I've been ill, on and off for the past couple of weeks. Caught a cold mid-December, took the day off work, thought I was fine the next day (it's usually  ok after that) so went back in, but came down with a bastard sore throat that evening. Took the next two days off, then it was the weekend, after which I decided I was well enough to go back in, despite coughing a little bit. Was coughing to various degrees until Christmas, guzzling Benylin and pissing dgym off by waking him up to the sound of me coughing my lungs up. Felt better after xmas, went into work for the 3 days this week. Friday afternoon/evening, started coughing again. I'm still coughing, got a headache and another cold. I feel like shite. Bastards.

Not a fitting ending to what's been a pretty cool year. Don't want to get too introspective and New-Yeary but I've had a pretty interesting year. A big theme has been looking beyond what I've been doing up until now, i.e. being a big geek and not caring about much else. I've been trying to find meaning in the work I do, unfortunately I was not successful. Changing jobs didn't help - helping teenage girls look at pictures of Mickey Mouse on their mobile phones is about as meaningless as helping big companies market food to fat Americans. Possibly more so. (God I long for the days when I was enabling Chinese people to tell the time whilst watching television. Yes, I've had a sparkling career :) I think I feel less of a need to prove myself, and more of a desire to use what I know I'm capable of to make my life work in the way I want it to.

Meh. Anyway - I've enjoyed 2005. In no particular order, I have:

• graduated
• got engaged
• learned to ski
• bought a unicycle (but not yet learned to ride it)
• switched jobs (which has left me financially better off, and with a nice commute, although I'm liking the new job a whole lot less)
• been to Spain and Italy
• been on my first mountains
• learned a bit of German
• seen Rammstein and NiN live
• made some interesting/crazy travel plans for next year
• bought a mountain bike but only ridden it twice
• learned to build a bicycle wheel
• got into German board games
• done some decent-length bike rides
• tried some karate (didn't last, the classes were hot and overcrowded)
• grown tomatoes and chillies
• got an awesome little laptop

Next up is to sell the house, get rid of lots of junk, quit the job and get travelling...

Babysat nieces for new year. Smallest (16 months) is ill with cough & cold, like me. Woke up coughing, spluttering, crying, sniffing, wanting Mummy & Daddy, etc. Gave cuddles to calm her down. Tried to put her back to bed but she started crying. again, different sort of crying this time, the child is cute and knows how to get attention. Dgym was a big softy and went to calm her down again, brought her back downstairs. Put her back to bed again, more crying, we left her this time. Unfortunately the crying woke the three year old so we had to bring the little one back down again. So the little monkey and I sat together with our coughs and snuffles, feeding each other nuts & dried cherries. Tried to make her sleepy but I think the game of Hacienda we were playing was just too interesting.

Hacienda's a good game. It has cows and pigs, and those are good. I need to find a good duck-based game.

Arse. Can't believe I'm sitting here feeling so rough at 6am on New Years Day, and not for good reasons. Happy new year, Husi.