The kids are both down. Actually, that's not entirely true, Sara's already up again. As usual their "flu-like" symptoms seem to last no more than two days, and Sara had an identical illness about 6 weeks ago. I made the dorky mistake of checking Sara's symptoms on the national pandemic database--just cause we were both so bored on monday--and got swept up in an online diagnosis which ended in Sara being authorized for antiviral treatment and given an official authorization number. (We both went... WHAAAT???) Unfortunately (or fortunately) all the collection points are in England, so we were instructed (by the Deus Ex Machina that is the National Pandemic Online Hotline or whatever) to contact our GP, which we did, feeling rather foolish. And so it was confirmed that Sara has had flu-like symptoms for two days and should stay at home drinking cough syrup and paracetemol. Which is, of course, what we were doing anyway.

So then the next day (yesterday) Mark started complaining of aches and pains and they BOTH stayed home from school. Mark gave me a bit of a fright mid-afternoon when his temp spiked to 103 F. But he was perfectly coherent the whole time, and we stripped him down and dosed him with Calpol and ice water, and he was fine. He is home today as well, poor guy, complaining mostly of headache, but not otherwise very poorly.

But--BUT. As I was tapping away at the computer this afternoon, I got a message from Sara's school (this being her first day back) which begins thusly:

"As you may be aware a significant proportion of the school have a viral illness which may or may not be Influenza A (H1N1), also known as 'swine flu'. Those pupils who have developed symptoms during the day have been sent home, many more have not come into school."

And so they are instituting their Pandemic Actions Stage 1, meaning they are going to Practice Social Distancing "as far as is possible in a school"--and are shutting down all clubs in and out of school, after school activities, etc. from tomorrow.

And there was me being so off-hand about the whole thing!

Incidentally, the huge advantgage of having kids who never, ever watch TV, is that they really enjoy a day of slobbing in front of the TV when they're sick. It's like a special treat. They watch the dumbest stuff--In the Night Garden and Bits & Bobs. Bet that doesn't mean anything to any of you unless you're in the UK and have a toddler in the house.

oh BTW for those of you who KNOW WHO YOU ARE, I have found a brief Morgause/Medraut/Lleu fanfic. eeeeeeeeeeeeh