Quick post only, but if you ask interesting questions I might answer them later. I've not been very posty lately.

New Year - we stayed up, all FIVE of us, with Jools on the telly. It was fine, but I'm knackered. This is partially because Astrid has another cold and is sleeping even less than usual and also coughed herself sick in my bed last night.

Plumbing crisis - on, like, Saturday, we discovered that the waste pipe form our toilet pan to the drain hole was gone. It had dissolved. A man came at ENORMOUS cost to replace it, and was lovely and pleasant and careful and reasonably efficient, but a rat jumped out at him when he put his miner's lamp near the hole in the floor leading to the sewers. He beat it to death with an adjustable spanner. Also we need to replace our floor, under which all the waste water (but not the solids, thankfully) has been flooding.

Christmas - we had a great time, with Rob's parents, and a cardboard tree, and TONS of food.

Travel to Ireland - we saw more family than usual, and stayed with the usual friends, and will never again go away in the run up to Christmas, because making Christmas happen was incredibly hard work given the time constraints.

Travel to Wales - I had my birthday cake there! we stayed in Seren Lloft and saw Jupiter, it was GREAT. Go there, but ask me first because I want to go again and I'd hate the dates to clash.

I'm really tired, but installed a sleep tracking app and apparently I get 6h sleep on average, of which an average of about 65% is deep sleep, and so that's probably why I'm tired. And why I haven't painted as much lately.

That's about it I think.

Oh, it's all hospital all the time this month - checkups, pre-ops, and my gynae minor op. That's it.