Update II

Health update: I saw a very nice doctor on Monday. She had a dog in her office that she let me pet. It made me instantly feel better. I miss my aminals. I think she said I had a sinus infection and rx-ed me some antibiotics, codeine cough drops and steroid nose drops. I’ve been gradually feeling better since then. Hopefully by Saturday or Sunday I’ll be back to 100%

Daíl Update: Since the last post, two Fianna Fail Ministers have resigned: Defense and Food. Not sure why the defense minister resigned, but the food minister had to step down because he had written a letter to the police asking them not to prosecute a man. [Which I’ve been assured happens a lot, but he was stupid to write it down and get caught]. To my knowledge, they’ve appointed temporary replacements, but a reshuffling of the front bench is expected in the next week or so.

Also, huge news… The Thursday before I left for Italy, there was a vote in the Dail on financial regulations. Someone in Fianna Fail messed up, big time. I'm guessing the whip.

The TDs are always coming and going, and there’s hardly ever more than 20 (of 166) in the chambers, unless there’s a vote. And I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the TDs never, never ever ever break party lines, so it isn’t normally a big deal if everyone isn’t in for a vote.

But two weeks ago it was. FF was short members, and all the other TDs happened to be around and voting. At one point the vote was a tie! If FF had lost, it would have dissolved the government (because they would have been ineffectual) and launched everyone in to an immediate election cycle! The government almost collapsed! Unfortunately I wasn’t in that day, but apparently it was crazy town around Leinster house.

This week I’ve just been doing more data entry stuff and some research on priority questions for Brian.

I will talk about Italy and Paris ASAP, but I’ve been pretty drained this week.