Late night Ashes

TV: Ashes: Test Cricket. Presently in its classic state: i.e. not much happening. Australia batting well against ineffective English bowling in Cardiff.
Knee OK, very sore throat though and reasonably persistent headache - I'll be pretty freaking unimpressed if the swine flu does suddenly grab me just as school goes back. Did a few school things today but headache now is making me want to go to bed and try to read some more of Breath.
Finished a game of chess today against an Indian bloke which I must rate as one of my best wins ever - he was all over me but I fought back and finally got him. As a chess fix, that should keep me going for a while.
Had some time at home with Verity today. She was keen to ride her bike, which she hasn't done for many months, if not more than a year, so I was happy enough to pump up the tyres and see how she went. Luckily it was still big enough for her so we went up and down the front timber and around the yard, and then down the footpath across the road when she was brave enough. She has training wheels but still needs two hands to squeeze the hand brake which is not really ideal. Still, it's great to see one of my kids interested in bike riding. Dec has shown virtually no interest in his bike since a couple of early goes a long time ago. Is this more genetic stuff? Thinking of the fact I didn't learn to ride until I was in about grade 5 or 6 and have only done it a handful of times in my whole life. Just not my scene, but Al and I would still like our kids to be reasonably proficient. There was one time in, I think, upper high school or maybe uni, where I was with a group in the city who suddenly decided to hire some bikes and go around the Botanic Gardens. I managed to do it but concealed the fact it was the first time in many years - and I was pretty sore afterwards, as I recall. We've tried to convince Dec that this is the sort of situation which could come up, but he's been unimpressed. He's gutsy in other ways, so I don't think he's being too wussy about it.
(Australian team really starting to slog now, so probably a declaration coming. Some people in the crowd in fancy dress - pretty amusing.)
More little jobs done around home - finally replacing smoke alarm. Al reminded me my mum still doesn't have any smoke alarms in her house, which really is bizarre. Typically, Al's on the case and has bought some for her. She also bought some pull-down blinds for downstairs but was irate to discover that because they have the pattern on only one side, you either have the pattern facing you when the blind is fully down, with a white roll at the top, or vice versa. She doesn't like having two colours visible at the same time, but there's not much you can do about it. I'm more concerned about the Chinese instructions which tell you to cut the blinds to suit your window space, and then cut the aluminium rod to match. What am I going to cut that with?
Probably a bit down about going back to school, which is normal for this time in the holidays; headache not helping. Oh well, more drugs and we'll see how it feels in the morning. Ciao for now.