I slept for 4 hours last night - dropping into bed at about 1am, and getting up when the alarm went off at 5. Somehow I am able to just “get up” - and always have been able to. This morning’s routine involved;

• Having a shower and brushing teeth
• Getting my clothes out of the dryer
• Iron trousers and shirt
• Iron a school shirt for one of our children
• Make packed lunch for our eldest
• Get breakfast bowls out, leaving spoons inside them
• Clear washing up from night before
• Find socks, shoes and tie for myself
• Pack laptop bag
• Find coat and scarf

Perhaps unbelievably I got through the entire list in 45 minutes - leaving me close to an hour before needing to leave to catch the train. It’s amazing what things you find to do when you think you have lots of time - and how quickly the time disappears.

Once on the train this morning I nearly fell asleep more than once. I also nearly fell asleep standing up on the London Underground - first time that has ever happened. Thankfully London was bloody freezing though, which woke me back up. Wrapped in my Harry Potter scarf and duffel coat I made my way to the office.

One of my “internet friends” (as Wendy calls them) remarked today in an instant message that it’s better when you’re busy because the tiredness doesn’t effect you as much. Thankfully I was busy - but with business of my own making. Wanting to make progress with things or figure out how things work is the usual cause for me being up until all hours - and it gets me through the day at work too.

Fast forwarding to this evening, I am about to down tools for the day and join my better half on the sofa for a few minutes of “putting the world to rights” before collapsing into bed. Of course, once the new EEE PC arrives it will probably find it’s way up with me - affording me an extra hour of surfing, reading, finding out, tinkering, and general time wastage when I should be sleeping.

If only there were more hours in the day. The world is too interesting to only have 24.

All three of our children have been sick for the last few days - with various levels of fever, blocked noses, and sore throats - the product of a visit to a birthday party last weekend.

Our four year old was by far the worst afflicted - running huge temperatures, and waking in the night with nightmares and speculated hallucinations.

Monday night was broken by a little girl on the upstairs landing calling “Daddy” inbetween sucked breaths of air - I was of course on my way there before she called. Something told me the footsteps I heard from the other end of the house were not altogether right.

There were apparently spiders in her bed. After a thorough search in front of her, I kissed her forehead, tucked her in, and switched the lights off.

On Tuesday evening myself and Wendy were busy cleaning the kitchen when we heard screams. We both raced upstairs to find four year old and three year old screaming at the top of their voices in the dark.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a Lion!”

We switch on the lights and show them there is no lion, and both return to bed in immediate silence. The four year old is hot to touch.

Neither of them were awake at all on either occasion. It’s been the lesson of the last few days really - seeing an apparently awake child in front of you doesn’t mean they are awake at all.

Who knew that fever can conjure spiders, monsters and lions ?

The morning brought gentle questioning over cornflakes, and apparent non-recollection from the children. The eldest of course woke up during the screaming episode - and complained bitterly “why did they have to scream at something that they dreamed?” - I guess we’ll remind her when she has a nightmare.

I remember nightmares. I had them rarely, but I remember them clearly… all except the one I had as an adult a year or so ago. Wendy woke me in the middle of the night - I had been screaming with my mouth closed. Figure that one out. I had no memory of why I was screaming either.

We are approaching the end of a long weekend (I had Friday off), and yet I don’t really recall much about it - although I know it was packed with activities.

Much of Friday was spent in the park with the children - waiting for the school “Noah’s Ark” display that never happened during the rain. Half an hour before we called the school and were informed it was still happening - we left the house, got pelted on by a storm cloud on the way to the park, and arrived to find very few groups of parents in the park waiting for it all to happen.

Why bother with a phone line to the school that doesn’t give out the right information? It also took about 50 tries to get an answer - with well over 100 families trying to call it in the half hour we did. A web page would have worked far better, but then I would probably get dragged into maintaining it - something I have no time to do at the moment or for the forseeable future.

Saturday was filled with a visit from Wendy’s brother, various hijinks involving the paddling pool in the back garden, and a rare trip out in the evening for me to the local pub. After eating takeaway when we got home, I collapsed onto the sofa and woke at midnight with Wendy and her brother both laughing and asking if I should maybe go to bed…

Today (Sunday) has been a very quiet day on purpose. We all needed it. Wend has been busy chopping down nettles at the far end of the garden, and I’ve been involved in a number of ball games. I figure it’s best to get the kids outside while the weather is good.

Sunday has nearly gone now, and there is a creeping dread of the return to work tomorrow. Roll on next weekend.