Dear me! That winter-vomiting thing is not nice - as many Newtonians and I found out yesterday. It arrives from nowhere and it really knocks you out!

Thank heavens for Diana, I say. Quite how she manages to respond to every noctural knock on the door, and to go and clear up any evidence of illness, whether it be midnight, 2 o'clock in the morning, or any other time, as well as look after a husband who isn't known for being the world's best patient, is beyond me.

The one good thing about it is that it seems to disappear almost as suddenly as it arrives, and I'm now beginning to get a bit of strength back, after a thoroughly unpleasant night. I do hope that all of our Newtonians who are suffering similarly will soon be over the worst. It's immensely frustrating, being quarantined like this, because there is so much than needs to be done, and I can imagine that things are piling up over at school, and that my desk will look more like a bomb site than it usually does when I return!

Enough for now. Schweppes lemonade: that's the only other upside.