Mildest January
31 January

I woke with a jolt at 2am on the Tuesday morning, feeling distinctly unsafe.

I made a strategic dash along the landing to the bathroom and thus began a 24 hour period of flux. When I was small we called it gastroenteritis. At school, it was referred to as D&V (diarrhoea and vomiting). Nowadays, people seem to refer to it as the winter vomiting bug or norovirus. Whatever it is called, it is not pleasant.

Tuesday and Wednesday I did nothing apart from allow myself to be ill. I drank copious liquids laced with honey to keep my blood-sugars up. I didn't want to read. The radio was on but I didn't really listen to it. Television was no better. I just wanted to be still and to give myself time to heal.

The only good thing that can be said about ducking out of these two days is that I missed the two coldest days of the year so far. It has been the mildest January on record for the last century but, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the pond in our back garden froze over for the first time.

Actually, there was a second - light. I took the opportunity not to get up at 6am and lay in bed instead. But I also opened the curtains and watched the coming of the light. Our bedroom looks out in a sort of easterly direction. And there, distinctly, from about 6:30am onwards was a change of colour in the night sky. And by 7am, there was easily enough light to be able to move around with ease though probably not enough to read by indoors.

Thursday was a little better. I went out of the house for one thing. It was only the briefest of walks up to Sainsbury's but it proved that I had some energy at least. Sometime during the evening I even managed a fart without following through.

So, come Friday I went into work for a day. Under most normal circumstances, I would have stayed off for the whole week. However, it just so happened that this is the time of my especial training unit. So, I went in and, though I ended up feeling tired, nay exhausted, by the end of the day, I was pleased that I had prepared my students as well as I could for the assignment on Monday.

The weekend was mostly quiet. There was children's meeting on Sunday at Quakers but Sue helped out with that so I kept the outpouring of energy to a minimum. But the best part was lying in the bath on Saturday night listening to a relay from Covent Garden of La Fille du Régiment. It may seem strange to listen to something which I had attended only seven days previously but, believe me, it was a joy. So much so that I have had melodies bouncing around in my head ever since.

I read a lot and finished off The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Last year, I chose The Salterton Trilogy as my book of the year. I may be on course for choosing another work by the same author this year. I was captivated from first to last with a gallery of extraordinarily engrossing characters. I truly wanted to know what would happen to them next and I truly cared that they took the best decisions. I laughed out loud at various junctures and I felt myself quite moved at other moments. All in all, it was quite excellent.

Television, however, has been very lean. We have taken to watching season two of Dr Who again on DVD as there is nothing else of interest. I've been following Prison Break but it's lost much of its appeal since Wentworth Miller stopped regularly taking his shirt off. None of the new offerings has taken hold of the imagination - we stuck with Lilies for a couple of episodes for the sake of its Liverpool setting but didn't hold on.

No the best thing has been over on BBC4 has been The Art of Eternity presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon. This man has a good pedigree with A History of British Art and The Secret of Drawing. This series was about early Christian art and was magnificent from first to last. It was learned without being condescending. It offered ideas, context, history. I didn't agree with everything but that's great. Four stars without hesitation.

News comes that there will be no commercial DVD so I am really glad that we taped it as I am sure that I shall return to view it again sometime in the future. And Colin was unaware of it in the schedules so he will get a view as well.

Monday I sorted out the assignments at work and brought the evidence home for marking as well as the documentation projects for evaluation.

Tuesday I was in a position to do all of the individual reviews with the customers and give them some guidance about writing technical documents. I also helped out with the induction of the new arrivals.

Which meant (Huzzah!!) that I had Wednesday off to take a pause for breath.

It was a quiet day but, in the evening, I took myself off to Crosby Civic Hall to watch Crosby Gilbert and Sullivan Society give a performance of Ruddigore. What can I say? Well the sets and costumes were sensibly bought in and looked very professional. The piece itself contains no hit tunes and probably needs a good and inventive cast and production to make it into a good night out. This did not happen in Crosby.

Oh, it was alright and I'll give it two stars for sport. And the principals did the best that they could with the material that they had but they were simply good or competent amateurs. And that's fine. At that level, I had a good night out and I tip my hat to them all for guiding us through the evening (though it did take some 20 minutes longer than I thought it would). Next year, they shall be essaying The Mikado. I'll quite happily go and see them again to see how they fare with superior material.

But it did remind me why I like going to Opera North.