The games we play

This morning I woke up feeling sorry for myself. I had gone to bed with no voice, woken numerous times through the night to the rattle in my own chest, requiring great, heaving coughs to clear, and there was no hope of a day off (too much to do to get sorted for Friday's video conference). So there I was, ready for breakfast.

Last night in my state of 'slightly-unwell', I thought that I would need a healthy breakfast to sustain me. I don't eat cereal of any kind (unless you count dry, homemade granola as a snack, or dry nutrigrain in a cup once a year when I'm craving). I was too tired to make my wholemeal 'breakfast bread' filled with honey and good-for-you seeds. So I had decided on some wholemeal toast with some boiled bantam eggs supplied from the man down the road (also our post-master). That would be filling, good for me, and give the energy I need to survive the day. A great plan!

By the time I woke up, I was feeling so sad that I couldn't take a sickie and sit in front of the fire that I couldn't bring myself to be 'good'. Especially when, as I opened the freezer for my wholemeal bread, I found frozen waffles. I had made some last weekend, and frozen the leftovers. Now, I realise that I had crepes for breakfast only yesterday, but.... I'm not wellllllll (imagine a whiney voice if you will). So now, the only problem is to hide my plan from the kids. They were still expected to eat their wheet-bix like good little Aussie kids. So I toasted the waffles as though it was my normal peanut butter toast, I put them in a bowl to hide them from plain view (well that from lower than the bench anyway!) and I hid the maple syrup behind the milk bottle. Enter Will. Will, 7, decides that I must know the ins and outs of every second of the Scooby Do episode he's watching. He stands right in front of my bowl of waffles, just on the right angle to see the maple syrup, and as he speaks he 'looks' into the bowl at every third word. He finished his story with a flourish and a smile, threw me a 'love you mum' and flew from the room for more mind-numbing Scooby Do. Not a peep aabout my breakfast. Nothing! I had a little giggle to myself and sat down to eat. Ah, the games we play....why bother with such efforts?