It tastes bad but it works.

I've been strangely silent of late. The past 6 weeks have been 50-60 hour work weeks. As I learned in my previous employment as an auditor, my body doesn't seem to cope so well with the work load of these hours- for the moment it calms down a bit I get sick. And so get sick I did- Monday was horrible... I've gone through a few phases of the cold now and am on to the coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing properly stage.

That said I was delighted to find Buckleys Mixture on the grocery store shelf even in NZ. It says proudly "made in Canada".

In other news we are marching ever closer to that shortest day. I can't wait for the days to start lengthening. It's no fun going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.

My car seems to finally be up and going again. It kept overheating over a period of a couple of days- I took it in- and got it back a week later. It needed major work on the heads- a tidy $2200 repair. Then not a week later I was working more extended hours and went to leave work but the battery was dead. At least I managed to diagnose that one accurately myself and we're now back up and running. I chose not to walk home in the dark, instead calling for a ride that time. The period of repair seemed to overlap quite closely with a big period of rain- so walking in the morning was a gamble, but good exercise.

Weatherwise, the rain has gone away for the moment and we're sitting in crips and cool territory. It was -.1 on the met service thermometer a week or so back- that is the coldest I have seen so far this year. I bought a thermometer to see how cold it gets inside my house. Today it was down to 10 degrees, the other morning was 8. Definitely below the recommended safe level- even in this home with insulation. This source which quotes the WHO recommendation as 16-18 degrees as a minimum. http://www.asthmanz.co.nz/what_kind_of_heating_is_best_for_my_health.php

Even though my minimum of 8 degrees as a morning temperature seems low, I am sure it is much warmer that the previously property I moved from. It did not have any insulation anywhere in the house! I suspect it would dip closer to 3 or 4 degrees, on the basis of what it did in warm weather (getting into the high 20s).