It seems forever I've been ill but I'm still not completely over this infection. What's more, I am still profoundly weak; too weak to get to work on my own and too weak to survive through a full work day. My Doctor is sending me to a team of specialist haematologists to look into the "peculiar" results she received to my latest, and more thorough, blood tests.

In a more cheerful note - Asti called and made reservations for us to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Savoy on June 22rd. This is incredibly lovely and I really look forward to it.

I presume the infection is basically over. I don't have a thermometer so I can't tell if the fevers have gone. I know, what an idiot I am, but I will pick one up this week.

I call my doctor tomorrow and see if she wants me to come in for another check up and to see if the new antibiotics she prescribed did the trick. I finished the course on Thursday night but Friday she was away for the weekend and her partner is one of those vile arrogant African Moslem's (a man of course) (and did I mention he hates Americans? He was so snotty about it that last time I spoke to him I said, I'm not just an American, I'm a JEWISH American and proud of it!) So, I decided to wait to see my own doctor.

Anyway, I'm putting off starting the Acomplia since I have no appetite for it to control. I'm so food-apathetic I could just sit and look at a dinner plate and just push the bits around till it was time to throw away. That's assuming food is placed in front of me. If I have to get it myself, I eat stuff like an orange or half a banana. I am, sensibly, drinking lots and lots of low cal cranberry juice. But food holds no appeal for me. Partly I think it's the stomach pain I fear. My brain has decided food = pain (or at least serious discomfort.)

Still taking antibiotics and painkillers. Still running night fevers. Still feel like death warmed over. Still no appetite.

Yes, it's true, only death would have prevented me from being at the generator installation on Thursday.

Still direly ill. Have lost 2 stone in 8 days - and that is after allowing for excess water loss. Not exactly what I had in mind as a quick start diet.

I just want the pain and fever to end. I seem to pass in and out of fever cycles. The pain never ends.

Back among the living again!

Yes, last Friday morning at work I sort of collapsed. I managed to be discrete about it, call a cab and get home to bed toute suite. From there it was a descent into hell. Monumental pain and cycles of high fever breaking to drenching sweats only to start over again. The pain? No way to describe it, bad enough that I could not read, think, at times could not stay conscious. But there was no way I would go to an emergency room on a Friday night. Assuming I could make it down the stairs to a taxi, which is a lot to assume since the 12 foot journey to my bathroom was a major effort. There was no way I could sit in a waiting room.

So it went through the weekend, till Monday morning when I phoned my doctor's office and was immediately given an emergency appointment. So - 4 days in absolute agony, no food, only ice water to drink and it turns out I have a raging kidney infection. No nonsense about NHS budget drugs, my doctor prescribed new heavy duty specific fast acting antibiotics.

I called Alan to let him know what was up and ask where I could get the script filled and he offered to come home immediately and get it filled for me so I could go right back to bed. I gratefully accepted - and just that - called a cab, went home and fell into bed. Just as well Alan was on the way home as I had trouble making it up the stairs and it was possible he might have found me on the stairs waiting for him. By 2pm I had taken the first antibiotic tablet. Its 2 a day for 3 days.

So no food for 4 days - I finally had a croissant and some sweet coffee at 6pm. I may have a soft boiled egg later with a slice of toast.

I'm starting to feel somewhat human again and the pain is reducing. The fever is still running but that will break soon.

Spoke to my old friend Bo today. Good to hear that he's surviving. Life's hard; survival is a triumph and a daily struggle for some of us. Bo's still programming and working on projects and occasionally writing. I hassled him to write more because I wanted to know the ending of an unfinished story he'd sent me last year.

I met my doctor after work Monday night - yes, at her office, my first NHS office visit. Not an examination like they'd do in the US. She just wanted to meet me and talk about my blood test results. Apparently everything was normal (in fact she admitted the results were perfect/ideal) except I was severely anemic. What a surprise. I did warn the practice nurse that I was chronically and seriously anemic with episodes of profound anemia. She was seriously worried that my test reult was 7. I was amazed and delighted it was that high. Normal range for female is 12-16. My doctor in NYC was always telling me to aim for 10, 10 would be nice. I would love to have my test results at 10. But 7 is a hell of a lot better than I expected considering how bad I've been feeling lately. And no, nothing really can be done. I'm trying out a new liquid iron supplement. It would be nice if it helped. We shall see.

Work continues. Next week the 400 Kva emergency backup generator for the new Alpha data centre arrives. I will take photos of the crane lifting it into place. I'm all ready for it - got my shiny new safety helmet and my eye cringing green safety jacket.

I just put a rabbit casserole in the oven for dinner. It's freshly caught wild rabbit in red wine with shallots, button chestnut mushrooms, and chantenay carrots. The flavourings are juniper berries, bay leaf, garlic, mustard. I added a glug of good Port, too. In about 90 minutes it will be gorgeous.

Raining all day here - now it's 6:30pm the sky has finally cleared (probably for all of 30 min) to give us a glimpse of blue skies and sunshine to end the weekend. It will then rain all night and gues what, tomorrow as well.

Once the week starts, I have no energy for anything outside of work each day. I need to sort out my drivers license and get a car and put a stop to the craziness.

Like sheep and marmalade

haven't been posting - anemia is very bad lately. Also my new fridge died so I'm not a happy bunny. Damn John Lewis! Their customer service/repair service takes forever. Over 1 week wait for a repairman and they refuse to schedule when he will arrive - just stay home the whole day and lose a day's pay. Bastards.

I made a classic Sunday Roast Dinner today.

Rare roast beef
gravy
Jersey Royal potatoes
Very fine green beans (those tiny French kind)
Yorkshire pudding
horseradish sauce

We also had prawn dim sum for starters
and
Bread and Butter pudding with custard for dessert (I opted out of the dessert but Alan enjoyed it)

Only problem was the dinner didn't like me very much and I ended up crunched on the bed waiting for the pain to end. This hasn't happened to me in several years and I thought it was over. Guess not but then I've been super anemic lately. So anemic that I have to stop after a block or to. I need to get my blood tested again soon.

Why do I know that the 3 meter Cat 5 cable on my desk is a cross-over cable? Worse, why do I know what a cross-over cable is and what it is used for, much less be able to tell that it is one from looking at the terminals. Actually I had a feeling it was one before I even snagged it out of the box of odds and ends in the comms lab.

That's just so sad.

Sent to me by my old AboveNet buddy Aida Salah.

Shangri-La is in you mind, but your Buffalo is not

Spent the morning researching what Google hath wrought and fixes thereof. Got my archives sorted after much misery. Lost my blog's original design tho. No choice about it. I'll create a new design tho since life has moved on, my blog design may as well, too.

You may notice that all my years of archives are missing. Thank you Google. Google forced users to migrate to the new blog version without warning us we'd lose all our archives. I guess that counts as a great big F U from Google to users. If they'd warned me, I would have saved the archives onto some other media or location before I migrated my account.

I thought Google's mantra was "Don't Be Evil". I guess that's for other definitions of evil than I know.

Just arrived back from Oxford. I was up there with Alan for the annual ACCU conference. Alan spoke on Network Programming. I was surprised how he packed the room for his talk since his time slot was in direct competition with Bjarne Stroustrup. Some of them were clearly fans because I see them at every talk Alan gives regardless of topic. Anyway, it was a really good talk despite Alan not creating the slides/slideshow he was supposed to have done. He actually (figuratively) kicked me out of the house for 2 days at Easter so he could supposedly create these slides. Instead, he write code for Federation's new front end and he played Sim II. Gotta lotta 'splain' to do there, Alan. For next year's conference, he's going to have his whole talk ready to be sent in by Xmas so it gets on the conference CD.

Anyway - stay clear of the Oxford Paramount hotel near the Peartree roundabout. It's crap and the food is dire! They have the facade and trappings of a luxury hotel but absolutely no foundation or follow through to make it actual luxury rather than just pretension.

ACCU - shame on you for the ghastly Speakers Dinner. Perhaps it was just as well that the food portions were so shockingly small because the food was so horribly bad, there was no temptation to eat it after the first taste. Many of us went out afterward missing the chip stand in Oxford since we were stuck way outsaide town this year - the hotel is at a park & ride roundabout so no walkable alternatives to the provided food. Even the food at the hotel restaurant, lunch bar and coffee bars was indifferent at best and generally revolting.

On the other hand, the speakers were great, the people attending were a really good bunch.

We're eating dinner at home tonight. I've had enough tough, overcooked, sugered and salted food to last me the rest of the year.

This is Andrew standing in front of the British Museum on Saturday. He wanted to see the Elgin Marbles, which he also photographed. We mostly wandered around the museum looking at the wonderful red & black ancient Greek pots, monumental statuary from the palace at Ninevah, and cuniform tablets - which are absolutely amazing! The BM is wonderful for simply wandering around and looking.

On the way to the museum we stopped at The Lazy Dog cafe for really excellent Hong Kong style dim sum nibbles. It was a whole day of serendipity because after finding the dim sum place, we then walked on to find a graphic books and comics store where Andrew garnered a few very choice items ( ask him what they are and for a peek at them). Then we stopped in at the Games shop and were sorely tempted to buy the (anti) Terrorist game complete with balaclava of Evil.

Andrew got a set of miniature canopic jars at the museum and other assorted lovelies. We then cabbed it over to Asti's flat in Bermondsey. The sun was shining, the day warm with a slight cool breeze. Can this really be London with such magnificent weather?

In a sense, I knew it would come to this - spam has so obscured my legitimate email that it has become too lengthy and demanding a task to filter it out anymore, the noise to signal ratio has gone beyond my limit. I've had my IBgames email address for so many years, probably about 15!At this point spam is 99+% of my total mail.

I've given up on filters, believe me I've tried them all, carefully and patiently training them. Useless. I saw an email fly by as it downloaded - from my friend Gordon, with a photo attached and before I could catch it, the filter had eaten it never to be seen again. Changed filters at that point and the next filter found other ways to mangle my mail. I just do not have a spare hour or more each day to go through my email any more and what's more I don't want that m,iserable task. It's not the US this crap is coming through, either. I did some experimenting and the bulk of the crap is from Japan and cyrillic addresses. Why spammers think I read cyrillic, I don't know.

Anyway, I'm moving most of my personal mail over to my gmail account. I hate the awkward email address on that but at least I do get my email there. I get so little spam there - perhaps 40 pieces a week tops, and Gmail manages to trap it all.