A Sick Chick

It's not been the most relaxing of days. Chickie's cold is now fully developed and, like all sick males, he's demanding sympathy and complete attention. Being left on his own for a second is unacceptable - put down in his cot for a nap, an outrage. He's howled his way through 50% of the day. The promise of X-Factor, I'm a Celebrity and a take-away are keeping me going.

I begged Accountant to take him out for a walk in the hope he may go to sleep. Praise the Lord, he did! Only problem being, we couldn't make a sound for fear of waking the Snot Monster who was snoring in his pushchair in the dining room. We turned the heating off so he couldn't wake from overheating, switched the phone off too, a note was left on the door to warn visitors, the nephews banished upstairs (they were going to footie with Accountant) and no-one was permitted to speak unless it was an emergency and, only then, in a whisper. I didn't even make a cup of tea in case the kettle was too loud. It worked though, one whole hour of blissful peace.

Accountant wanted to go and watch football this afternoon and had told my Sister that he would take my nephews without actually asking me. I sensed an opportunity, which I used to maximum advantage and struck a sweet, sweet deal. I don't much care for ironing and, whilst being a domestic goddess, this is an "Area for Development". I leave it until it's waist height and then spend 5 hours doing it all in one go which makes me hate it even more. Anyway, my current pile included a complete washing basket full, a duvet cover and 17 shirts! Post-deal, that pile is now 17 shirts lighter. The best bit being that I didn't mind him going to the football in the first place

Went food shopping today which is another one of my duties I don't particularly enjoy. Especially on a Saturday. Anyway, I was brave and I went. Two things happened which made it slightly better than usual.

The first was that I discovered you can buy a token on a keyring for the trolleys. Why has no-one told me this before? I always get to the supermarket, realise I haven't got a £1 or usually any money at all, I'm carrying Chickie and he weighs a ton, I then have to queue at Customer Services and explain I have no money, go back out into the trolley park and then half an hour and a dead-arm later, I get my trolley.

The second thing that happened to brighten my day was finding the "Free Chocolate Sample Stand" in the naughty aisle. "Would you like to try some free chocolate truffle madame?" - if ever there was such a thing as the perfect question, that would be it. "Well, if you insist" - scoff, scoff, scoff.

If anyone who works for a supermarket ever reads this, I have something for your suggestion box. Complimentary trolley tokens and free chocolate samples make stressed, tired mummies happy.