I�m having one of those weeks that�s constantly teetering on the edge of mayhem, but has not yet (touch wood) actually fallen into the abyss.

It was always going to be slightly crazy given that I�m taking Friday and Monday off to go to Sooze�s wedding in a sunny northern location. And by taking the days off, I mean actually being out of contact, lying by the pool drinking cocktails.

Of course, with each passing day, it seems more likely that by taking the days off I mean checking my email and leaving my mobile turned on, but that�s all just part of the fun that has been this week.

First, Priscilla has slipped a disc and been ordered to take the whole week off. Okay. We can work around that. Or we could have if the Boss hadn�t been complaining for three weeks that he didn�t have enough work to do, which of course resulted in him having 8 new projects land on his desk in the last two days, and no one to assist him with them�

�because I�m trying to finish my current big project which involves, among other things, finalising several agreements with people in four different countries and three different time zones. And one person (not me) is holding the whole fucking thing up. It should have been finished by last week, and definitely needs to be finished by the end of this week (which is why I�ll probably spend Friday sitting in the club lounge checking my email rather than by the pool drinking pink drinks with umbrellas in them).

Part of the joy of trying to finish the project is waiting for email. I wait with anticipation for each thing to download hoping it�s a final draft or final approval. Hoping that it�s not an urgent request for something on another project. But this week, seven times out of ten it�s been neither of those things. It�s been a virus ridden spam email. I have seriously received about 70 so far this week. It�s not a problem because my anti-virus software cleans them out, and even if it didn�t I�m not stupid enough to open any of the them, but still, it�s a total pain in the arse. When I finish this project and have a few spare moments I will be using them to yell at my ISP because clearly something has gone wrong with their firewall. I�m used to getting the odd bit of spam and the odd virus email to my work address, you know, maybe a dozen a month. But this is ridiculous.

With all of that, it�s not really a surprise that Monday afternoon brought with it the first signs of a migraine. I have suffered from migraines on and off for about fifteen years. Over the past ten years or so I usually only get about two a year, thankfully. And when they show up it usually means 1-2 days of being shut up in a dark room, heavily medicated, alternately sleeping and trying not to vomit, and then a couple more days of working my way back up to normality. I haven�t had one in over a year. So much so that I didn�t even have a stock of tablets at home. Needless to say, with the above agenda for the week, nor could I afford 1-2 days shut up in a dark room.

Thankfully I wasn�t totally struck down, but rather had a few early warning symptoms, and a growing nausea through Monday afternoon. So I went out to re-stock up on tablets � which was an adventure in and of itself what with our two main lifts having broken down and the only access to the building being via the back alleyway and goods lift � and left the office at 4.30. By 5.30 I was home, medicated and in bed asleep. Didn�t wake up until my alarm went off at 7 the next morning, and it was a good thing the alarm was pre-set because otherwise I might still be asleep. Yesterday I felt dopey and slightly off, and didn�t eat anything all day, but got through okay. Last night I went to bed at 9 half-medicated and today I feel normal again. Drop into the abyss averted.

Of course there�s still half the week to go, I haven�t packed, shaved my legs or finished my project, and I still have to fly on Friday, so who knows what else in the hell could go wrong between now and then?

Hopefully I�ll be able to step back from the edge and avoid the drop.

And the bloody virus spam.