Afternoon all

Well, so far the response to the party invite has been luke-warm. Could be Bubble, Jeremy and I with a ton of whatever Jeremy got from that Afganistani on a lamma, 4 kilos of pork and enough booze to sink several battleships. I can think of worse ways to spend the afternoon.

I experienced, for only the second time in my life, the "halo" this morning. For those of you unfamiliar, this is nothing to do with the Master sergeant or blowing things up (as it rightly should be) but instead is a visual effect of seeing a blurred ring in your vision. The first time it happened was about 3 years ago; I was out at lunch and noticed what I thought was some sleep or a hair in my eye. There was no discomfort, just a hazy portion of vision. I couldn't tell which eye was causing this, so I tried closing my eyes in turn and discovered that the pattern was THE SAME IN BOTH EYES. All I could think was "that means something wrong with my brain ... TUMOUR, ANEURYSM; MY BRAIN'S MELTING!!!!!!" I was bloody terrified. The onset an hour later of a splitting headache did nothing to ease my fears of impending doom. Bubble later explained the "Halo" phenomenon to me. Dr Nick (Bubble's dad) suffers terribly from migranes and will apparently leave work immediately on noticing the halo, in full knowledge that, one hour later, he will be incapable of driving (well, that's another story, actually...)

So I got the halo this morning, and sure enough by 10 I was in severe discomfort, although my pre-emptive strike of 2 Sinutab softened the blow I think.

The lesson is; if you see a halo, throw everything you've got at it before the bastard gets you. Be sure to check for the Covenant, though, as throwing Neurofen+ at aliens is about as effective as sticking a pulse rifle in your mouth.

Bomber out