My dear Watson ...

Well not my dear Watson, in fact, because Watson actually lives with my middle son and his family, but I'm sure you get my drift. 

We haven't been round to their house for a while because our youngest granddaughter has had a really nasty virus, accompanied by a high temperature, for about five days. In fact, of the nine children in her nursery class, only two were present on Monday, all the rest having the same symptoms. Today was our first visit after she'd recovered sufficiently to go back to nursery yesterday, so it was good to see our daughter-in-law and our two youngest granddaughters after quite a break. 

Watson came to sit on the sofa between me and my husband and went to sleep. He is rather elderly, so we'll forgive him for ignoring us.