i am getting old.

not just numerically. "actionally."

i actually went to see someone about my cough the other day. was told i had brochitis verging on pnumonia. wah wah wah.

don't get too excited, the person i saw was actually an acupuncturist. but hearing from her that all was not well was enough for me to shift my "largesse" and actually go see a medical dr.who was very generous with the prescriptions, especially since in HK, drs offices have their own pharmacies and they profit nicely from anything you buy from them.

but the burbling in my chest was just a little too gross for me.

and being tired was another.

i can't blame being tired on this annoying "cough cough cough" thing though….honestly, i blame it all on sebastian. (right now, tomorrow it might be someone else). get this.

right before Easter all year fours go on a two night sleepaway camp. seb is v excited. in preparation for this camp his gorgeous teacher instructed all kids who had never had sleepovers to have sleepovers. this came back to me as "mummy I need to have a sleepover, right away."

well. it was homework and who am i to discourage homework?

so it was arranged that alex come to ours on friday night.

and he did, accompanied by pajamas, a change of clothes, and a bumper bag of sour cream and onion chippies.

what's this for? i inquired.

our  midnight feast! the boys responded gleefully. can we have one?

if you are awake at midnight, sure! i answered, perusing the shelves and wondering what cough mixture i could give them that would make them sleep soundly.

they were awake at 11pm but i wasn't that worried. they were getting tired. alex on the pull out sofa, seb and jasper on mattresses on the floor on either side of him.

by 11.15 quietness reigned. hooray! i thought and read happily ("One True Thing" – not the best, not the worst…good study of family relationships)

i turned off the light at 1am or so and coughed until 1.30. confident that the boys wouldn't rise early because they had gone to bed so late.

sound reasoning, yes?

however, before the sparrow's even considered farting, i heard a bang. at first i thought it was jasper falling out of bed (it happens) and then i remembered he was sleeping on the floor. then i heard the bang again.

the light coming from the hallway seemed quite light.

i staggered to the boys room and was treated to the entertaining sight of two naked nine year olds. the room light was on.

jasper was sleeping on his mattress, curled up like a little uncooked fusilli pasta.

the boys shrieked when they saw me and giggled.

"what..cough cough cough cough do you think you are doing?"

"we are getting dressed for our midnight feast!"

i had a choice. every fibre in my being was telling me to demand they get back into bed, snap their eyelids shut and sleep for another six hours. i turned off the light.

but this was a midnight feast! they could feast on this story at school for months!

yet….my sleep! their sleep! could i be guaranteed they would sleep in until 10am?

i put on my big girl knickers and said, "haven't you boys read the midnight feast manual? you wear your pajamas!"

more giggles.

can we go to the kitchen and get food for our midnight feast?

at this, i had to draw a very fine line in the sand.

no, lovey.. but alex has the chippies, why don't you have…two handfuls each and then call it a night? it is so late.

how late is it?

past midnight, but still time for bed.

i reached for the bag of chippies and handed them to alex. he asked me to open them, so i did, and as the celephane separated, i declared midnight feast 2011 open. as the chippy grease smell hit the air, jasper perked to life.

jj! it's time for the midnight feast! announced the boys.

jasper was ready.

in for a penny, in for a pound, i sighed, and went to wakeup the girls. i would rather have the girls participating now then have to live with the wails of despair that would come tomorrow when they found out this great event had happened without them.

but despite my efforts, the girlie whirlies did not wake up. faintly ominous, but YAY!

the boys were having a fine time and as i had silently predicted, had at least four handfuls of chippies in front of them and were giggling up a storm when i suggested it was time to lay flat again.

i lay in bed and heard stealthy sounds of the chippy bag being re-opened and then tiny crunch sounds. (they need to learn to let the chippy melt…a rookie mistake). i wandered back in to the room, nearly giving myself lockjaw with the yawns i was producing and there were all three boys, sitting up right, digging into the chippies. i removed the bag and suggested they lie down.

15 minutes later i told the little nancies that if there was one more noise, sebbie would come to my room.jasper volunteered for the task as long as we could keep the lights on.

it was then that we noticed that the bleeding sparrows and other dumb birds were tweeting, twerping and making noise. and light was comign through the window. yes, imagine that. it was frigging morning.

5.45ish.

the boys did try to get back to sleep, because i know they were silent, but they could not.

at 6.10 they asked permission to watch a movie and i granted it.

at 7.30 sela got out of bed and heard about the cool nocturnal activities. and she shrieked. carys stamped and "cwied".

i pretended none of them were there. i stayed there for eight more hours until charles got home from vegas.