Recipe for Marital Breakdown

1. Have children sick for a week at least and add slightly unhealthy feeling to parents.
2. Go to a city where you have been only once before. City MUST be in northern hemisphere (reasons apparent below).
3. Think selves very clever, take clever bus service from outskirts of town parking area to centre of city.
4. First failure - bus drops you about 1/2 mile from where you thought, area NOT covered by map. People in so-called information centre have NO maps, not even that you can buy.
5. Cross town somewhat erratically - meet angel of mercy (wandering tourist ranger!) who gives map and instructions. Meanwhile feeling slightly stressed as to whether will make it on time.
6. Find puppet theatre. Deposit children, run off for supposedly fun quality time, but both too grumpy and cold to enjoy.
7. Need to find way back to bus station. HE proposes we take so-called short cut round back of castle as on map. SHE proposes go back the way we came.
8. Go HIS way. Get to intersection, turn wrong way, SHE refuses to budge and says its THIS way, he says NO, she says YES. She wins and he grumps that its wrong. Eventually she is proved right. (There is a sodding great castle in the middle of the town making it reasonably straightforward).
9. Next intersection, HE says, this way, SHE says, NO THIS way, bit of an arugment, SHE takes map, finds shortcut and arrives at bus station.
10. Thus HUMILIATION for him (apparently - see next entry on blog).Reality is that he navigates N/S/E/W by the SUN, but fails constantly to adapt to Northern hemisphere (we were once similarly lost at noon in Australia when HE got it wrong), whereas SHE navigates by looking at HUGE GREAT CASTLE which tends to give a sense of where one is in the town.

Suffice to say much fun had by all!

Best part of the day however, was the gizmo pictured below which came with the new other gizmos - clearly designed because everyone knows no man ever reads the instructions BEFORE trying to plug all the gizmos in. cos of course they know how it works!!! Definitely highlight of my day.

Half Term and Plague

Half term holiday has been an absolute blast...J & M were off for the last Friday of term sick and we didnt get out of the house except to go to the doctor until Friday. So not a lot of very exciting things to report except for the daily phlegm report and overnight temperature maxima and minima (the kids not the weather). We went to Norwich on Friday for first outing of the half term - Mardi booked the kids into a puppet making workshop followed by George and the Dragon puppet show. They had a good time, but on the way back to the bus stop I got 'lost' and Mardi found the way which is a total humiliation.

Spring may not be here yet but the signs are all there! Lots of bulbs and blossoms starting to come out and it doesnt get dark till after 5pm!


I installed a wireless adsl modem router...a source of great mirth for M since it included the following warning which she claims is specifically aimed at the male audience (ie read the instructions first).

Not exactly prague...

OK, so it isnt -17 but hey, it's cold for here...we have been having the odd -5 night which is a little inconvenient for the ducks! How do the swans cope in Prague? On the plus side we have had a 'fair bit' of sunny weather, more than normal I think. J's class have been studying rain and all the kids have had jars out to measure rainfall for the last two weeks - so of course there hasnt been a single fall of rain for exactly 2 weeks. Now the project is finished I am expecting torrential rain for the next month.

Finally another car!

Great excitement, we bought a 2000 Audi A4 today, in my favourite colour (R says this must be why I picked it out of the lineup). So will be mobile again hurrah!
Had a busy couple of weeks since getting back from Australia. Little M turned 6, and had a dress up party - which she enjoyed immensely. Kids have been to the opticians and we have Visual Therapy to do with J, but hopefully it will help. J is now officially a cub, very excited about that. Loves cubs, but missed out on the excursion today as he hasnt been very well for a couple of days - sniffles etc. They are both playing quietly downstairs with dolls and dressups. Work is hectic, was supposed to go to Venice this week but had to postpone til later on. Half term is coming up, but I dont think we will get away at all - might go to Bath in Easter break I think. Renewing kids passports - thats always fun. And big news is we have booked to go to the Dolomites in August. That is going to be GREAT!! Anyone who wants to come is invited, but let us know soon cos accommodation has to be booked. Not cheap but something we have always wanted to do - R has had a guide to Dolomites for about 15 years!!