It never rains...

No, really - I've not seen rain for several days, but that's not the meaning of this post.
We're up in Scotland at the moment, staying for Easter with my parents on the Moray coast. It was a lovely Easter weekend with plenty of food as usual. The problem came on Easter Monday.
Putting Meredith in her Bumbo seat her trouser leg rolled up to show an unmistakeable purple rash. We took her to the bedroom to take a further look and tried that test where you roll a glass over the rash to see if it blanches. It didn't. Fearing meningitis we got straight in the car and drove the 25 miles to the hospital at Elgin where they wasted no time in ushering us straight through to A&E, who deposited us in the children's ward with not inconsiderable haste.
Four nights of testing and intravenous antibiotics followed (into a vein in her scalp - ouch!) until Meri was finally given the all clear to come home on Friday morning. It was a hugely stressful time for us all and made us glad we knew the signs of meningitis so we could waste no time in getting Meri to a hospital. Without urgent treatment this is a potentially fatal illness and no messing around should ever happen if you see a rash like that.
The tests were, in the end, inconclusive, but it was the opinion of the consultant that it was more than likely a meningococcal infection which, if left untreated, would have blossomed grimly into meningitis.
So - there we are, home and relieved for the weekend and ready to head down for a relaxing afternoon at Spey Bay when we notice the car windscreen has a huge crack down one side. A quick call to my insurers later and we find this can't be repaired until Tuesday 21st! So much for getting Meredith back home after her ordeal and so much for my work trip to Lincoln too! Never mind, I suppose an enforced extension to our time in the north will give all of us a little time to unwind before the long journey home. Sometimes though, you just want your own sofa, your own kitchen, your own bed.
So, as they say - it never rains. And thankfully that really is one thing it hasn't done this week. Not yet, anyway...