Rancid

Wow! This cold is a humdinger! Nathan tells me I had a very restless night. I took a sleeping pill, but was aware that I was semi-hallucinating and tossing and turning. I eventually woke up at 11am, feeling no better than I'd felt the night before, and spent the early afternoon in a cycle of shivering and then sweating. My chest aches. I've barely any lung capacity. It hurts to cough.

Whatever this is has been duly passed on to Nathan, who is feeling really rough tonight. Two colds in two months? Come on! That's really not fair.

We had a text message just after lunch from the lovely Lisa, inviting us up to Huntingdon for a roast dinner. Plainly, two ill men would have been foolish to take her up on the offer, but it's always so wonderful to spend time with her, that we instantly jumped in our car and drove up the A1.

Mark was watching a gig in London, so it was just Lisa and the kids, plus our friend Tina Button (the coolest name in the world) who dropped in and was instantly cajoled into eating her second roast dinner of the day! Nathan reminded us of the Vicar of Dibley episode, where Dawn French double books herself and ends up eating four Christmas dinners. I remember a similar plot line in an episode of Hi-de-hi, with Gladys Pew going for several birthday dinners in the same Italian restaurant.

The kids were on great form. Both of them became utterly obsessed with the idea of playing with Nathan's beard. By the end of the evening, he was sporting a giant sparkly bow in it. I kept warm in front of the fire, dosed up to the nines on pretty much any cold and 'flu remedy I could get my hands on. I actually think I wouldn't have slept tonight had I spent the day indoors twiddling my thumbs, so I'm really pleased we were mad enough to drop everything and come up. I can't imagine I'll be starting the week tomorrow feeling rested and ready to rock, though. I think this cold has a few more days in it yet. Boo!