Thwarted

More than once!

First, I had to cancel my 'No.1 Fan' appearance at my husband's gig, due to Erica falling sick. At lunch time, I thought she was bit lethargic, not eating her soba with as much gusto as usual. I pretty much guessed, even before I touched her skin, that she was running a fever when she complained of being cold - part of lunch was barbecue, and there was a grill in the centre of the table, really hot, so there was no chance she was actually cold! Her temp. hit 39.3 by evening, but I avoided going to the doctor.

I still took Amy and Lena to stay with Baachan, as per the original plan (Which was to dump all three kids on their grandparents and run away to be a groupie). With Erica feverish and sleepy, I figured I could spend the night watching TV, eating whatever I wanted for dinner, maybe even having some dessert, after I got the laundry out of the way.

BUT. Just as I was finishing the laundry, the phone rang. It was Jiichan. Amy has a fever and a stomach ache. "Does she want to come home?" I asked. He went off to find out, then called again. "Yes, she does". Just before hanging up, he told me the Stand was shut, so could I park around the back. What? You expect me to bundle poor suffering Erica into the car again on a cold night when she has a fever? Luckily sense prevailed, or maybe Baachan reminded him, as he called back 2 seconds later to tell me he would bring her home.

So, she is fine except for a very painful tummy. We suspect the milk she drank at Baachan's. They don't drink milk much (since Jiichan, who drank a cup of milk a day since primary school, saw an NHK documentary on the evils of milk) so it might have gone off. Well, I know there's nothing much you can do about that but wait it out, and the most comfortable way to do that is lying curled up absolutely still. And if you are lying absolutely still, what else do you want to do but watch TV?

Aladdin happened to be on Disney, so they watched that. Erica was awake by now, and under a second lease of life after pain and fever meds. I only give those if the fever goes over 38.5, I'd rather have a sick kid in a fever-induced sleep, quietly healing, than running around the room because they feel better after meds. But she was up to 39.3, and complaining of pain too, poor thing, so I gave her some. So they settled in on the folded out sofa-bed, while I went to search for K's concert streaming live online.

I missed their set, they were on first, back when I was folding laundry, cooking toast and taking Erica's temperature and trying to get her to eat some soup and bread.

Not quite the Arrested Development evening I was expecting.

Finally the movie ended, Erica was tired enough to get to sleep, Amy could finally move, so I finally got them up to their own beds, quietly asleep, and starting thinking NOW I can finally relax, watch some of my own TV and maybe have a bit of dessert.

And Kanji came home.

How can you complain about that? At least he was home in time to guard me from monsters when I wanted to go out to the car to get my phone. At least he was thoughtful enough about Erica's condition to come home instead of going to a post-gig drinking party. But it did mean I was back over on the damn computer again, while HE took over the cosy sofa and watched variety shows.

So Kevin, if you're reading this, this is one of the many reasons while I will have your DVD box set for several months before I get a chance to watch it!