HEy! Get this freecycle thing! In a fit of organisational excitement late last night we bunged some things that were clogging up the spare room on for freecycle. By the time I check my emails tonight, most citizens of Southampton have emailed me for one or more items, and I have to decide on the most worthy. The first to reply? But what were they doing up later than me? The ones who write cheerful, chatty details about the reason why they need the item? Although clearly the men will not do that about computer bits, and instead ask questions with numbers in them about specification. Do I offer to the person who wants 3 of the 5, on the grounds that less fuel will be used by one car collecting than 3, or does that come across as greedy and better to share the spoils out? Do I offer to most local on similar environemental grounds? If someone offered to cycle or come by bus, then they would get my vote (especially for the mattress!). What an etiquette minefield. And to think that I might have walked past any one of these people today and not known, that they want what I am throwing away. If you are not on your local one yet, get on it! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! As I am famed for not overusing that phrase!

Did Pilates as usual today, with the squashy balls this week, much better than the harsh hoops last week. H has a party to go to today in Whiteley, it was a bus that parked on our friend's drive and had a mini play zone inside, with ball pall, climbing stuff etc. Wouldn't that be a fantastic thing to hire for a wedding, to give the kids something interesting to do? Nearly as good as Pete and Mim's inspired ice cream van for afters at their wedding. NB - use of term ' afters' a northern term, particularly used in Chesterfield, a small mining town in the Peak District.

H and I picked some raspberries on the way home, and then we made scones and served R a cream tea as his Fathers day treat. Oh, and we had a go on the train at Riverside Park as well, and as his treat I braved the actual journey with the girls and let him do the easy bit - waving. Waving on trains is weird. Really tiny children wave as you go by, and you wave back, and it is this weird thing that everyone does. I think it is in the genes of the British population, a way of being friendly without the possible horror of having to speak. You can smile and wave and know they will be gone. Except at Riverside Park, where you get 2 trips round for your money, and unless the spectators have moved on you have to do the whole ritual wave again.