2) In my own kitchen, I have bought a new bin. When I moved to Smallown (almost five years ago) I bought a small bin as I have a small kitchen. It’s OK to a point – doesn’t take up much room – but I only need to drop a juice carton in it* and it’s full. My new bin is wonderful – I’ve been dropping things in it all week and there is still room. And as it’s taller rather than wider, it doesn’t take up a bigger footprint that the old one. I should get out more.

*because juice cartons aren’t recycled in this neck of the woods.

3) In my attempt to get out more, we went to the ice cream parlour on Friday evening. As we were finishing dinner, CGF suggested that we go there for pudding. So after we’d cleared up we started to get ready. “what, are we really going?” asked CS3 – a legacy of the number of times grownups think something out loud that sounds like a fantastic treat, but then decide against it and dash the hopes of the younglings.

4) On our way home we were discussing the moon – waxing, waning, crescents and gibbouses. I mentioned blue moons as well. CS3 said “I've heard of blues moons but thought it was just an expression. But now Ruby says they exist I know they do”. I’ve heard two definitions of a blue moon: one is that it is the second time a full moon appears twice in a calendar month in the same calendar year; the other is that it is when there is a fourth full moon in a season. There is a third definition - any second full moon in a calendar month - but that is incorrect.

5) Saturday afternoon I went to see Eastleigh United play football. Well, let’s be honest about this. I went to treat any spectators who may become ill or injured while they were watching Eastleigh United play football. One of the teams won – I’m not sure which. Or it may have been a draw. I don’t really know – or care.

6) Exciting news – CS1 has received an offer for medical school – and at the medical school that she really wants to go to.

7) In another attempt to get out more, we took a day trip to Birmingham on Sunday. CS1 and her bf had tickets for the finals of the All England Badminton Championships at the National Indoor Arena. Although the UK does have a pretty good rail service compared with other countries (especially if you can be flexible with your travel arrangements), it is pretty rubbish if you want to get to the country’s second-largest city before midday on a Sunday morning. So we drove them up, and they caught the train home. Everyone was ready on time, at which point I discovered that I had lost my car keys. “No, I’m being serious. I have no idea where they have gone”. A five-minute search ensued, and I found the keys in the bag where I had emptied my pockets the previous day. We found our way to the NIA without further incident, apart from when my car decided it wanted to take a detour around Blythe Valley Park. Was quite strange driving away after dropping the youngling off – it felt as if we had dropped them off at school, and that they should have been running in with satchels of school books, not rucksacks of sandwiches. “When did they grow old enough to be left alone in the centre of Birmingham?” asked CGF.

8) I have a cousin and aunt who live about 25 mins from the NIA, so on our way home we called in on them for lunch. It was good to see them as I’ve not seen them for several years and they’d not met CGF.