My mobile is pretty much defunct. This means that I do not have all the numbers that I once did. I have set the comments function on this post to "screened" - please leave me your numbers below. I tend to prefer landline numbers to mobile numbers as not only are they much easier to memorise but they are significantly cheaper and I am much less ( Read more... )

As you all must be aware by now, I shall be a mother fairly soon - unless something goes wrong, of course. Unsurprisingly, this has led me to thinking a bit about babies ( Read more... )

I came across this story today (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8011134.stm). It makes me very sad. Sadder than hearing about kids born with disabilities generally makes me, and even angrier than this kind of story normally would. This ( Read more... )

( A meme )

Today I put the Parliament Channel on in the background whilst I was sorting out some maternity paperwork. It started off with coverage of the House of Lords, who (amongst other things) were discussing their attempts to lobby the UN to consider other methods of dealing with issues surrounding the drug trade as "prohibition had clearly not worked so ( Read more... )

At the beginning of April ephraim and I spent a week in Spain with my Dad and stepmother. ( Read more... )

We are currently considering the issue of fitness (and its general absence) in the Shockley household. We have heard various reports of the usefulness of the Wii Fit. So we would like some input from you peeps. Do you have one? What are your experiences of it? What are its drawbacks? Has it made you fitter and/or thinner ( Read more... )

I find the concept of car clubs fascinating, and this article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/5165769/Are-car-sharing-clubs-worth-it.html) was very interesting so I thought I'd post it here. Are any of you members ( Read more... )

This morning ephraim and I have been looking at things for children's rooms. I have found the gender stereotypes to be shocking - why on earth do things need to be labelled as "for girls" or "for boys"? Why does it seem that there's almost always only a choice between something pale pink with princesses on or an identical thing in blue with tractors on? ( Read more... )

Would anyone like a largish framed print of Coron's Ville-d'Avray? (see http://www.artofeurope.com/corot/cor10.htm for a pic of it ( Read more... )