin & tonic in the mountains!

Pics, links and info should start to appear here from Sunday onwards...