Aporkalypse

All three of the kid's schools have been spewing forth letters about swine flu, which appears to have taken hold. A particularly inspired letter came from the infant school, warning us to avoid crowds and all the other rigmarole you're supposed to go through. It was inspiringly attached to a letter about the forthcoming summer fair, which proudly proclaimed the more the merrier. Ho hum

Freya seems to have contracted the pig pox - she came home from school on Thursday feeling very poorly with a high temperature, rancid breath and a headache and promptly fell asleep on the sofa. We tried to call the doctor, who wasn't answering and referred us to NHS direct. NHS direct were "experiencing a high volume of calls" and referred us to...... our doctor. Hmm. Di got in the car and went down there. They virtually fended here off with a broom and said the doctor would call. He did. A prescription for tamiflu was issued after a description of the symptoms which we picked up from the pharmacy. Their fax machine was approaching melt down with prescription after prescription spitting out of it. Anyone would think it was a pandemic or something.

Freya was much better by Friday lunchtime and was becoming increasingly annoying, wandering around the house sticking the digital thermometer in everybody's ear. Friday night her temperature was up again. Saturday morning it's down although she's still warm. However the amount of fighting and screaming is back to it's usual level, so she is definitely on the mend.

I spent most of the day listening to TMS. I'm really hoping the weather holds for the next couple of days and that England manage to make Ponting swallow his chewing gum. Surely they can't loose with 521 on the board?

I was also doing a load of practice in preparation for a spot at Arundel Castle in late August, where I will be playing the King of Denmark's Galliard by John Dowland - a rather fun piece which requires the 3rd string to tune down a semitone. Or to put it another way, it makes your G string F sharp.

I finally succumbed to the delights of Twitter and took and set up an account, the first couple of "tweets" appearing opposite.