Thrilled to tell you that I cracked the code on the holidays in the Sun website to book the dates we wanted to go to Disneyland Paris. I had priority booking as had gone on a holiday before,with the Sun, and I have dutifully bought the Sun every day for a week and taken out certain pages before despatching it to school for painting duties. So I have all the tokens if anyone of you has started collecting a bit later than me, ask. I was at the Coop at 7am in the rain to buy today's comic, and then logged on straight away. I recall from last time, you see, that you don't actually put your first choice at first choice, but subtly slip it in amongst other dates that you are not interested in, in a variety of combinations, and eventually (took about 10 goes) your actual first choice ( they don't think it is, you see!) is offered to you. Seems a bit similar to the travel agent who suggested Goa when I said I wanted to go to Mexico.

So, I have booked caravan accomodation on a nice looking site about 20km away from aforementioned site of cheeriness and 50km from Paris as we are intending to have a day of culture to cancel out the plastic tastic, and the ferry crossing for UNDER £120! I have booked hundreds of holidays this year, I ask R about the money and he just shrugs, so I will keep going until he looks panicked, or suggest I find myself a night job. We managed to swap our Eurotunnel booking (this is amazing!) for free, for an earlier train, as I have a half day, the girls have a INSET day, and R was chatting to his headteacher who offered him a half day, so we should get to Arras at tea time and not at midnight, and on the way home we will stay an extra night in Arras and not have to have the pressure of driving solid all day and HAVING to get to Calais no matter what. Long sentence I know, but basically we get a longer and more calm holiday. That is the skiing I am talking about, btw. R is also skiing by coach with 40 teenagers but more about that after. Not actually skiing by coach, skiing on skis, not on a coach. I went to Hedge End library and stocked up on CDs for the journey, so far I have 10 hours listening time, including the Famous Five. H is really into Jacqueline Wilson, who teachers will know as the most popular author for girls aged 9-12 ish, and she touches on difficult subjects, with divorce, adoption, bullying etc all covered in her books. She is an engaging writer and incidentally lives in Kingston. I found one J Wilson CD so hopefully we will find a few more as I scour the libraries of Southampton and Hampshire in my quest to stave off boredom and travel sickness across France and Switzerland.

That sounds like I am taking on the whole of France and Switzerlands' ( is that right place for ') problems with travel sickness and boredom. No, I am just thinking of A who recently has shown great fortitude in making it all the way from home to granny's without being sick. Usually she got to Farnham/Guildford and I was thinking that Granny would have to move. Now, with some magic pills from the homeopathic section in the chemist, she is doing the whole 70 miles, so we have some hope for a mega crossing of Europe.

A went for tea at Duncan and Emma's last night and came home like Kim or Aggie. First she offered to clean the house for payment ( Wendy has been ill/snowbound for weeks now) and I said no, the house is clean enough, as I had raced around and done as much as I could on Wednesday and it doesn't need cleaning. So, she offered to spend today cleaning for free, to keep herself busy. R and A had the chat last night about moving out, we seem to have found a solution that doesn't involve waiting for another 3 years for enough council points. When I have been getting stressed thinking about how to move her on, into a more positive situation and not back to a hole like the YMCA, R has been really calm and focused and come up with what we all hope is a winnng combination. A insists that she will get up at 6.30am and come here to look after the girls for me on my work days from 7.30am. She failed twice to get up and look after them when she lives here so my expectations are low. So, the tentative plan is that she will be in her own studio flat ( probably in Sholing) by my birthday.

Yesterday we all watched HSM 1, which R and I have not seen before. It is by far the best of the 3. You have to watch it - even if you are a Sci Fi fan. Such a feel good film! R is a huge fan of HSM, and told his tutor group, who are 15/16 year olds. They think he is mad.

Funny story from R. He was helping a girl with her work, and asked her -'where is the sudoku spreadsheet saved?' She replied with 'Ummmm...'. He looked up at her, waited for a proper reply, then looked at the screen,where there was a folder labelled 'Ummm' where she put all the things she wasn't sure about.