Back to work, briefly.
The niece turned up, as promised, on New Year's Day, and we had a rather pleasant weekend together, despite slight resurgence of the virus-thing every time I got tired. She is just starting research for her dissertation (orientalist views of Egypt, I think), and I was able to pile her with books (Doughty, Burton, the catalogue from this year's Tate exhibition etc.), find her some very useful stuff online, and take her to the British Library to get a reader's card. Unfortunately, she hadn't brought any ID, so we'll have to go back next week for the library card. We also went to the British Museum to see the Babylon exhibition, but had neglected to book tickets in advance so ended up having a nice Turkish lunch at Tas and pottering about the clock collection instead.
Arriving home, I found the kitchen sink had become blocked again, probably because I was washing my hair in it when recuperating from the hip operation in the summer. Some strenuous work with a sink plunger failed to resolve the blockage, but seems to have produced a leak from the washing-machine under the sink, so that I woke to a small stream of water across the living-room floor yesterday morning and now the kitchen floor is covered in old towels, newspaper and bowls to catch drips.
I was supposed to go back to work today, although I didn't have much idea about what I would be doing, and as I still feel pretty rough I rather hoped that I would be sent home. After a short talk with my boss, this is what happened. There isn't really much to do until next week, so I can sit at home this week, and maybe finally manage to do some of the stuff that I didn't do over the holidays. I should also have time to sort out the blasted sink/washing machine problem. It is curious how this flat is been continually plagued by problems involving water leakage and plumbing. Better than gas leakage, I suppose.
The weather is dark, damp and very cold, with signs of some snow earlier in the morning. But the window-box is looking optimistic, at least. Most of those shoots should be cheerful blue chionodoxa with a few small daffodils.
Arriving home, I found the kitchen sink had become blocked again, probably because I was washing my hair in it when recuperating from the hip operation in the summer. Some strenuous work with a sink plunger failed to resolve the blockage, but seems to have produced a leak from the washing-machine under the sink, so that I woke to a small stream of water across the living-room floor yesterday morning and now the kitchen floor is covered in old towels, newspaper and bowls to catch drips.
I was supposed to go back to work today, although I didn't have much idea about what I would be doing, and as I still feel pretty rough I rather hoped that I would be sent home. After a short talk with my boss, this is what happened. There isn't really much to do until next week, so I can sit at home this week, and maybe finally manage to do some of the stuff that I didn't do over the holidays. I should also have time to sort out the blasted sink/washing machine problem. It is curious how this flat is been continually plagued by problems involving water leakage and plumbing. Better than gas leakage, I suppose.
The weather is dark, damp and very cold, with signs of some snow earlier in the morning. But the window-box is looking optimistic, at least. Most of those shoots should be cheerful blue chionodoxa with a few small daffodils.