Learning German, reading a self improvement book and watching devotional Psalm DVDs have slipped a bit now we are back to the real world of term time, with work on a whole 2.5 days of the week. Damned cat ignored the expensive Norwegian salmon biscuits and left a paw-made union jack in her food tray. I guess she is smarter than we thought, and keen to buy British.

Now, despite the lack of self improvement and language learning, my quest to find cheap entertaining and educational days out continues, and this weekend it is the Heritage Open days, when buildings that are rarely open to the public are open and FREE. Now, that is the draw, but there is usually a good reason why these places are usually shut. However, the museums of Southampton were joining in and offered free admission - and I had a half price bus voucher, so off we went. First stop - The Tudor House. This, and all the other museums, are in the old town of Southampton, which is behind the remarkably intact walls and a delightful area, despite huge and ugly blocks of flats, it retains a lot of character and is a part we never visit, but should! Now, the Tudor House is owned by Southampton City Council, who have finally got their act together and are renovating the house into a interactive and brilliant sounding museum, at a cost of about £5 million. The shocking thing is that the Council had neglected it for so long that English Heritage classed it as 'at risk'. It has a lovely Knot Garden, and a tunnel leading to a Norman merchant's house called King John's Palace, I think. Now, an added bonus of our visits today was the odd 'contemporary' art we literally stumbled upon, in the Vaults of old Southampton. So in this ruined Norman hall were concrete pillows, which I didn't realise, were ART. They really were a stumbling block, and the girls enjoyed using them as stepping stones.

We popped into the ancient St Michael's church and had a complicated discussion about bible thieves. Then off to the Maritime museum, which has an excellent and thoroughly engaging display about the crew of the Titanic, most of whom came from Southampton, and most of whom died. I recommend the museum, along with the Museum of Archeology, which was very interactive and worth more of our time, but we were hungry and had vouchers for Burger King. More art in the Vaults - this time torches making little shadow pictures on the walls. We then tried to do the Merchant House and Merchant Hall, but one was shut and one was being used for a wedding, so came home, via another Vault with a crashed spitfire, smoke and sound effects. ART. Southampton so undersells its history - it is a scandal and I fear yet another sympton of the council which seems to lack direction and vision for the city's culture. So! Take my word for it and go along to check these places out. I intend going on a tour of the city walls to learn more about the history of our city. I may even start taking people on such tours!

Tonight we had a phone call from an anonymous member of Southampton Vineyard Church, who was planning the songs for the meeting tomorrow. Always good to do it with plenty of spare time, and the challenge of leading on a ukele with a bongo for accompaniment would not daunt this housegroup. The request was for chords for songs, and what would have been a challenge would have been singing the tune of one to the chords of the one they asked for and which I dutifuuly passed on. They rang back half an hour later to ask for the right chords for the song they meant to sing. But wouldn't it be fun if they had tried to play the notes we gave them whilst singing another song, and all to a ukelele. Tee hee! When R was at uni, his Christian Union was a bit thin on the ground for musicians, and he once found himself playing the guitar and leading the singing, accompanied by a guy on a washboard and a girl on the trombone. I can't help thinking tomorrow might be a little like that...