Friday 12 December 2008

Turkey’s off. Anyone fancy a chicken (pox)?

Last night, after struggling single-handedly through BB’s bathtime / mealtime / bedtime routine, I noticed that the little light on our answering machine was flashing.
Oh goody, a message.

Bonne soirée!” sang my friend Carla’s sweet Franco-Portuguese voice. Carla had come to visit us only last Sunday, with her two year-old son Gabriel.
“Just checking how you are…” she began, “oh, and by the way, Gabriel came down with chickenpox yesterday, so I thought you should know… I mean, because he played with BB on Sunday… So, well, I guess you’ve got some chickenpox to look forward to! Anyway, joyeux Noel!”

Flustered, I went online to do a little research. It just gets better and better. Apparently, chickenpox has a two-week incubation period. So, that will take us right up to… well, fancy that, right up to the day we set off to an isolated village in the Pyrenees for Christmas week!
Then, just to round off this chain of good news, my eye fell upon the last line of the medical document I was reading: “chickenpox is one of the most contagious illnesses in existence. You don’t even have to have physical contact to catch it: just breathing the same air is usually enough!”

Poor BB. Now when I look at his smiley, innocent face, I can’t help thinking (gulp) : “you’re condemned. It’s just a matter of time.”

It’s all the fault of Christmas, if you ask me.

2 comments:

Les canadiens said...

We had almost the same experience last week. The only difference was that we picked up the phone when our friends called to informed us that their lovely daughter had developped chikenpox. So I had a great time blaming them for their unconscious behavior to let her daughter come close to our 6 week old babyboy...
Still watching closely his skin, nothing at the moment!

Shirl said...

Oh no!
I hope your BB resists!
Sometimes they do, apparently, so fingers crossed...