My kids each ate a gingerbread person for breakfast this morning.

And not even a home-made, organic wholewheat flour gingerbread person, at that.

Why? Because, thanks to our having an extra mouth to feed last week, plus my disinclination to visit the grocery store, I had run out of cereal, yoghurt, bread, eggs and all fruit except cherries, which for some reason they can't stand. (I love them). There was one bagel left, but it was mouldy and the kids refused to share it amongst themselves. They really are ridiculously picky.

So the girls ran across the street to the bakery, and, since the croissants weren't out of the oven yet, returned with the gingerbread men.

I hope they don't have to fill in any questionnaires about their eating habits at school today.

Also, the dialogue as they ate their people was a little disturbing.

A sample -
Soph : I'd like to see you try running now that I've eaten your legs.
Em : Mine is waving for help. Oops - not an option anymore!
Stephen : Mine couldn't see yours anyway, now that his head is gone.

This week's groceries will be delivered this evening, so we will be back to normal tomorrow.

The weather continues gloriously hot - though most people who live here do not seem to find it glorious in the least. I will admit that it does in fact feel pretty darn hot, in this land of no air-conditioning, but jeez, I'll take blue sky and heat over horrible grey drizzle any day!

It is interesting to see the difference in the way that people here seem to respond to heat and cold. When it's rainy and dreary and bone-numbingly chilly, people do complain, but in a sort of an Eeyore-ish way, where they take a grim pleasure in the misery. In the heat, though, they just seem outraged by it all - they can't believe it's happening and they wish it would Just Stop Now. And they go all pale and blotchy and look sort of ill. I, on the other hand, feel affronted by damp and greyness, and thrive in the sun. Which really makes our decision to move to England seem a little ill-thought-out. Perhaps global warming will make this country work for us, though. At least until we vanish beneath the rising waters.