School's out - forever

Idly looking at Friends Reunited over the weekend to see if anyone new ever puts their name down now, I was saddened to see that a classmate had died.

I don't know what she died from, but when you see the words 'died aged 44', you can't help but think of your own mortality. That's right, it's all about me, blah, blah, blah.

Anyhoo, I didn't know this girl terribly well, but I'd been through at least three schools with her, knew where she lived, knew her friends etc. I knew her, but we weren't big pals. It's sad to think that the cute little girl who's skipping in the playground, poring over Smash Hits in the corner of the classroom and crying when she fell over in PE would only live half a life.

I don't know that it's half a life. I note she had four children, one of whom was 20, so she got going pretty quickly. She have had a wonderful life. A full life and couldn't have been happier.

If only she'd had it a bit longer.

Keep calm and carry on

Are you concerned about swine flu?

All weekend I was sure I was coming down with it. Mrs F-C returned from the US with a sniffle, and that was it for me.

Thankfully it's come to nothing, but let's not get complacent. They've closed a school in our area and it's all over London. Someone I work with was in Mexico last week and she's been told not to return to work for another week, just in case. Who knows, though, she might actually have it.

Much as I enjoy Survivors, I don't really want to live it quite yet, unless of course everything worked and everyone who was left behind was nice and unthreatening and there was still loads of fresh food, petrol, TV, etc.

I've been waiting for the end of the world for ages now. Is this it, or are we over-reacting?

Do you want to talk about Thatcher instead?