And to think he used to suffer with sympathy morning sickness.

I was chatting to k. when she mentioned that her mum was a little under the weather*. Turns out she'd taken a tumble on the farm, fallen into a trough and emerged with some fairly extensive cuts and bruises upon her person.

k.'s father, with the kind of sensitivity that sustains a marriage over more than forty years, merely commented, "Good thing there was no water in it - she might have got wet."

"Now you see where I get it from," says k..



*Although they're farmers, she was not under the whether.