Winter has arrived in Melbourne.

Well of course, it is winter all over Australia, but as Ken is so fond of reminding me, if we were in Darwin it would be nice and warm instead of cold and damp. In return, I tell him that being cold and damp is a lot better than being on fire. The problem for Ken is, that cold and damp means increased coughing for him...almost constant coughing. That's what he gets for smoking all those years. But I don't remind him of that - he doesn't need to be told. Lung specialists tell him that if he moved away from Melbourne in winter, he wouldn't have this problem. Ha. Chance is a fine thing. It would be nice to be wealthy enough to have a home up north as well as a home down south. I don't want to move north. I don't like the heat in summer!

So we stay in Melbourne, stay inside the house, and add to greenhouse gases with our gas fire on all weekend. MIL is still living in aged care accomodation, and being very well looked after by the staff. They think she's lovely, she doesn't cause any problems, so they fuss over her and she loves it. God bless her, she deserves it. But she caught a head cold last week. I went to visit her on the previous Friday and stupidly gave her a hug and kiss. I should have known better with my training. Four days later, I've caught the cold, which I've had all this week. After two days of sniffling, I thought I'd recovered, until I started coughing in tandem with Ken. It's just as well MIL isn't here any more, because she would almost certainly have caught the virus from us if she had been, and now that she's not, one of us can sleep in the spare bedroom to try and avoid re-infecting each other.

I don't think we have swine flu. In fact I know we don't have swine flu. But if we did, I wouldn't be overly concerned - not for myself anyway. I have never had a flu injection and I can't understand all this fuss. Influenza has been circulating around the world in one form or another for 100 years, probably longer. People have died every year, and will continue to die from flu. Most people that have caught swine flu here have the usual flu symptoms, and if they stay at home in bed for two weeks, they fully recover and get on with living. With any virus, certain people in the community are more vulnerable - Ken is an example, with heart and lung issues. Older people and children are more vulnerable because their immune systems are not as strong. I think the media causes unnecessary panic. What do you think?

At the risk of catching something else, or passing on my own germs to some poor unsuspecting soul, I dropped into the local opshop on Friday and found these:

Christmas patchwork oven mitt for 50c. Possible gift for a certain XmasTree lovin' friend.
Polka dot silk tie for 75c (not for Ken. For craft purposes)
A tiny vintage car which looks like it was off a charm bracelet. Freebie. Another crafty bit.