Marmalade - come on! I am looking forward to a pot of Crandon's Peculiar, having nearly consumed all of the Bramhall vintage. I notice with my eagle eager eyes that Queenie uses Electrolux vacuuming machine to do her carpets and upholstery.

I have just come home from a Prom. I do not often go to proms, but R is a Year 11 tutor, and the option only comes around once every 5 years. The girls looked stunning, and it was the usual lad thing of a few of them looking grown up and a bit wild and gangster like, and the rest looking like they were dressing up in their dad's clothes for a joke. Bless em! I was quite emotional when I got there, all the mums and dads were there taking photos of them arriving, and I couldn't help thinking how fleeting this time is and it will soon be H and A getting out of the limos (or space shuttles if we all move to Mars to get away from CO2). R was taking photos of all his tutees to (his words) 'pin on a dart board'. And then they gave him a present, which was a dart board with a photo of them on! How touching!

A and I hung out today and went to the park and she did some great moves on her scooter on the skateboard ramps. You have to pick your times to take a 3 year old on a Barbie scooter to the skate park. During school hours works. Weekends don't. We have these great new sculpture stone bench blob things in the park, which are all bright white and begging for some graffiti embellishment. There is a cool 'muriel' up in the park of 'yoof in thornhill' which I like. Last night we went to a open evening at H's school, and I was blown away by how clever the kids are and how advanced they are with what they are learning. The head (well, acting,) is fabulous, she meets and exceeds my criteria for a good headteacher for my child, which is this: does she know the names of all the children in her school? She knows their middle names, their sisters' names and what levels they are working at in RE! Miss Maybury, I salute you!

This week we are in week 1 of our 'car free weekdays' experiment. I have failed twice - I drove to the prom tonight, and I drove to the pub last night. On both nights I could have organised better to get lifts, but during daylight hours we have not used the car. R cycled to work 4 days and is getting a lift tomorrow, I cycled to work twice, and to Parkway station and at the other end through Woking to meet with my spiritual director (or life coach as Ange calls her). Then back to get A from nursery, then to the scrapstore which was shut. That is up hill and with Amy on the back... she needs to get better on her bike soon as I don't think I can do it much longer... anyone want a baby seat? Cycled to and from Hedge End for swimming tonight. Thinking of training H for triathlon, as already she does a cycle swim cycle sandwich on Thursday nights, so just need to introduce some running.

Why am I confessing all this to you? I read an article about a family who sold their car and did without, and it got me thinking - something we have come to see as a necessity is actually a luxury and we may be able to do without - or with some access to a car, and that would be a good thing for the environment and for us, long term. So, rather than jump in and do it NOW which is my preference, we are going for R's option of a trial. We had our groceries delivered by Tesco, which probably outweighs any benefits to the environment of not using a car. Any feedback from anyone who had tried living more simply greatfully (sic) ( sorry, could not resist) received.