Thursday 7th June 07

I took the boys to school as my eldest has damaged his bike in two angry outbursts and it is unrideable. We found out yesterday that at one shop at least, it would cost over £80 to get it repaired. So he is walking, and when he walks with Gill he demands a ride on her saddle whilst she pushes. I won't allow this and he has to walk. I walked with him and we discussed snails (I saw a thrush using the pavement as an anvil to smash snails out of their shells, and we discussed a slogan that I need for being on the World Naked Cycle Ride tomorrow. He came up with something brilliant, see tomorrow's blog for what I eventually put on the placard.

Soon after coming home I started work on the Community Care column which needs to be in tomorrow. This one will be about transport choices.

Then at 11am I got myself ready to go to work, doing my penultimate gig at Manor School, where I did a balloon modelling lunchtime workshop. On the way I stopped off at Cycle Heaven where I booked my bike for a session of TLC and asked if they'd got a quote yet for building me a bespoke bike to replace this one which won't last for much longer, certainly I ought to replace it within the year.

The gig went very well, some of the youngsters were very attentive and followed instructions well, and were creative and prolific, making about 8 models in 40 minutes. Others struggled and couldn't really get the hang of it, but we all had a good time.

Came home via Out Of This World where there was stuff awaiting collection so I did, and brought it back to add to my extremely hot tumbler-full.

Then it was time to pick up the kids, I also picked up P and we all came home quickly, with my eldest on my crossbar. The three boys played in the garden whilst I did some compost management.

P was collected by his Mum at 5ish and we all had tea, Gill had made a quiche which I had with the remains of yesterday's cottage pie.

After all had quietened down I wrote my column and counted the words... I'm always amazed I can write it to almost the exact length I need. The column is supposed to be 350 words, I did it in 357. Then typed it in and sent it off, hooray!