Home, in bed.

I have succumbed and for the second day, have spent most of the day in bed. I am not dying but have headache, running nose, sore throat, and cough and occassionally a temperature (I think) so am swallowing cold and flu tablets, berroca, menthol chews and drinking water while periodiacally slathering chest, what bits of my back I can reach, and feet with Vicks. I sit here muttering imprecations and a pox on fellow workers who have bought their lurgies to work so that I too may share ... not impressed. I believe I took a morning off last year with sinus streaming but I think it would be nearly five years since I have had a day off sick, let alone two - I am not a good sick person as anything that might seem interesting to do seeing I am not at work, I do not feel like doing. Can only manage reading a couple of pages of book at a time before wanting to snooze. Normally, I may not consider the above symptoms as being sick and would tend to ignore them but as we have two out of the three babies at work that easily get sick, I thought it best to keep my germs to myself, thus also feeling somewhat virtuous instead of spreading bugs at whim. I will be even further unimpressed if I continue to feel lousey through the next two days which are my days off. I can only think lots of night shifts combined with the change of season variable temps have maybe lowered my resistance. There were maybe warning signs last week like getting ready to go to work on days off and then getting afternoon shift mistaken for night shift plus working an extra one, that I should have taken heed of. I did think it odd I was making so many mistakes with my roster but could not pinpoint why my head was not clear thinking. I could have been swallowing preventative drugs last week but then again, maybe my body is saying it needs the rest. :):)

Anyhow, before you all suffer from shock from seeing two blogs in a row, I will bring to your attention the new gizmo I have installed on the left hand side of this epistle. I believe if you enter your mail address, future postings should automatically wing their way through the ether to your mailbox. If someone tries it out, please let me know if it works. :)

I have enclose two photos of what I am informed are Ospreys. I was driving home from work one morning when I spotted the two birds on top of the power pole looking to start building a nest. I parked over the road from them and grabbing my trusty camera got a few shots, though it was a miserable overcast day. With interest I watched for the next few mornings and then a day off and the nest fixings were gone, as were the birds. A few days later they were back on the opposite side of the road and they had built a  around a street light which is now covered in a basket like woven circular nest. I managed to see the birds a couple more times but have not seen any movement over the past week. I am not sure of the gestation time for Ospreys but their babies may have already hatched and flown the the coop. I am told there are several similar nests a little further down the coast at Cape Birney which is like a suburb of Geraldton.

Today is the first fine, though windy day, that we have had for several days. I know this because I think It was last Friday when I was able to get clothes dry. We had a spectacular storm on Saturday night, lashing rain, wind and lightening, though I didn't hear any thunder. There was hail south of Perth that was still on the ground in places, the following day. There was so much that it looked like it had snowed. Lots of the vineyards in Bunbury were affected as I saw on the news last night.

One could not escape sport last weekend (though I kind of did by sleeping through most of it as on night shift). It was the grand final for the AFL (aussie football) and a veritable clash of the Titans with all the build up. Geelong won which made the workmates family very happy as they are staunch supporters. I called in on the way home from work to say hello at 8.30am and Hayden was already in his Geelong jumper and wearing his cap. The following day was the grand final for rugby league with the NZ Warriors against Manley - somewhere in the haze of sleep, I thought the Warriors had won so for 24 hrs until I saw the news the following night I was walking around in blissful ignorance that they had in fact lost to the Aussies. Damn. And through all this in the background is running the Rugby World Cup held in various venues in New Zealand. I will be watching this weekend to see the Wallabies go up against the Spring boks and will be backing the aussies naturally. Was good to see NZ beat France, always sweet when that happens and a win against Canada. I love the fact the New Zealand altered the whole education system, changing the school holidays to fit around the Cup. Is there anywhere else in the world that this would happen? I am on nights this weekend so hopefully the babies will want a feed around the time the games are televised, heh heh which will give me the perfect opportunity to watch. Of course day time this weekend is BATHURST for all the petrol heads out there. V8 racing is fully televised over here during the season much the same as home. There is something compulsive about watching the race, take your eyes off the screen and someone will crash or there will be an incident that changes the whole course of the race. Go Holdens! (would once have said Ford but not sure they have made a decent car since the Mk III,  heh heh and  Murf  (Greg Murphy)  drives Holdens (as did Dad, and always remember him this weekend also, with his Holden paraphenalia).
It is the Sunshine Festival in Geraldton this weekend which means a parade, floats and a host of activities down at the waterfront for young and old. With a bit of luck I will catch some of it between sleeps. I missed the replica of the Endeavour (Captain Cook's ship) being in town but have seen it and been on it some years back when it was in Auckland. There were two cruise ships in last week, I love driving to work and pow, there are these huge liners just out to sea, with other cargo ships coming and going in between. There is seldom less than 5 ships on the horizon and at the most I have counted 12 either coming or going.

I am ready for another snooze so will sign off.  Surely if I sleep enough I should wake up cured in the next 12 hours, lol.  Things to do, places to go on days off, my luck I will still be shaking this off but am cautiously optimistic.