The pox
There's an outbreak of chicken pox at work. People are disappearing for a week at home covering themselves in calamine lotion. And everyone is unaccountably itchy and paranoid about every sniff and cough, even if they are perfectly well.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I remain unaffected. My mother had enough foresight to send me off to play with every other sick child on our street when I was small, so I'd got through most of the childhood diseases by the time I was 7. Pox parties seem less common now which I think is a shame. My mother was of the opinion that, given the potentially terrible consequences particularly of mumps in adult men, it was better to get everything over and done with as early as possible. I'm sure it must have been a real chore for her to put up with an ill little boy - I complain now when I feel sick so have no reason to believe I wasn't hard work as a child - but I'm very grateful. It should mean, I hope, that I still have the chicken pox antibodies and won't get ill now. Fingers crossed.