Making it up

“I was sat there looking at the paper and then bang,” (Daily Torygraph)

of which I have three, and we managed to meet up with two yesterday.

We hadn’t seen the youngest one for so long that Small didn’t recognise his cousins. L is 6 months older than him and starts school full time next week, and O is 10, going up to middle school this time. Apparently it’s cost nearly £200 for their combined uniforms! O was very interested to hear that Big and Small only go to school 3 days, he wants to go to their school too, but when I pointed out that instead of 28 kids in the class there are only 3, he rethought the idea rapidly. Gotta larf, haven’t you?

Anyway, we met up at Cannon Hall farm which I heartily recommend as a good day out if the weather’s up to it. The adventure playground has had a drastic revamp since the last time we were there, and is now positively enormous - slightly wearing if you’re trying to keep an eye on more than one child at any point, as they can disappear without trace in seconds. Small was fixated on a very large slide thing (I have pictures, but the media centre is rebooting so I can’t get at them just now) so at least I knew where he was, even if I was having kittens about him being there. Big decided it was too big for her and went to find somewhere safer to play!

We had a break for a picnic lunch, during which Small informed me he needed the toilet, and then part way there that we hadn’t made it fast enough. I wouldn’t mind except that he’d point blank refused to go when we’d walked past it a few minutes earlier. So we went on to the toilet then all the way back to the car to change. By the time we’d finished eating he’d decided that cousins are not such a bad invention, and they were having a great time together.

After lunch we walked back to the cars, then back to the farm and went round all the animals. There are a lot of animals - your usual goats, pigs, cows, sheep and then also llamas and alpacas that you can feed, as well as a lonely looking mara in a field. Even Small got into feeding them - not a bad wheeze charging extra for food so that your animals get fed for free as it were! Eventually they tired of animals, so we went and milked the fake cows some more and then they had time for a last 15 minutes sliding.

So a very active several hours, we said goodbye to Auntie K and climbed in the car to go and see Auntie K. (Yes, my parents gave my younger sisters the same initials, just like they did for us elder pair. The younger two got it worse though, as even their middle initials are the same.) This second Auntie K is the one who was in hospital a couple of weeks ago, and this was the first time I’d called to see her since. She looks better in that she’s upright now, but so far from her usual self as for it to be slightly scary. Apparently after the kidney infection that put her in hospital, she contracted a second infection (campillobacter I think she said) which caused such severe d&v that she ended up in her own room with ensuite as she couldn’t make it to the loos by herself. She needed to talk through it, so we sat and chatted for an hour or more, and then we left, without the usual feeding of children, as she wasn’t up to it.

This did cause a slight hitch in the proceedings, as by this time it was 18.30 and I had two tired and hungry children, 40 miles from home. So I called Tim and we worked out the most convenient Happy Meals (two nights running! The shame!) and I headed there via a garage to insert air and fuel into the relevant orifices of the car.

Got patronised by a very rude member of staff in the local coop garage - don’t you just wish that you could wind back time and say the things you think of over the next 5 miles of driving? Things like, I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I’d quite like to pay now. And so the reason I can’t see the air pump is because you’ve moved it but not the sign? And, if they are really leaving you in charge over the next couple of weeks, I’m quite worried for the future of this establishment! But I didn’t, I was just meek and pathetic while I was in the shop and she sneered at me. Grr.

Got very lively children home with food by 19.45 and let Small out of the car to discover he’d wet himself for the second time that day, and this time without even telling me he needed to. So I got to end a hectic day by taking his car seat to bits - fun, fun, fun. But they seemed to have enjoyed themselves, so I guess that’s the important bit, and I’ve done my bit towards family relations for the next year. And delivered several very delayed birthday and christmas presents, in time to clear out room for the next stack coming.

Today I’ve spent mostly in here (the office upstairs) trying, and mainly failing, to get to grips with business and personal paperwork. I’ve dealt with incompetencies of all kinds, including my own, and now I’m about ready to clear off downstairs, drink tea, eat food, and follow it up with chocolate. To compound my changed appearance I’ve got a contact lens fitting tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been mousey brown with glasses inside, and now I’m sorting out that the rest of the world can see me too.

Tuesday, left Jax behind this time, and took three children out for the day.

Collected Lily from Halifax and set off for St Leonard’s Farm (former setting for Emmerdale apparently).

Fair collection of animals, for petting, poking and feeding, derelict ride on toys, a playground and an aerial runway. An overpriced cafe serving second rate food. All in all not a patch on the last of its kind I remember visiting (Easton Farm Park), but the children liked it a lot.

At lunch time we headed into Bradford, and went to the National Media Museum, which is well worth a visit, lots to see and do (including a blue screen).

To wrap up the day we finished up with a visit to Shibden Park. Unfortunately, the adventure playground is undergoing extensive rebuilding (looks like it will be pretty fabulous when it is finished), so we had a rethink and headed for the rowing boats. Had the usual waily fit from Big when confronted with actually stepping into the rowing boat she had been so keen to go in. But once in, she took over the oars from me and really enjoyed herself rowing up and down the lake.

Finished off with ice cream, I do so like wearable food.

Tim took the kids out early this morning. I hope they didn’t get stuck on the M1 - listening to the radio later it sounded horrific. I’d hoped to be able to go back to sleep after they left, but having to referee just one more fight while Tim packed stuff into the car meant I was well and truly awake, so I got up and made the best of it. That included fruit for breakfast (last of the handpicked blackberries, very tempted to go back and get some more, but turns out the kids didn’t enjoy picking and don’t like blackberries ), then listening to Eva Cassidy while packing some of my books which live in the kids bedroom. One of Big’s complaints recently has been that she doesn’t have anywhere to put her stuff as the shelves in her room are full of my books. So today I packed up two boxes and cleared her an extra two shelves.

And then filled them with children’s books from the dining room for her. It’s the thought that counts, isn’t it? Found some early readers and picture books for Small too, so that should make him happy.

As well as that, I cleared a whole shelf in the dining room, and packed up another box from there. Then I took all three full boxes round to the storage place, and felt virtuous enough to eat chocolate Now I’m sitting with mud on my head, trying to work through some more paperwork. I want to do some more sorting in the living room too, but my back is aching so I thought I’d sit down for a bit. So far I’ve tried to cancel my mothercare card, but been told that as I haven’t used it, it’s been archived and they only bring things back from archives on Sunday, so he’s put in a request to reactivate it so that I can cancel it next week.

OK, that makes sense.

Now I’ve a list of phone calls to make to reactivate various online interfaces (seem to have lost access to most of them and no, no one else is using them, I just can’t get in) so that I can get the full picture of our finances. Still not overly sold on mse spreadsheet, but have looked at various alternatives, including Alison’s suggestion of clearcheckbook and none are quite what I want. Ah well, I’ll add it to the list of things to write when I have a spare minute. Yeah, right, that’s gonna work. Right, deep breaths and moving on, looking at the positive…

no point in telling Big that if I can’t do it myself! She’s having a tough time atm. For some reason the passing mention of death in Tottie has got her completely off balance, and most nights at bedtime she’s coming back down in tears, scared of dying. She doesn’t seem to have noticed yet that it’s far more likely to be me or Tim than her, I’m really looking forward to that sinking in, because then we’ll get tears about being alone.

Bit lost on what to do with this one, trying lots of reassurance and suggesting she think about positive stuff, but it’s not showing much sign of working yet.

Right, back to the paperwork.

Roche Abbey is one of the children’s favourites. Pooh sticks, hide and seek and general running around being the order of the day.

Unfortunately, Big was feeling a bit…

while Jax was feeling a bit….

But it had its moments anyway.

I’m going through paperwork, trying to work out our finances. In order to do this, I decided to clear out the expanding file that’s been taking up space on top of the dresser in the dining room. I found a printed out email, dated 28 Jun 2001.

Text is:

Sorry, mad day as usual!!!

Address.

Directions.

Phone number.

See you anytime after 6.30am
ps I’ll cook Hannibal lunch.

It’s the email arranging the first play date Big had with her best friend from nursery at his house - we haven’t seen them now for over a year since they moved to Nottingham and he went to school down there. Hannibal refers to the fact that she used to bite him. (Only him and me, no one else.) and the 6.30 bit is obvious to anyone else having experienced toddlers.

Amazing where you find memories, isn’t it?

A £20bn new Thames barrier could be built to prevent potentially disastrous flooding in London. That is about three hundred quid for each person in the country.

I think London looks rather pretty this way and at least it would finally stop those irritating demonstrators in Parliament Square.

Continued yesterday with a walk out with the offspring to look for blackberries, while Tim went out to shop. We walked through the large (mainly ex-council) estate behind our house, and didn’t see any children playing in gardens, or on the road. Then we walked down through the woods and along a path towards the canal. We met a couple of families, one with several children, all of which were having to be coaxed along (it’s not much further now Shannon!). Then we found some brambles and picked for a while, before continuing along the path, to stare at all 30 feet of the canal (must look up where it used to go, I think there are plans to join it all up again, but could be difficult if it’s been built over really).

Then we walked along the back of the new estate, Tim had told me he’d seen a playground round there. Have to say I was doubtful, but sure enough, at about the middle of the back of the estate a path and steps led down to the scrubland we were walking through, to a small and very abandoned playground. The kids were thrilled to see it, and we spent about 40 minutes there. Right up until the last couple we didn’t see or hear any other children, then just as I was persuading mine it was time to go, a boy and girl, around age 8 or 9 I’d guess, appeared. They didn’t greet us or acknowledge us at all, just got on with running from bit of apparatus to the next. It was all quite sad tbh, it was obvious that someone goes down there a fair bit given the graffiti and the rubbish, but the grass around the little climbing frames was overgrown and two of the swings were missing so obviously no one performs any maintenance. It’s a lovely playground, but we don’t let our children play out any more do we? (I include myself in that, my kids have never been round to the rec without me, and I wouldn’t take them there myself, the last few times it took too long to clear up the glass and dogdirt before I’d let them play.)

Evening involved fish (for Tim) and chips for us both, and then some ReGenesis while I continued scan reading a Ben Elton novel, Inconceivable. Can’t say I was impressed - I remember him as much more edgy, and this was trite and predictable. Not really worth the £1 I spent on it at the charity shop, but as I’d managed to pick up Ramona the Pest for 20p during the same visit, I wasn’t too depressed.

Today has followed a similar pattern to yesterday - woke up after 9, read some more Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work (really, really enjoying this, it’s a fascinating insight into a world of the past in so many different ways, as well as being interesting about the Montessori background). Then I had breakfast (handpicked blackberries and melon, yum ) before getting on with some paperwork up until lunch time. Budgeting is going slowly - I’m not finding the mse spreadsheet particularly intuitive to use, and we don’t necessarily break down our expenses in quite the way he does. I want to fill it out first and find out the lowdown before I start adjusting it for our specifics though.

After lunch we went out to look at craftbaskets and bags for Big. Local hobbycraft had classic sewing baskets and knitting bags, as well as some artbin totes of various kinds, though not the one that artbin market as a needlework tote. (Hm, should have asked whether they ever stock it, didn’t occur to me at the time though.) Big was quite taken with an artbin click n go tote, as well as a sewing basket for a mere £35 (eep!) while I’d seen an artbin needlework tote online earlier, and thought it looked better, but now she’s just confused. So I’ve sent them outside to run around in the hope she’ll come up with a decision without too much trauma. We’ve just had another bout of questions about death and dying and it’s all getting quite hard work from time to time - earlier she asked whether she looked better when she was smiling or when she was frowning, and I said smiling, so then she asked me why she frowns so much. Um, not sure, you’d really have to explain that one to me I had to say. Does anyone have a manual on this bit? It seems pretty tough. And whoever is stretching her overnight so that every time I turn around she seems to look taller, I’d quite like if they’d slow that one down too.

Right, must be time for another cuppa. Trying to make sure I drink as much water as tea as well as eating fruit, which is getting to be really difficult when all I’m doing is craving chocolate. Work through the cravings or give in? There’s a good question for you all!

as I’ve been at work. Tim’s been out and about with the children, but sadly remiss in blogging about it (hint, hint). But now I’m off work for another week, so I’ve time to chat again

Today I’ve tried to start getting organised. I’ve done nothing in terms of household finances for nearly two months now, as was seen when I started getting rude phone calls from credit card companies (The one in question I was very annoyed with as I was absolutely sure I’d gone on to online banking and paid it, but they refunded the fees very quickly when I said that, and then explained why I was off work sick, and then burst into tears on them…) So today I’ve downloaded a budget spreadsheet from moneysavingexpert and then had to pause to install Excel on the machine I’m using upstairs. Never straightforward is it? Anyway, was quite pleased to discover we’ve hit the next big milestone with our mortgage this month - we made a decision not to decrease our payments when interest rates went down a couple of years ago, and it’s really paid off in how rapidly we can see our mortgage coming down, without any real pain in the month to month budget. Next part of the plan will be to clear off any credit card balances rather than just continuously moving them about, but I need to see the full scope of all the balances before I decide what to do with all that.

So that was my couple of hours paperwork this morning, and then I’ve come downstairs for family time. The kids have shot off outside to skate and scoot and Tim’s cleared off for a bath (back’s aching again) so it’s not very familial right at this moment, but I’m not really complaining

Also managed to get two loads of washing outside today, so the bathroom floor is a lot clearer than it’s been for a week or so. My next target it to rediscover the sofas I think, and then I was considering walking down to the canal with the kids to see if there are any blackberries to pick. Not really caring one way or the other about the fruit tbh, but thought it might be nice to go for a walk. The drawback is having to walk through the village, either along the main road or through the ex council estate, neither of which are particularly attractive options. Decisions, decisions.

Big just came in to moan that she’d fallen off her scooter. There’s no injury, but that’s hardly surprising given that she’s got knee and elbow pads, gloves and a helmet. Given she’s also in a sunsuit, most of what she’s attired in either didn’t exist or wasn’t available when I was a child. Odd to think that really. One of my colleagues at work pointed out that it’s 20 years this summer since we got our O levels (yes, they were O levels, we were the last year group before GCSEs) and briefly I felt old. Then I felt like me again, but I did start wondering what has happened to all the big plans I had at that point. I can feel the wind of change beginning to whisper to me again, is this the start of a mid life crisis?

Food for thought, anyway. Especially as I’m reading Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work and finding it utterly fascinating. Montessori must have been an incredible woman, and you can see her influence on our world all around the place. Hasn’t necessarily taken us in the direction she hoped for though. Expect more musing on similar topics as I read more.

“Daddy, what is Coca Cola®?”

Can’t be many seven year olds who need to ask that one.

She is now on the computer surfing the Lego site. She likes the Eiffel Tower (lots of pocket money) and is complaining that the flash movies are taking too long to load. I have told her I will get some pedals for the computer to make them load faster.

Small is be recalcitrant, doesn’t want to tidy anything away. He also managed to cover himself in milk at lunchtime - explained the hydrodynamic issues surrounding the downside of tipping up a container while sucking on a straw……

That’s a big thumbs up from Big on her first Rumer Godden, Tottie: The story of a doll’s house. She’s come down for another book from the offthepath stash, and chosen Beezus and Ramona. I’m really glad that she’s suddenly enjoying reading so much

I’ve found work really tiring this week, and not particularly enjoyable. I’m ready for the weekend already.

And that’s about as much as I can think of to write tonight.

I did a google search for montessori secondary education, and found some fascinating articles. I particularly enjoyed this one about a group of teachers from UK making an exploratory trip to the Netherlands to see how they do it over there. Reading it aloud improves it immeasureably

I’d quite like to read An Education for Life but I’m not sure I’m willing to shell out quite that much. Must search ebay/ amazon for a used copy.

Other starter reading is referred to on this page, so I’m on the lookout for a copy of From Childhood to Adolescence to borrow, anyone got it?

And it’s fascinating to read about English schools with montessori in the name that don’t appear to fit with any version of montessori that I’ve encountered, and US schools that sound absolutely great. It’s definitely a fascinating topic for further exploration.

to work, and slowly slowly back. Accident being recovered on the southbound side of M1 within roadworks this morning was obviously far more interesting than actually driving northwards, and tonight southbound was blocked by another accident further north. So plenty of time ruminating in a stationary car, lovely.

Very very odd to be back in the office, several ppl didn’t acknowledge me at all, I think there’s that “but what do you say” thing going on. One of the project managers did make a point of ringing to welcome me back and to say that he knows he has no idea what I’m going through, but just wanted to say that he’s thinking of me. He’s really lovely, and 10 minutes chat with him was worth a lot. Not sure how happy my team really were to see me - the women were a lot chattier than the men, and that’s not usually the case tbh.

Anyway, survived the day - meant to clear off early but another project manager came around to say hello and stayed for 50 minutes discussing functionality so that was my quick departure gone.

Kids have had a great day at school, it’s full on crafty goodness there atm, and they’ve done T shirt prints, and prints on bags, and made glove puppets. Managed a very quick chat with Ailsa about one of Big’s concerns, the one about what happens at 11, turns out they are thinking of it too. Wonder what a montessori style secondary school would look like? And apparently Small has been doing more and more writing, so Ailsa is going to lend me an alphabet and some pink materials for their holiday period so that if he wants to keep it all up, he can.

Wordpress tells me that this is the 2000th post written on this blog. Wow.

Over the last week or so Jax and I have been watching Survivors.

"Survivors is an outstanding 38 episode drama series with a cult following that first aired between 1975 and 1977… the series concerns the aftermath of a plague which had wiped out over 99% of the world's population and the experiences of a group of individuals in England as they grappled with the post-plague world and the trials of day-to-day survival." link

In fact, in the first series the cull is stated as being 99.98% and is evenly spread, no families are favoured and the survivors face a world in which everyone they have ever known is dead.

What would we do if everything just stopped? To start with the survivors get by on scavenging and looting. As time goes on the towns become more and more unsavoury and dangerous through a combination of rotting corpses and bandit gangs and the group followed in the story found a commune, planning on producing their own food and making themselves self sufficient.

They are faced with starting over, in a world where most of their existing skills are irrelevant, having to learn how to make everything for themselves from scratch. From scratch means if you want a loaf of bread you start by ploughing the field….

This is self-sufficiency at a very different level, no fall backs. When things go wrong you go hungry and even die, no asking the bank for a loan to tide you over or signing on for income support.

I commend the program to you, it is as bleak as you might expect, but well put together and thought-provoking.

I saw an article at The Register about Energy Buster .

I must say at first reading it seemed like a fantastic idea to be able to terminate all the stuff around the house which is on standby, but the more I thought about it, it seemed to me that we would need quite a few of them to deal with all the appliances littering our house from microwaves to computers. Then I had a brainwave. We have switches on the power points! We can turn them off WITHOUT A REMOTE CONTROL. I think I am going to patent the idea.

well, kind of. First day working anyway. Managed to drag myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 8, and was working by 8.13. Only having to go to the next room may have had something to do with that Spent the first three and a half hours dealing with about 1000 emails, the result of the first three weeks of my absence. At that point, my mailbox exploded and they had to remove me from all the groups I’m usually in So that was amusing. It gives a different picture to read emails in that kind of density actually, quite a useful exercise. Not that I’m recommending 4 week absences!

Kids pottered off downstairs - I was quite amused to look out on the landing at one point and see an upside down Small. “What are you doing?”

He straightened up, brushed his hair out of his eyes (it doesn’t actually go in his eyes, but apparently it did for long enough for him to have developed a habit) and said “I was standing on my head.” Obviously. Then he came to give me a cuddle, and then he cleared off in search of breakfast.

Took a late lunch break and sorted bedding out of the tent. Tried to summon up the energy to take it down, but couldn’t. The kids seemed similarly lethargic, not nearly as much scootering as has been going on, although they did run around outside a bit. There was also much more playing of Sonic the hedgehog, although apparently they’ve found a level with a giant egg which is causing some problems. Tim found Worzel Gummidge for them as well, and that’s going down rather well.

Finished work around 4.45, having solved one problem this afternoon (by remembering that someone else had solved it and going to find the solution) and having my work set out for the rest of the week. They’ve been saving a problem that we had before I went off, and now there’s some urgency to get it solved, so that should keep me out of mischief. Finishing early was pleasant, and I was surprised at how tired I was, nearly fell asleep on the sofa while the kids were having a last run around outside. Tim did bath and bedding while I monopolised his puter, and then we’ve watched 4400 tonight.

Big has found something other than death to worry about now, she wants to know what happens when she’s 11 and too big for her current school. Suggestions in the usual place of suitable follow ups for flexi montessori schooling please.

After I went out to sleep in the tent last night, I had a very broken night’s sleep. It rained about 3 ish, then Big woke up just after 6, slightly disgruntled as Small had, in the night, crept off his mattress and under the divider into her room. So I dragged him back onto his bed, and went back to sleep. Til just after 7.30 when Big decided she was hungry. Small slept on. Then there was a car alarm. And Small slept on. And on. Guess he must have had quite a disturbed night as well, it was around 10 when he finally got up I think, leaving the bedroom door open, so the kitten came to join me.

So I wasn’t in the mood for an active day. Small painted his car bank, and Big got out the beadloom. I actually managed to thread it up quite easily today, not that it made any difference as she went into meltdown several times over difficulty with the beads. Small discovered arcade games on the puter, and spent ages playing Sonic, and she removed herself to a different room and discovered how to redecorate a room online. They ran back and forth comparing notes, and only went outside every now and then, complete contrast to the last couple of days. Oh, and I think Big played backgammon against a puter as well, and that wasn’t very good as she lost. She isn’t very good at losing, can’t think where she gets that from

Eventually the day wore around to bathtime, quick tantrum about that of course, but she went up eventually. Tim did stories, and then left her reading Tottie. About ten minutes later she came down in absolute floods of tears and announced “I don’t want to die”. Hm. Hadn’t realised the book had any traumatic death scenes in it (and when I went up and scanned it later, couldn’t find any to speak of). So we had to discuss death and what happens when you die (don’t know wasn’t a particularly satisfactory answer unfortunately).

Just been up to do goodnights and turn out the lights, and Small is also traumatised by the book - because he wants to read it to himself, and has just noticed that he can’t. Not quite sure what I’m supposed to do about that, don’t think that I can accelerate him up to reading overnight. And apparently he isn’t ever going to die or get old either. Until he’s 156.

So there.

Small has entered a new phase of learning - I’ve spent the whole day answering “why” questions. I’m hoping this won’t take desperately long to pass, he’s very inventive in his curiousity. Why are they called windows, anyway?

Yesterday we finally got around to putting the big tent out to air. Today we took it down and flattened out the groundsheet, which absolutely stank to high heaven. I mopped it a couple of times, and let it air out in the sun, and then we folded it up and put up the new slightly smaller tent. Quite surprised at how spacious it is, and how quickly we put it up, even with it being the first time.

Kids spent loads of time scootering and skateboarding again, really impressed at how well they are doing. Small hasn’t got the hang of turning his board, but I’m not sure he really weighs enough to turn it well.

Big painted a pottery pig that she got last Christmas I think, and Tim went out to do the shopping. Oh, and she’s been reading, one of the pile of books that Jan lent us the other day. This one is Tottie: The story of a doll’s house, by one of my favourite authors, Rumer Godden. She really seems to like it, which is good to see, she doesn’t usually read much during the day so this is rather a departure from the norm.

Since we’d got the tent up, the kids obviously wanted to sleep in it. They’d pretty much bedded down when the next door neighbour’s party turned into acoustic guitar music. Not quite sure what set Big off, but she suddenly had an absolute panic attack, wailing to come inside. Wailing, but not moving, and not using the intercom phone we’d given her. Given that they are six feet outside the (open) back door, we heard them immediately, but she then decided she was going to stay outside. (Small slept through all of this.) Anyway, I’m going out to join them in a minute, can’t face the idea of her having another go like that at 3 in the morning, and not remembering how to contact us or where to find us. Actually, it might be slightly more than a minute, given that Tim’s just started another Survivors (we’ve already watched one, and one Numb3rs as well) and poured me another beer.

Really wish we’d made it to Kelmarsh, but given that I’ve not got over the side effects of the abx that I got for the infection after the miscarriage (it’s been a really excellent few weeks) don’t think I’d have enjoyed it nearly as much as those who are there. Next year maybe.

Many schools spend too long drilling children to pass national tests instead of giving them a proper education, the government’s exams watchdog has warned.

bbc

Wonder when all those nice inspectors will be calling on those children’s parents then?

Further down the article:

Schools minister Lord Adonis said: “Despite some popular misconceptions, children do not spend their days chained to the desk preparing for Sats.”

Contrary to the popular misconceptions of the government’s own exams watchdog? Get your house in order then Lord Adonis, seems like you aren’t all singing from the same hymn sheet.

Letters Home is a series of half our programmes on Radio 4 at 9.30am in which immigrants offer their impressions of Britain.

I bumped in to one the other week and found it fascinating, and have just read the feature about this today’s From Manchester with love