What's the world coming to?

I am still shocked and saddened by the events in Norway yesterday: the Oslo bomb, followed by the Utøya massacre. I wanted to write something about it, yet it's impossible to find the words to describe my anger, shock, revulsion at an act which appears to have been carried out by a lone, sick individual.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all in that beautiful northern land. May you all stay strong and let no-one destroy your spirit.

Sinus infection, day three hundred and forty five

OK it's only 10 days, but it feels a lot longer....

As Madonna might have sung, "mucus makes the people come together" but enough bad puns, because it's no laughing matter. I'm fed up with constantly blowing my nose. I'm fed up going deaf every time I blow my nose. I'm fed up with the face-pain, with the dizziness, with the headaches. And then the hayfever attacks come, and that triggers the recurring sinus infection, and it all starts all over again.

Having practically no sense of smell is bad enough anyway, but I could really do without all of the above as well. And don't even start me on how worn out and tired I'm feeling right now. So I'm too tired to blog at the moment.

Back to the rules :(

Those (mainly) rotten, busy and stressful couple of weeks, inevitably led to comfort eating on a big scale. The diet took a hammering and the scales went up. My ear/sinus infection of the past week didn't help either - I'm still trying to shake that off, by the way.

But over the last few days we've had, to use that well-used phrase "closure" in a way. So it's a good time to get a grip and get on with it. Even though it's "summer" and I should really be relaxing. But of course September is my "summer", when faithful travelling companion and I hit sunnier climes for a week. So I need to get in shape!

Our 2011 summer destination is, as yet, unannounced but there are a few ideas kicking around. News to follow in a few weeks....

In other news...

It's been a while since I blogged, so I thought it was about time to dip my toes into the blogging pool once again.

"Summer" has been a non-event so far, weather-wise; whilst people in some parts of Britain were sweltering, we still had the central heating and were reaching for extra clothing layers, and the most essential item in our summer wardrobe was a waterproof jacket. Summer up here is like wintertime, only with lighter nights. It's been a nice surprise then to have two rain-free days, yesterday and today, with nice warm temperatures to match. And some sun.

The past week has been pretty surreal. There has been time off work, leisurely lunches and lovely days out, notably at Ayr (pictured above)which is my favourite Scottish seaside town. It also has some great shops for some much-needed retail therapy and the sales (usually a disappointment) provided some nice bargains.

However something much more unpleasant also happened a week ago; I can't say much as it's still being investigated, but all I will say is that we have been victims of vandalism and all in all it has been a horrible experience which we can only hope was a one-off.

In the totally-crap-year sweepstake, 2011 is galloping past previous winner 2008 and already winning by several lengths. (There has been a lot of personal darkness in this year so far, some things I haven't written about on here out of respect to loved ones).

Yet I am always trying to stay upbeat in spite of everything, trying to keep things moving along and being strong for everyone. "Keep calm and carry on" could be my catchphrase. But even glass half full people like me will inevitably crash and burn eventually, before picking themselves up as we do. I had that moment on Friday night, but having got through the weekend I'm feeling better and ready to move on again.

But what happens if you can't?