Obs is alive and well and strapped back into a C152. Hurrah! 
Glad to hear you're back on the case and just a short time away from your test.
In terms of using the IMCR - not really. I've now had it issued for about a month and in that time I've mostly been doing my Night Qualification. Since this requies VMC for VFR, there's been no opertunity to use it there. However, on a short jolly down to Cambridge and back I did shoot a ILS appr in VMC (without a hood) for the hell of it. It was CAVOK so not really much point in doing it. I could see the RWY 20nm away, but did one anyway "because I could".
Once I get this NQ out the way I'm going to plan a longer flight for late/mid Feb and pick somewhere that I could actually use the rating if I can.