Home front

On the home front, the little kiddo is confined to the sofa in her PJs with a barking cough, fulminant green snot issuing from her nose and trachea, intermittent earache and night fevers. She's previously enjoyed rude health, and it's not like her to be felled for so long. For some reason she's terrified of seeing the GP, although she's so healthy she can't remember ever seeing one. Apart from baby jabs and call-outs for chickenpox and a spectacular projectile GI illness when she was still a babby, they've never seen her. Here she is in invalid mode, with tiniest grape in the world from the bunch bought for her.

GP gave phone advice on Friday for usual palliative remedies- anti-inflammatories (paracetomol, ibuprofen), steam inhalations, plenty of liquids and bedrest. She's OK during the daytime, but feverish at night, with that worrying cough worsening instead of tailing off for 2 weeks now. If she continues to fail to improve, Nini will be seeing the GP tomorrow whether she likes it or not, and might conquer her irrational fear.

R. and I have decided by phone that she's probably picked up Mycoplasma, a surprisingly common but insidious respiratory infection secondary to her viral cold 2+ weeks ago. GP needs to give her erythromycin on Monday- Mycoplasma doesn't respond to penicillins, as it lacks a cell wall.

The big kiddo has been out climbing as usual on a Sunday, and came back home with third prize for bouldering in the under-16s competition. Celebrations all round, and good work. He received a commercial T-shirt for his efforts.

School uniform update
This week, big kiddo's school gave out the new ties to be worn from next term. You can imagine how both he and I feel about this unwelcome return to 'tradition' and the era of stiff collars and blazers. My lad allegedly wore the tie outside the school gates in a disrespectful manner (tied around his head, Jimi Hendrix bandana style), and was admonished by the Deputy Head for his attitude problem. Jesus fuck.