Various...

Shitty, shitty Sunday afternoon. Cold and bleak midwinter outside. Two children with highly infectious flu decorating the place with their limp bodies and their spray and spittle. Get the picture?

Looks as if we'll be sticking around at home for the next week - and then it's the holidays. Of course the children are devastated by this; they're not sick enough to be completely and unutterably miserable, but are not well enough to go out, and are especially unwelcome at school. We're pretty sure it's A(H1N1) because we all had the 'flu vac this year, and also because 4 children in Claudia's year at school have tested positive for it. Health authorities are no longer bothering to swab everyone who gets it, so there's no need for us to notify anyone that we have it, nor indeed to seek medical help.

We've had a series of visitors arrive today and stay firmly outside, unwilling to share the love. I feel like Nancy Blackett, semaphoring down into the garden (sans the moon face and jaw-ache).

On a more cheery note, Ian is at home today. It's the first day in 5 weeks that he has taken off - no exaggeration! He's not much company; but after two and a half months of intense work, I don't think further demands on him are warranted. He's having fun thinking about entropy, man, which is one of his ways of relaxing. Yeah, well, takes all sorts!