We found the Meon Valley railway line walk today and used its levelness for H to try out her bigger bike ( a tip special ) and for A to try out her bike, which needs more than one adult and lots of patience. We intend to go back and do more of the route which was recommended to us by Josh and Libby, I believe. Thankyou.

Can not bear to inflict cracker jokes on you all, and assume you have heard too many of your own. Wonder how you get a job writing them though? A few people I know would do a great job. I have a new mobile phone. It is very smart and does everything you need and more. It cleans your shoes and teeth. I went to the 'help' section but did not understand any of the words in it. I went to 'help' because I did not understand any of the other words on the screen. I found a tutorial which was good, it showed me what I am missing, like if you go for a run, you can hit your mobile phone at the end and it tells you how far you have run, how fast, how many beats per second your heart was doing, whether you should be dead and that running is a stupid idea in the first place. And it does all of that OUT LOUD with the voice of a lady called Ellen. Cool eh?

For a Christmas present for my pa, R and I typed up some of his notes and his family tree, and I enjoy doing this as there is so much inside my dad's brain, and somehow I love feeling rooted in the past with all those names and places, somehow I belong there. Lots of his family members lived around where he lives now, and has done for the past 60 years. I love going home because it is a real home, where my dad came as a toddler and before him, his aunt and uncle and 2 cousins lived there. So, since the house was built just before the second world war, it has pretty much been lived in by my dad with his parents, and then with my mum and me and my brother, and I belong. My dad's mum is ther person I am most quickly associated with in the family, and sometimes it seems to me for my negative qualities - bossiness, talkativeness, impatience. So it is good for me to hear some good stuff about her and her family history and see myself in a better light from this angle of history. Where would the world be without bossy, impatient and talkative women? Someone had to be the one to tell the cavemen to pull themselves together and get down to Aldi's deep freeze section instead of wandering around the forest trapping rabbits.

Aldi has been a big hit this Christmas. Everything nice we have eaten or drunk, Rob's mum asks where it is from and the answer is always Aldi. Yes, I know; it means being unfaithful to Bitterne Precinct, but I trust you will allow me a few small manoueveres further afield. In the spirit of Christmas.

I have been reading Luke 1 and 2 over and over again as some way into understanding more about Mary and how that might help me understand myself better. It is amazing, when you read it from her point of view - she had angels and prophets talking to her and she was so much of an underdog, a poor, young, woman, with a dubious story about her pregnancy being from God... it shows me that God really can do anything with anyone. Even me.