I felt terribly competent, driving to Gloucester in the pouring rain today. I did not get lost and I did not crash. I should by rights have got lost, though, because at one I took the correct exit onto a highway off some roundabout or other by accident - had been aiming for a different (incorrect) exit, and was too slow to get into the lane I thought I wanted.

The people at the hospital were extremely nice. I liked the endo. nurse very much; she seemed competent and friendly and just ... well ... nice. And she seemed undeterred when she attempted to engage my child in conversation and found all her questions met with evasive mumbles.

Her : So, Emily, what have you been doing with yourself this summer?
Emily : Um ...
Her : Have you been anywhere interesting?
Emily : No, not really.

No, Ems. I guess all those mountains we saw in Utah were a bit tedious. And the Grand Canyon? Well, there's not really much there, is there? Just a big valley, really. And Boston ... well, one wonderful cosmpolitan city is much like another, not so? And I guess we haven't taken you to see many Fun And Educational Places during our month in England.

Ingrate. How sharper than a serpent's tooth, and all that.

The endo also seemed pleasant; she weighed and measured Emily, and seems to think that everything is looking good. So that's happy news. However, now that we've moved, we'll have to be assigned to a new endo. here in Surrey. That's one of the chores assigned for Monday - registering with the doctor's practice here in Reigate.

Oh, here's some useful information for anyone who ever plans to visit Great Britain. Should you be driving along the motorway with a carload of hungry children, do not, whatever you do, give in to their pleas to stop at the service station to eat at the Little Chef. Unless, that is, you like weak instant coffee, nasty (yet expensive) fried food and a "non-smoking" area which is simply the right-hand side of a small room. Smokers to the left, non-smokers to the right, and nothing to separate them. I don't think they quite get the point of non-smoking areas : it's not that I have something personal against the smokers, and simply don't want to sit with them. It's that I don't want to breathe in their damn smoke.

Bobby had another frustrating day at work : still no log-in, so he couldn't do anything useful. You'd think he'd enjoy being paid to sit around but it seems to be making him almost as miserable as his previous high-stress job did. I don't know how he is going to cope; he likes things to work efficiently and fast - he's always thinking of better ways to do things - so working in a slooooow bureaucratic environment that (presumably) resists change may not be the best fit for him.