Feeling extremely disgruntled right now. Started off with just a touch of sore throat on Monday, which quickly and alarmingly escalated into a fever and retro-orbital aches last night. Alas, that was just the prodrome.

Now down with a flu. Aches, chills, dripping nose and very puffy eyes. And great, we're supposed to present for the ward round tomorrow.

To top things off, my stuff are actually dying on me. To be fair, I had a REALLY unexpected and very, very pleasant surprise yesterday. Received a parcel from Allen Lowrie, stuffed with all sorts of plants and seeds. And what really touched me was this - when he wrote back to me with his (very extensive) catalog, he reminded me that if I wanted to obtain any tuberous Drosera, I need to have them sent by the end of March since after that they start growing and become impossible to send. I wrote back, asking for advice on whether tuberous Drosera can be grown in our climate (these are winter-growers, going into their tubers during the very parched and hot Australian summers in the Northern Territory). Well .. he really went the extra mile and sent me a load of tubers so that I can experiment with them!! Gosh. I was SO touched.

So, what with the flu and everything, I actually fell asleep for most part of yesterday evening after the parcel arrived, and got shaken awake by YX who kept reminding me that I need to take the plants out of the box. It was a very careless affair - pot up, water, put on racks. My usual routine is pot up, water, mist with vitamin B12, cover with fenestrated bags and place in 90% shade for 1 day, moving out to 70% shade for 3 days, then finally putting them on racks.

Came home today to find fried plants. =( Well, not exactly dead, these things are more resilient than we give them credit for. Now I'm debating whether or not to bring them back into the shade.

And I dug up the Drosera gigantea and Drosera stolonifera tubers that I received several weeks ago, only to find that the latter had actually rotted. And there I was, staring at the pot in my room every night, wondering HOW COME the tip doesn't grow anymore. This is SO HORRID.