Daylight savings is pretty cool. It’s just after 7pm, and the sun is shining brightly. Miss M has a temperature, and had to be brought home early, otherwise we’d be at the school working on her bike riding.

This has proved trying for both of us, me because her bike no longer has training wheels on it, so I’ve become human training wheels, and her because her human training wheels don’t shut up with the advice. There’s nothing most of us hate more than being told how to do something, especially when that thing is both hard and frightening. Miss M is no exception.

She’s also hampered by the fact the bike is a little too small for her. I didn’t want to get her a new one before she’d learned to ride properly, but I think it may have to happen before she has to adopt a style like those clowns on miniature bikes do, and splay her legs right out to the sides. She’s definitely getting the hang of it, but it’s a slow and frustrating process. After a little while I have to force her to put the bike down and run a few laps of the basketball court to get her frustration out, much to the amusement of the ever present thugs who shoot hoops down there.

So instead it’s a quiet night for us, as I attempt to restore her health before school tomorrow, using tomato soup and pesto sandwiches as medicine. She’s adamant she’s too sick to go, while I lean in the other direction. Apparently she was the fifth child sent home today with a temperature and cough, so there’s another epidemic doing the rounds.

Yesterday we saw James for the first time since he returned on Saturday from his seven weeks of travelling. He gave me the most beautiful Tibetan singing bowl, and Miss M some bracelets he’d bought from a little girl not much older than her. I think it’ll take a while for him to readjust to being back home, but he looks fantastic, and it’s great to have him back.

Today I’m loving: the crazy, loveable people I work with and for at the gym, who always make me feel great no matter what else is going on.