A weekend of illness containing a suprising amount of joy...

I have had the strangest weekend. I've been pretty sick but still managed to have a really splendid time!

It all started with birthdays and biscuits... Friday night was split between two birthdays, both of which involved much joviality and some cider. Conversation varied from deep theological discussions drawing analogies between relgion and hats, to me waxing lyrical over my wonderous pan collection, with an abundance of stops inbetween. I had lots of fun, and an amazing magic roll.

Saturday morning was less cheery, after waking up at 7.30am beginning to feel less than well (the early wake up would have been less of an issue had I gotten to bed before 2.30)! However, the bad start was quickly turned around by the winning combination of porridge and Battlestar Galactica (so frakkin good this week). I then experienced the unfathomable delights of a mid afternoon breakfast. This may be a better invention than brunch. See, the major shortfall of brunch is that I miss out on my porridge on a Saturday morning, and I'm quite fond of porridge. However, a mid afternoon breakfast trip allows for a lie in, porridge when I get up, as well as the wonderous event that is going out for breakfast food. Mmmmm.

I then started feeling pretty darn ill. Being the kind of person who doesn't like letting illness disrupt my social life, I vegetated fo a few hours until I started to feel human again, then bimbled off to the pub. A game of Carcasonne, some frankly incredible M&S chocolate biscuits, splendid company and some not bad live music made for a fun evening. The highlight being Roddy's attempt to further my inexplicable blushing (seriously, all it takes is someone to point at me and exclaim that I'm blushing and I will. No genuine reason is required) by persuading the musician playing in the pub to dedicate his rendition of "Most Beautiful Girl" by Flight of the Conchords to me ("You're so beautiful, you could be a part time model..."). Ahem.

Then it went really wrong. Upon returning from the pub, the illness finally hit me with avengance. Sleep was in short supply, late night writing and blogging wasn't. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling like death that had been warmed up, then rechilled. Lounging around wasn't on the agenda, as I was down to lead the youth group, and I'd been planning a fun photo based project for weeks. So off I trundled over the icy pavements to Church, where people proceeded to tell me I looked tired and a bit like death. Good to know that I'm easy to read then. But then just when I was contemplating dragging my sorry for myself ass back home, something awesome happened. I had a whole heap of fun! The project all came together - we had enough young people to split into two groups, arm each with a leader and a list of things to photograph (ranging from "everyone in your group in a phone booth" to "a photo of the best thing you can buy for a pound in Waitrose"). That hour of slipping and sliding round local street with my group was really really great. They threw themselves into the game with enthusiasm and creativity, dragging my sleep deprived self along with them. And I feel so much better now - the sickness has passed, and it's only the minor exhaustion that remains...

This afternoon has continued to be good - I've caught up with a friend who I miss like crazy and haven't spoken to in ages, done some writing and eaten toast. Splendid. So now I'm resting, armed with the complete Black Books box set that I was given for my birthday.

And as the well known saying goes: laughter, good friends, toast, Bill Bailey and an early night really are the best medicine...