It's Grandpa John's birthday today - no doubt he'd appreciate a few hellloooos.
Last night we experienced the full brunt of the NHS health care woes. Gemma woke up with a high fever, followed by throwing up, followed by parental anxiety, swiftly followed by a trip to the emergency room at the nearby hospital, in turn followed by molasses-paced nonchalence at the hospital. In fairness this was the same place that did such a great job when Gemma was born, but something about walking into the Accident & Emergency reception room, having to read a handwritten sign directing you to, in time honoured deli shop fashion, take a number (from a well hidden machine), then wait for an indeterminable amount of time to a) see a nurse, b) book the case in, and c) wait to see a doctor. All in all a good 2 1/2 hours, but once in front of the doctor service was great.
More importantly, Gemma seems to be doing pretty well. She probably has some kind of head cold, and a bit of Calpol did the trick in reducing her temperature. She seems to be a lot better today. Her mother, on the other hand, is feeling pretty miserable, with headaches, achy bones, tiredness and the overall blahs.
On brighter news das Boys are in town again, doing that buying food, holding baby and cleaning up "pest? no, guest!" activity they do. They were traipsing around the countryside today and are cooling their heels until heading off to Paris.

It's mobility madness. After a few weeks of sitting with decreasing amounts of support, Gemma is now sitting herself up, playing, flapping those arms and generally quite pleased with herself (well, she's nonchalant about it until a camera comes out, and then it's all boastful smiles). She's also getting good at standing, when supported by fingers or ledges.
New on the food front? Some rice cakes, and this morning, her first bit of adult-ish cereal.

This afternoon we went for a stroll through Hyde Park to meet Lucy, Brett and Kathy. Spent a leisurely hour at No. 1 London, the residence of Duke of Wellington after his shenanigans in Waterloo. The place is basically a shrine to himself, set up when he lived there. The 7th Duke provided taped audio commentary consisting of tales of banister sliding and tales meeting grandpapa in room suchandsuch. Both Lucy and Gemma thought the audio guides were great, to grab and chew on.