There are weeks when not much seems to go right, and it can be hard to look on the bright side. And this week I've been flattened by flu.
It was never going to be a great week anyway - by the time you read this I will be in the dentist's chair undergoing root canal work, a painful but necessary process followed by another procedure that hurts even more - the extraction of a large sum of money from my wallet.
But it's that or learn to chew steak with my front teeth.
And each day, no matter how ill I have been, I've had to get up morning and evening from my sickbed to feed the four - yes, four - pet lambs queueing at the gate by the front door for their bottles.
The hens still wanted to be fed. Someone had to get the eggs, the paper and the mail.
And on Saturday the resident cyclist still had to be dropped at Roxburgh to start a race, and picked up from Mosgiel hours later.
For all the four days I spent mainly confined to bed, I only really wanted one thing. Not a hot lemon drink, or a rum toddy, though either would have been welcome.
No, I wanted a nice, greasy mutton pie.
I twice tried to buy one at the local supermarket: no joy. I even tried to buy one at Jimmy's in Roxburgh, but I couldn't seem to find the shop in my feverish flu funk.
Anyway, it was a Godfrey's pie I really wanted.
I lay around in bed all weekend, coughing, blowing my nose and longing for my pie, barely consoling myself with thoughts of the weight I would be losing through eating so little.
But, like cigarettes and other addictions, some cravings will not budge. By Monday, supplies of most things were running low, and I had to go to town.
And when I went home, I had wheat and pellets for the hens, whey powder for the lambs - and two lovely mutton pies for our tea.
Sometimes when you have denied yourself something for a long time and then given in, the reality is a let-down. Not this time, though.
The pastry was crisp, the meat was spicy and tasty and the grease . . . let's just say I'm glad I wasn't having a cholesterol test in the near future.
It was delicious. I felt better than I had for days.