M and S is the object of my wrath today, after one day's wear of some combat trousers, for going to the theatre and to the art gallery, H had two rips in her trousers. They refused a refund, saying that it was something she had rubbed her bum against not a manufacturing fault. I said that I would expect children's combat trousers to be robust enough to cope with the everyday life of a child, and that she had not been climbing trees in them! After being sent away I rang up and spoke to the same woman ( damn) who still said 'tough - send them to head office' after I suggested that the trousers are not fit for purpose. So, for sake of £12, M and S have lost thousands of pounds worth of my future custom ( I was a big fan) and all the bad publicity of the millions of blog readers hearing about this sorry episode. I will send them off, and hope for a good outcome, or the M and S card gets cut up and sent back and they will no longer be getting my custom. Harumph.

Before that, which was before a shopping trip to Sainsburys, I went to Hilliers Garden in the rain, which was pleasant, with the extremely stimulating company of Suzanne Baker, who is a great listener and very much in a similar place to me in terms of world view - yet she is very challenging, too. She really should start charging. I would recommend her to you all. If you want to be challenged, that is.

We are singing and leading the first half of the meeting at the big church (Mother ship) this Sunday, and as a result of my passion for getting a bit of equality in the authorship of songs sung in church, R has been listening to lots of Vicky Beeching songs - a talented song writer and guitarist, and I enjoyed having her on in the background while I was doing my prayer time last night. Did you know that none of the songs on the playlist are currently by women? None! Last time I looked none of the books were by women either, and the thing that gets me, is that most of us don't even notice, we are so conditioned to church structures being male that we don't even see it as an injustice. Its not about our church, but about the whole damn lot of em! Jesus didn't intend for all the songs we sing and all the books we read to be by men. And some may say ' It doesn't matter!' but that is precisely why it does matter, because people are so used to it that it appears normal to their world view. Can you imagine how much it would notice if suddenly all the books were by women? It would seem odd, a bit of a shock - but the reverse does not shock us at all, and it should! We are all creative and yet half of the human race is not represented in the songs we sing and the books we read. I think that means we are all missing out on some of the gifts God intends for us all. And in the meantime, while you think about that and wonder why I care, I will read my Margeret Silf book and listen to the lovely Vicky Beeching. And wonder what I can do to nurture creativity and confidence in my girls, who love writing books and writing songs. In fact, they are making a CD of their efforts to raise money for poor people.

As I mentioned earlier, the girls and I went to the theatre and art gallery on Saturday, a very cultural day, with comedy story telling workshop at the Nuffield a bonus as I got free tickets for the girls. I learned lots of techniques that I will be able to use at school and the girls loved it. We had a quick nose around the portrait exhibition, with Dunc, Charlie and Daisy with us on a chance meeting. Some of the portraits were so 3D and detailed they were better than photos. They really were awesome and sadly the exhibition has shut now and moved on, or I would recommend it. I took the girls to look at my favourite 12th century altarpiece painting of Jesus, Mary and the saints, and also the one opposite of St Catherine, saint of education, who was tortured for essentially being a woman who read the bible and prayed. I was trying to explain the picture and why she was tortured and A said 'but Jesus wouldn't do that to people'. Indeed.

It was back to the Nuffield on Saturday night for a improvised comedy show based on cuttings from the Daily Echo. I took Libby and Hattie along and it was a very clever show put on by people who have a talent for word play and comedy singing and timing. Brilliant, and only £7.

On Sunday I took the girls up to Surrey, quick stop at ma and pa s and then to lunch with the extended Bowen clan, Granny M, Grandad P and Nanny J, R's bro and wife and their two sons and a girlfriend. Mary did a great dinner and there were awesome puddings on offer, R was not there as he was skiing in Calshot all weekend so he missed the pavlova. Both the journeys there and back were mercifully free of A car sickness, I have bought some Coculus which is a homeopathic remedy and so far so good! We met up with R at the swimming pool and I struggled to do my 20 lengths (mainly because of the other people in the lane doing a range of strokes and speeds including 'entire length under water breast stroke' and walking. Yep, walking in the fast lane. Had jacuzzi and sauna and read the paper while R battled with the hair washing etc etc as payback for being away all weekend! And he can now do parallel turns.

H was away all last week on a school residential at a farm in the New Forest, where she milked goats and cleaned out the pigs and all sorts of other choice activities that children like doing on farms. They also had a trip to Beaulieu motor museum (wahoo! - lucky them), a trip to Bucklers Hard museum, lots of walking and being outdoors in the rain. She seemed to be very happy to be home and seemed a lot taller. Or maybe I am shrinking. We missed her and it was very quiet, plus A was a bit of a lost soul at times.

The other great event of the week was accompanying Amanda to court where she was a witness to an alleged! dreadful case of child abuse involving her nephew. It was on the front page of the Echo and was on South Today and the BBC website, so I don't mind sharing the details with the entire universe here. Amanda was extremely brave in the first place going to the police despite knowing she would be disowned by her sister and other family members, and she was very brave in court (she was in video room as she is fearful of the defendant - and if he could do that to hs own two month old baby, so would I be) telling the barrister like it was and I was really proud of her. I found my first experience of being in a court room intriguing, and was mentally calculating the cost of putting on a court case of 4 weeks - all those barristers to pay! and how maybe £10000 a year to pay a part time support worker to help parents at risk of abusing in the early days of parenting is a small price to pay compared to the vast costs of a Crown Court case and the fostering bill, the medical care and all the social workers etc etc involved. But hey - I don't make up the budget. One little boy who Amanda clearly adores suffered along with many others who I don't know about. Amanda has seen him twice since he was fostered, and I had to pester and fight to get to speak to a social worker who had to pester a police officer and get back to us to say that Amanda could see her nephew -whose life she had may have helped to save. I only got to get an answer cos I used my posh phone voice - Amanda had been fobbed off many times before I said I would do my best Hyacinth Bouquet and get some action.

Played Guess Who? with H tonight. Seeing as I'm on my hobby horse, did you know that 16 of the characters are male, and 8 female? Why? Why on earth would a children's games manufacturer do that? Its presumably unconscious, which makes is all the more worrying.

Gosh I have stuck my head above the parapet tonight haven't I?