Such a lot of Bitterne in my life I haven't had time to tell you. On Monday I went to a disappointing aerobics class at BLC, not very enthusiastic teacher, she is much better doing Body Combat which she obv loves ( and I do too). Tuesday was the classic NRG, with additional flailing around added on to the end of the routines for comedy catch you out effect. Woke up aching yesterday, still aching today, so had a rest day today. A asked for a relaxing day at home, but we ended up having one of those days like we used to have a lot of, with more visitors and phone calls than normally come in a month. It was lovely, I am feeling creative and people oriented, so great to see lots of friends, and even the gas man came round. And A and I made 2 types of muffin - blueberry, and carrot and cheese ones. A had lots of friends to play with and been gorgeous with them, I sometimes worry that she is not such a socialite as me and H - and can find it hard work sharing, but recently she has turned a corner and is very generous and offering to share even precious things. She gave away a cuddly toy today. Great! We used to have a pre Christmas cull, where we would get out a club and whack them till they bled, then take them to a charity shop. The teddies, not the children. Anyhow, word obv got round, cos we don't get anywhere near as many soft tody gifts, and the ones we do are high class stock from Hamleys.

A rare trip to the cinema today. I have taken a while to get this Orange wednesday thing, but tonight was the night! Lorna and I went to see Pirates III. It was long and I found myself yawning. That is my review. Sorry if you are excited about it. Was funny in bits but not as good as I was expecting, and had to concentrate really hard to work out who was double crossing who, and why. Some good insights into 'eternal life' - I liked the line that went something like - 'Its not jut about living forever, but about living with yourself forever'. There were some cool surreal bits 'on the other side' which were quirky and funny and interesting. I just don't find the romance interesting or believable and I may be outvoted but I fear Jack Sparrow has done all he can.



Got home to find that Simon won the apprentice.

Here is the web address for the Claygate Flower show. This year I am entering some classes (maybe not going head to head with my dad with the lettuces -yet). Would love to see you there if you want to come. I propose meeting in between the Fancy Dog competition and the Morris Men at about 3. Then on to the Vintage cars, the jams and finishing with a cream tea in the hospitality tent.

http://www.claygatecomputers.co.uk/claygate_flower_show/index.htm

I saw a flyer today for a Southampton Thai Festival, with Thai food, massage and a 'Lady Boy' beauty contest. Now, I am interested to see how many entrants they get.

Pilates at Chamberlayne tonight, got to be done hasn't it? Hey - you weren't there.... what kept you?

Portsmouth again. I have nothing bad to say about it. In fact, on a sunny day in Southsea, it would be easy to feel the Lord calling me to move there and live in a delightful genteel road just back from the seafront, near the Waitrose and other handy stores.

No such luck this time! The rail journey was smooth as ever, and on the way home I shared the bike space with a friendly couple from Hedge End who had cycled from Havant to Porstmouth via Hayling Island for fun. Now, I offered them a game of Scrabble next time they want low impact fun. On the way back, as I cycled past the dump in Hedge End, I noticed a car like ours, and amazingly, it was the rest of my family. R is obsessed with visiting dumps to pick up bikes, and there they were, at exactly the right time for me to meet them and get a lift home. How good is that?

Other good things that happened today were: I was sat on a wall eating my lunch, v quickly as I had a migraine coming and wanted to get the blood bulging through my temples again, and as I turned around to pick up my banana, there was an enormous Stag beetle just making a dive for my ryvita. It was big and ferocious looking and attracted quite a crowd. We had one living in our garden last year, but not as big as the Pompey beetle. Maybe it felt self consious about its size and was intending to use ryvita as part of a calorie controlled diet.

Not the friendly lady on the train home, who had a pack of 13 doughnuts and stood up and offered the spare 5 to anyone who wanted one. One boy had two. It was a great moment, you know I would do something like that and it is so good for me to see someone else do it, warms the cockles and all that. I am not the only weirdo in this world. She was travelling with a group of teenage girls, so I think she had shared the doughnuts, not eaten 8 herself.

Rob is watching the Matrix. We are about 7 years later than everyone else in watching it, but as Dave E recommended it I have avoided it as usually our film tastes never overlap. Having said that, Groundhog Day and Moulin Rouge are two exceptions to the 'Never put Dave(id) and me in the same room with a film on' rule. Dave, I did try really hard, got about half way through ans liked it, then got all tangled up with the computer stuff and didn't care enough. I am sorry, everyone, I really wanted to like it and persisted for a while, but just too sci fi for me, who rates Anne of Green Gables and The Sound of Music in my top films.

Kathryn Copsey of CURBS was the speaker at the training I went to today, and I will write more serious things about what she said on the Southampton Vineyard website. All I can say here is that she is one of my heroes of the faith, and someone I want to emulate in my work and life. Impressed with long word, huh?

I don't think I told you quite how much I ached yesterday after doing Body Combat on Thursday. It is such fun, the time flies by, your heart beats at triple speed and you do loads of comedy kicks and punches. It is a shame it doesn't fit very well in my routine, as I would love to go every week. We had a good swim after with a couple of Roos friends, spent an hour in the pool catching up. L, little girl friend of A's requested that I take her to the toilet rather than her mum. Ha! N had obv suggested this to L, as I stood for ages in the grim surroudings of Bitterne Poolside toilets in a cold and wet bikini - only joking - world not ready for that - tankini. Not even a Bitterne obsessive like me can find anything good to say about the 'wetside' toilets at BLC. Try them for yourself and tell me what you think.

Last night I chaired an AGM, and have stood down as chair and am no longer on the committee for Roos (that is the toddler group we go to on Fridays). I don't find chairing a meeting a natural or fun thing to do, I am much better at being the annoying one who asks all the questions than the sensible one who nods and pretends the questions are interesting and relevant. Anyhow, did it for a year as I said I would, and am pleased to hand it over to a super duper new chair and secretary, with some of the old committee sticking with it to provide continuity. A much better outcome than I anticipated, we were thinking we would have to close the group.

Tonight I ate my first harvest of potatoes, grown organically (well - kind of) in my garden using our compost. So, thank you if you have eaten fruit in my house and put the peelings in the compot heap, or double thankyous if you have urinated in the compost heap. Think that's only one of you.

The potatoes were great, fairly good size for new potatoes and I was very proud to dig them up. When I grew my first ever courgette I took a photo of it, but decided against a photo here of my spuds. I spent an hour replanting some lettuce seedlings, as I have several hundred as GGG had a seed planting fest a few weeks ago. I have spread them out a bit in bigger pots so hope they get to a stage where they are slug proof, or at least resistant. What good do slugs do to the world? Guess they make snails look good.

Watched the Apprentice at the same time. (As eating the potatoes, not planting the lettuces).The one where 3 get fired, and its down to 2. I am hoping the woman gets the job, The guy is harmless but seems a bit daft and lacking in gorm. Anyway, that is me judging and I am not prepared to put myself up there so will shut up and wait for next week.

I am reading a book called 'How to be an ex banker, female and content at home' or similar title, and although I live in a different universe to Bridget Pluckley Smythe, I have found some gems in her advice. Scrub gently with the brush to do the washing up. Get 2 doormats, inside and out to save on hoovering - yep done that Bridge. And more seriously, foster your creativity and enjoy some time to do things you can't do when your world is timetabled for you. Hence my gardening sesh tonight. She also advocates following the child's lead with games to minimise frustration for both of you - and I went for it today, following A round two parks, pretending to be a horse sleeping over at her house, grating cheese (tricky with hooves). Then we came home and I pretended to be a visitor to her Play Centre and then we pretended to be Hansel and Gretel and dropped crumbs up the stairs. It was fun, but I was ready for a sleep by 5pm.

Also played Swingball with H (mum, you're not very good at this are you?) in an effort to encourage her ball skills as I HATED PE as I was rubbish at throwing and catching. With R being an intermational cricket star I have asked him from the pregnancy stage to work on the girls' hand eye coordination etc. Its a tricky subject for us both, he can't remember it ever being hard and was one of those people who got picked first for any sport. I was the one they offered as an extra to the other team and start crying as soon as I think about the girls suffering the same humiliation. So, Swingball is a big deal for me.

Does anyone have any silver very high heeled shoes I could borrow for a wedding in the Autumn? Gents?

I have recently joined the local freecycle group, which is a mystery to me. You get a number of emails per day, which thankfully go to a webmail address else that is all I would ever read, with people in Southampton offering you things for free. So far I have been interested by a rabbit hutch and a stash of Enid Blyton books, but as I joined to get rid of my stuff I don't think I should get any of anyone else's rubbish. Although I could store the books in the hutch.

Good news! I have got a regular half day a week work for the next 6 weeks! I am really pleased with this as I have been missing school so much it is sad and that will not take too much complicated child care arrangements. Ta da!

The camping was so nearly cancelled cos of bad weather forecast, but we went, we had top weather and a fab time. So, never trust a weather man. I put the tent up by myself, well with H holding the poles (it was quite windy so she did good), and despite the heady heights of guiding I reached, I was nver very good at camping. I learnt the art of delegation at a young age, so never did the firelighting, wooding or putting tents up. So, it was quite an achievement to put up an unknown tent. It was a freebie, given to us by the lovely Ali, who works with R but clearly has another more highly paid job in the evenings as she can give away nearly new tents! It was lovely to have all 4 of us snuggled up, and we have a varied selection of campophile friends who lent us assorted essentials. Another of Rob's colleagues donated a new camping table and stools, I wonder if there is something of national import in the amount of, and quality of camping equipment in the hands of Cams hill staff. Or more likely, it is that most people in the UK have a stash of camping stuff they never use and feel guilty about, and we are some of the few people they know will not be insulted at the offer of a freebie mallet.

In case you are taking notes or a stalker, the campsite was called Hurley and is near Marlow and Henley, on the River Thames. The girls did some paddling in the Thames, and we walked to Marlow, through splendid green farmland and past some of the biggest pads in the home counties. One place had a summerhouse that was about the same size as my all year round house. The campsite reviews suggested that the facilities were good but the chap on reception a bit surly. All was as suggested. As long as you don't have to share a tent with Mr Surly, no problem!

K and A, who came with us on their first ever family camping trip were disappointed to find that it was not a naturist camp, as they had packed for one. Still, the hot sun meant no one minded! Although in Marlow itself they did get a few glances. Marlow is soooo posh. The average age of first time mums is double or more what it is in T hill. The children are ALL called Felix, Hermione, Xanthe etc etc - I mean, a few of those in each class is OK, but it would double the amount of time the register took. Mind you, prob all in schools with half the number of children so works out ok.

Watched Etre et Avoir last night. A beautiful, slow and delightful documentary film about a small French school and the teacher who nutures the 12 or so children across the primary age range. Bliss. Small schools are a wonderful idea, in some ways I would love to teach a handful of children at home, but I think there is a lot of good in being in the school system, which outweights the bad. Esp at H's school, which is fantastic and has the best set of mums in the UK!