One of my brothers, Ronan, and his girlfriend, Lorna, have been staying with us for the last few days. It’s been fun and a good opportunity to get to know them better. Previously, we’ve seen them only in Ireland when the rest of the family have been around, which means you get to know everyone a little, but no-one very well. That’s why these individual visits are so important. Ronan’s the last of my immediate family to come out here for an independent visit, so I probably knew him the least well until this trip. Happily, I know him quite a bit better now.
Anyway, they fly back to Ireland tomorrow afternoon, leaving us with just a couple of days’ respite before the next bunch of visitors touches down. That will be Sarah’s folks, this year travelling on a slightly earlier schedule to their usual May visit. Sarah’s father has contracted shingles in the last week or so, but seems to have escaped a severe case of the virus and should be fine to travel on Friday.
Speaking of illness, my urinal plumbing is back in working order. The pain of peeing soon subsided under the antibiotics, but gave way to some quite nasty aching in my kidneys that would start out mild and then worsen in the course of the day. I went back to the doctor for some blood and urine tests, but the symptoms cleared up in the days spent waiting for the results. The results, when they came, showed nothing abnormal, anyway.
So, I’m as good as new again, albeit it bereft of my all-important gut flora, it having been dealt the death blow by the antibiotics. Sarah now has me on a daily dose of foul-tasting probiotics in an effort to repopulate my intestines. As far as I can recall, that was the first time in 20 years that I’ve taken antibiotics and I really wish it could have been avoided. Their effect on the body is a high price to pay for getting rid of a bladder infection, but I feel their use in this case was probably warranted.
Life is fully back to normal now, more than a week after returning from Egypt. Eloïse has settled back into school life, Lucas’s vocabulary is expanding at a rate of knots, Sarah’s back to her gaggling fishwife friends, and I’ve been busy programming and getting our 2009 tax return in order.
Outside, it’s cold and wet, but I don’t mind one bit. Much rather that than 43°C.