I went to work today expecting to hate it, and, oddly, quite enjoyed it. Hope it continues to improve; I quail at the thought of embarking on the job-searching process again.

Have noticed that the younger cooler male teachers all seem to have got into the habit of punctuating their sentences to the class with Gordon Ramsey style "Yes?"'s every couple of seconds. I keep expecting the kids to start addressing them as "chef". I can't stand Gordon Ramsey, by the way. Though I did like the way he named his pigs Trinny and Susannah.

Emily went in to her school this afternoon to register, accompanied, of course, by a gaggle of friends. It seems that it is impossible for teenage girls (or at least, these teenage girls) to do anything alone. Also, they must never be out of contact with one another. MSN and mobile phones - to be deprived of either of those would be as unendurable for them as a twelve hour plane flight without a book would be for me.

Bobby, Sophie and Stephen all went to London today to pick up Bobby's new passport from South Africa House. Seems it was a very nice day for all concerned; they came home tired but cheerful and chatty. After they'd got the passport they went to the National Gallery, some bookstores, and I forget where else they mentioned; lots of walking anyway.

Sophie starts school tomorrow; she's excited. Her uniform is all laid out and she and Emily have chosen to go to bed already in preparation for tomorrow's early start, though I can still hear them talking.

The weather forecast says it'll be sunny tomorrow and if that's true, I'll borrow Steve's bike again. I really enjoyed riding today; wish I'd tried it ages ago. I am thinking of buying a bike of my own. I did have one when we moved here, but Stephen used it for his paper round, and pretty much destroyed it by flinging it onto the ground every single time he dismounted to post a paper through a front door. My only reservation about the bike-buying is that when (note the hopeful and optimistic "when" as opposed to the doubting and pessimistic "if") we move, I'll have an extra mile, and a very steep hill, to add onto the trip, so my enthusiasm for the whole cycling thing might just disappear. Especially when winter starts to set in and it gets darker and colder...