Minor happenings
I've been away for a bit. My appendix started playing up on Sunday 23 February and sometime between then and Wednesday 26 February, when I was admitted to Christchurch Public Hospital, it burst, resulting in a full blown case of peritonitis. There was a pretty nasty week in hospital while I was recovering from the operation, and also dealing with pneumonia (a surgical complication, I think) and the rotovirus stomach bug (which I guess I caught in the Emergency Department). Since then it's been pretty much waiting for things to straighten themselves out, and finally today (after 2.5 weeks in hospital) I've been pronounced stable enough to go home for the weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who e-mailed or twittered their well wishes - it really made the time pass much more quickly.
[Update: There was some other news here, which is still valid but probably doesn't need to be recorded in perpetuity on my blog.]