coughin' and splutterin'

I remember Dannii Minogue once telling me that the kids from YTT used to all come down with colds as soon as the last show of the season finished taping. Li'l troupers. I am the same, though not as li'l, as I developed a very stupid cold the minute I stopped work for the year. It is a pissy illness which mainly manifests (god, has that been my word for the year or what, it seems I can't open my mouth without the word 'manifest' coming out, it must be monkey see monkey do) in feeling every morning like I have been working in the hay barn i.e. very dry, sore throat and blocked nose. By later in the day I feel cruisey and have tended to think it will go away. Now I realise it will not go away and I plainly have a truly vile disease which will never, ever, ever leave me. At least till I go back to work.

A couple of days ago Mia and I went to see Happy Feet at Broady plaza. One shock was to see a cinema at Broady Hoyts with actually more than three humans in it. Of course it looked grand on the big screen, I suppose after a few days mulling it over I feel that the actual storyline was a bit compressed at the end and anyway, animals communicate with people all the time to say 'why are you doing these terrible things?' and it's not like humans drop everything and fix it all. Still, pretty great film.

Melbourne weather the last few days has been manifestly bizarre, with the coldest Christmas day on record, and minor rain every day since, not enough to do anything about the water reserves of course. It hailed on Xmas day when we were at my sister's house. It rained at least once in the evening too I think as we were going to my father's. I have finally learnt to spell my niece's name: Niamh. I just think of Mrs. Frisby and the rAts of NIMH and it all manifests. If you think I am thereby comparing my niece to a rat, then I feel sorry for you.