The plague-doug has entered the building

So, I’ve hauled my expectorating carcass back into the office.

In all fairness, miss jenjen is presently suffering much more and did not get to cower at home yesterday with Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus for company (expect the review tomorrow). Whereas I, after calling in sick in the morning, got a call from the office in the afternoon saying that unless I was really confident I was fit to come back, I should just rest up.

Office: “Don’t worry, there’s nothing happening tomorrow we can’t cover.”

Doug: “I really think I’ll be back in -”

Office: “There’s no point being a hero. If you don’t get over it now it could linger for weeks.”

I love my workplace. Sometimes I think they’re trying to just nice me into submission.

I hate it when the universe turns my tactics against me.

Still, despite the open invitation to take another sick day, I’m back. I’m still not 100%, but I’m clearly over the worst of it and as a consequence (I hope) I should not be contagious and a further risk to productivity.

Still, I don’t think I behaved terribly well once we got back to Melbourne on Monday night. I was fine through the drive, probably the chirpier of the two of us. I was OK when we stopped so Jen could get groceries, it was a good opportunity for me to stock up too. But once we’d unloaded at her place, I came over dizzy. I think it was just tiredness and lack of eating. Rather than stay and fix myself anything to eat, I insisted on going home so I could be abed by 10. I was too tired after getting in, unpacking and eating to call her and thought she might be asleep anyway.

Not good form on my part, really.

“Honey, I’m too dizzy to stand straight, I’m gonna drive home now and not call you when I get in, OK?”

Hmmm.

There are days I’m a moron.

Here’s hoping today isn’t one of them.

Anyway, I have only two real regrets about the Canberra trip of doom and plague. One is that I didn’t get to see a friend during his two-week tour of Oz before returning to Washington DC. The rather larger one is that I had hoped the road-trip would be a bit of a life-affirming reclaiming-Canberra experience for Jen, as it has not really held happy memories for her. As opposed to a sequence of minor disasters and wretched ill-health.

Still it was good to see the Canberra people I did get to see, and kinda nice that Jen and I have each survived the other being sick. And that she survived my taste in driving music and rather bizarre taste in compilation cassette labelling.

Still, I am never driving any place that takes six to eight hours to get to again unless I’m staying a week. Minimum.

The next challenge: our trip to Sydney.