As I am being examined and catergorised by the NHS for my impending slice under the butchers knife, I have been spending longer than usual on buses and at hospitals. Which leads me to some thoughts.

First, I had a camera on a tube poked up my nose by a junior doctor who assured me she had had it done herself and it didn't hurt. Don't ever believe a doctor, I say. Interesting piece of humanity was the interaction I had with the nurse, who had been busy peeling bits of the last patient off the floor when I came in, but when it was my turn to be 'done' came over and offered her hand for me to hold. Isn't that amazing, how we need human skin to skin contact in times of stress (or when someone in authority has blatantly lied to us). And a stranger will do. Aren't we a weird bunch?

There are lots of posters and signs at the hospital, which is great for a environmental print junkie like me. This one I rather like: Duthie (Trust). I hope it means something to someone, cos it means nothing at all to me. It's like a cryptic crossword clue. Trust Duthie? Is it an imperative? Why should I? Who is she or he or it? Or is Duthie Greek for trust?

Another of my favourites goes something like this:

Want to Bleep 2282?

Want to know how?

Ring 2343, ext 554, then 9856.

Oh. Glad I asked. Will not bother next time and will just writhe in pain on the floor of the lift and hope someone notices eventually.

Anyhow, I found out that I may be a day surgery case, owing, I expect, to my amazing physical fitness, super low pulse (only just got one) and the fact that I will drive all the staff mad correcting typos on their signs if I stay in. Was looking forward to hospital food and cups of tea brought to me, will have to make the most of the opportunities I get, especially as have to fast from midnight the night before.

Buses, sadly, do not reap such picking for EPJ personality types ( Environmental print junkies). The same old adverts stay up for months at a time. I was on the number 10 for an hour getting there, and an hour back, resisting the temptation to hop off and on again in Shirley. Read the advert for Chlamydia so manytimes I know it off by heart.

I hear today a rumour that as well as knocking down Bitterne Bowl, Lord Bitterne is going to be putting a Woolworths and a New Look in its place. Its a poor swap, I know, for a bowling alley, but still, puts us on the map, retail wise, eh? What next? Waitrose? Gap? I wait expectantly for news of major retailers fighting to get a spot.

Our train adventure went well. A had a bit of a hissy fit on way there and on way back, and considering it was 7 hours and the length of England, that's not bad, and a lot better than we would have had in the car. Plus no sick. Staying with the Shottons is always a delight, home cooked rustic fare, feather beds, milking cattle at dawn, that type of life up in Northumberland.

We had a fabulous sunny morning at the beach, with the girls in rock pools and the dog tearing around the place, I managed a quick wander up the sandy beach on my own and a sit and pray in the sunshine. We spent a rainy day in 'Seven Stories', a brill children's exhibition with Roald Dahl and Horrid Henry exhibitions, and a dressing up room, puppet making and an arts and crafts space, we spent all day there and could have stretched it further. It's in Newcastle, so bit of a long way to go just for the day.

On the train home yesterday we had a crowded carriage from Derby to Birmingham, when a load of Aston Villa fans got on. Had some engaging conversations with H on why people speak differently in different parts of the country. The Newcastle accent is delightful, and I know people say this, but the people are really friendly. If it wasn't for the rain and the cold I could live there. Can't say the same for the Aston Villa accent. They weren't particularly perky, a kind of well behaved if slightly drunk mish mash of masculinity, and on returning home R checked out the football scores - their team had won 6-0. Which made R wonder what it would take to get Aston Villa fans really happy. I mean, what we saw must have been the top notch on their celebration scale. Bless em.

Our cat survived our absence, and has been very cuddly with us since we got back, even heard purring, so clearly she loves us and missed us. Ha! I have been looking up recycled alternatives to cat litter as she doesn't seem too keen on jumping the fences and going on Hattie and Adam's lawn. One blog suggests shredding newspapers, but we only get the Advertiser and I don't know if that will contain all her wee. Still, will give it a go and report back. We have had a stream of Echos from the Clarks, so will ask them to keep them coming and let the cat wee all over them - after I have extracted the competitions, of course! Still a bit desperate for winnings. Entered one today to win a weekend stay in Essex. Bet I win that one, as no one else would enter it.

Rowed 2000 m today. Bejing, here I come! Or maybe I won't, as it is a bit further than that to row solo all the way to China. And I have an appointment with a surgeon this Friday, so couldn't get going on the row till a couple of weeks hence.

At the gym I did 41 minutes of CV work, then went to Pilates where I was irrited by having to do all the exercises on a stupid piece of foam tubing. I do get annoyed by some of the things she makes us use, although I am sure it is good for me to get stronger, more flexible and do all that with a hoop or the inside of a car tyre or whatever she brings along. H was doing some cat stretches and other exercises in the train yesterday, a girl after my own heart, not at all self conscious about stretching out in public, although the gangway is not very wide and the people at the table opposite were very forgiving.

Read a book called 'serve god, serve the planet' by Dr Steeth or Leech or some such name. Very very good book, makes you think about all aspects of life, not jut changing lightbulbs and the obvious things like that.

H and I had a swim at The Quays today, very peaceful, we were in there for about an hour or so around tea time. The recent threat to the Under 7s free swimming, which was going to be 'axed' under Conservative council budget cuts, was actually turned around completely by Southampton's new Lib/Lab administration, which has increased it to all Southampton resident and educated children up to 12. I feel personally responsible for this U turn, as I wrote an email in protest at the cuts. So, please bother to vote at the start of May, and please vote for a Lib or a Lab, purely so my children can continue to get free and unlimited swimming at The Quays. Sorry to get so political and use this blog as blatant canvassing, but, surely the Bowens' swimming prowess is a campaign worth getting behind? H can do the 'caterpillar' stroke now - like the butterfly but without the arms.

We bought new school shoes today, and had the marvellous experience of sharing the John Lewis children's shoe department with the most fantastically plummy ladies with their offspring, who must live in another world to me, with their children dressed in jodphurs and with their fabulous 'Winchester set' country casual look. I really do find it harder and harder to realise that I share my world with people from such a different world, and we probably only live a few miles apart. Like Curdridge or Colden Common or somewhere out there. We only go to John Lewis for shoes because R started the tradition when H was small and he liked the fact that they page you to let you know when to come back to be served rather than waiting. We have been to the Clarks in Woolston a few times in my bid to 'buy local' but the girls see John Lewis as the only place to buy shoes worth a mention.

Bitterne has not shut down. I have just been there so much lately I have not been sitting down to tell you about it. Just a bit concerned that all my readers will have been bothering to make their own pilgrimages to the precinct to check for themselves on the strength of the mighty centre of the East. Don't bother. Stay at home and read this instead.

Last time I was in Bitterne library I did notice that it was shutting (about now) for a re-fit. I will look forward to telling you more next time I find myself there. The most amazing thing may be happening for me at Bitterne Leisure Centre next term - for the first time in history, the girls' swimming lessons that I have asked for will be at exactly the same time! Meaning I get half an hour in the gym while they do their lessons, and then get out of there fast. I keep on meeting people and chatting and getting on well with them, and then H moves lessons and we don't see them anymore, so no more of that trouble either!

Last Friday it was raining a lot and I cycled home from Netley Abbey in suprisingly good spirits considering just how wet I was, and saw a man down the road with some plastering kit in his boot. So I asked him to do some plastering for us, and now, a week later, 'tis finished! The guy in charge was a 'Thornhill lad', as he put it, despite being 52 still sees himself as a lad, and more importantly, despite now living in Sholing, is proud of his birthplace. And quite proud of his plastering. Now I need to start on the decorating, and will be trying to keep up with the Jones's ( Steve and Elaine) - which shouldn't be too hard.

We adopted a cat recently, she is grey, pretty and shy, and can be friendly when she wants food. We have named her Emily, although she was called MC before that. The best thing about this cat is that she has been claimed as an official stand in for the rabbit and guinea pig that I was dreading getting this summer, but had promised. R has got to drill a hole through the house to make her a cat flap, so that is a down side of cat ownership. But then she can poo on our neighbours' lawn rather than in a litter tray. I will train her to go over 2 fences and poo at number 86. They are Christians and they won't mind at all.

Yesterday we took a look at 'Ariel' the boat, in position down at the sailing club, and on Friday H and R went down and rigged her to practise. H has all the kit now, including rubber shoes, which she wore in the sea yesterday while the other girls wore wellies. I really hope she likes sailing, after all the investment... The other boat which was in our garden for a week or two has gone to its temporary home with a boy from R's school, who is borrowing it for a couple of years. It was R's when he was a teenager, so as you can see, we like to deal in vintage maritime equipment.

This week's teaching day was really energising, in the morning I had Year 2 who were all dressed as aliens, astronauts etc as they have been studying space. One girl came as a rocket, but had to take it off as she couldn't sit down. In the afternoon I had Year 4 sewing. My heart sank initially, but I made loads of them unpick their stitches that I thought were not their best, and they concentrated and did brilliant work. It was a really good task, great for working on fine motor skills and I was really proud of them at the end. I noticed a full time job going at my old old school, the one I said I would go back to when the head left. Well, he left ages ago, and I have done a couple of days supply there over the years, and would love to go back - but not full time! I don't have any work booked at the moment, and my church paid job ends at the end of April, so I am in a transitional time right now, and coping with it better than I thought I would. Plus, Ihave the umpteen layers of PVA and emulsion to do on the hall, stairs and landing to keep me busy.

I have had a very lean month for winnings, with precisely none. Have stepped up my efforts this weekend and hope to win a home alarm system, a few trips to Paulton's and a mountain bike.

Forgot to tell you that the skate park in Cobham has no grafitti on it.

After my last complaint about winnings having dried up, we had a bumper crop! I won tickets to the Dinghy exhibition in London, which was handy as we were up in Surrey, and so R, H and Nanny Jackie went to it and whilst there entered another competition, which they didn't win, but because they went back to find out if they had, they gave H a bouyancy aid signed by top sailing legends. Now, you can't have a buoyancy aid without a boat, so today R and H went and bought a boat, like you do! Some of you will know that R used to sail, and in fact we had a boat until about two years ago, when the combinations of tide, wind, light, me being in a good mood and it being the weekend and him not having a headache came about less often than a blue moon, so we sold it. However, thanks to Bitterne Leisure Centre's swim school, H has her 100m badge and is therefore sufficiently waterproof to go out with R, so good luck to them. A and I will go to the play park and drink tea in the club house! The club in in Royal Victoria Park, so it really is a fabulous location, can cycle there no problem, although may be tricky to rig up the 3 bikes to tow a dinghy.

So, that ended up being an expensive win. Cheaper wins this week were mine - 2 E cloths for cleaning the bathroom without chemicals, really fabulous, like the ENJO ones I already use. A won a 'Make your own Rupert Bear kaleidoscope' which she has enjoyed.

I don't think you know that the bus from outside my house to Bitterne has been stopped. To get there, we now have to walk down to the shops and get if from there. Swimming on Tuesday, both girls swim consecutively now, which is easy, if a little sweaty in the changing rooms. A is in a class with mainly much older girls (3 out of 5 of them share her name) and seems to be just about getting it, but her arms are a bit short to do some of the tasks! We went for our Quays swim on Wed, she likes the creche so much she stayed longer, so I did my new gym routine and had a swim and steam and sauna. Not had any stalkers so far, but will expect one in the sauna this week.

Today, to combine the boat purchase with a trip to Winchester, A and I got the train from Sholing to Southampton and then to Winchester. We met the rest of our family there, and checked out the much lauded Discovery Centre, which is a library, nothing more. After a fraught 'picnic' in a corner of a shopping centre, we whiled away the afternoon at the free Winchester museum, which is truly marvellous, as well as being free. We dressed up as Saxons and acted out things for ages, with me as Ethel the servant. H was the princess, and then in the Victorian section plumped for the posh girl's outfit. I pointed out that we (well my side of her genes) were more likely to be the maid, as my grandad was a cowman and both grannies were 'in service' but she was having none of it. We made mosaics, did heaps of colouring in pots and designing things, hunted for pictures and pretended to be working in an old fashioned pharmacist shop. I showing my age at this point, as a teenager I worked in a pharmacist's and we kept all the medicines in little drawers. The customer had to ask for things one at a time and you had to go and get them.

As we had made such a saving on having a picnic lunch we splashed out and spent £10.77 on tea for us all in a Wetherspoons pub, making use of the vouchers that had come through our door earlier in the week. We are working hard on reducing our food budget this week, I am cooking enough of everything to put some in the freezer, so the week ahead should be a fairly easy cooking week. Good thing I am saving my making sandwiches and flasks of tea, as we need to shave off £250 from somewhere to pay for this boat! I used the opportunity to tell H that because I go to work we can afford boats and holidays and days out, so not to complain about going to breakfast club anymore! She used to moan about after school club, but when I picked her up on Thursday, she was bowling on the Wii. Now, most of you will know that my feelings on computer games are fairly strong and negative, but I can see that the Wii is probably a good thing if it exercises your body and mind. And if it stops H complaining about going to After school club once a week.

I enjoyed my day as a teacher this week, it is lots of fun, I had year 2 and year 3 and taught some maths, some RE (talking about death- one boy has a collection of boxes of pets ashes, another told me his goldfish died because his dad stamped on it, and his dog died becasue his dad set fire to the kennel. Should I call the RSPCA?), read some funny books and poems, taught about solids and liquids in Science ( And where would you put hair gel?) and did some Roman marching for active learning in music. I mean, how fun is that? And all in the company of delightful 7 year olds? How could anyone not want to spend their days as a teacher. It is the best job ever! I can't wait to get back to doing a bit more than one day a week, if only so we can upgrade to a gin palace from Swanwick marina. OK, it may be more than a couple of days a week, but hey!

In my quest for the high life, I had a massage and facial on Friday, which was fabulous. I used my birthday money from my ma and pa for it, and it included a facial massage and a head massage as well as the back, neck and shoulders, so I am all massaged up to the eyeballs. Had it at the hairdressers in Woolston, hardly Champneys, and cycled there and back so ruined my back by the time I got home. I have entered so many competitions to win a trip to Champneys.