Yesterday Emma had two birthday parties to attend - lucky girl! She had two hours off in between the first, at a soft play area; and the second, a disco at a church hall. Today she is pretty tired! She took Sophie right up into the large part of the soft play, which has a sign saying "5-13 year olds" on it. It isnt policed by the staff though, and I decided that I would not rescue her unless she was actually in danger or distressed, which she wasnt. Emma and her friend were with her every step of the way, including down the large slide which has 4 adjacent runways - I saw Soph coming down every which way - tummy, head first, back, sitting - having a great time, and with a 5 year old on either side holding her hand! Oh well - having a brave big sister necessitates little sisters to become brave quickly! And mums to try not to pannic too, IMO!

Today I decided to get out of my comfort zone and start inviting people back for Sunday lunch again. Being constantly tired, and having a rather untidy house (I havent fully regained control since I was ill a month or two back) it's easy to be insular, but I decided I needed to start inviting a few safe people around again. So today we had probably the safest of all, in Sophie's lovely gentle childminder and her son, who is exactly 12 months younger than Emma. The weather has been lovely today, so we spent most of the afternoon in the garden, and just ate in the house. J is a keen gardener too, so it was fun showing her my garden, and her son just loved playing hide & seek with Em and Alan, as his garden at home is about the size of a postage stamp! It was lovely to share my garden with two such lovely guests. They seemed to enjoy the food too, though of course I wasnt 100% happy with how it turned out, but that's my perfectionism trying to bubble to the surface!

Alan gave them a lift home after tea and then filled up with diesel for me on the way back (my fuel light has been on for several days, but I managed to cycle almost everywhere at the end of last week). For the first time it cost over £60 to fill the car up, with diesel being £1.30/litre here now (that's over £5 a gallon)! When I started driving it was just 45p/litre, which is now a distant memory! Am I old or is it just VERY expensive now?! Oh well, back onto my bike even more!