Yesterday I saw a dead hedge hog and a dead squirrel. What are the chances of that? Not very good at probability, but do you think it increases your chances of seeing one after seeing the other? Or was it just a bad day for animals? Just think how many I didn't see that were under bushes or in the gutter, sufficiently decomposed as to be unrecognisable.

Today, the two marmalades went head to head on my ryvita. Josh wins on the 'slimness of the shred', and the 'bittersweet taste' awards. Rachel wins on the 'colour' and 'best newcomer' awards. Both are to be awarded my crest, to display on their produce. They are permitted to write:

Old Pa Crandon/Old Ma Taylor, supplier of fine quality marmalade to the Bowen household.

on all their jars. It must be engraved into the glass of each pot they make from now on.

I find it ironic at best, that after forcing my children to walk and banishing the pushchair from our lives as they approached about 8 weeks, I have found myself pushing A around in a buggy as she has been suffering from sickness viral thing. She is not light to push and I have had to relearn that bus buggy etiquette, where people all shuffle around to make room for each other without making eye contact.

We did Bitterne in style today. We did a big shop in Iceland, which is fabulous because you leave it all with them and they deliver it later - for free! There is a new bargain bookstore next to Iceland. But generally I prefer the library, although maybe not for presents. Giving someone a library book is probably not normal behaviour in present giving. Bought A a hat for 30p in a charity shop, and purchased some wheat free pasta in the health food shop. Its on buy one get one free, so if you have a wheat allergy move along fast to Bitterne. Also purchased some more herbal remedies to add to the stack of pills I take each morning to make my brain, hormones and joints stay in synch with each other. I am on antiobiotics at the mo as well, so I need one of those pill dispensers that the elderly ill have, with the days of the week on little boxes. Anyone got one spare?

Yesterday I had a splendid day with a year 4 class who were wonderful. We met Terence Blacker, who is an author for those of you who are not up on him. He came across as very charming and took the children's questions seriously, and gave advice to budding authors. T B writes the Ms Wizz books, if you have heard of her. He (TB) came into school on purpose, btw, as part of book week they have authors in all week for the children to meet. Just in case you thought I stumbled across a man in the street, and asking his name, found out he was a famous author. Well, clearly not very famous, as you had not heard of him.

Last night we watched the Hot Fuzz DVD. Thank you Josh. It had a few more guns and a teeny bit more blood in than the usual genre I view, but it was so tongue in cheek and funny that I adored it. It was very silly and clever.

Today, I travelled by bus and was pleased. I was a little pressed for time and Dunc offered me the use of the van, but I remembered that I was doing the car share for a reason, and just felt that the bus was the thing to do. And it was. At the bus stop I chatted to a man with a diagnosed illness who is off work on long term sick, and lives a hermit like existence. His words. He was on his way to Bitterne, so instant bonding with a fellow sufferer in me. I told him about our house group and described it as 'a bunch of losers asking God for help'. Hope that doesn't offend you. He got off, and a lady got on and sat next to me. We talked about the rain, and her allotment. On the way back, I chatted to a guy at the bus stop who is back from the Philipines and trying to find a flat and a job so he can fly his wife and 5 year old daughter over, as she has been sexually abused and he wants to come back to UK to avoid the pain of being there. He asked about my church, and we discussed Catholic schools and his quest to find a church here - sounds like he had sone well and found a URC that he feels is pretty good. Then, a little girl I know who is fostered was on the bus when I got on, with her mum (real), and so I got to meet her mum and chat with her about her beautiful daughter. Now, I am pretty sure that I am the richer for having had these interactions with real, broken people, and whether or not god used me to bring a reflection of himself to them, he certainly used them to reflect himself to me. Now, who wouldn't go on a bus? What an amazing blessing to be touching real people, maybe lives that never touch again, but who knows? If I had been in the van I would have been struggling to find first gear and panicking about parking and would not have noticed the faces of the other people on the same journey as me.

NRG tonight at Bitterne. New routine. So painful I will not be able to get up in the morning. And I cycled there and back for added torture so if I do get out of bed, I will be walking like a cowboy all day. If you see me, just point and laugh.

A did a fantastic sick fountain last night, over me and her, so have spent the day at home, with her watching Cbeebies, and me cleaning and houseworking. I have problems with my Dyson, frankly I clean too much and it is flagging, so I borrowed my neighbour's 6 cylinder beast. You know the commandment in the bible 10 - don't covet your neighbour's ox etc. Well, I covet that Dyson! It actually cleans the carpets. You could empty all of the dirt out of the botton with the flick of a switch. Luckily I was on the patio when I discovered that. Not hoovering out there, not that obsessive. I recently purchased a new iron, while we are into appliances. I carefully researched to make R proud of me, then bought one from the same company but with different numbers to the one that was top buy. It is from Philips, and as Steve J works for them, I trust he personally put it together and if it goes wrong I will bypass the normal channels and go straight to him. In fact, I have put my faith in the iron solely on the basis that Steve is a trustworthy, wise person and would not work for a company that made rubbish. So, no pressure.

Must go, have some ironing I am desperate to do.

Today we went to a swim party in the grounds of one of Rob's colleagues homes. It is near Bognor - well past Chichester and in uncharted territories. They have a swimming pool and the girls spent 60 mins and 90 mins in there. H then said she felt she would die and had to have a nap before she ate her tea. Which she did, so she is still alive. I like meeting new people, and talking to them and there were lots of extraverty feelers (EF) amongst the party goers, so it was easy to chat with people who were easy to chat to. I left the introvert thinkers (IT) for Rob to draw out of their shells with discussion of zoom lenses, gear boxes and PC spec. I have come to uderstand that the ITs -no coincidence on the initials - like talking about IT with people who understand, and HATE talking to wild women with crazy hair who ask them how they feel. So, I have realised that the best policy is to leave em alone and find kindred spirits to share anecdotes and feelings and wonderings about the world with. It has made social situations so much easier since I stopped bothering with asking deep personal questions of IT people, who genuinely don't know how they feel, don't even know if they ever have felt and certainly wouldn't tell a stranger if they did. And I am sure a whole load of them are a lot happier for being left alone by the wild woman with the crazy hair.

If you read big chunks of my blog in one go, which I do not advise for readers with heart conditions, you might think that my life is rather like that of a WAG - all trips to Pilates, Yoga and the beautician. You are right! Today I had a leisurely swim in the slow lane at the Quays, followed by a splash around with A in the leisure pool. All very leisurely. On Tuesday night it was NRG, and the last week of the 6 week routine. So, next Tuesday will be learning some new moves and have different aches. I do work as well though - its not all fun fun fun you know! Tuesday I taught Year 6 all I know about the environment - well, not quite all but did an hour of slightly scientific sampling of wildlife in the school grounds. It's lovely when your 3 - no, 4 years of study into the environment and countryside pay off. I imagine.

I did one of the most stupid things I have ever done today. I had a cheque to pay in from a friend, who owed me £40. I had not paid it in as she said she would pop round with the cash instead. Today, she did. So, I thought about it and then ripped up the cheque in the paying in envelope and threw it in the bin.

Later, R mentioned the money he had received as a tax rebate - over £1000, and that the cheque should have cleared by now. Yes, dear reader, you guessed correct. It was in bits in the bin. I rang the bank and they said you can't present a sellotaped cheque, although R did a good job with the sellotape and they might not have noticed. That last bit was my analysis, not what the bank man said. R has been giggling to himself and revelling in the fact that I did the stupid thing, not him. He called me a rude word beginning with d and ending in d. He said he is going to tell everyone, so thought I would get in there first.

Today we had a slightly different house group to normal. There are normally about 6 of us, adults, and we have a relatively tidy evening meeting to listen to each other and God, and pray. Dunc and Em have gone away for a couple of nights and in their absence we dramatically changed the set up. Pity them. They work incredibly hard to steer a pirate ship full of broken lives through uncharted waters, and have to do all that with Underseawoman Kay on board, always thirsting for new territories and treasures yet unseen. Or something. Anyhow, if I tell you that everyone left before 7.30 and I just finished tidying up at 9 you will see why I describe our usual meetings as tidy. We had a barbecue, with kids, and me being the inviting kind of person that I am, invited a couple of GGG, a mum from school and her 2 kids and a lady from round the corner with 3 of her 9 kids. So, total head count was over 15 children and about 7 or 8 adults. Hey! I should do parties as a career! Some of us in our housegroup have read a book called Messy Church, by one of my heroines, Lucy Moore. I can see where she is coming from. Anyway, I am particularly proud of the fact that me and Ange and Donna womaned the barbecue successfully, as it is one of those men's jobs in my house that I feel unqualified for by nature of my gender. Generally, that means it is something that strikes me as boring, dirty or both and so I don't want to do it. But barbecuing is great, everyone has very low expectations and so burnt is the norm.

I am reading 2 books about the brain at the moment. One of those 'Why women can't shave and men can only eat with chopsticks' kind of titles. The other is about babies needing love and affection in their early months, and the problems stored up in later life for those who don't get it.