"Oi! You've run out of flour!"

Suc kept an eye on kitchen proceedings this evening, and was right as usual.

Last night was a long one. Little Agu had seemed a little out of sorts and it all came to head during the night with earache. The first bout was headed off witha bit of ibuprofen, but 5am saw its effects wearing off and more tears. I remember AKHF having a terrible earache when we were young and it being so distressing. I found a bit of paracetomol, but then really panicked when for a minute I thought I had given him too much and could foresee having to get his stomach pumped or something. Silly really, I had given him a third of what he could have had, but the early hours had scrambled the logic applied by my much more sensible and non over-analysing brain that went to the cupboard and administered. I hate medicines for this very reason, but they did the trick. Obviously he couldn't make it to school, mostly because he was so tired. Porridge in bed with grapes sorted the last of infirmity out, of him at least. We had a wander to the square to get a bit of fresh air, and then Ben made it home on his own. My big boy is growing up even more.

During the day Little A and I had watched a bit of Arthur Benjamin and then Marcus Du Sautoy explained something of symmetryto us. We tried to impress everyone with our new knowledge. Agu reproduced a whole page of drawings and tables to his delight. He seemed to get the idea of patterns in maths very quickly in some form or other. Fascinating. We are on a bit of a secrets of the universe quest at the moment.

And if you run out of flour, and a whole host of other ingredients, the secret is improvise. The answer? Banana doughnuts. Don't ask me for the formula. It just worked.