Stuffed up

Well, it was inevitable. Staying with Maria, Peter and little Benjamin last weekend, all of whom were recovering from nasty bouts of head colds and dreadful hacking coughs, I was fairly sure I'd end up congested myself by this weekend. And so, as predicted, I've spent my bonus APEC Conference Public Holiday in my robe, and desperately trying to ignore the dog's hints about a walk around the block. Sorry Jack, I'm saving my strength to battle this lurgy, and to make sure it doesn't overwhelm me.

I was thinking of going up to Katoomba by train either tomorrow or Sunday, for some second hand bookshop rummaging - but good ol' State Rail have replaced Blue Mountains trains with buses so they can work on the line. (I thought the long weekend was meant to encourage us to avoid heading into the city?) By the same token, my author friend Natalie Jane Prior has a picture book launch over on the north side of Sydney on Sunday. I've been invited and, ordinarily, this may have meant a trip to Central on the country train, and then a leisurely and scenic ferry ride from Circular Quay but, with APEC breathing down everyone's necks, and no country trains doing the Katoomba to Penrith route (and presumably replaced by "all stations" trains to the city), it might be courting with disaster to try to get there. Poor Natalie and her family have to travel to the airport after the book launch; that may require lots of luck as well as good timing. Talk about "stuffed up".

Ah choo!