NotSheep

*cough* Excuse me while I *hack and splutter*

The lurgy got us good. Scratchy was sick last weekend, and by the time he was getting better, it was Monday, he was back to work, and the rest of us were getting it. Fevers, coughs, sneezing - a houseful of it. Barney went off to a Battle of Britain thing with Air Cadets, but the rest of us spent the entire weekend at home. Monday too found us sitting around the house feeling sorry for ourselves. Someone phoned from the speech therapist’s office to say she had to cancel Toby’s appointment on Tuesday morning - I’d phoned a week earlier to cancel it, as it was booked for the same time as our dental appointment. Another one has been made for the end of the month. And Jack, gazing at Louie, said thoughtfully, “I wonder what his favourite colour will be when he grows up?” Ah, yes, the things we all wonder about - what our children will do for a living, what kind of person they’ll be, will they have their own children, and what their favourite colour will be.

On Monday evening Barney chose to go to bed rather than Air Cadets - he said he didn’t feel ill, but was finding it hard to cope (with us being sick, he said, but I suspect it was more like himself being told off). Freddy did go to ju-jitsu, but George was feverish and went to bed. Right before Scratchy left with Freddy, he brought me a cup of tea - and I still can’t believe what I did with it. Remember my expensive cup of tea last week? Well, this one tried to compete. Yup, I managed to pour another cup of tea all over my laptop. Scratchy pulled the keyboard out immediately, in the hope that we could dry it before any damage was done, but he also pulled off a clip that holds a bit of it in, and so when he tried to reassemble it later, he couldn’t. Tuesday morning found me waiting at the laptop repair place for it to open, and sheepishly saying, “You’ll never guess what I’ve done…” The bloke was very restrained and didn’t laugh. And fortunately it didn’t require a new keyboard this time, so it wasn’t nearly as expensive. Still, I do hope this isn’t one of those things that come in threes…

I’d have been in bed on Tuesday morning had it not been for the laptop thing and the dental appointments. We got to the dentist’s with time to spare, and sat in the waiting-room watching television and wondering why on earth anyone would ever go on one of those talk-shows. They’re so dysfunctional that it makes us look positively boring. We all had our teeth checked - even Toby was willing this time - and no treatments were needed, although Barney was reminded of the importance of cleaning well and Jack was found to have a little bit of deterioration of the enamel - no decay though, and it’s a milk-tooth, so with luck it will be falling out before it gets to the point of needing anything done. Our dentist is really lovely, and the kids actually want to go see her, and argue over who will go in her chair first. I found it quite difficult being in the chair - the lights reminded me of an operating theatre, and that isn’t a good thought for me right now - but I managed to handle it, just about.

On the way back home, I felt some little buttons on the back of my steering-wheel that I hadn’t noticed before. It turns out I have controls for the stereo on the steering-wheel. I had those on the Peugeot (although on the front of the wheel, which is why it never occurred to me to look on the back of it!), and I’d missed them when it went. Now I’m wondering what else I’ve missed. I know I still haven’t figured out all the CD-player bit, nor am I entirely sure what the switch on the rear-view mirror is all about.

On Tuesday, Barney went off to St John Ambulance Cadets, but Jack wasn’t even nearly well enough to go to the first Beavers meeting of the year - he was actually grey at one point - and I’m going to have to organise a GP visit for him, as the inhaler he got from the hospital back in April is almost finished. I hate to think he might actually have asthma, but it does look very much like it I went off to Beavers though, hacking and sneezing and taking Louie and a programme with me, and the other Leaders ran things while I cuddled Louie. When I got home, I witnessed a new gold standard for optimism - and from an unlikely source - when Scratchy offered me a cup of tea

By Wednesday morning, Barney too had succumbed, and spent the day feeling feverish and horrible. Again, it might have been a pyjama-day but for another appointment - having noticed how grubby the sofas were, and having realised that I wasn’t going to have time to clean them myself anytime in the next, oh, five to ten years, I decided to pay someone to do it. The cleaning-guy came on Wednesday morning, and removed an amazing amount of dirt from the two sofas, as well as an even more amazing amount from the floor-rug. Once he’d left, we had lunch and then we all went to bed/sofa/floor-with-blankets in my room and watched movies. George and Freddy were well enough for Cubs, but there was no way Barney was going to make it to Scouts. And on Thursday he was in big-time adolescent mode - he never gets his own way, everyone else gets treated better than him, his life sucks, etc. By Friday he was largely recovered, and asked why I was still sick when he was better - hm, yes, well, maybe life does suck.

We’re mostly better now, and even managed a bit of skool on Friday and yesterday. Jack’s still breathing a bit heavily, and I’m still coughing a lot, and Louie has a runny nose (although I’m hoping he’s missed out on the worst of it. I think we’re all hoping for a more pleasant week this week. Keep your fingers crossed for us - and for my laptop keyboard