Kaah chooow!

India's first day at school today. I think we're more excited than she is, which is just how I wanted it: I haven't made too much fuss as I'm hoping she'll approach it just as she did with nursery and the transistion will be seamless.

Back to school = end of summer, and it really has been the worse summer I can remember: The wettest, dullest summer on my personal record. I blame global warming.

That global warming brought a thunderstorm down upon us last night at the kids bedtime. We got hit with hailstones the size of ice cubes. They rattled against the window panes and cannoned-off the sills with gusto. If we had any gin in the house, I'd have been out catching them in a tumbler. Elliot, who had not experienced a thunderstorm before, heard the thunder and wondered what was happening. I told him that the noise was thunder and asked if he would like to see the lightning outside. He was very enthusiastic and excited, until we got to the window and he looked out...

...to discover that Lightning McQueen was nowhere to be seen.

He was gutted.

Shake it baby

We had a massive 5.2 ricter scale earthquake last week. I didn't feel a thing. That didn't stop the news channels having a field day covering the seismic event. The BBC News had a brilliantly edited piece that opened with the usual suspects -- man in street tells reporter that his chimney fell down, lady in street tells reporter that a roof tile landed on her car, old man says he slept through it all -- but finished with a young couple in hospital, clutching their newborn baby.

New Mum Girl: "I'd just had 'im when the earthquake struck. The bed moved and my curtains shook!"

I bet they did.