Well, I have to say, re-reading my last blog entry I was in fine fettle on the Friday afternoon! Things went rapidly downhill from there. I got back from Michaela's house, having had a lovely evening chatting my the rellies from Austria, and pretty soon collapsed into bed. I finally woke up some 15 hours later feeling like I'd been run over by a bus. My face was the size of a watermelon, I had a black eye, and I barely had the energy to breathe in and out. I was even a bit panicky about how bad it was going to get. Thursday and Friday had lulled me into a false sense of security; Saturday was truly bleak.

By Saturday afternoon, though, I had turned the corner. It helped immensely that friends came to visit. That cheered me up no end. First Harry arrived, handily with a wad of fresh minced meat in his rucksack, and I finally ate some real food again after what felt like weeks on nothing but mash and soy milk (no dairy allowed after the op). Then Matthias and Thomas popped over, and the four of us just sat and chinwagged until quite late. It was great.

Sunday was much the same as Saturday: initial pain (although less intense) followed by people visiting me and taking my mind off things. Tobias popped over for the afternoon, and then Matthias came over to eat pizza with me and watch the Powerpuff Girls movie, which he kindly bought for me on DVD. (Oh my God I love the Powerpuff Girls!!! That cartoon series is so WRONG!)

Horror of horrors, I had to go back to work on Monday. I was a zombie most of the time, unable to concentrate on what I was doing (so no change there then), and by the end of the day I was shattered. But by Tuesday I was largely well again. And I celebrated the swallowing of my last antibiotic that evening by heading out for beers with my mate Robert. Ah! How delicious the beer was that night! I was flying high on the antibiotics + alcohol cocktail - I even felt unusually happy all the next morning!

Wednesday night was momentous: for the first time, Matthias & I watched a film which I had already seen and he hadn't! It was Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Good fun.

The mild sunny glorious autumn weather that kicked in on Monday broke again on Thursday, just in time for me to get soaked on my bike when I went to meet my mate Holger for a few drinks after work. Ah well, it wasn't like it was warm enough for us to sit outdoors anyway.

And tonight I fly to Cologne, to catch up with Gareth for the weekend before he buggers off to work in India for two years!