inulro | I've felt better...

First the baby rat update: There's 13 of the little squeakers - we finally got an accurate count when we cleaned them out on Sunday, at which time they were still pink but their colouring was coming in (about 2/3 are going to be hooded, some white, and some white with black spots). All are alive and well, as is Mum. They should be getting mobile any day now, but as there's no sign of trouble they've been left to it for the time being. Which takes lots of restraint, because they should be getting really cute right about now.

Health and work-wise, extensive rest at the weekend enabled me to make my 8:30 meeting yesterday (also the 9:10 fire alarm, which I could have done without), but overall I'm getting worse fast. It's going to be interesting to see if I can muddle through until we go on holiday in March. Holiday was meant to be a long weekend in Lisbon but has been downgraded to staying in a cottage in Dorset and looking at archaeological stuff if I'm up to it and staying in and reading if I'm not. If I'm not recovered after that, I'll have to do a repeat of extended sick leave. It's just absolutely necessary that I continue to get paid full time for the rest of my year, or I won't be able to keep up with my loan payments.

I have a temporary assistant starting next week. I asked for an experienced NHS secretary who could just slot into the job without any significant training on my part. Y'all can laugh now. Annoyingly, if I wasn't ill and down to part time myself, I could just absorb most of the work myself and rack up some nice overtime payments.