gold, frankincense and erm...

My phone rang at 8.32 this morning.
"Hello, Illanare," said the voice of Indie Nurse.  "Patient X is here.  She's brought in her urine sample."
I was so busy enjoying my first sips of peppermint mocha and being glad that Patient X had arrived early that I didn't notice that Indie Nurse's voice was at an unusually high register.  I trotted over to the clinic and was stopped in my tracks by what sat proudly on the counter.
A week ago I had given Patient X a sample pot to take home with her.  We all know what they look like, don't we?

Patient X brought one of these in instead:

1.5 litres.  Full.
Apparently I hadn't been clear enough.  When I said "come back in a week, with your first sample of the morning", Patient X thought I had meant "come back one morning with a week's worth of first samples".

a few of my favourite things

These are a few of my favourite things from yesterday.

Watching lindy-hopping while thawing out at the Royal Festival Hall with my friend Poster Girl.
"That girl in the tartan mini skirt and black tights is amazing," said Poster Girl. 
"Actually that's a man in a tartan mini skirt and black tights," I said.
"So it is," Poster Girl replied, with no surprise in her voice.  "Silly me."

The German Christmas Market on the banks of Thames.

Father Christmas playing "Let it Snow" on the steel drums on the Golden Jubilee Bridge.

My darling little cat looking at me when I came home from the garden centre with soil on my jumper and pine needles in my hair (from carry a tree)

the streets of Philadelphia

After New York, we took the train down to Philly for the conference.  I'd never been there before, and I'm not sure that I can claim that I've really been there now as I mostly saw the inside of the conference centre.  However, I did run away from the conference for 3 hours after our talks, and sloshed through the pouring rain to the Old City. It's very pretty...

jetlag

You know you have jetlag when:
you are grocery shopping and you briefly consider putting a packet of minced lamb in your basket, when you haven't eaten red meat for 21 years
you spend a full five seconds wondering why your washing machine looks different before you realise you're looking at the fridge
there's a bar of chocolate in the aforementioned fridge but it holds no appeal whatsoever
you think it's a good idea to watch a tv programme about a 17-year-old girl giving birth to her second child instead of - well, pretty much anything else