Coffee plants, tissues and more

I'm well aware that this blog is becoming even more boring than before and has become all about illness and not about coffee plants for what seems like forever. However, I can assure you that the coffee plants have done pretty much zilch in the growing department for the past few months and Mountain Man and I have become world major consumers of tissues thanks to our current bout of illness.

The largest coffee plant in December

The largest coffee plant today

 
I did manage to get to work yesterday, but as soon as I got home I went back to bed. Today, however, I'm feeling encouraged because MM is 'almost human again' he tells me, and I actually felt quite a better this morning for a couple of hours before sinking back into the pillows armed with yet another box of soft tissues. How one body part can produce so much in the way of fluid is well and truly beyond me.

Anyway, the thing is I am on the mend and thank goodness for that as this week I'm off to London on Wednesday ready for work on Thursday, followed by my mother's 90th birthday party on Friday.

I've been dreading the occasion for a while as it involves quite a lot of family members I've not seen for at least 20 years (which should tell you all you need to know about how much I want to spend time with them), but being ill is just not part of the equation. My mother would not be amused if I wasn't there and under no circumstances would I want to incur any more of her wrath than is usual.

And it is, after all, quite a thing to be 90. Especially as she's reasonably healthy, fit and active - this is the woman who goes to pilates twice a week and is out most nights having a good time - and there's nothing more she loves than a party, especially one that is all about her.

So I will put aside my prejudices about some of my family and hope that my nose will decide to do the decent thing for the occasion. I've got the dress, I've got the boots and I've got the small, clutchy bag thingy that I really don't want to be stuffed to the gunnels with reams of tissues, now do I?