In brief

The convention hasn’t even started yet, and I’m exhausted already. I’m blaming this on the drugs, which are working a bit too well: normally if I had a cold I’d be in bed feeling rotten, and definitely not trying to do too much, but as I’ve got all these wonderful chemicals suppressing most of the symptoms (apart from the lost voice part, which is even worse today), I keep forgetting I’m not well and start trying to run around like a mad thing… at which point my body reminds me it’s busy doing virus-fighting stuff, and doesn’t have energy to spare.

Today has been a day of goody bags and airports. Rarsberry arrived early this morning, followed closely by Lytteltonwitch and Bookworm76, and we soon had the furniture pushed aside and goody bags spread across the lounge floor. With some amazingly efficient teamwork (and a bit of gymnastics – Bookworm76’s balance beam act was particularly spectacular) we very quickly had all the bags filled, well ahead of schedule.

To reward ourselves for all that hard work, we headed over to Trattorie for an early lunch (and were shocked to see their prices have gone up yet again – they’re now nearly double what they were just a few years ago). The bookshelf was looking a bit sad, so we tidied it up and added a few more books.

Lunch over, Rarsberry and Bookworm76 caught a bus back into town, and Lytteltonwitch dropped me and Libertine101 off at my place while she went out to the airport to collect Sherlockfan.

Warning, what follows is incredibly complicated. If you get lost, don’t worry – I’m confused by it, and I was there!

Sherlockfan’s plane was late, which meant a slight rearrangement of our careful planning. Lytteltonwitch and I went out to the airport, with the plan that she’d collect the Nuts and Tinina67 from the 2.05 flight and take them into town, while I waited to meet awaywithfairies off the 2.50 flight and keep her company until lytteltonwitch returned to pick us up, then would drop me at home, pick up libertine101 and sherlockfan, and drop them and awaywithfairies into town, then be back in time to pick up Newk at 4.40.

Of course, such a complex plan was never going to work. The 2.05 plane was delayed, and the 2.50 arrived early, and the confusion in the customs hall meant Tinina67 and Awaywithfairies emerged before the Nuts. So lytteltonwitch decided to take them into town, while I waited to try and find the Nuts (who by this time we were convinced must have slipped past without noticing our ballycumber-laden signs). And of course 5 minutes after they left, the Nuts appeared! So we retired to the cafe (having flown all the way from Ireland they were in serious need of caffeination) and chatted (my poor voice!) for an hour or so until lytteltonwitch returned.

We’d been trying to work out the complexities of how to get 4 people plus luggage into lytteltonwitch’s car for the trip into town, but when we got to my place to pick up Libertine101 and Sherlockfan, Charley the taxi guy had just arrived to drop off the vouchers he’d promised us, so suddenly everything was a lot simpler, as he volunteered to take libertine101 and the Nuts, while lytteltonwitch took sherlockfan back to her place.

And suddenly the house was very quiet! 🙂

So now I’m trying to rest my voice a bit before tonight’s dinner. I’d like to rest the rest of me too, but I’ve got a feeling that if I close my eyes I won’t wake up again for hours.