2008: January kicks off and everyone's ill

Well, an interesting week for the Sale Sharpes. Ellie has been a little bit more tearful this week and hasn't been too happy to sit around on her own. She's also drooling copiously, just like the dog - hold a bacon sandwich near Connie and you want to check your house insurance for flood cover. Given that Ellie's also really hungry all the time and wants to chew, it could be some early teething activity. Apparently it can start from as early as three months, which is about right seeing as she's 12 weeks old.

In between drooling like the village simpleton, Ellie is a full of smiles and gurgles. She likes nothing more than to sit around, staring at bright lights, putting the world to rights, or perhaps watching something on TV. She's looking a lot like her cousin, Bea, at the moment as her hair starts to fill in and the dominant Sharpe genes begin to assert themselves. You watch, she'll have a flat head in no time.

Jo's bought Ellie some ridiculously over specified fleeces and rain proof walking coats -- they're very good though I'm glad that North Face don't start their range earlier than three years old...

Since Christmas I've had the most awful cold. It really started around New Year's and by last weekend it had matured into a fully fledged man flu. Jo did very well looking after me on the Saturday, though by Sunday lunch time sympathy was on the wane. Apart from an addiction to paracetamol and Strepsils, I'm almost better, the cold now downgraded to a grade 3 debilitation non fatal cold....In fact I'm going to start naming them like they name tropical storms; "Illness Adam". The real down side was that I missed three sessions of flying when the weather was very good indeed. It would be easy to become demotivated.

Jo and Ellie went for lots of walks last week with Connie, the delinquent hound. After a couple of weeks being walked with Molly and Stanley by the normal dog walker, behaviour was seen to slip significantly on the walk with Fiona, Rebecca and Buffy. Therefore Jo has instigated Dog Borstal; a maximum security lockdown, subsistence rations and water only. So how strange it was last Friday when Jo bumped into the Caroline S and the gang on Pennington Flash. A very strange coincidence. Even stranger was that the dog that they've recently got from the rescue centre is Sam - the same dog that Ms Finley got from the rescue centre as a partner in crime for Buffy. So it's nice to know that Sam has gone to a good home.

Last weekend kicked off with a raucous festival of alcohol and carnivorous partying round the clock at the Finley-Haley's. Well, um, I didn't drink, Garth's carnophobic and of course, we took the baby. So maybe not, but Garth did lay on a good spread and we had a darn fine chat with the Finley-Haleys, Speakman-Whiteheads and of course the lovely and available Fiona.

I managed to get some flying in on Saturday, but Sunday was a washout. We flew over and up to Fleetwood, then down over Blackpool Tower towards Southport. It was actually a really good day for flying and very good practice. Just need a run of good weather so I can consolidate my training and get to test standard.

Jo & Ellie went round to Shigs for Spewey Ewey's massive 2nd birthday party and I toddled off to watch United vs Newcastle with Ian Barlow from CFS. It was, as I'm sure you've heard, a thorough thumping for the bar codes - very satisfying indeed. Ronaldo may get all the plaudits now and rightly so, but you just watch Anderson. When Scholes and Giggs retire, the midfield will be Ronaldo and Nani on the wings with Hargreaves and Anderson acting as a Real Madrid double pivot. It also calls to mind the Brazillian 'inside-out' 2-2-2-2-2 also, with the full backs (Evra being one) pushing up the field, with Tevez and Rooney up front, the latter dropping off as required. It's a real privilege to watch this team forming - if only it wasn't so excessively expensive these days.

Unfortunately this week Jo's got a bad case of tonsilitus, though I think she may have a bit of a cold too. Luckily Ma & Pa Sharpe have turned up so tomorrow should be easier, but today I worked from home to take on some of the baby related responsibility. Jo's got a nice 10 day course of antibiotics which should sort her out; Penicillin V. Got me thinking whether they version drugs like they version computer software and if so, is Penicillin I rubbish and used to be slow, but these days would work really fast on new people?