Immune to everything - except the cold

Since my last post, I've left my job, moved house, been to Ireland for Christmas and Scotland for New Year, and been laid up with some lurgy ever since in my new home, the rural idyll.

It's ironic, given all the vaccinations I've had of late, that it's some cold/fever bug that got me. It clearly snuck in under my newly established defences against rabies, Japanese encephalitis and the like. Speaking of vaccinations, I'd to schlep south to Preston for the last two pricks, after it turned out that there was a national shortage of one of them and it couldn't be sourced up here. Still, it was an opportunity to be reunited with my bird table and vacuum cleaner, which I'd had to leave stashed outside my old flat, because the Corsa just quit taking in on the day of my move.

I was conscious that it'd be a week to the day until I'd be driving south again - on the way to the airport.

I've managed now to firm up my itinerary while in India, and booked my first Indian trains today... only to realise that my tickets are all 'waitlist' tickets - that is, I'm basically on standby waiting for people to cancel and free up a ticket. It doesn't help that I'm trying to book around the time of a major Indian holiday - Republic Day on 26 January. Intriguingly, you can check online at any time how you're doing in the queue. So I can tell you that I'm the 19th person in line for a ticket from Delhi to Pathankot (one of the rail heads for Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, in the foothills of the Himalaya). I'm faring slightly better on the return to Delhi, where I'm in about sixth place. It's exciting this. I'll spend the next few days having a quick check online to see if I move up the queue any, and, if it's not looking good, I guess I'll have to look at doing my journey a bit differently, or see what I can arrange once in India. Apparently some trains have a tourist quota - seats set aside to sell to foreigners - so I may be able to buy one of those. Flexibility will be the key,   I think... that and not taking no for an answer!