We went for a walk along the river - or tried to. We got about quarter of a mile until we discovered that the towpath had obviously had some jealously issues and decided that it too wanted to be a river. OK, not major flooding in the grand scheme of things, but still too deep for walking boots. Much to the disappointment of CGF Sprog 3, who had rolled her trousers up to above the knees ready for some deep-water wading. CGF Sprog 3 is still of the age where, as we witnessed last week, it is great fun to be caught in a torrential downpour on your way home from school. (I think that maybe there is an age at which it no longer becomes fun to get unexpectedly* wet and muddy. Possibly when you become responsible for doing your own laundry)

*obviously, it is always fun to get expectedly wet and muddy.

Maybe we should have read this notice before venturing along the footpath.

I suppose they could always play water polo

Abandoning our walk earlier than expected, we bought a bird feeder on the way back and I hung it on a tree at the end of CGF's garden. Possibly not using the best health-and-safety procedures. There was a suitable dead branch about eighteen inches ling sticking out about six feet from the ground, but I needed to bang nails in either side of the hanger to stop the feeder slipping down into the tree or out and off the end of the spur. It's difficult to hammer nails from below, so I shinned up the tree and balanced my feet on a couple of knots where branches used to be. Then wrapped my arm round the branches to hold me in place. The only other problem was that the branch I was nailing into flexed as I hit the nail, so I propped it with my abdomen (but checked every few blows to make sure I wasn't driving the end of the nail into my stomach). All successfully accomplished.

As I explained to mum: it's no different to the way telephone engineers climb telegraph poles. "Except," she pointed out, "they wear a safety harness."

I discovered that my bike will fit in to the back of my car (so long as I don't have to carry anything or anyone else) and I took that down to Eastleigh so Sunday we went out on bikes. We pottered around Eastleigh, taking advantage of as many cycle routes as I could remember. "How far do you want to cycle?" I asked. "As far as possible" came the reply from CGF Sprog 3. Strange how I am much more conscious of safe cycle routes when supervising a 12-year old. Far more conscious than I was myself at the same age (and younger). Although I would use the footpath when cycling along the major road from our village to the town, once in the town I would use exactly the same road space as other traffic (not that I had much choice - cycle paths hadn't been invented).

We watched High School Musical. I'd not seen it before. If you ever get the chance to see it - don't bother. It's very cheesy and, being a Disney film, the characters have that permanent grin on their faces that makes you want to smash them in the teeth. Brief synopsis: cool boy and geeky girl meet on holiday; by chance girl moves house and ends up at same school as boy; various fallings out and misunderstandings, but it all works out OK in the end. Does this sound familiar? Yeah, I thought I was watching a remake of Grease too. They even had a girl dressed in Pink, and an equivalent of "hopelessly devoted to you".

I'm possibly being a bit unfair on the film. Yes it is cheesy; yes it is predictable and I wouldn't rush to watch it again. However, it had a coherent story line, and was entertaining enough in a superficial "can't be bothered to think" way. And it is better than Mama Mia - if only because the actors could sing. In some ways it was better than Grease too, but I've never particularly liked Grease.

Speaking of Grease, here are two clips - first from the movie and then from the stage show

See the difference? The movie version omits the background singing of the chord progression. But isn't that the whole point of the song? The "magic changes" being sung about are the chord changes. Another reason to think that Grease is a rubbish film.

Anyway, back to HSM. The major problem I had with it was the concept that it was based around an audition, and whether or not they could sing, and whether or not it was nerdy to be in a school production. Yet in the set pieces, the whole school was singing and dancing so obviously they could and it wasn't. CGF says I think too much.

And if you're wondering why we watched it, CGF is playing the piano for a school production so needs to make herself familiar with the music.

Remember that slip I had at work and the long and over-the-top accident investigation that ensued*? I may have found another contributory factor - one that was never considered. I slipped again on my way to the town centre. A quick analysis of the common components of the two incidents led me to conclude ... the soles of my shoes have worn down so much that they have no grip. Think I'll keep quiet about that one.