Hospitality Transfer, and Sickness Round 3

Yesterday, Desmond embarked to his next destination (Spain). Now, the responsibility for our poor guest's health lies in the hands of a couple of Spaniards. We're hoping he has great health, great weather, and a great time. (It's amazing how important health has become to us these last few weeks!) When Desmond would get up in the morning, we'd bypass the peremptory "good morning's" to ask the real important question: are you still healthy? From the sound of his first blog entry from Spain, he'll need some rest when he returns to the more tranquil Crook household next week. (I have gathered that Spaniards go to bed a little later than the average Crook.) We look forward to hosting him again; we've had a lot of fun together, and we'll miss his helpfulness and humorous travel reports. We consider ourselves quite lucky as we have usually gotten the First Debriefing, which is always the best one, as my mother has oft observed when she talks to Ashton or me on the phone after Dad.

Sickness has continued to make the rounds of Waddinxveen. Marieke, one of my sisters-in-law, had the flu very badly yesterday. And this morning, the sword of Damocles fatefully fell on me: I woke up around 2 o'clock with an upset stomach. It has only now, some twelve hours later, recovered its respite. Liesbeth has been a very caring and helpful nurse. She even read me a story this morning as I lay down to attempt once again to sleep. She just left a few minutes ago to buy some more bananas (we've hit the bananas pretty hard in recent days). Her departure means the patient is no longer supervised; hence, this venture Beyond the Pond. But she's returning soon, so I'd better go before I blow my cover!