Temperature's Rising

It's been above freezing all week! Wet, mind, but no slipping, no ice, no extra time to de-ice the car. Can't tell you how much better my mood is, despite a week or so of difficult happenings.

First off - my sister's been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. First Herbie, now... Ever feel the universe is trying to tell you something, to batter it into your thick skull with a brick, but you're still not getting it? Maybe there is no message, maybe weird coincidence, events do sometimes cluster, but... I don't know. She's going back for further tests.

Next, a colleague at work is in hospital with viral meningitis. She's off the danger list now, but was pretty ill. We received a memo assuring us that her office would be disinfected, but, umm, horse - stable door- bolted? The symptoms seem to be very similar to being at work, tired, stiff neck, in need of a lie down. It's brought out the latent hypochondria in all of us.

And finally, next week we get letters to tell us we're "At Risk" of redundancy, prior to interviews for our jobs. At least I still have the dogs.

Happy New Year!

Well, we made it. 2011 is a new start. The roads are free of snow, and the dogs have been to some of their favourite walks again. Today feels a bit "last day of the school holidays", because in fact it is. I only went into work one day between Christmas and New Year, the rest of the time I've been at home, curled up in front of the fire mostly.

Holly is much calmer when I'm home all the time, and much more capable of going off upstairs by herself. Herbie's always been independent, and has always taken himself off to his (or my) bed if I don't look as though I'm doing anything interesting. Holly, aged six and a quarter, is finally learning this too.

The papers at the weekend were full of predictions about how horrible this year is going to be, and how the "phoney war" in economic terms is over, and we're now facing real austerity. Given that my current employer revised its redundancy numbers upwards just before Christmas, I think this is probably the case. Already the leaving drinks are happening, and there's no way we can shed one third of staff, in a relatively small city, without a huge impact all round. I'm so glad I did a reiki course, I keep murmuring, "Just for today, do not worry, do not anger." My motto for the year.