The Slings and Arrows

...of outrageous fortune have caused blogging to be very sporadic this month. In fact, they've not been so much slings and arrows as bloody great howitzers and machine guns. Let's see, so far in 2004:

• Out of the blue, a good friend of mine had some sort of stroke on the 2nd of January, and died two days later. I was Best Man at her wedding (to another good friend of mine) two years ago and I've been trying to give what comfort I can to a grieving widower.
• The day Louise died (Dave and I were with her at the end, 0230), I was put on "indefinite unpaid leave", basically, I lost my job.
• Then my sister broke her ankle very badly, and I had to tranport her to the hospital, and look after her overnight - but had to work (unpaid) all day Saturday and Sunday on a tender due at 2pm on Monday.
• Three days ago, I received an e-mail from a friend of mine in the USA - her husband has just been diagnosed with extensive small-cell lung cancer, and has at best months to live. I'm still in shock over this one, her daughter is supposed to be visiting Australia in a few months as part of a Youth Orchestra.
• And my favourite niece is now in hospital up in Sydney, suffering from clinical depression.

2004 has really, really, really not been a wonderful year so far.

I'd say it can only get better, but in fact, things could be a lot worse.