Stephen was running around this morning like a chicken with its head cut off, frantically scrabbling through the recycling looking for some or other sheet of paper which he thought he might have accidentally thrown away, demanding a (large) cheque for a revision course (which he should have sorted out weeks ago), flinging his bag about in a desperate sort of way and being bad-tempered about it all into the bargain. Drives me crazy, that he is seventeen years old and still can’t pack his bag the night before, like the rest of us do.

Aaaah. Feel better for having got that out of my system.

Morning annoyances aside, things are good here.

My parents will be at the house when I get home from work tonight – they’re spending the night with us – which meant that we tidied up last night, so the house is pleasant to be in.

And, Bobby has got supper ready – he is making (I think) lamb vindaloo in the slowcooker. At the start of this week, I suggested that we start taking turns cooking dinner, and Bobby took the idea and ran with it. There is now a meal schedule on the fringe, and – Bobby being Bobby – a certain element of competition involved in the meals. On Monday he made vegetarian sushi, on Wednesday he baked bread and made some sort of Thai chicken soup. Both delicious. I hope he doesn’t run out of enthusiasm, as I am really enjoying being responsible for only half the meals.

Sophie is – she says – going to have a fun day at school today. They are doing a sponsored walk, round and round the fields. Sounds boring as hell to me but, thanks to the stellar PR job done by her teacher, she is raring to go. Lucky I am not a primary-school teacher, as I do not think I would be able to convince a bunch of nine year olds that walking round and round a field in the drizzle is an exhilarating experience.

Emily is happy too, as she had her hair cut last night (so did I; we met up after work and it was fun) and she now has a Side Fringe. Side Bangs, I suppose, if you’re American. It looks very pretty, though I think the level of drama and excitement surrounding the great Side Fringe Event (Should it be done at all? Where? When? and How Much? – all these questions were debated at length) was out of proportion to the actual change in her hairstyle. Soph’s hair looks good this morning too; after years of trying and failing, I have finally figured out how to do a French plait. Don’t know what Stephen’s hair looks like this morning; he was moving too fast, and in too many directions, for me to see.