Haven't blogged in a few days.

Just that one line, I haven't blogged in a few days, triggers a whole raft of ideas. Blogged! It sounds like a bodily function.

"I had too much to drink and ended up blogging all over the bathroom last night!"

"I'm so stuffed after that meal I could just blog out here on the couch all afternoon!"

"My legs are completely blogged after that last sprint!"

Well, I was so full of snot last night that I just kept coughing and the Sinutab just seemed to make it worse. I had pains in my neck and stomach muscles from trying to keep the noise down and not wake her beside me in the bed.

By about 2.30am I was completely blogged and I knew she was awake, so I headed out for the couch in the living room. There was still a warm glow from the stove, so I threw another log on. Here I could cough to my hearts content, knowing that there were two closed doors between me and anyone else.

It is easier to sleep sitting upright when your sinuses are in full flow. Gravity takes over and the muck just flows freely down your neck and doesn't tickle your cough reflex as much. When you lie down everything accumulates in the back of your throat and makes you cough.

But as I sat there I thought it seemed very bright. The lights on the modem flickered away, bright blue. The red lights on the cooker at the far end of the room glowed out mad bright and street light flowed in over and around the curtains. Our living room has a big high window that goes right up to the apex of the roof but only the first 8 foot of it is curtained. It is almost pointless putting a curtain on only half the window, but like the bikini it does provide some sense of modesty.

Then it rained a bit last night and there was a bit of a breeze blowing. It seemed at times that the windows would soon give up and let it all in, just for the heck of it. The rain got so heavy that I had to pull back the curtain and look at it. It was so heavy at one time that it was really dimming the street light outside.

Some times it can be hard to believe in global warming, but the guys seem to be covering all their options. We won't be getting any of the warm in Ireland because apparently the warming makes the air carry more moisture. I read recently about atmospheric rivers. Yep, rivers in the sky. Well we in Ireland can really relate to that. Those South Westerly winds are so wet these days that you would be forgiven for believing that the chemical symbol for air was H2O.

Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink. We live in one of the wettest places in Europe and the government wants to charge us for water. Seems a bit of a joke. A bit Irish. But the truth of the matter is that our local authorities are so incompetent that providing safe drinking water is becoming just a bit more than they can handle. I just wish that they would privatise it properly, instead of giving it to the gas company to handle.

We have a pretty big roof on our house and it can catch a lot of rain. I've already tapped into one down pipe and keep a 1,000 litre tank full of the stuff just in case of emergencies, like a drought in the summer and I need to water the garden. Oh the thought of it, so dry in the summer that I need to water the lawn. The last time we had a summer in Ireland was 1995.

When the charges kick in I'm going to replumb the house to use roof water for the loos and for washing. I've figured out how to filter it and purify it, so I'll be ready when the time comes. So like giving up cigarettes as a way of telling the government to get stuffed, I'm going to do the same with the water. I might even stick up a few solar electric panels while I'm at it.