Meanwhile I had a foreign invasion of my own raising it's ugly head - shingles had appeared. I had a sore arm for a couple of days and thought I had RSI from lots of knitting (frustrating knitting that was almost all abandoned or ripped back as it turned out). However when spots appeared at night then blistered in the morning, I hightailed it to the chemist and embarked on a course of antiviral tablets, five times a day for a week. More spots appeared but they did not blister so I assume, though the various associated pains and discomfort didn't vanish, and indeed have continued well beyond the anti viral treatment, that the medicine was reducing the symptoms somewhat. Shane was fortunately vaccinated already, but I did not qualify for the vaccination.