Where is everyone?

So, everyone else is in Dublin visiting the Oumi and Oupa, that's Grandma and Grandad in South African, and I'm at home alone for four days... which is the longest any of us have ever been apart.

It's so quiet here, but I've got plenty of jobs to be doing (yes Caryn, I have done the washing and hung it outside to dry too) which I am pleased to say I am actually getting somewhere with - no little people wanting to help, see. No longer am I King Of Halfajob, well, for four days at least.

You're Fired

Happy days, The Apprentice is back. You do tend to forget how great it is - 16 absolute halfwits competing for a job with the curmudgeon's curmudgeon Alan Sugar. He must just kill himself laughing off camera, he must. Being him must be the best fun ever at Apprentice time.

The Chapel Market coffee-selling was just idiocy of the highest, highest order. It wasn't just one person who reckoned they knew London and then decided to sell posh coffee on North London's greasy spoon capital, there was two of them. More astonishing is that they stood on an almost empty street for three hours, sold 11 cups of coffee and then blamed team leader Andy who duly got the boot.

Brilliantly daft. It can't be real, they're all actors surely. Surely.

On the move? Probably not

Thanks to both people who read this for wondering what we've been doing of late. We are still here despite the lack of posting, but we've been bean counting in light of the extended gardening leave which seems to have resulted in so much spare time some gardening is about to happen.

Mostly, we're wondering if and how we can live a more frugal lifestyle. Actually, how we can life a frugal lifestyle full stop. Lots of reasons - we're skint, not much work about, not much appetite for work and a desire to not curtail the time spent with ver children while they're so little and, for the most part, lovely.

First and most drastic stop is do we need to live in our rather nice hall entrance terrace with 230 foot garden? The answer is rapidly becoming yes, but we looked at a fantastic cottage the other day which appealed to both of us. It's about three miles from where we are now in a place called Spooner Row and it's about 10 feet from the Norwich to Cambridge railway line.

It'd mean being a two car family again (not all that frugal, then) and perhaps a change of school for Olivia which wouldn't go down well in five-year-old world, but when you've a primary school at the bottom of the garden it'd be churlish not to use it. The school run would become more of a wave. There were so many pluses, but equally there are as many minuses.

The maths for downsizing by around £40,000 is a real headbanger - stamp duty, agent fees, legal fees, redemption fees, blah blah blah. Is saving £150 a month on the mortgage and paying off a hunk of debt by buying a cheaper house worth the upheaval? And the cost? Rock bottom price for moving is about £6,000 which is some handy cash.

... and the first train past is 5.45am.

The trees, the trees

We seem to have gone bike crazy of late. We got hold of one of those bike seats that you attach to your crossbar for Olive last week. Tried it out on Friday and got to school the earliest we've ever been there... and on Saturday morning I was out on my bike for a rip across fields which I've not done in months and months.

Anyway, we went to High Lodge in Thetford Forest Park today. Lots to do there, we've been once before, don't know why we've only been once because it's just the best way to spend a Sunday morning. Our favourite thing to do is hire bikes and some bits and bobs that mean you don't have to leave the children locked in the car and off you go.

There's four routes of which we take the family-friendly green route. Much as we'd like the white knuckle 10 mile ride of the black route, don't think a bike trailor with the kids strapped in would cope. So green it is.

Today, Olive insisted on having the bike thingy that attaches to back of my bike. Which was great mainly because I wasn't the only one pedaling. She went all the way round no problem, not a word of complaint which is pretty impressive.

Next time we're doing the blue route - we would have done it today, but Caryn was chicken. Cluck cluck cluck.

I want to ride my bycycle...

We saw the sun today for the first time in weeks. It came with a bone-chilling wind, but hey, sunshine is sunshine so me and the boy filled up a flask with coffee, tucked a bag of crisps in our pocket and headed into the wilds.

When I say 'wilds'... the above scene is probably a 10 minute ride from our back door (amazing eh? I am getting old). We got a cracking chunky mountain bike for Xmas - big thick tyres, nice heavy frame, seat on the back for Lukey - and all we tend to do is backwards and forwards to nursery on it, so we thought we'd give it a bit of off-road.

We got suitably muddy and felt like proper country-living folk. We did.

Car Wash

Luke's got a bit obsessed about car washes of late. He's been desperate to go in one for a while and we've tried and failed on a couple of occasions. Our car is so dirty that car washes don't really do such a good job, so we only really do it for entertainment. We know how to have fun don't we?

Anyway, the first attempt failed because the garage with the car wash near us was broken. It happens quite often, the whole place just breaks - tills won't open, pumps won't pump, card machines won't take cash. It's very odd.

We used to have an old Toyota and put it through a car wash once and once only. Didn't do it again as a few parts fell off it on the way home. So when Caryn tried to to take Luke she couldn't figure out how to put the aerial down and very wisely gave up rather than sit and helpless listen to the sound of a car wash ripping your aerial off the roof.

But, finally we managed it. It's a great thing to behold - the kind of excitement that comes from the utterly unknown. He enjoyed it mostly, I think, I just got luck with this picture!

This'll cheer you up on a rainy day

It's a sight that really makes us smile. She is nothing if not a little ray of sunshine, especially on rainy days like we're having, oh, almost every day lately.