Planet Shengsters

1. Small dollop of Fimo horseshit, one of about a dozen that I made and baked in the oven for Esme, because the Playmobil horse Ian bought her came with brooms and dustpans for cleaning up horseshit but not the horseshit itself, and because I am a loving, creative parent.2. Rejected piece of toast.3. Playmobil scalp.4. Guinea pig.5. Playmobil stable-hands, scalped and made to stand on their

We bought a DVD the other day.

I need your help.

I done gone made a thing – portify converts audio files from any format to one more suitable for your portable player.  For me, sadly, that means converting everything to mp3.

Testers are welcome, particularly on non-Linux platforms, but please be gentle

In the last two weeks Theo has started using 'I' when he talks. Freyja didn't do this for ages - she was a 'Freyja wants', 'Freyja do it' kind of talker. Theo has gone straight to using 'I'.

Sometimes he even gets it right.

He says 'I did it' and 'I finish' and 'I want it'. Generally though he just uses it to refer to something he want, is doing, or believes belongs to him. It's cute and often funny.

He says 'I apple' or 'I nappy' or 'I dinner'. Or, our favourite so far, when he called us into his bedroom in the morning and, when we asked where he was, his little muffled voice emerged from behind the curtains: 'I window!'

February 20Oscar is one day old. He is shouting. He is a squat, solid, doorstop of a baby who exists on two Jekyll/Hyde extremes: either he is quietly awake and wide-eyed, just looking peacefully around at what little he can focus on, or he is angry about shitting, which would make a good album title. During Angry Hour, it's like trying to nurse Ian Paisley.He is approaching Angry Hour now. He is

Have had a busy day, so a quick one from the trunk-of-clothes-to-grow-into today:


Theo's eagle top from Monsoon. Love the yellow, love the animal print.

Who wants to read a story involving vaginas? Of course you don't. In that case, you should go to Ian's Flickr photos and look at the pictures of the bicycle he built FROM SCRATCH this winter.Ian promised he wasn't going to build a bicycle."I'm not going to build a bicycle," he promised, when I found him looking at websites that tell you how to build bicycles.Soon afterwards, the postman began

Or: Reasons I Shouldn't Be Around Other People These Days, #867

1. HELLO INTERNET2. BABY3. FRIDAY 19TH, 12 NOON4. 9lb 10oz5. That's 9LB 10OZ6. NO REALLY7. NO DRUGS8. unless you count Paracetamol9. which is British English for acetaminophen, or 'as useful as bringing a fart to a shit fight'10. His name is Oscar11. and he is the squattest, hairiest, angriest and ugliest keeper of the gates of Hell that ever came out of anyone's fanny12. but exactly like having

I don’t really want to get all banker bashing, but these 3 stories really sum up my utter confusion about the end result of the “financial crisis”.  I’m an intelligent enough chap. I ought to get it, oughtn’t I?

• RBS paid £1.3bn bonuses on profit of just £1bn
• Threat to ‘25,000 council jobs’
• Gordon Brown tells police to keep officers on the beat

I seem to have this awful Emperor’s new clothes kind of feeling that just won’t go away.

I wasn't sure what picture to put for my first entry into the recently launched Sticky Fingers Gallery. The subject is Beauty and I do have lots of beautiful pictures of my children and my family and my home. None of me, mind. Gah.

And then I remembered this one:


I love the vivid red of this one brave and beautiful tulip emerging from the bed of green weeds in our yet to be tended garden. And how Freyja is completely absorbed by it. I look at her face and wonder what she is thinking as she sits there gazing at this flower. I like to think she is simply entranced by its beauty but I imagine that really she is fighting the urge to pick this treasure, which I have no doubt just told her not to!

Something more fun now!

I am forever changing my mind about how I should decorate my children's bedrooms. I'm quite happy with them, but I'm always browsing for other ideas.

Recently I found this excellent wallpaper from the wonderful Rockett St George (I could buy nearly everything they stock...) This, however, I am not actually going to get because it's rather expensive and Theo's too young for it anyway.

But I love it. So it's going on my blog.



More appropriate for Theo now (though again, probably not something that I will actually ever get....) are these, by Ferm LIVING (stocked at Cloudberry Living):


I'm particularly keen on the 'Rush Hour' one. Theo has a gorgeous Dwell Studio blanket which I bought him from Lula Sapphire when he was born and I've been slightly in love with this sort of design ever since.
And here's one that Adrian would actually agree to as well. Cricket wallpaper (another one from Rockett St George):


Lovely!

What's the best euphemism for nasty stomach bug? Ach. Erp. Ick. Oof. Ugh.

Following a random conversation on Twitter, Chris Addison mentioned that his excellent Radio 4 comedy show from 2004-06 'The Department' wasn't available to buy on CD/MP3 anywhere. Which seemed ridiculous, but following intensive research shockingly turns out to be true.

Has the BBC signalled the death of DAB? Today’s announcements detail the closure of the only two BBC stations that both broadcast original content and are only available on DAB. Now all original BBC radio content, barring the very few 5Live Sports Extra events that aren’t also on LW and the little CBeebies/CBBC stuff on Radio 7, is again available on a traditional FM/AM/LW radio.

While we get up in arms about the loss of the stations, perhaps we should be getting up in arms about the failure of DAB, and start asking ourselves what that means for the wider picture of the “Digital Switchover”.

Although we aren't close in the way some sisters-in-law are, you are still such an important part of my life. For one thing, you actually married my brother! And had two beautiful boys with him, my gorgeous nephews. We live in different countries so we don't see each other that often, but I always enjoy the times we are together, as one big family. Do you remember that first Christmas you spent with us when we made you dress up as a swan for a family performance of Swan Lake. And to think you still married him!

How could anyone know what lay around the corner? Sometimes I look at old photos and try to see in those pictures some sign that things weren't right, but I can't. Your hair is shiny, you are smiling. How were we to know that you were being eaten away inside? I'll never forget my mother calling and saying 'we have a problem'. I'll never forget you walking into my flat after the diagnosis of 3rd stage ovarian cancer and hearing you sobbing for 'my boys, my boys'.

But you have struggled on. No one will ever match you and my brother for sheer strength in facing your nightmare with dignity and telling everyone else it will be okay.

But it isn't okay. Because your cancer is terminal. Three years of fighting and hoping only to be told that it will get you in the end. I get angry when I read about 'brave cancer survivors' as if bravery can be enough to get you through this and those who succumb must in some way have been a little bit too weak. No one has ever been stronger than you in facing this and yet you will die from it.

All those broken dreams. All those nightmares faced. My mother seeing her son dealing with one of the worst things that life can throw and knowing that her grandsons face a terrible loss. My father, endlessly optimistic, having to accept that life is unfair and sometimes things don't work out. We've always been a lucky family - how did this happen? My brother, quiet and contained, shouldering it all and hoping beyond hope that you could hold on until a cure was found, now faced with a life alone raising two young boys. Two sisters, grieving for their family's nightmare, their brother's pain. My two nephews, living in the present as children can, but with a life ahead without their mother there to hold them and guide them.

And You. Your life and dreams cut short right before your eyes, faced with the awful knowledge that you won't grow old with your husband or see your boys grow into men or become a grandmother to their children. I'm a mother now too and I can hardly bear to think of the agony you must go through. To know that you won't be there to take them to school, to help with their homework, to soothe their nightmares, to hold their hands, to remind them to brush their teeth and clear their plates, to cuddle and kiss them and to tuck them in at night. Where do you find the strength to keep going when faced with that?

We may not be close like some sisters-in-law but that won't make it any easier to lose you.

March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Please be aware.

Having spent most of the Nineties in a darkened room listening to music that went “bang, bang, bang, bang” at somewhere around 140bpm I felt pretty musically adrift when, sometime around 2001, I started sleeping at the weekends again and techno stopped meaning quite what it had.

To find myself some new musical roots I started reading about all sorts of music, going right back to the Fifties. My theory was that I should start at the beginning and see where I ended up.

Along the way I’ve read some fantastic books*, recommended by some very knowledgeable people. I’m amazed to only just discover the existence of the Continuum 33⅓ series. Nigh on 100 titles, each book the missing sleevenotes of some of the greatest albums recorded. What an amazing list; from the cult, like Zaireeka, Maggot Brain, Radio City, Unknown Pleasures through the classics like Forever Changes and on to pop like Abba Gold and Sign O’ The Times. If anyone’s wondering what to buy me for a gift just start at the beginning of the list – I’ll have one of each, ta

* My favourite music book, by the way, is Fierce Dancing by C J Stone which documents, among other things, the transition from the free festivals of the Eighties to the open air raves of the Nineties. Is there a music book I should have read?

This led me to this.  Which in turn led me to this, which led me to this, which ultimately led me to buy this, which is this week’s favourite album.

Like yer man Boon says, touches of Arcade Fire and Phillip Glass.  I’d add some Flaming Lips and even some Erlend  Øye. Lovely.

Is this okay, I ask myself?

My children are fast becoming computer addicts. Theo can already find his way around an iPhone and he's not yet 2. And as for Freyja. Well, she shows me what to do...

Made by my friend Paul. Delighted the kids.


(In case you are wondering, there is a rabbit, elephant, frog and cat/tiger)

I have a love/hate view of NEXT. Loads of their children's clothes are of the type with cartoon fairies or cars and little slogans saying 'I'm a Princess' or 'Mummy's Monster', which personally I'm not so keen on.

But among all that they often have some real gems.

For girls, their tights are great and I headed there the other week as Freyja has grown out of her age 3-4s. I did a bit of a double take as I walked in. I wasn't so keen on the boys stuff, but the girls collection was great. Lots of animal print items and florals, which I love.

I got this denim ra-ra skirt which she has already worn to death:


Going to have to get another in a bigger size. Also got two brilliant tunics, one with a tiger face and one with zebra stripes. There were lots of things along these lines so I had to resist buying too much of the same.

Then I went on the website when I came home, and spotted these gorgeous bow tops:

Ten word wiki. Everything defined in ten words. e.g. second, minute, hour, day.

You may have noticed I’ve started this up again.  I’m trying to do one post a day again – I reckon it’s either that or kill it altogether and accept that all I’m actually good for is tweets about snow.

Anyhoo, today’s post is actually on the Isotoma blog.  It’s about old versions of python. Well, I’m not going to write two in a day, am I?

Having recently bitten the Apple and got an iPhone, I thought I'd bung any old Twitter app (twapp?) on it and be up and running, happily advising the world of the exciting cheese & pickle dilemma which might befall me in Pret of a Tuesday lunchtime.

Florence and the Machine’s cover of You Got The Love is really starting to get on my tits.  If I hear one more gushing “ooh, what a great version” or, worse, one more person telling me what a great track it is, completely unaware of the original, I shall be moved to violence.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is John Truelove’s original version – melding Candi Staton’s acapella vocal with Frankie Knuckles Your Love in the one true version. Re-released, remixed, re-recorded many many times this is, for me at least, the one we should all remember.

And please, if we’re going to get gooey about modern cover versions, sod Florence and The Machine and Joss Stone.  Try The XX version instead.

I discovered Lola's Kitchen in Metro yesterday on my way to work. I then spent a lot of the day just looking at all the beautiful cakes and trying to decide what excuse I had for ordering some.

The next birthday we have coming up in our household is Theo's in April. Fortunately, Lola's Kitchen is not just for girls:


And if you have a very special occasion coming up, check out their giant cupcakes:













Wow.

(Update: Hang on a minute here. I have just seen that it will cost £40 to get these delivered to me! £40!!! Maybe people in Catford aren't supposed to eat posh cupcakes..!!)

On to Week 6 of the TLS-lauded* Euphemisms Of The Week and we're bang up to date now. So it turns out that Twitter is a rich seam of snigger-inducing phraseology. Who knew? Oh, you all did. Right.

You’ll be needing a title for your new masterpiece.

Oscar Wellington Finbarr "Dangerous" Cornwell:= Sadly Antonia won't allow "Dangerous" to go on birth certificate. Just in case he isn't.

…for writing fiction.  Parts 1 and 2. Some great names giving their advice to would be writers – Elmore Leonard, Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Helen Dunmore, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, PD James, AL Kennedy, Hilary Mantel, Michael Moorcock, Michael Morpurgo, Andrew Motion, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Philip Pullman, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, Rose Tremain, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson.

“It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”

Freyja likes to choose which knickers she will wear each day. Today as she rummaged through, she was having trouble deciding:

"They are all so pretty I don't know which one to choose. But I only have one bottom so I have to choose just one. What I need is more bottoms!"

A girl who wishes she had more than one bottom. Let's hope she always feels this way about it!

Genuinely laughed-out-loud on the 0633 to London Bridge today, at this from one of the 'Adam & Joe' Twelve Podacsts Of Christmas:

I am shamelessly stealing taking inspiration from Mummy Bear at She Was Not At All Domestic's Friday Fashion Fix and introducing my 'Friday Fashion Finds'.

I have an on-going love affair with children's clothes. I like nothing more than rummaging through the rails in TK Maxx or having a quick whizz round the aisles in Sainsburys (surprisingly good). My husband despairs, but I've long ago come to terms with spending money on something that ends up covered in tomato sauce.

I tend to buy in bigger sizes and store them in a chest I have upstairs which I periodically go through to get out the things they have now grown into - usually to find that I've bought far too many hoodie's for Theo or that Freyja now owns 4 near idential tops.

Anyway, recently I was having one of my sort outs and while I was going through everything I remembered Mummy Bear's Friday Fashion Fix, where she posts about gorgeous items of kid's clothing she has bought or seen. And I thought to myself, now there's an idea...

It was hard to decide where to start, so I've just gone for my most recent TK Maxx purchase - two gorgeous Freoli T-shirt's for Theo.

Just love that green!

Sometimes I want my tweets to be directed at a subset of my followers; a useful/interesting Python link for colleagues, an Echo Bazaar comment for other players, that kind of thing.

The way @replies are handled has created the possibility of filtered communication. I can direct messages at a particular user knowing that only those who follow it will see the message – by creating specific ‘group’ accounts and directing messages at that user I can semi-privately communicate with that user’s followers. I can’t say anything that I don’t want the curious to see (my tweets are still there on the public timeline), but if I want to shield my broader range of followers from something I know they won’t be interested in this is a useful approach.

An example is the @isotoma user. This user is pretty much exclusively followed by Isotoma staff – if I direct a message to that user only Isotoma staff will see it, allowing me to tweet Python links to my heart’s content, knowing the intended recipients will get them without putting off those who wonder what the hell I’m talking about.

One of Sleep is for the Weak's writing prompts is 'What were you doing this time last year' and it was suggested that you could put up a post from a year ago. I liked that idea but it turns out that last February, I wasn't up to much at all.

So I went back further, to 2008, and it turns out that February two years ago was when I was having a major wobble about being pregnant again. And given that I was 7 months pregnant at the time, it was rather alarming.

Here is the post I wrote then.

I read it now and it seems so amazing to me that I felt like that. I can't believe I ever thought that having my second child would be a betrayal to my first. Watching both my children together, being with them, whether it is both of them together or just one at a time, is what I love. When Theo runs in to show Freyja something, calling her name or when Freyja asks to climb into Theo's cot and 'read' books to him in the morning and tells me that she loves her brother, my heart melts.

At the time when I had my wobble, my best friend's mum emailed me after reading my post. Among other things she told me to 'remember to look forward to all the good times you have to come when you watch your two children playing (and more than likely falling out) together'. It seems like nothing, doesn't it? Watching your children play together. But it is proving to be one of the best feelings in the world. And all the more for knowing that when they do fall out, they come together again, as only siblings can.

But two years ago I didn't know any of that. All I knew was that things were going to change irretrievably and I didn't like the idea of it one bit.

What did I think was going to happen to my relationship with Freyja? I don't know, but whatever it was seemed horrible at the time. I was scared something fundamental would change between us and I wouldn't be able to get back to where we were.

Well things did change. And actually I can no longer really remember what life was like with just one child. And I do think my relationship with Freyja is different - something that would have completely horrified me before Theo's arrival.

But it has changed for the better. My relationship with my children feels more complex, more multi-dimensional, often more exasperating and maddening but also more honest and real. It's true that Freyja is off her pedestal. But now both my children stand together.

How could I have thought it might not be that way?

That nice Mr Andronov pointed me at typekit just now.

Three albums I’ve been really looking forward to all got released in the last two weeks….

Midlake’s The Courage of Others. If it had been on vinyl I would have worn out my copy of their last album (The Trials of Van Occupanther). While the last one was influenced by the likes of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young, and early Fleetwood Mac (music I have to admit to loving) this latest one is influenced by Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span (music I have a real aversion to). Because of my love of the last album I’ve given this new one more listens than I normally would, but have come to the sad conclusion that it’s just a dreary derivative folk album. Fairport Convention lite at best. One down, two to go

Hot Chip’s One Life Stand. Some of the tracks from Made in the Dark and The Warning are stone cold classics. Live even more so. Again I really wanted to like the latest album. Initially I liked the more direct approach – the dance tracks are more straight down the line, ballads (for want of a better description) are more ballady. By the fifth listen, though, I’ve come to realise that what I thought was deliberately more direct is actually knowingly poppy. This is their attempt to break through. I really wouldn’t be surprised if every track ended up on an advert. And those lyrics about the XBox really can fuck off. Two down, one to go.

Yeasayer’s Odd Blood. Hah! This one really is awesome. A genuine move forward from the equally fantastic All Hour Cymbals. Right now I can’t imagine liking another album more this year. At least one purchase was worthwhile.

I even know who this was about. Scary.

"Did you see her office? Could you smell her?"

Week 5 of Euphemisms Of The Week is upon us with some beauties this time round (must have been the influence of Valentine's Day :)

Following the lead of many who have written about not-so-romantic Valentine's days, here's why we're having a quiet one:

Some time ago my husband managed to achieve that goal which I'm sure many men strive for - he convinced me, truely and absolutely, that we shouldn't celebrate Valentine's day.

It wasn't just on a whim. We'd had two pretty poor experiences - one involving our table booking being cancelled because we were going to be 15 minutes late, even though we called to let them know. And the other involving being seated at a table so uncomfortably close to the couple next to us that we may as well have been double dating.

So Adrian, who actually can't stand any of this sort of thing - it's pushing it each year just to get him to celebrate Christmas - convinced me that he didn't need one day to show me he loved me. To be fair, he's pretty good all year round at surprising me with little things he knows I like. Chocolate buttons from Hotel Chocolat, a bunch of lilies or tulips, tiny knickers....that sort of thing! I know that he would celebrate it if he thought I wanted to, and he always checks each year that I'm okay with us not doing anything to mark the occasion.

But I really am okay with it. Valentine's day was ruined for me anyway due to one awfully humilating experience when I was 8 years old that has stayed with me ever since. It was so cringe-worthy I can hardly bring myself to write this, 25 years later. It involved a boy I really, really liked, a painstakingly crafted Valentine's day card (I'd used my mum's eye shadow to colour it in) hidden in his school drawer, him finding out that it was from me and then giving it back to me in front of the entire class!

I still want to curl up and die when I think about it. When the time comes, I will never underestimate my kids childhood crushes and the agony they may bring!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(I missed this one, but for more Valentine's stories, head over to the The Valentines Carnival at The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.)

I recently read this post about storing baby clothes. This is a subject close to my heart. I could dress a small country with the amount of clothing I have in the loft 'just in case'.

I have a bit of a weakness for kids fashion, as does my mother. Freyja is also my mum's only granddaughter, out of four grandchildren. So she has a lot of clothes. Before having Theo I used the excuse that I was keeping everything incase we had another girl. Bags and bags and bags of stuff. We had a boy. I've still got it all though.

The loft is now packed with bags and bags and bags of girls and boys clothes. I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it yet.

I don't keep everything. I only keep the useful stuff (vests/sleepsuits) and the things I really like. Problem is that I really like most of my children's clothes. I tell myself I will ebay it eventually and if I ever do it will probably keep Adrian and I going for a year with the amount of stuff up there.

A few months ago I bought these nice bags from JoJo Maman Bebe and sorted everything out. I made a (very small) pile of things to give to charity and packed all the rest away again so that they are now at least neatly stacked in pretty bags.

I made a little pile of things I'd like to keep forever. Just enough to put in a box for each child - a tiny newborn vest each, their first sleepsuit (okay, I cheated and chose each a pretty one rather than the first actual one they ever wore - which in Freyja's case was a gigantic white one and in Theo's case was too small and the poppers wouldn't do up), their first proper shoes, first birthday outfit and one or two other things that I think are really 'them'.

When I was little I had a teddy bear called Amanda who I used as my 'baby', in much the same way a doll would be. She was big enough to fit real newborn baby clothes and my mum gave me a few things that had been mine and my sisters for her to wear. Recently I found those clothes in a cupboard at my mum's house. They took on a whole new significance, now that I have children, seeing those tiny, tiny dresses and knowing that my sister, and in some cases myself, used to wear them. So I don't want to get rid of everything. And I'd be happy for Freyja to use some of her old clothes for own dolls.

But keepsake boxes and dressing up aside, I know I can't keep it all forever and I am going to have to tackle the loft. But it seems very final and I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to this part of my life just yet.

What happens whenever I let my 4 year old play in her room with her friends:

They do not call me 'Mr Fashion'; this much I know.

However, I would like to share an excellent brand of clothing and stuff - which I'm sure all the cool kids gave up in 2007 - which I have suddenly found to be 'most excellent':


So I've been looking for a lightweight coat, sort-of waterproof and with a hood, but not too 'mountaineer' because altitude-wise I don't venture much higher than Blythe Hill Park. Oh, look?

The lovely Young Mummy at Young & Younger has given my first ever award - I am ridculously excited about it!

But before I get too carried away, it seems there are some things I should do to accept this award:

•Put the Logo on your sidebar, or within a post.
•Pass the award onto 12 Bloggers.
•Link the nominees within your post.
•Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
•Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I feel slightly overwhelmed at having to nominate 12 bloggers and I'm sure many of these will have already received this award before. But here are the blogs I'd like to send a little ray of sunshine to:

Whoopee
SylkeWeb
Baby Baby
Babyrambles
BabyGenie
The Heartful Blogger
She Was Not At All Domestic
Make do Mum
Battling On
Muddling Along Mummy
Sleep is for the Weak
Mummy Mania

This is my entry for the latest Mummy Bloggers Carnival, which is on your top 10 most surreal mummy moments:

1. While pregnant with Freyja I felt sick for the first 3/4 months - during this time I went on a long weekend to Bruges and I organised my best friend's hen night. To this day, I cannot think of either of those two events without a wave a nausea.

2. Boobs like cannon balls as my milk came in. Wasn't expecting that.

3. Taking Freyja out on New Year's Eve to visit some friends, when she was only 3 days old, and finding that I was too scared to cross the road with her. I had to ask my husband to take over the pram.

4. Discovering that one of the mums through my post-natal group, who is now one of my closest friends, knew many of the same people I do and has been out clubbing to the night run by some of my friends, where I practically lived for the first few years I was in London.

5. Baby Bounce and Rhyme at Lewisham Libary. The best Bounce & Rhyme I've been to. Run by 2 men who would get so into it they would be sweating by the end. We used to sing songs about being eaten by Boa Constrictors and I'm sure there was one about a rabbit and a shotgun. It was just brilliant. I haven't been since Freyja was a baby but hope they are still bouncing and rhyming away.

6. My waters breaking before going into labour with Theo. I was asleep in bed, woke up suddenly and just knew it was going to happen. I jumped out of bed just in time. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that once your waters break, it just keeps on coming! No one ever tells you this stuff! With Freyja I was already in hospital and well on my way when my waters broke, so this was a new experience.

7. Calling my mum to tell her I had a boy and her replying 'Great! Freyja has chicken pox'. Gah.

8. Theo's mimicking. He will repeat most things that you ask him to. Not so strange now he is 22 months but slightly odd as an 8 month old when this little talent started emerging. He would shout 'errow!' (hello) at everyone and people would literally do a double take and say 'that baby just said hello to me'.

9. Meeting up with my friends - who I used to spend entire lost weekends with, dancing, clubbing, shots of cider in the bathroom (yes, really - anything's game when you haven't slept for 32 hours), singing 'Eternal Flame' as if we really believed we were The Bangles.... Now we watch our children play together. How did that happen?

10. The fact that somehow, this is where I am in my life. It seems only yesterday that I was doing homework and trying to convince my parents to let me go out on a school night. And now I'm married with two children and all the wonderfulness (and reponsibility...) that it brings.

• Presenting django-devserver, a better runserver
  (tags: django performance python)

I think I may have invented a new cocktail.

Double Moskovskaya vodka + shot of Calpol + cube of ice + twist of flamed orange.

If you don't already, I urge you to listen to the Danny Baker show on Five Live. Obviously 9-11 on a Saturday morning might not be amenable to most people, but the podcast doesn't half light up a grey drizzly February commute. Currently loving the Roman numeral footballers feature (VIDIC!) and of course the ever present 'Sausage Sandwich Game'. A couple of hours of irreverent fun of a vaguely sporting nature, all held together with Danny's infectious enthusiasm for the absurd. Worth checking out.

And onwards we march with Week 4 of Euphemisms Of The Week

We took the kids to the Natural History Museum today which was a lovely day out and one which we will definitely repeat. Though I do think my children are still a little too young for it. They did enjoy it but they probably got more out of our visit to the Science Museum a few months ago, which has two interactive sections, one aimed at under 5s and one called Launch Pad, which Freyja in particular went mad for.

However, the Natural History Museum, which personally I prefer, was still really good for them. The dinosaur section has completely changed since I last went and both kids really enjoyed that bit - particularly the couple of models of moving dinosaurs and the fantastic 'live' T-Rex who looks you right in the eye as you walk past his enclosure - it really is quite unnerving!

We did the museum in two parts - dinosaurs, mammals and the body in the morning, followed by lunch at Giraffe (which look a little longer to walk to than we expected, but we were rewarded with the bizarre sight of High Street Kensington packed out with New Zealanders celebrating their National Day, all decked out in fancy dress). We then returned to the museum to do the insects, birds, earth and volcanos before heading home.

Afterwards I asked Freyja what had been her favourite thing out of the whole day. We'd seen dinosaurs, a polar bear, a peacock displaying its tail and beautiful butterflies. We'd travelled through the centre of the earth and witnessed erupting volcanos. We'd even walked past a gang of grown men dressed as smurfs.

And the best thing according to Freyja? The shop.

My child, the consumer. Gah.

My good friend Alex recently posted the following question over at his blog:

Just back from a wonderful weekend away; a birthday treat from my excellent wife Solveig (in conjunction with the as-per-usual top-notch babysitting services provided by mum & dad, for which much thanks are due).

Blimey, Week 3 of Euphemisms Of The Week rolled round so fast, I missed it yesterday...

Leotard, tutu, dressing gown, sunglasses. Well, what do you wear for breakfast....?

Part of owning a dog is the responsibility that comes with it, and that responsibility includes cleaning up after it. As unpleasant as you may find it to scoop that poop, believe me it is far more unpleasant to be the unfortunate person who stands in your dog's shit. And even more unpleasant when that person is a 4 year old, wearing her brand new Kickers, whose immediate reaction is to burst into tears and lift up those new Kickers with her hands to have a look at the mess.

The streets of South East London are littered with it. I really do wonder how so many people around here seem to be totally unaware of their responsibility to other both people and to the place they live in. In what way do you think it is okay to let your dog shit all over the pavement that everyone else has to use and just leave it there?

Perhaps the issue is that you are just too stupid to understand how it works. In that case, let me talk you through it. Your dog poos. You pick it up using a bag - one which you have taken out with you because, you know, you own a dog. You put the bag in a bin. There are usually quite a few around. Some parks even provide bins solely for this purpose, imagine that!

Sadly, I suspect the real issue is that you just don't care about either your neighbourhood or other people. You probably even think it must someone else's responsibility. But actually it is yours.

If you can't be bothered to clean up your dog's mess, you shouldn't have a dog.

• Geek Scrap: 8 web design add-ons for Django
  (tags: python django)

Looks like Blogger has got a bit bored with supporting externally-hosted blogs (like mine) over FTP. According to the press release:

"FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only 0.5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that."

Understandable I suppose, but which way forward? Probably a good opportunity to have a look at Wordpress publishing (I've also got a Tumblr thing running with a feed from here but that's a whole different kettle of ballgames).