Welcome to Tuesday

The builders are back, and scraping on the outside of the study wall ... presumably, they've just replaced a spalled brick in that location. The weather forecast is looking good for progress ... drier and brighter, after cold thundery downpours yesterday. Oh, now they are banging - another spalled brick being removed.

Influenza-like symptoms continue - today, the aching back predominates, with sore throat, headache and muzziness accompanying. I wonder if there was time for purplecthulhu to carry the Plokta virus to me?

It is some slight relief to see the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Amnesty International, putting firm, reasoned pressure on the UK Government to properly respond to the allegations of illegal acts by members of the British Armed Forces operating in Iraq. To take suitable independent, legal steps to investigate the evidence behind specific allegations of misconduct is to act in support of all law-abiding service personnel, as well as Iraqi, British and other civilians.

Whine

And the worst thing about being ill is...

... being stuck at home, lonely, barely able to read coherently... with only a loving but dopey kitten-cat for company.

"Scraping the bottom of the barrel"

There was a piece in the Independent on Sunday about ( peak oil )

It isn't possible to assign a direct effect to a personal decision (for example) to fly abroad on holiday, but the general statement holds: Squandering oil causes particular misery to those in poverty. EDIT British Airways are adding (a miniscule) UKP5 to each return ticket price to take account of increased oil prices.