The week that was

Well, Gordon, you're not alone. Being soundly beaten by the Conservatives - and the media - can't be easy, but at least you haven't had a round of interleuken 2.

Quent looks as if he's had a brush with the Zimbabwean political scene. The Crewe bi-election has forced "blue by injection" out of the headlines, so I thought I'd bring you the full story in pictures below. It's true, it can be grim up north.

Before (taken last Sat at the wedding):

After (taken yesterday, when Q's mouth was too sore to smile):

Here are his "blue by injection" hands, shortly after a rigor - and the bruising on his back, arms and legs (which actually looks much worse in the flesh than on a phone camera).

The good news is that we escaped a day early. Quent was feeling - and looking - really terrible 12 hours after dose 8 and decided against another dose. He felt sick and had bad diarrhoea throughout the night. He has also developed some rather nasty sores on his palms and around his mouth. Apparently, Oakley was asking Lorna why Daddy goes into hospital to get better and comes out looking worse. It's a reasonable question and more pertinent than ever this week.

We haven't seen Oakley yet as he was very excited about his sleepover with Jack and Martha and we weren't about to spoil it. He didn't even want to speak on the phone last night. So we went to bed early and woke naturally at 9.50am, with Quent saying "Was that the best morning ever?"

I imagine Gordon Brown has a fairly tough couple of weeks ahead of him - but at least he knows the bi-election won't be re-run in a week's time, with even worse results.