This morning Joel was coughing and spluttering quite a bit. Normally that would mean getting his uniform on, manning up and getting to school, but after yesterday’s faintiness I thought it best to keep him at home and keep an eye on him.

To Lily, this seemed like the most unfair thing that could ever have happened. Ever. She managed to raise a couple of coughs with a hopeful look in her eyes, but it was not to be. Joel was tucked up on the sofa with a milk shake and the remote control, and Lily was bundled into the car with her book bag, butties and trumpet. Life is so cruel sometimes.

Apart from having Joel potter through every now and then, I’ve had my head down trying to get on with work and catch up with things from yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that)

Joel mostly slept and watched the occasional video in the morning. In the afternoon it was a video-game-athon. It was all plants, zombies, motorbikes and minecraft. He seemed to be much better.

As Joel was getting better I was looking at the clock and thinking that I would never get through the list and pick up Lily and make dinner and everything else. In the end I picked up the phone and rang my mum. Mum had asked if I needed any help earlier in the day – and so I threw myself at her mercy.

“Mum, could you make a stew or something and bring it around please?”

I could probably have pulled my finger out and sorted out some dinner, but I was knackered and facing a wall of stuff to do. It was just such a relief that my parents came around at six with a big pot of stew that we were able to just throw on the oven. Thanks Mum!

Once the children had been sorted and were settled for the evening, I strode out on my walk. Nothing spectacular. My iphone was nearly dead, so I had my ipad shoved in my coat pocket – with the auto-pause turned off, so all the stops at roads and pedestrian crossings dragged my pace down. Anyone would think that I was trying to go slowly, when in fact I was just stuck at the lights. I did 3km in 30 minutes.

I very nearly didn’t make it home. When I was in the middle of the zebra crossing by the Civic Centre, a car came zooming up the road with no intention of stopping. I had to take a quick leap back to get out of his way – while resisting the temptation to stand, shaking my fist like an old man, as the car zoomed away past the Horseshoe pub.

So I live to blog and walk another day. I heard nothing from the surgery, so I expect the next thing I’ll get is a letter about an appointment. The next visit to the surgery, fingers crossed, will be for Joel on Monday morning. Hopefully, that’ll be an unremarkable event. In the meantime it’s back to school again tomorrow.