Queue up here for your special brownie points!

So hello! I'm still here. No end of the world just yet. Phew!

Today, I'm having an extra-special day of denial. I have my misery-blinkers on so I can only see the fluffy and adorable. It's taking all my strength to manage this, but nevermind.

So - while Charlie has finally got sick and is trying his best to drown in his own phlegm, I am grateful

• for the good health care he is getting
• for the aerosol machine which I torture him with each morning and evening
• and for everything he's learning just now: he's waving, rolling, sitting, crawling, playing peekaboo - he's acting more and more like a child rather than a fish and I love it.

Of course I have also caught his bug (damn that creche) and while I could be complaining about my dripping nose and the greyness of the weather, I will not because I have many happy things to rejoice in today:

• I have boiling water with a shot of orange juice to soothe my throat
• I have my emergency stash of balmy tissues to keep my nose from falling apart
• I bought a magazine full of fashion, gardening, cooking and make up tips instead of the newspaper which promised only doom and gloom
• and, AND, a-ah-a-and (!) I finally got myself mobile internet!!!
  Yes, my darling internet people. After having my iPhone for more than a year, I finally got myself a data subscription for it. Scandalously late, I know.

So, here's my brilliant plan: later on, I will go out to get the kids from school and go shopping - that kind of thing - and anytime I have a spare minute I will check my email. While out! Revolution! And - please help me out with this bit - you will all leave me a comment so I have something to check! (*) (Ta-daa!) No pressure, people. Really. Pretty please? (**)

If you don't have anything to say about all the interesting topics above (sick babies, runny noses, mobile internet, to name just a few), I will give you a little help here:

• "Hello" is a perfectly decent comment. It will generate a notification email as well as any other comment.
• If you've been dying to tell me something tricky, here's your chance! Tell me I should really change my boring blog theme, tell me which words I overuse or what topics you like and hate. If you know me in real life you can finally let me know if I have a particular personal hygiene problem. Perhaps you think I have too much facial hair? Too little facial hair? Do you think I should grow a beard perhaps or whiskers?
• I've never had a troll. Trolls leave comments. Comments are good. Just saying...
• I like expletives, as long as they're not used as a description of me. Anything else that's rude will make me smile.
• How about a good joke?
• Perhaps you want to embarrass yourself instead? Go ahead.

So, I hope I have now made my desperation clear. To increase my chances, I will provide you with an incentive! Brownie points will be handed out for all comments. Here's how they will be allocated:

• One brownie point (BPt) for any comment whatsoever.
• One extra BPt for a comment that makes me giggle.
• One BPt for comments which make me want to do a happy dance.
• Another BPt if you tell me something I didn't know yet/need to know.
• One BPt for sharing something about yourself, two if you make it embarrassing.
• One BPt for a rude comment.

Now if that's not a challenge, I don't know what is.

You're welcome.

(*) Reading this post does not oblige the reader to leave a comment. All readers are understood by the writer to be an adult person with a fully developed personal will.
(**) No children will be harmed, ignored or otherwise disadvantaged in the process.

(I'm going now... With my mobile all pretty and online... No pressure...)