Laura and her mum have gone on holiday for a week. They are sharing a canal boat with 3 of my daughter's friends and the 2 children of the couple. They left the Congleton boatyard at lunchtime today and are heading towards the Peak Forest, having chosen the route with the least locks because none of them are very experienced boaters. Laura has been abroad 6 times in her 6 years of life but she was more excited about sleeping on a boat than she's ever been about flying off to "furrin parts"

Yesterday my daughter had to empty the built-in wardobe in her bedroom as next week a chap is coming to replace the very delapidated doors with nice new mirror doors. Apart from 25 years of accumulated crap, which has been binned,...