under another sun

Hogsites and octopus Calliope alarm went off at a sensible 7:10 this morning. After I took her feet off my face, I peered out from my window to see the twitten thick with groundhogs. Yep. More slogging on the website for most of the day. The work, however, is quite interesting. I have learned something about the workings of the eye. Apparently the aqueous humour in your eyeball is produced by a tiny gland called the ciliary body. All is well when the same amount of this fluid is able to drain away, through a little spongy drain called the trabecular meshwork. But when the drain begins to get blocked, pressure builds up inside your eyeball and this begins to damage the optic nerve, which causes glaucoma. Glaucoma can be treated with daily eyedrops to keep the drains open, which is a good thing. Annoyingly the brain compensates for loss of vision so sometimes you only find out you have it when you have lost up to 40% of your optic nerve function. This is why eye check-ups are vital, and ...

Greeks bearing gifts Up with the lark and putting up the blinds in my living room with only one short bout of enraged swearing. Remo has discovered that there are big chunks of flint in my walls (the house is 150 years old) which explains why drilling has been a very unpredictable affair. Today the gods of drilling must have been appeased. Now I have blinds are light-proof so that my room will be obscured from the eyes of would-be pilferers as they peer at my windows at night. Sophie, Andros, Christof and Electra were in town for the weekend, and they are very cheerful company. First we went to the pier and me and Sophie did bumper cars with the kids. Sophie completely exhilarated afterwards. Then I was dragged off to get drenched in the watersplash. I am not over fond of fairground rides, and the children and Sophie seemed to derive quite a bit of enjoyment from the photo of the waterspash log poised at the summit with my face frozen in a rictus grin while the two kids are nochalantly...