After 12 hours sleep, I was very unrefreshed and had had night sweats once more. Thankfully, my new whiz bang summer haircut (Thankyou Angelo!) had cut off the hair around the nape of my neck where the sweating was worst, ensuring that I was a bit more comfortable. I confirmed with Bob that I was required to attend the family picnic at the Cotter. Warren, Bob’s eldest nephew was visiting from Nowra for the weekend, and it was the first time we had a chance to see Bri, the very pregnant partner of cycling nephew Rob since her birthday during the week. Bob reproduced his picnic fare from earlier in the week (and very good it was too!) of a long of hot-from-the-oven Turkish Bread from the Pide House in Jamison and tub’s of houmous and tabouli.

I was very hungry again, and ate a bit of the bread, although my throat was very sore and complaining loudly. I stayed with the gear while others went for a walk up to the dam and then downstream. Despite putting on a heavy jacket, I started to get very cold once more, and was keen for the others to return so I could at least huddle up in the car (I didn’t even know the cricket score – surely it could end any moment). While it was good to catch up,.I felt pretty shocking, and the pain in my right ear had returned with a vengeance and the sense of blockage was making hearing very difficult.

Once home, I crawled into bed and slept heavily for another four hours or so. Up briefly, I returned to bed for an early, sweaty night and slept for another 16 hour stint. One thing that is certain when I am not too flash is my capacity to sleep for unimaginable periods, even days at a time. Methinks that my plans were a little too ambitious. Maybe a quiet week and a trip to the long suffering Dr John to make sure that I don’t have a treatable ear infection is in order.