Success!

Eileen - if some of those trolleys were horses, they'd be shot. I'm not sure it's the trolleys having a mind of their own or being possessed by evil spirits! I didn't have to drag the dratted thing around corners yesterday, so I'll take it as a win.

Aileen - we take a very hands off approach to bear. So far, so good. We never expected that he would think us worth listening to, but we will discuss stuff and he's incredibly easygoing. Mind you, he is an only child who has always been calm. 

First off, bear took part in the Oxford Computing Challenge. He was pleased with how he did, but he didn't think he did brilliantly. As it's a big deal just to take part, I'm so proud of him.

And his clothes came. The jeans are dark blue, so they're going back and being swapped for black, but at least we know that the fit is okay. He looks sooo good in the shirt (which he says is incredibly comfortable) and jacket. The jacket is a little tricky. Bear takes after his father who has broad shoulders. DH can't really wear Matalan shirts or jackets as they just don't have enough room for his shoulders and bear is nearly there. The jacket is a little snug. So while I got the jacket from Matalan this time, the next one will have to come from Marks & Spencer. Bear is still growing and has limited opportunities to wear a jacket, and Matalan's jacket cost £39. A similar one from Marks and Spencer would easily be double that as it's a slim fit tailored style with a nice lining. I'll stick with the less expensive decent enough version for now. As it was, bear loved it. He wants all the opportunities to wear it again. He looked so pleased with himself and so comfortable in it. It looked a lot better than his school blazer!

Writing stuff - In the podcast, we talked about the Forgotten Village and Digging up the Past. I wrote them ten years ago. My writing has improved significantly and when I went back for a quick look, I cringed. I am going to be editing like crazy and effectively re-writing chunks of both and I'm going to try and get it done before the 26th. I need to get in quickly as Amazon take time to load things up. So I am going to be caught up with that for the next few days. As the author I suggest that you wait a week or so before looking them up if you are interested, and they will probably go on free promotion in the next few months, so don't stress. I've also had a few thoughts about the characters there, so watch this space.

Hugs and good health to all.