In November Sile and I took a quick trip back to Ireland on Ryanair (mainly to see the grandson) and as soon as I got back to Thezan I developed my first cold in about five years.
This was a glory of a cold, streaming nose, coughing, voice loss, misery and huge wallowings in self pity.

I blamed Ryanair, apparently it is dead easy to pick up a bug in a modern airplane, since the smoking ban they don’t have to recirculate and filter the air as much so we are breathing in a cocktail of everyone else’s germs on board.

Anyway after the usual period of misery I managed to lose it before I came back to Waterford for Christmas.
Two days after we arrived in Waterford I got another cold. this was of much the same quality as before and took roughly the same time to go.

Then just the week before Christmas we went to Dublin to babysit for the prince for a night.

He woke up at midnight and proceeded to throw up all over both of us.
It turned out that he had been at a clinic that day to get a swine flu jab and there had contacted that scourge of Irish hospitals, the winter vomiting bug.

Caitriona and I both went down with this the following day, Síle was attacked after Christmas and all in all about 10 of us were infected by the unfortunate little monster.

Enough you might say but no..
Yesterday I was again struck down by yet another cold, same streaming nose etc etc.

What in the name of god was happening to my immune system?

I have a theory, having been out of the country for the bones of nine months I had lost my Irish immunities or at least hadn’t gained the new immunities essential for survival in our Green (Snot Green according to Mr. Joyce) island.
I have become like the native Americans who died like flies when the pilgrim fathers introduced mumps and measles.

The sooner I get back to my own French bugs the better.