I met a man this morning called Walker who arrived in a wheelchair. I wouldn't mind, but I saw a woman last week called Wheeler, and she walked in. I think they need to organise some kind of name swap.

Today's other piece of useless information is that I learnt this afternoon that Diabetes UK, the country's leading charity for diabetics, was co-founded by HG Wells. I expect 'The War of the Worlds' was a thinly veiled warning about the amount of sugar in Mars bars.

Anyhoo, if I'd wanted to see a patient over the weekend, I could have just looked in the mirror. I don't know if it was a form of self-induced psychosomatic hypochondria, but shortly after reading the list of side-effects that came with my new tablets, I started feeling noticeably unwell. We'd planned to take a scenic drive out into the Sussex countryside on Saturday afternoon (mainly because I'm doing a clinic in Hassocks this week, and have no idea where it is), but due to a combination of nausea, headache and general apathy (which may be less of a symptom and more of a character trait), we made it no further than Tescos. So I've probably spread swine flu throughout the bacon aisle.

I still wasn't quite right yesterday, but as bad luck would have it, I was well enough to go to work this morning. Although I wish someone had told me the schools have broken up. With no traffic on the roads, I got to Lewes Hospital far earlier than is healthy for someone with my level of enthusiasm.

But despite feeling a little peaky over the weekend, I did manage to witness two exciting developments. On one side of the living room, my Slovakian peppers are sprouting like something out of James and the Giant Peach. And on the other, Amelie managed to stand up on her own for the very first time.

Guess which growth spurt I managed to photograph..?


Amelie was flat on her face by the time I grabbed the camera.