After a rash of one-line comments from sources with a Polish flavour and $earch engine 0ptimization tendencies, I have disabled comments.

In other news, I'm profoundly hacked off with the semi-frozen shoulder that's giving me gyp just now. Physio has done little so far, and the next step is a cortico-steroid injection into the inflamed bursa. If it were my left arm, it might not be so bad, but I'd still have to jump through hoops for it. My lovely other half has sewn me a bag of wheat that is making regular trips between microwave and arm, to help ease the ache, so there is great temptation to lie around reading or snoozing, while the heat does its thing.

We've had the pleasure of the company of Lisa and Julia M. for the last couple of days, as they came up to buy a double bass for Julia. The bass was successfully procured yesterday, and today's mission has been some big-city shopping - which I've manfully resisted joining. (Actually, I had a prior engagement with the dentist this morning, that prevented my joining them; said medico totted up a bill in excess of $500, were I to go ahead with his planned work, so I postponed to let my wallet prepare for the shock.) It has been nice to see friends for longer than a flying visit, which has been the norm since we relocated to Qld.

I'm on conventional Mon-Fri work for the next 5 weeks, as we go through some facilities upgrade and maintenance at the Planetarium. I quite like the varying routine inherent in my normal roster - it makes for a less monotonous work cycle - but to have several weekends on the trot when I can do as I please will be a nice change.

Just before we moved house in October, I realised that my right arm wasn't as mobile as it should be; I couldn't lift it as high as I should have been able to do, nor could I reach up behind my back (to hide beer, chocolate, etc) as I could before. As it turned out, it didn't impede the moving process, but eventually it got sufficiently inconvenient that I thought I'd better seek advice. The doc had a look & referred me for a scan, suggesting what might be wrong, and what it might take to fix it. I didn't fancy the last option: surgery. As it is, I'm having physio just now, with but slow progress, if any. A mixture of painful massage, electrical gadgetry and exercise - and an ice pack - but the major effect so far is upon the credit card. He's a bit concerned about the lack of improvement, but we'll give it another week or two before thinking about more drastic measures. Wouldn't be so bad if it were the left arm, but there you go. I do have to be careful about exactly what I do with that arm: reaching too far gives shooting pain, and like self-administered aversion therapy, it's teaching me not to do that...

Thankfully, I can still move a camera around. This image for sale here:

Of course, we did have Christmas in the interval since my last post, and it was a small family affair. Our boy came up to spend a few days with us, but headed back to Coffs for New Year. I think our lazy pace was a bit too slow for him, but the lack of surf might also have had something to do with it. I had to work Christmas Eve, as well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but that's OK; 2.5 time for the latter.

Christmas brought a rather remarkable comet, although the skies around here were on the cloudy side until the morning of the 25th, when we at last granted a view of Comet Lovejoy (what a name for a Christmas comet!). The pic at left was taken after I came back in from taking a few snaps of it just up the road. The following day I went to the coast for a better view. Pictures are over here.