Saturday - busiest day of the week
On Saturday we were all up early to take Erik and Daniel to baseball, which starts at 8am. Daniel was, unusually, up first. He complained of a headache but it seemed like dehydration. Despite the usual protestations that they didn't want to play baseball, Erik and Daniel enjoyed themselves. After the game I went to help prepare for the Pinewood Derby while Inger-Lise and the children went in the pool at the school.
The scouts have an impressive amount of equipment for running the Derby. The boys race their cars on an aluminium track, raised at one end. The start and finish are connected to a computer which was hooked up to a projector to show the race results. I ran the "lube station" where the kids could come and lubricate the axles of their cars. All the kids sat around the track and cheered for their friends' cars. Some fathers had obviously "helped" their sons and really got into it because some of the cars were real works of art! Erik's car is the one in the middle.









Out at the pool, Daniel's headache had come back and he seemed to have a fever.... malaria. Inger-Lise took him to the hospital and had the tests done. Erik went back to a friend's house in the ExxonMobil compound while I went back to Statoil with Joy and Mathilde to get Daniel's pyjamas and BUPA card and for Mathilde to have her sleep. When I got to the hospital, Inger-Lise & Daniel were with the doctor. The tests (we took two) were both negative but the symptoms were so obviously malaria that they gave us the pills for the cure anyway.

That evening was Mardi Gras out at Chevron. We went back to Statoil and Inger-Lise went with Joy and Mathilde. Erik went with his friend. They had a lovely time watching the parades and catching the sweets and strings of beads that were thrown from the floats. Inger-Lise didn't find Erik until the end - he had been running around with the other boys. At the end, Inger-Lise stayed on for the party and Joy, Mathilde and Erik went back car.

Meanwhile, Daniel and I had popcorn and watched Ice Age II until Joy, Mathilde and Erik came back. Daniel took the first dose of the cure and Joy and I put the children to bed. What a day... but it was not over yet.

When I came out of the TV room later in the evening I waded into a huge pool of water in the dining room. THE BOILER WAS POURING WATER OVER THE FLOOR IN THE KITCHEN! All of the boilers in our flat have been changed once and the kitchen boiler 3 times! Either they have leaked or there has been a short circuit which electrified the taps!!! (yes, really!)

It took me one hour to move the furniture and mop up the water. I was not amused...!

But the story doesn't end there....