Needless to say I got over it quite quickly.

When I picked him up he looked all happy – talked me through the whole day – mostly what he’d had for lunch – he thought he’d been given “beetroot crumble” until it turned out to be apple and blackberry crumble.

He was awarded “Player Of The Day” by his football coach in PE which I”m REALLY pleased about because you can’t get much better than that on Day One. He’s made some friends and likes his teacher and, and, and,

and, I shall just hold my breath for a minute because after a few days of lots more homework etc, from experience they begin to find it all gets a bit relentless and he’ll no doubt not feel quite so upbeat.

Here is the difference – last week there was a picture in the paper of the Foreign Secretary and his new special adviser. My observations were along the lines of “hmm, why does he wear that dreadful baseball hat and mmm doesn’t the young Mr Myers look cool – jeans and pointy blue shoes, aviators and hair”. That was about it. Simple thoughts. Now the same picture is being printed and I’m looking at it in an entirely different light – young, sexy new aide looking lovingly at William and yes, now you come to mention it they do look a bit camp and did they share a room together? ….

It’s like the bit in Ali G when the politician was accused of having sex with a horse and he goes down a ridiculous path of denial – all about falling in front of the horse accidentally at the same time as .. you get the picture.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION. The rumours have gone from a smattering of anonymous internet users to the front pages of every newspaper – probably of interest worldwide and now we all know about what he hasn’t been doing.

And why has Christopher Myers resigned if he’s done nothing wrong?

Odd.

How many of you parents out there eat with your children every night?

Apparently we mostly cook two meals now. One for the children around 5pm and one for ourselves and our partner around 8pm. I used to do that until I got divorced. Now we all eat together every night. Quite late admittedly for the kids BUT it has meant that we have a lot of time to chat (argue) about life.

My drastic approach is not a good reason to encourage valuable quality time with the children – but it’s a little ironic I suppose that I’ve ended up spending much more time with the kids.

Apparently the books have been flying off the shelves. Which surprises me. I’m glad I’m not a publisher, I wouldn’t have thought it would have been a bestseller in this current climate and certainly wouldn’t have risked a rumoured 4.6m advance (is ALL of that plus proceeds going to charity I wonder?).

I’m not going to buy it. I’ve seen the quotes I need and am not at all interested in the detail. We already know about his love/hate relationship with Brown, so that’s nothing new. He was clearly never going to apologise for going to war and his alcohol addiction? OMG – I really need to seek help if half a bottle of wine and maybe a whisky or a gin and tonic was even worth mentioning! Or was that before breakfast?

I slightly feel that whilst we are still reeling from the effects of the last governments behaviour (regardless of whose fault it was) and his ongoing money making activities, to bring out such a high profile book now is unnecessarily rubbing salt into wounds….but perhaps that’s just me.

All three of them go back to school tomorrow. My youngest child is starting a new school and is very nervous. So am I on his behalf. I really want him to love it, so that he can feel settled and happy and we don’t have worry about thoughts of moving him to another school in the future.

Fingers and toes crossed.

I have been clearing out their rooms in the last few days in an effort to uncover desks and bits of furniture that may be conducive to working effectively in their bedrooms after school.  I’ve discovered all sorts of things I didn’t know they had. So far the best thing is this pair of shorts found in my teenage son’s room that my youngest son found and then donned before I had a chance to confiscate them.

Good grief – he obviously got them during the world cup…..whilst on his boys on tour trip. At first I thought it was an image of a lion, but on closer inspection….:-

This single is in advance of a new album coming out later in the year – which (call me an old cynic) will no doubt be a Greatest Hits album of all their old stuff, which is why Robbie is rumoured to be making only a brief come back for a mega tour next year.

The video helped though – quite funny in a Brokeback mountain sort of way:-

Talk about feeling old though – being surrounded the most gorgeous bunch of girls in very short skirts and very high shoes is enough to make any 40 something woman want to climb under the nearest duvet and never come out again.

Just look at this selection of legs attached to very high strappy shoes. I’ve never been able to wear shoes this high:-

I see that there is a “Plan B” emerging. I love Plan B’s. Surely there is some far more advanced machinery floating around the world somewhere that can be sent to Chile ASAP?

My suggestion would be that BP’s Head of PR starts getting the ball rolling to start the rescue operation. Would do lots to improve their customer relations worldwide I’m sure.

My chef of a ten year old son made him a fantastic cake (although it got a little bit squashed in transition):-

I don’t want to put all the family pictures up but here’s a great one of my mother and my son walking back from our meal – can’t believe my 10 year old is so much bigger than her!:-

We stayed at the most lovely place in The New Forest – a beautiful country house hotel called Whitley Ridge which worked really well for all of us – we stayed in a self-catering apartment in the grounds:-

Very sadly though, I’m having to miss my very good friend’s second wedding. She’s having a HUGE party on Saturday night and I just can’t believe I won’t be there. Such a shame.

But. Family is family and that’s it and my father has been through SO much in the last year it will be a very special party.

Bit worried because Builder Bloke is coming and he can be very loud and opinionated – even more so after a few drinks. I’m just going to have to put him on the children’s table if he doesn’t behave.