Highs and Lows

It's been an odd week.

It was another lovely sunny weekend, and on Sunday my friend Cheryl came over for lunch, (and brought wine and yummy chocolate) and we caught up. Cheryl has been very busy, what with the  International Gay Rugby Tournament, and trips to Finland and Canada, so it was good to have time to catch up (and the chocolate was appreciated, too!)

After she left, however, things deteriorated. I went out into the garden to do a bit of weeding, and the hellspawn kids next door decided to start throwing stones at me, which was very unpleasant. I ended up logging it with the Police, and with the Housing Association which is her landlord, who promised to send someone to speak to her.

Then it was a busy and at times stressful week at work, and I've been sleeping badly due to all the stress...

BUT on Today, when I got home, late from work (realising, just as I pulled up outside my house at about 7 p.m. that I had a ticket to see the NT Live broadcast of 'The Audience', in Bath....at 7p.m) a woman came out of the house next door and asked to speak to me.

She had received the letter from the Housing Association, and had come to offer apologies and explanations! It appears that the really aggressive woman who I thought was the tenant, is actually her sister, and the the ringleader of the children throwing stones was not her child. The older teen (who told me she was relaying messages from her mother, when she was verbally abusive when i went to ask them to turn the music down the first time) *is* her daughter but apparently has moved out... I still have reservations about how she managed to not know (which she claims she didn't) how her visitors were behaving, but to do her justice all of the children concerned have turned up at my door to apologise.

I am currently feeling cautiously optimistic!

And the reason that I was late home was that I had finally managed to sort out a very long-standing case at work, avoiding the need for a contested court hearing, which is always satisfactory!

A Small Update about Tybalt

Those of you who know me on Twitter may recall that I was very worried about Tybalt at the end of last month.

Last year, just before christmas, Tybalt was diagnosed with Thyroid problems, and he's been on medication ever since, and has been doing pretty well.

Then last month he suddenly lost  his appetite, lost a lot of weight again, and was, very definitely, not himself.

When I booked him into to the vet I feared that there was a real risk he might not get to come home with me. However, in the 18 hours or so between making the appointment and attending it, he perked up a little and ate a meal or two. The vet found he was running a temp. so she gave him a shot of antibiotics, and other of painkillers, and booked him back in for a further appointment in 2 weeks time to have the general review, bloods etc that were due in January (with the proviso, of course, to bring him back sooner if he deteriorated.

Fortunately, he didn't - indeed, he got his appetite back with a vengeance!

When his blood and other tests came back last week, they were - mixed.

• His thyroid numbers are are the very high end of normal. Vet doesn't recommend increasing the thyroid meds at this stage, as the numbers may be related to poor management over the last few weeks due to the infection and appetite loss, plus increasing them could push his numbers too low..
• Liver enzymes are higher than normal. This could simply be due to the infection and to his body burning muscle because he wasn't eating. It could be a sign of more serious problems but would need general anaesthetic and biopsy to find out, which would put a lot of strain on him, especially in his current state.
• White blood count up, so he hasn't got rid of the infection altogether yet.
• one of the parameters relating to his kidneys in the blood test is high, the rest at within normal range but high normal. 
• his urine test showed some proteins which could be due to the infection or could mean he has the start of kidney problems.

So. He has a course of antibiotics to get rid of the end of the infection (he was no longer running a temperature, and with him having got his appetite back and being much more himself, the vet was pretty confident that it's mostly gone - the extra course is mainly a precaution.

And he has continued to improve. He is much better in himself, and seems to be regaining  a bit of weight, so hopefully we can both relax for a bit longer.

Bleugh

I've been feeling grumpy. I've not been well this week, and  I'm bored with it.

If it's been a cold, it's a really vicious bugger. If its flu, it's a really mild dose. Plus, as long as I do absolutely nothing (and keep a supply of lemsip and a bunch of tissues handy) I mostly feel OK, so I also feel like a bit of a malingerer for not being able to do anything more.

But it's meant I couldn't go to Rye last week to see the Dave McKean exhibition, I had to miss 3.5 days of work this week, and today I managed to get to the library but was then too exhausted to do anything else, so I didn't go to see Joe Abercrombie or Moira Young, both of whom were here signing today. Although the new library is nice. I'm not entirely sure why they were large numbers of people wearing khaki shorts and false moustaches wandering around the library but there were also a LOT of children (and I'm pretty sure that the Gruffulo was actually there, and not an hallucination caused by my low grade fever) which is all good. Kids having fun in libraries is a good thing.

Bleugh!

So, I got home from Italy on Tuesday, and did bits of laundry and so on. On Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat, which I put down to having been cooped up in an aeroplane and a lot of trains. However, it quickly became obvious that that wasn't it.
I've spent most of the intervening time either curled up in bed, or on the sofa.

Now would be a good time to buy shares in tissues and lemsip.

(Picture borrowed from
@PhilipReeve1's twitter)

I think I'm starting to get better. I ventured out yesterday to go to Bath - the Bath Kids Lit Fest started on Friday, and I had a ticket to see Philip Reeve and Moira Young.

I enjoyed the panel, and it was  but it did make lovely to be able to say hello to Philip Reeve in person, after having spoken to him once or twice on twitter,  but I think I may have made a mistake in venturing out.

I was back at work today, but I only made it until about 1.30 before having to give up and go home.

I was due to go to a Kids Lit event this evening with David Almond, Melvin Burgess and Meg Rosoff but that's not going to happen, sadly. And the event on Sunday with Judith Kerr has had to be cancelled as she is not well, so my Kids Lit Fest this year will be a bit of a damp squib.

Oh well. C'est la vie.

Fun and Not-So-Fun

I haven't blogged because I've been doing little other than getting grouchy at work, and sleeping badly at home, which is a bit of a vicious circle.

Most of the time I enjoy my job or at the very least feel that it is useful, but there are times when it is like banging my head against a brick wall. There is nothing so frustrsting as watching someone dig themselves deeper into a hole, while all the time refusing all the help  you are offering to get them out of the hole. Except maybe the part where they then turn around and blame you for throwing them into the hole. *le sigh*. (and yes, I see the mixed metaphor. This is a special brick-lined hole, 'Kay?). Sooner or later, it'll swing back the other way, I'll get a client who is appreciative, or an outcome I can be happy about.

On the plus side, I do have lots of good, supportive friends, for whom I am very grateful.

I also have quite a few things to look forward to -my sisters both have their birthdays in March, and we are planning to meet up (K has a landmark birthday this year, although she isn't planning a massive party) and I shall also get to see K&C's new flat, which should be fun. Then I'm going to see Lenny Henry at the start of April, and a week later my friend J will be coming down for the weekend, when we have tickets to see Derek Jacobi in King Lear. (And later in the summer, I shall be seeing David Tennant & Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing ) And today I went into Bath in order to collect tickets to hear China Mieville speak, at Mr B's Emporium, one of our local Independent bookshops. I gather that they have aready sold out the event, and have a waiting list, so I'm glad I booked as soon as I heard about it!

So I'm planning to focus on the good things which are coming, not the bits of now which make me grumble.

well, that and chocolate!