Feel lucky, punk!

May 23rd in the southern hemisphere, the sun turns in at 5 p.m., and the winter season is nigh. It is my second winter in Canberra. To be honest, I have a hard time calling it winter when I have an 11:00 a.m. tee time on Sunday and I continue to argue with myself every morning on the merits of wearing a jacket. Still, the days are short and the house is chilly, bone chilling to be exact, Canberran builders missed the chapter on insulation. I broke down last week and bought a hot water bottle which must be placed on my side of the bed at precisely 10:00 p.m., nah I'm not getting soft.

Around here we've all taken a turn at being sick this past fortnight. I'm not sure that you can tell much about someone by the way they handle sickness but I have to say all four of us are from a different school of thought when it comes to battling post nasal drip. I use denial. I have to be asked 30 times if I'm sick...no,no,no, I'm fine, no really, just sounds bad, maybe a bit tired, nope I'm the cats pyjamas all good. Generally I follow up the diatribe with a huge coughing fit that lasts 10 seconds and leaves people waiting to see which internal organ will come forth. It's a real show.

Mackenzie gets mad, plain mad dog mean. She gets a firm Clint Eastwood stare and threatens to do unmentionable things to the little viral scoundrels that course through her veins. She will do anything to get better, she refuses to give in, and most of the time the illness is so terrified it goes away peaceful. Hell hath no fury like Mackenzie's immune system.

Shannon falls fast and hard. It comes on quick, she medicates, throws together a few 20 hour naps and awakes with the energy of a bull in the streets of Madrid. A two day cleaning fest ensues where she catches up on all that was lost. I have found it best to stay out of her way on such occasions. Once the cyclone is downgraded to a dervish its safe to re-enter the atmosphere.

Malcolm takes it slow, he seems to know the minute an infection even begins to think about coming towards him. For years we pulled our hair out trying to figure out what was wrong with him only to be proven wrong every time as 2 days later the symptoms would emerge and we would feel the guilt of not believing him. He knows.

Well it's on with the show. This school term is about half gone already, time to start think of another vacation. Hmmm where to next...