Dublinitis

We've coined a new phrase on our project team: Dublinitis.  You might think that Dublinitis is a good thing, that it is refers to a longing to be back in Dublin.  You would be wrong.  You might then think that it has something to do with drinking a little too much of the Guinness.  Once again you would be wrong.

Dublinitis refers to any type of illness that one catches in Dublin while working on our SAP project and is often brought home to our families.  Because we have over100 people who fly into Dublin on a weekly basis, there is ample opportunity for somebody catch some kind of bug on the airplanes coming into town - be it a cold or one of various strains of flu.  We don't segregate any more.  Swine flu? Avian flu? La Grippe?  It's all Dublinitis.

It's gotten to a point where our project management office has asked HR to procure flu shots (or "flu jabs" as they are lovingly referred to over here) for the team.  I sat through a meeting on Tuesday where our Project Manager told everybody that getting sick during our Northern Ireland deployment go-live was unacceptable because they were providing the flu jab.  Granted, I know she was kidding, but Dublinitis has taken it's toll on the project team (and our families).

I got to share Dublinitis with my family over Thanksgiving.  My son threw up on my wife just as she sat down to eat at Thanksgiving dinner.  They, in turn, shared it with family and friends as well. It's the gift that keeps on giving; it's always very contagious.

I think the next time I go home I'm going to have live in quarantine for a week .Sláinte