No more greyness! It's a beautiful, blue-skied day outside. I went into town this morning to do some essential shopping (espresso! cannot live any longer without it!), and wandered over to the visiting Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) from Frankfurt. Bliss! Total bliss. It felt just like being back in Vienna at Christmas, my favorite time of the Austrian year. German Christmas music piped softly through the air, people carried around china mugs of steaming hot white- or red- Gluehwein or hot apple wine while they looked around the stands (full of wooden nutcrackers, bizarrely-shaped candles, or traditional German food), and little dogs on leashes nosed around the ground level, just like in Vienna. I felt very, very happy. Then I got to come home and tromp around the very British countryside. The best of both worlds, really.

I wrote two more chapters of my novel last night (WOOHOO!), so I'm feeling much, much better about everything. Patrick's still sick, though he's doing a bit better than yesterday. We're going to just relax together tonight with a silly DVD ("A Bug's Life") and the fake-fire. Nika will probably fall asleep in her throne (the big comfy rocking chair that she, of course, has claimed as her own). Not a bad evening's plan.