Got up late and drove the kids to "checkpoint charlie".

It was beautiful driving down there, and despite the kids not wanting to go, they were secretly excited about the trip. Not sure if they say they don;t want to go because it's what they think I want to hear, or if they really mean it. A little of both I suppose.

The drive back took a while and I didn't get back till three. Mia was in bed watching "Tomb Raider". I joined her, kicking off a weekend of lounging about watching stuff on the TV. Bliss.

I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet, Mia and I just sitting there watching stuff or doing Sudoku puzzles while smoking in the kitchen... but I'm also going to miss them. I've stopped worrying about the kids being with their mum, and now I can for the most part just enjoy being free to think for five minutes without someone asking me a dumb question. I love my kids, and they are two of the smartest, funniest and up-together people you could meet... but they are kids. It's in a kid's contract to be in your face asking dumb questions or telling you about something really complicated really fast so you can hardly follow it, or being loud and hyperactive... so the peace is nice. A part of me kinda misses all the chaos though. Nothing is more distracting from the woes of modern adulthood than kids messing with your radar all day.

See you Saturday, babies. Luvluv.

Back at work today after three whole days off. Managed to spend some of it lounging in bed watching DVDs, and also managed to spend some quality time with the kids before they go away tomorrow.

Didn't actually intend to come in to work, because there was a problem with my drains at home and I needed to stay home and get that fixed. But I got a call from work to say there was an IT emergency and could I come in as planned. I got the kids and the dog in the car and went. We sorted out the problem, kids played on computers, I had a few meetings, we went home. Picked up Mia on the way home as we were way later than I thought we would be. Despite all the travelling and the fact I had to be in work, we had a good time.

Last evening with the kids. We watched some South Park and a movie then they went to bed. I'm taking them over to their mums tomorrow. Well, we are meeting at "checkpoint charlie", AKA junction 27 on the M5. There's a services there and it's about half way between our house and where there mum lives.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

At last a day off. Okay so it's not the five full days off in a row I was looking for, but hey. I have no plans all day and it's great.

Slept in, watched a movie with the kids, "Catwoman" with Halle Berry, and then went to ASDA for food and clothes. Assed about all afternoon, doing various jobs which needed doing.

We watched "South Park" and "Robots", and at some point during "Robots" I fell asleep. Damn that was a good movie, but I was soooooo tired. I got about a year of getting 5 hours a night to catch up on. :)

Drove in to work with Ted on board. The kids are off on their two week Easter vacation, but Hattie is going shopping in Trowbridge with her grandma and so Ted's with me.

I hoped that it would be a nice quiet day but the wretched Easter schools are on. Damn. Lots of kids all over the school, younger and noisier than our regular students.

Plus for some reason I have an assload of technical problems to sort out. Why doesn't everyone just go home? It's a holiday for crying out loud.

Didn't have time to go and see one of my clients, so booked him in for next Monday at 2.30pm. Called Tantra, our computer menders, to see if they can fit some new keys to my Powerbook when I'm over there on Friday.

Weekend of love... we did naff all.

Oh yeah we went to McDonalds and stuffed our faces, adding more Monopoly tiles to our game cards. We are such suckers for those promotions. Well, there's £100,000 up for grabs if we can get Mayfair. Mind you there has to be only two of those tiles in existance, logic dictates. And also logical is that the best time to win one is when the promotion starts. If they put the winning tiles in halfway through there's a chance they might be accused of trying the fiddle the draw to leave them unclaimed. So the odds are good we are wasting our time. But we still hold out hope, despite evidence to the contrary that we might still win. That's the gamblers disease.

I stopped myself suffering from that ailment long ago. The penny push machine at the fair cured me of it. "It's so close, I can win all those pennys, and probably that watch, if I can just put enough pennys in" I said. I ran all the way home. Begged my mum to give me more pennies so I could overload the machine and pay her back a hundred times over. She smiled enigmatically as she forked it over. Did she know I was running for a fall?

I ran back down to Gadebridge Park to the fair... the machine was still loaded and I painstakingly slotted my coins in, one at a time, timing my shots and waiting for the perfect moment to win allthat moolah. My heart was in my throat and I had a gamblers fever. If only, if only... My last coin fell and nothing happened. Nothing. Not one coin dropped. I was too young to know the addage that "the house" always wins. I was devastated. But I learned a valuable lesson. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.

Oh except I won a free cheeseburger instead of the £100,000.