Sping is here

also noted by the local primary school

I'm in Superdrug

When it comes to beauty products I'm as knowledgeable as my neighbour's cat. I inherited a bag of colours a few years ago and I do smear them on my face sometimes but now that I am preparing to go to Big School and I have already bought a satchel, some pencils and a pair of jeans, I think new make-up might give me an extra boost.

So I go to Superdrug and join a five-year old picking up tubes, peering at them and am phased by the fact that there is an entire aisle devoted to things JUST FOR EYEBROWS!!

Only little girls are in the Superdrug make-up aisles, I suspect that grown-ups go to proper lipstick shops but last time I did that I was persuaded to let a lady in a white coat turn me into a smelly clown and I'm not doing that again.

Some little girls, are clustered around a slightly taller one, aged about ten, the others watch intently as she wrinkles her nose and pokes her finger into a tube of beige cream - I stand close, hoping to learn something - a six-year-old, with the seriousness of journalist on her first interview asks

well which foundation do you use?

Bread and Butter Letters

A class from the local primary school visited Mark's Bakery. He showed them how to make bread and the children sent thank you letters which he has put up on the wall. The teacher has provided translations

Small Mercies

The car needs it's annual health check so I took it to a garage in an on-the-edge part of town.

I left it to be examined and walked over to a sort-of-café to get a cup of sort-of tea while I waited for the car to be looked at. It was nearly School Time so there were lots of noisy children being escorted to school by parents and grandparents.

The sort-of-café has a strip of melamine against a wall which acts a bit like a counter top and there are slippy high stools which are hard to get a purchase on but I gripped with my feet and looked at all the stuff on the melamine which included two cellophane-wrapped gift packs with tags on - these were products from the 'Nappy Cake Company' - inside the cellophane were toweling baby things, wrapped in a way that resembled cakes. I wouldn't want one unless there was rich fruit cake inside.

When I leave the café the children who didn't go to school are riding the pavements on battery-powered mini-motorbikes.

The car has failed the test and will need replacement parts. I ask what the cost will be and I wait while the mechanic phones around asking for prices of things - every now and again he puts the phone down and says 'we won't get those then' and tries another supplier until he's assembled a list of parts that add up to the least money possible, but it's still a big list and it will still take all day to put them into my car so I will still have to give him five hundred pounds at the end of this week.

The good news is that he can fix my broken battery lid with superglue and there will be no charge for that.

Jesus The Musical!

This year's Easter happiness is brought to you courtesy of my nephew

I want to stage his version of the Passion

This is his cake-decorating video

Took My Poorly Wrist

to the GP this morning.

The drop-in surgery consumes a whole morning, but there are no available appointments for the rest of the year so I took knitting and a book to while away the hours but there is so much entertainment laid on I can't concentrate.

Some parents do homework with their school-uniformed children. Others use the opportunity to catch up on a bit of slush-reading, bringing their children in fancy dress to run around putting out fires and rescuing each other.

The children understand that this a place full of poorly people so they have to scream quietly which is why the vinyl fartseats are such fun, only some of the waiting room chairs behave like whoopee cushions - so we wait and stifle our sniggers as a tentatively lowered bottom triggers one of the loud ones.

Road Trip 4: in Which I Fight Dragons

Spent some days in Scotland fighting dragons/dinosaurs and volcanos with my nephew who helped me draw this picture of our adventures.




Explored a part of Scotland which involved a journey through the 'Devils Beeftub' also ate a fishcake while I was there.

Child Scaring

My Christmas contained young humans this year, I'm not often in their company and I find it hard to gauge my answers to their questions;

My 4-year-old nephew asked me what work his Auntie Lorna does

She sells cranial drills


...to brain surgeons


... So they can do brain transplants.