This article suggests that increases in food prices are leading to people buying less food. According to the article food prices rose by 1% between June and July this year, the biggest increase in recent months. With other household bills also rising and salary increases failing to keep up, it seems many people are simply having to buy less food. I have certainly noticed my shopping bill going up despite the fact that I only buy basic items. I have been purchasing cheaper cuts of meat to try and cut costs. I am also more concerned about food waste and try to make sure that everything is used even if it means making it into cat food. I have also been splitting food, particularly meat down into smaller portions and growing more fruit and vegetables to supplement our diet. All of these things mean that the food budget does stretch but it doesn’t get away from the fact that I am paying a lot more each month for our basic household shop.

Time for another cute cat picture. Today we have Willow stealing the remote.

I brought a breast of lamb in Sainsbury's the other day because the price tag caught my eye. For just £2.36 its probably one of the cheapest cuts of meat I have come across and it does require quite a lot of cooking time to make it into anything worth eating as it tends to be very fatty.

I chopped up a large onion and a few cloves of garlic and sat the lamb on top. Then I cooked it in a roasting tin with about half a bottle of cheap red wine, a couple of bay leaves and a bunch of lemon thyme from the garden. I covered it with foil and left it for two and half hours at 180 degrees. Then I chopped up three slices of bread and some bunches of mixed garden herbs in the food processor. I covered the top of the lamb with Dijon mustard and put the herb crust on top. I drizzled it with a little olive oil. Then I finished it off in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. You can see the result before I carved it. Served with baby garden potatoes and garden beans it certainly makes a nice low budget meal for 2 people.

I took this picture of Lucy the other day. If she was a LOL cat she would be saying “I is on your exercise bike stealing your calories”.

I took this picture of Oscar the other day. He likes to collect as many cushions as possible to make himself a nice nest in the middle. He  certainly makes sure he is comfortable.

We have quite a few plums trees in the garden and being plum season I have been looking for ways of using up the seasonal glut. I made this plum chutney the other day and it turned out rather well. It is quite sweet but is the perfect compliment to gammon, fish and strong cheeses. The recipe is from the Reader’s Digest book Food From Your Garden.

Ingredients
2lb (1kg) stoned plums
1lb (500g) apples
1lb (500g) shallots or onions
1lb (500g) raisins
6oz (175g) brown sugar
1oz (25g) salt
1 teaspoon each of ground ginger, allspice, dry mustard and nutmeg
1 pint (600ml) vinegar

Method
Chop the stoned plums, the peeled and cored apples, the peeled shallots and the raisins. Place in a pan with the sugar, salt, spices and vinegar. Bring to the boil, simmer until soft and thick. Put into jars and leave to cool. The recipe makes approx 4.5lb (2.25 kg) of chutney. That’s around 5 medium jars.

I was trying to take a picture of Oscar the other day. Unfortunately every time I crouched down to get a shot he thought I was calling him to come to me. The resulting pictures are all of Oscar running towards me. I did manage to get one before he got too close but I think Oscar misses the point of photographs. 

My husband who is from South Africa is always going on about how much he likes Bobotie so to keep him quiet I thought I would give it a go. I found this recipe for Bobotie the other day and it turned out quite well. You can see the results pictured to the left. Below is the recipe in full so I can locate it easily next time I want to use it.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, peeled and sliced
2 1/4 pounds good quality lean ground beef
1 thick slice of white bread
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon medium curry powder (or hot for the hale and brave)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
freshly grated pepper (about a half teaspoon)
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 tablespoons malt vinegar
1/2 cup seedless raisins
2 tablespoons strong chutney
2 bay leaves (or fresh lemon leaves if available)
2 medium eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Heat oil in medium sauté pan. Stir in onions. Cook over medium heat until transparent. Add ground beef. Cook until lightly browned and crumbly.

Soak bread in half the milk, squeeze out excess milk and mash with a fork - DON'T TOSS SQUEEZED OUT MILK! Pour it straight back into remaining milk. Set milk aside, and ad pulled-apart bread to the meat mixture.

Add curry, sugar, salt, pepper, turmeric, vinegar, raisins, chutney to the beef mixture. Spoon the mixture into a greased baking dish, and place bay leaves on top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes in preheated 350°F oven.

Beat egg with remaining milk and pour over mixture approximately 25 - 30 minutes before end of baking time.

Serve with steamed rice (traditionally yellow!) and extra chutney.

Serves: 6

I came across this interesting article about hierarchical structures within a multi-cat household and having several cats it made me think about our little pride. Our cats pictured are Willow (grey and white), Oliver (white), Oscar (white with tabby patches) and Lucy (tortoiseshell and white). They all have their distinct places within the group.

Willow is the cat we have had the longest. She first arrived as a 5 week old kitten with her brother Merlin, who we sadly lost in an accident at 9 months old. At this point we felt Willow needed the company of another cat so set about looking for a companion for her. I wanted a male cat of a similar age as I thought they would be more likely to create a bond. This is when I heard about Oscar and went to see him at the cat home. He seemed perfect, except for one small detail. He had to come with his brother Oliver. A sucker for rescue cats I decided to take them on.

Oscar and Oliver were feral when they arrived, they hated us and more worryingly Willow hated them. We keep the cats separate at first and gradually let them catch a glimpse of each other. Each time Willow saw the new cats, she hissed at them and made her feelings clear, she did not want these strange new cats in her home. This went on for several weeks and we had reached the point that I was seriously thinking of taking the new cats back to the cat home. Then one day when Willow was being particularly annoying howling during the night we shut her in the same room as Oscar and Oliver. The next morning we still had three cats and they managed not to kill each other.

Over the next month the three cats became to tolerate each other. Willow and Oscar quickly formed a close bond and starting sleeping together leaving Oliver on the fringe of the group. It was clear Willow was still the head cat as she would win all the fights between herself and Oscar. She now tolerated Oliver although it was clear he was lower in the group. Oliver was clearly also lower in the group structure than his brother, but the three cats would now sit together with Willow and Oscar together and Oliver on his own beanbag and occasionally all together as pictured.

At this point the group was complete and functioning well and I had no plans to introduce any other cats. This is when Lucy came along. She needed a new home and I once again gained a cat. Introducing Lucy was interesting. She was still a kitten and so much smaller than the other cats and we were worried they might hurt her. Willow and Oliver took an instant dislike to Lucy, Oscar the biggest of the cats was curious and keep trying to approach her. We kept the cats separate at night and introduced supervised meeting periods. During one of these Lucy was sitting on a beanbag when Oscar sat on top of her, she was now part of the group. Willow and Oliver still hated her but now that she been accepted by Oscar the others quickly began to tolerate Lucy.

Now that Lucy was tolerated although perhaps still not liked by all, the group worked out a new structure. Willow quickly asserted herself as head cat, with Oscar second. Oliver and Lucy at this point appeared to have equal standing under the two larger cats. Willow and Oscar now spent much of their time curled up together and Oliver and Lucy although they don’t sit together spend most of their time playing together. The multi-cat household functions well, the cats live together happily with the odd fight but they all seem to respect their place within the group.

Out cat Willow went missing the other day which is unusual for her. Willow is one of those cats that requires constant human companionship, despite the fact that she has other cat friends she likes to be near us. When after 24 hours Willow had stayed out all night and had still not come home we were understandably worried.

Unfortunately there is not much you can do to locate a lost cat. Despite the fact that all of our cats are microchipped and have collars with our address and phone number on them, when a cat is missing you can really only wait for them to come home. We knew that Willow would have come home if she had been able, so after the first sleepless night up looking for her without any trace we assumed she was either trapped, dead or injured.

I spent the next day putting missing cat flyers through the doors of all the properties in the surrounding area in the hope that Willow might have gone into someone's shed or garage and got shut in. Twelve hours later there was still no sign of Willow and we were approaching another night without her. Just as we were about to go to bed a rather ruffled, limping and stressed Willow appeared. We still don’t know what happened to Willow but are guessing she became trapped somewhere and someone arriving home late saw our flyer and checked their shed.

Willow has spent the day drooling which is usually a sign she is stressed. She is also limping, very hungry and drinking a lot of water but she is home. As a precaution I will be keeping her in for a few days and am hoping we can avoid the further stress of a visit to the vet. Before letting her out next time I will be fitting a loc8tor to her collar so I have more chance of finding her if she should go missing again. All that remains now is to spend the weekend catching up on all that lost sleep.

I have recently purchased a newer car as my 20 year old Ford Fiesta has finally got to the point where it won’t get through the MOT. Prior to purchasing my new car I checked insurance rates on a couple of comparison websites and once I had finished comparing meerkats at  www.comparethemeerkat.com I checked the rate with my then current insurer Budget through their website. Having looked at the car insurance premiums and found that there was not much different between them, I decided I would stick with Budget to save myself the hassle of moving my insurance to another company. All of the insurance companies had quoted in the region of £300 for the year with a similar excess and a second named driver, a cost which seemed fairly reasonable.

At this point I called Budget to let them know I had just purchased a newer car and wished to cancel the insurance on the old one and transfer it to my new vehicle. Budget now quoted me a much higher total premium of nearly £800 for the year. The reason being that as an existing loyal customer of nearly 11 years I was not able to enjoy the rate quoted on their website. This website quote of £300 was only available to new customers only and not existing ones. A good case of brand new customers only. My initial reaction was that I would cancel the existing policy and then return as a new customer to take up the “new customer” rate. Apparently I am not able to do this, as I already have a policy number so would be prevented from taking out a new policy.

At this point I was left with two options, stay with Budget and pay a highly inflated £800 a year premium simply because I am an existing customer or pay a cancellation fee for my old policy and move to another insurer. Even taking into account the cancellation fee for the old insurance I would still be £400 a year better off by moving to another insurer so it seemed the best option was to tell Budget what they could do with their insurance. I can see my custom over the last decade has obviously been highly valued and I certainly won’t be using them again.

According to this article millions of men don’t know their partner’s dress size, date of birth or eye colour. If the article is to be believed it would seem that many men do not know some basic facts about their other half. A survey carried out by the Perfume shop on 2,000 men who were buying perfume for their partner founds that although six out of ten man thought they knew her, 12% did not know their partner's eye colour, 10% did not know her date of birth and 8% did not know her natural hair colour. Other questions which drew blanks were favourite perfume, bra size and the name of their best friend. According to relationship expert Francine Kaye although small details are important to women most men do not notice them. I must be lucky then, my husband knows all the answers even if he does describe my favourite perfume as the one in the green bottle. It’s close enough, to find it in a shop, so it’s good enough for me.

The number of people getting married is now at the lowest rate since records began in the 19th century. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics there were 232,990 weddings in England and Wales in 2008, 35,000 less than ten years ago. Figures also show that people who decide to get married are leaving it much later. The average age of marriage has now increased to 36.5 for men and 33.8 for women. Fewer than two thirds of weddings are now the first marriage for both partners with more than one in six ceremonies involving people who have been divorced or widowed. Figures have also suggested that more people are choosing to raise children outside of marriage.

According to this article marriage could actually be good for your health. Psychologists have found that people that are married are less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. However, those who end their marriage are more likely to suffer from mental disorders when the relationship ends.

It started snowing here in Sevenoaks last night and we now have a good covering of snow. Whilst the foxes have been jumping around in it and playing the cats are not impressed. Our white cat Ollie (pictured) ventured out for a look but the other are all curled up inside. Below is a view of the trees in our garden.

I have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for a number of years now and have learnt to control the condition with a combination of diet and exercise. Until recently I had got to the point when I was only suffering the problem every few months and usually when I had eaten something that I knew would trigger the symptoms. I was surprised then, when after my move back to Sevenoaks I found I was suffering from the condition every day.

At first I didn’t occur me what was wrong I assumed that the symptoms were a stomach bug, but after a month and half of symptoms I realised that the IBS was back with a vengeance. I went back to square one keeping a food diary, cutting out any known triggers completely and making sure I exercised every day but the symptoms still continued. That’s when I realised that the only thing that had changed was the fact that before our house move I was drinking water only from the filter tap. The new house had no filtration system installed and since we had moved house I had been drinking water straight from the tap. It seemed a long shot but I stopped drinking the tap water and started buying bottled mineral water. After a few days my stomach which had felt like a beach ball for nearly two months finally went back to normal and all the other symptoms stopped soon after.

Since then I have continued to drink only mineral water and will later be installing a new filtration system. I am now back to the occasional IBS flare up when I eat something I know will upset me but I like, such as cheese or red meat. I can only assume that there is something in the tap water that not only triggers my IBS symptoms but makes them much worse than usual. I have read reports that suggest fluoride in drinking water can trigger IBS but up to now have been sceptical and as I have no idea whether the tap water in Sevenoaks contains fluoride I am unsure whether this is the cause. What is clear, however, is that I can’t drink the water.

Our cat Oliver is notorious for being very timid, he usually hides when we get any visitors and get beaten up by our other cats. Bearing this in mind we were very surprised when a large fox wandered into the garden and approached him. Oliver and the fox regarded each other for a while before the fox rolled on the ground. It was obvious to us that the fox wanted to play but Oliver seemed to miss the point and chased him away. You can see pictures below of the encounter, click on the images for a bigger version.

It has been nearly three months since we moved into our new home and we finally have a working shower. What seemed a simple job has taken a lot more time and money that we expected. We were really pleased when we managed to purchase a shower for £35 and a screen for just over £40, particularly as I paid for them using my Nectar points. Whilst the initial cost seemed very reasonable what we hadn’t taken into account was how difficult the shower would be to install.

As there were no plumbing or electrics in place there was a fair amount of work that needed doing. We called the plumber first who had to install the pipes needed. He found that the pipes in the house were old steel pipes and these needed to be replaced with copper pipes. The plumbing and tiling took several days due to various other problems that occurred and with labour this cost just over £350. Next we had to get power to the new shower. My husband routed the cable through to the unit which involved removing tiles and parts of the ceiling and took several weekends. Then we finally called the electrician who came to connect the power and install the new consumer unit. This cost another £100 plus £80 of materials. All in all our bargain £75 shower ended up costing just over £800. I’m really going to enjoy that first shower.

One of the best things about our new house is the large garden which is full of wildlife. On the day we arrived we discovered a hole at the bottom of the garden and were curious as to what might be inside. A few days later I came across a large fox sunning itself on the lawn and it now appears that we have a whole family of foxes. I have also noticed several squirrels and there are signs of hedgehog activity although I haven't actually seen one yet. We also have a variety of different birds. The most abundant appears to be the big fat wood pigeons and doves which sit in the tall trees surrounding the garden. I have also seen blackbirds, song thrushes, robins, green finches, coal tits, blue tits, great tits, wrens, crows, magpies, starlings, gold finches, woodpeckers, sparrows and some type of small hawk. As a keen birdwatcher I can see I am going to like it here. Once I have found where I packed the camera I hope to have some pictures of the wildlife so expect these to be posted shortly.

Moving house can be quite stressful especially if you have pets. Having four cats this was one of the main concerns we had about the move. Not only did we have to get four cats into four boxes (a miracle at the best of times) we had to do it whilst they were stressed out because of the strange people in the house and we had an hours drive ahead of us to get to our new home. One thing that made the move easier was that we had decided to do it over the course of two days. On day one we locked our furry friends in one room in the old house. The removal men then moved everything out of the the other part of the house. Once they had left for the day we moved all the remaining furniture out of the “cats room” so that the following day the removal men could take the rest of our stuff and just leave us four cats in an empty house.

On day two the rest of the house was cleared very quickly and the removal lorry set off to the new house with all our belongings packed up. We then proceeded to catch the cats starting with Willow and Oscar, the most docile and leaving Lucy and Oliver (evil hissing balls of fur) until last. Surprisingly we managed the near impossible feat of getting all four cats into boxes within the hours and even more surprisingly we still had all of our fingers. We then packed the boxes complete with cats into the car and set off to the new house accompanied all the way by Oliver howling at the top of his voice. Just over an hour later we arrived at the new house, with Oliver still howling in protest. Once again we put aside a small “cat room” and put the cat boxes into the room. We set up a clean litter tray and some food and water, opened the doors of the cat boxes and put a sign on the door on the room reading “do not open cats”. With the cats taken care of we moved all of our things into the new home.

We then used the “cat room” as a base for the cats. Once the house was free of removal men we opened the door and gradually one by one the cats plucked up the courage to come out and explore. They were initially very nervous but curiosity quickly gets the better of even the most nervous cat. Now nearly a week later all of the cats have left the “cat room” and now spend most of their time sitting on the windowsill hunting the fat pigeons in the garden. The next step will be to let the cats outside to explore but we will leave it a few weeks before we introduce them to the outside.

Its been just over a week now since we moved into our new house and the place is just starting to feel like home. Whilst the inside of the house has all of our old things in it I must admit I am finding it hard to get used to being in a different location. Having been away from Sevenoaks for nearly ten years its strange to leave the house and not see the familiar surroundings of Egham. In many ways Sevenoaks is as I remember it but there are some changes and it frequently surprises me when I find a building has disappeared or its usage has changed. It will certainty take time to get used to the area again but it is nice to be just around the corner from my family and be able to just pop round for a cup of tea rather than facing a long drive on the motorway.

If you follow my Twitter updates then you will probably know we have recently moved house. Whilst the move went well and we and the four cats have arrived safely at our new house in Sevenoaks, getting back on broadband did not go so smoothly, hence why my blog has not had many updates recently. As I work from home Broadband is an essential service so we phoned BT before we moved to ensure it would be set up on our arrival. What we were not prepared for was the fact that the previous Broadband provider had left a marker on the line. As a result of this BT were unable to set up the Broadband as we had requested and instead cancelled the requested service leaving us without Broadband for a week. After many calls and a long wait we are finally back on Broadband and blogging once more.

We recently put our house on the market and received an offer after only two weeks. Since then we have been frantically viewing properties in various areas with limited success. We thought we had finally narrowed the search down to just two properties in Egham where we currently live. However, at the last minute a new property was thrown into the mix in a totally different area. Despite our reservations about changing areas as well as moving house, my husband fell in love with it. It now appears that not only are we moving but we are relocating to a completely new area, something that proves to be quite a big decision and is exciting but also quite frightening.

We ordered some new sofas about a month ago to replace our very old moth eaten ones and the new ones arrived yesterday. We brought our original sofas when we moved into our house about eight years ago and not being the most expensive or well made they had got to the point where the seats has dropped and springs were sticking out of the back. Coupled with the toll of four pairs of claws (the cats) it really was time to replace them. The new sofas were ordered from Furniture Village and made to order hence why they take up to a month to arrive. We were slightly concerned that they were going to make it in tact because our doorway is too narrow for sofas so unfortunately they need to go over the garden wall and through the patio doors at the back of the house. Whilst this manoeuvre is not hugely difficult, in the past we have encountered problems because health and safety rules do not allow delivery drivers to lift items over a certain height. Despite us informing Furniture Village on three occasions the drivers were not aware of the potential problems when they arrived. However, unlike last time when Argos left our sofas on the lawn they quickly agreed that the sofas needed to go over the wall and after about 20 minutes the new sofas were unwrapped and in the living room. As I am typing this I am sitting here enjoying that new sofa smell.

I took my car for its MOT yesterday and was pleasantly surprised when once again it sailed through with no problems. I have had the G registration Ford Fiesta for ten years now and at 20 years old I expect every year to be its last. I was slightly offended by the guy at the MOT testing station who said to me “I recognised your car from last year and realised it probably wasn’t as bad as it looks”  and I must admit the comment made me wonder if perhaps it might be time to buy a new car. Saying that having just paid for a years MOT, perhaps I should get my moneys worth first and look for a newer car this time next year.

We usually go out on Valentines Day but this year we decided we would stay in and cook at home. I received a gift of flowers and chocolates from my husband in the morning and then we went out to source ingredients. We ended up going for a menu of seared scallops with a tomato salsa, fillet steak with rocket salad and banoffe pie accompanied by a bottle of Bollinger. It was all cooked to perfection and was very tasty and when I consider that to purchase food of this quality in a restaurant would probably have cost double what it cost us to cook at home I think we did quite well. That's not to say we won't be going out for a meal but we will go next weekend when we won't be paying over inflated Valentines Day prices.

I recently got Rockband and Rockband 2 for Christmas with all the instruments and have been having a lot of fun playing over the past few weeks. One thing that I initially found a little odd was that not all the songs advertised on the back of case were actually included on the game. It took me a little bit of searching around on the internet to find out that to access all of the songs you first need to complete either the game or the challenges to unlock them, there is however, no mention of this in the manual that comes with the game.

I went through Rockband on a solo tour as a vocalist and unlocked all the songs this way. There is a cheat that allows you unlock all of the songs by entering a sequence on the start screen but this apparently does not allow you to save your progress so I decided to do it the hard way. I later discovered that for $5 you can purchase a license key that allows you to import all of the Rockband songs onto your hand drive, so if you are buying both games together and want to access all of the songs from within Rockband 2 then this is quite useful. Since then I have been busy working my way through Rockband 2 unlocking the songs on this disk and now have quite a collection to choose from. My only problem now, is that I want to play in a band and my husband is always too busy to join me, so my band which I named Bunny Foot only has the one member, still it means I get plenty of practice.

I woke up this morning to find there had been some snow in the night. Its not very much but its quite a rarity to see any snow in Egham so it was a surprise. The cats spent about 10 minutes outside digging holes in the snow and then pouncing on them before it got a little too cold for them and all came back aside to find a warm spot to spend the rest of the day. It seems cats don't like snow very much because it makes their paws wet.

Happy 2009 to all my readers. After a very busy few weeks with friends and relatives visiting we spent a very quiet New Years Eve at home with our cats. Although its nice to have company its also nice to have the house back to yourselves. An evening in with a bottle of champagne and watching the neighbours fireworks, was not the most exciting New Year Eve I have ever spent but much needed after all the excitement of the past few weeks. Back to work tomorrow.

After several days of eating too much food and drinking too much wine I am starting to feel the effects of too much Christmas cheer. Whilst in many ways it has been a good Christmas spent with family it will be nice to get back to eating normal, more healthy food and a regular exercise regime. Saying that, I still have a few days left of holiday which I will probably spend trying out some of my other computer games, after I have been running of course, that way I can justify sitting in front of the games console.

One of the presents I received this Christmas was Rockband for the Xbox. I have wanted this game for a while and it was a real surprise when my husband appeared with a huge box on Christmas morning. After putting together the instruments I had a go at the drums and Rory tried the guitar before switching over and trying the other instruments. Both instruments took a little bit of getting used with the singing being the easiest and least challenging part. After a little practice, however, this game gets really addictive. I haven't quite mastered the guitar but I am starting to get quite good at the drums. This is a game that appeals to all ages as well. Rory's parents spent Christmas with us and we formed a band with me doing the singing, Rory's mum and dad taking turns at manning the drums and Rory on lead guitar. Despite it being quite an expensive game I can see we are going to have hours of fun with this. Once we have exhausted the songs on the original disk I will be off to the music song to download more.

I would like to wish all my readers a happy Christmas. I have received lots of new toys today and will be reviewing these in the coming days so watch this space.

This article suggests that the average cost of a wedding has doubled over the past decade and now costs around £21,000. I wonder whether its just a case of people not shopping around when they are planning their wedding. When I got married two years ago I spend a total of £9880.81 on our wedding which I considered to be quite a lot of money. For that, however, I got a lovely ceremony in my local church in Egham followed by a stunning reception for 120 people at Royal Holloway University as well as an evening buffet for an extra 50 people.

My dress cost just under £600 including the veil and tiara and the bridesmaids dress was around half that. I definitely didn't cut corners but was aware that our total budget of £10,000 could not be exceeded. We had a little help with my parents paying for the photographer and we made all of our table decorations and favours to save a bit of cash. The only thing we couldn't afford was a honeymoon so we came up with the idea of asking our guests to contribute towards this and as a result had a nice relaxing break in the sun without having to worry about the cost. I found that the £10,000 budget went further than expected and our wedding day was certainly not lacking in any way in fact it was pretty much perfect, a little careful budgeting and research can go a long way in planning a wedding, and I don't think it needs to cost £21,000.

Recently the news has been full of details about the case of Baby P who died after sustaining shocking injuries inflicted upon him by his parents over a long period of time. In the case of this child, he was seen by social workers more than 60 times and also examined by a doctor just days before he died and no one picked up the extent of his injuries or felt that the child should be taken into care. A postmortem examination showed he had a broken back, eight fractured ribs, missing fingernails and toenails, multiple bruises and an injury to the inside of his mouth. He had also swallowed one of his own teeth. This is clearly a shocking case and one where social services have failed to protect a vulnerable child. I do think, however, that shocking as the case is that cases of extreme child abuse such as this are in the minority and that this should be taken into account.

The majority of parents would not consider causing harm to their child and are perfectly capable of raising happy well adjusted children. Whilst I can understand the strength of public feeling regarding this case, I do feel that the backlash from this case will mean that the majority of good parents will now be under more intense and often unnecessary scrutiny. These cases often lead to unnecessary measures such as the call to ban smacking which apparently "infringes children's rights to dignity". There have already been cases of parents being taken to court for simply smacking their children. Smacking, however, is not child abuse and should not be compared in the same light, after all children are children not adults, they do need discipline but within reason and only when necessary.

I can't help thinking that the many inquiries that follow this case will not help to protect the minority of children that are really at risk but will simply lead to more cases where parents have their children taken into care simply because the authorities have unsubstantiated suspicions. In my opinion the inquiries into the case of Baby P should concentrate upon the failings directly related to this case, such as why his injuries went unnoticed for so long and why social workers did not notice the physical signs of abuse. Perhaps the focus should be on better training for those who have to determine whether a child is at risk and not introducing new rules and regulations that could penalise the majority of good parents.

We seem to be spending an awful lot of out time at Homebase at the moment. Last weekend we went four times and so far this weekend we have managed three visits. Each time my husband promises he won't have to go back again and each time he forgets something. As the only driver in our household, I get the job of driving him there and sitting in the car park waiting for him. With any luck he now has everything he needs and can get on with the job of finishing the laminate flooring, but knowing Rory there is some essential piece of kit we will need to go back for.

It was my Dads birthday last night so we decided to book at a table at Villa Rosa in Egham. I have been a regular visitor to this restaurant for the past nine years and and am yet to have a bad experience. As always the food was cooked to perfection and the wine although a little on the expensive side was very good. At around £30 a head for a three course meal, including wine it also doesn't break the bank. As always the highlight of the evening has to be the dessert trolley. If you are planning on visiting Villa Rosa, I would recommend booking on a Friday and Saturday night because all the tables are usually taken, perhaps an indication of how good it is.

Its Halloween again and much as I dislike children I went out and brought a couple of bags of sweets. The doorbell has been ringing every five minutes for the last couple of hours and a succession of witches, vampires, skeletons and zombies have all gone away happy with some candy. The sweets have nearly run out now, so I guess its time to turn off all the lights and pretend I am not at home, after all I think I have made an effort.

We spent last weekend fitting laminate flooring in our dining room and today I am in pain. My whole body hurts so I guess I have used some muscles that don't usually get much use. I thought fitting laminate flooring was meant to be easy. All the instructions say that the pieces simply lock together. What the instructions don't tell you is that "lock together" actually means you have to hit them very hard with a mallet until they fit. The instructions also fail to mention the challenges that you face fitting the floor when the walls in your house are not straight. Sure the walls look straight but when it comes to lining up the first the few planks of flooring you suddenly realise that they are not. The job does get easier after you have put the first three rows of flooring down but it certainly took a lot longer than I expected. I now have another thing to add to my list of hated DIY jobs. Next time I might just buy a carpet.

On Friday I went to see Spyski at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. Whilst the play would not have been my first choice it was better than I expected. It started off as a production of The Importance of Being Earnest which as it turned out was a cover for the actual production of Spyski. The idea here is to create the feeling that the cast are actually telling you a true story but disguising it as another play so that the authorities do not detect it. The story recounts the events that the actors have experienced over the past week. The plot centres around the lead actor who stars in the cover production, he ends up in the same hospital as a Russian spy who has been poisoned and who eventually dies. Whilst in the hospital, however, the dying spy passes on his secret and the actor is suddenly thrown into a deadly plot. I won't divulge any more of the story, but will simply say that the acting was rather good, the storyline for me perhaps got a bit sketchy and lost at times but overall it was a funny and rather light hearted show.

Well I won the lottery last night but unfortunately it was only £10 so I guess it won't change me. It is my first win for some time though and I guess it will pay for 10 more lottery tickets. Hopefully one of those will be a bit more lucky.

With my husband working hard on important project at work I find myself spending more and time at home alone with my four cats. Generally I have quite a few TV shows that I like to watch but when there is nothing else on I like to treat the cats to a nature documentary. Whilst this might make me sound like a crazy cat lady I do quite like nature documentaries. Not as much as my cats, though. They especially like documentaries about birds and watch every moment intently with their ears flicking constantly. They also make hunting noises at the TV when they see certain types of birds, usually songbirds which I guess they are familiar with seeing in the garden. Rather confusing, however, is that my cat Oliver has recently started making hunting noises when he sees Alan Titchmarch of the TV, why I don't know, but for some reason my cat wants to hunt him.

I have mentioned screaming frogs on my blog before when my cats have caught them. For those who are unfamiliar with them, frogs tend to let out a high pitched scream when cornered by a curious cat. Today Oliver caught a frog and brought it back through the cat flap where he decided to deposit it in his food bowl. I'm guessing he was then about to eat his latest victim. What actually happened was I heard the now familiar high pitched scream of a cornered frog and found that I had a very large frog hopping around my dining room with four cats in pursuit. This frog was lucky I got to him whilst he was still alive and he is now safely back in the pond.

With all the stories in the news about identity theft I am very careful about sorting and shredding all my mail. I tend to shred anything that has my address on it and put everything else in the recycling bin. What I do find particularly irritating is junk mail from credit card companies. I get at least 1 credit card application every day and they will insist on filling in the name and address details on the application form. We still receive these application forms for previous occupants of our house even though we have lived here for 5 years. It seems to me the credit card companies are making it rather easy for people to submit fraudulent application forms. I wonder if there is a way to stop this rather annoying deluge of junk that regularly arrives through my letter box.

I hate spiders so have had a rather nervous couple of days. It appears that as the weather has got a bit colder all the spiders in the local area have decided to move into my house. Whilst that may be a slight exaggeration we have certainly found a lot of spiders this week. It started two days ago when I was sitting watching the TV. My husband (with none of the sense of urgency needed where spiders are involved) said "move your foot". Looking down I saw the most enormous spider about to crawl over my foot. Naturally this led to much screaming whilst my husband moved all the furniture trying to locate the spider which I guess must have been scared off by the noise. Later that night I got ready for bed and was fast asleep when I was awoken by my husband pottering around the bedroom for no apparent reason. Thinking nothing of it, I quickly fell asleep again. The next day my husband informed me that he had "found another one of those giant spiders on the wall above your head" and that "he didn't want to wake the neighbours" so had removed it discretely. Whilst he was probably right not to mention it at 1am ever since then I keep thinking there are spiders crawling on me. I'm probably just being paranoid as I have found no more giant spiders, only smaller ones which to me are just as bad. I just hate spiders.

I am being to think that I might suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) because the last few days I have felt very run down and depressed with little energy to do anything. The constant rain means that even with the lights on in the house it still seems dark and dingy. Its easy to take the sunlight for granted but when you don't see any for a couple of days its amazing the negative effect it can have on your mood. Its also been too wet to go running which puts me in a bad mood. Its days like this you just want to eat a big bar of chocolate, bring on the sunshine.

I had rather a lot of time on my hands last weekend as my husband was working all weekend. One of the things I have been putting off for a while is clearing out my cupboards and having nothing better to do I spent Saturday doing just that. I went through all of my clothes with a view to getting rid of everything that I haven't worn for a while. I ended up with four carrier bags of clothes some of which had simply worn out and had seen better days. What surprised me, however, was that I had a bag or brand new clothes, still with their tags on that had never been worn. All of the item were things I had purchased in sales and were impulse buys chosen because they were a bargain. With each item I had decided I didn't really like it when I got home, hence why they had sat in my cupboard for a couple of years. It made me realise that many of the sale bargains I purchase are actually false economy and that I need to think more carefully before buying an item just because it seems like a good deal.

I still don't know what bit me last weekend but the good news is that the rash has nearly gone and so has most of the swelling. Whilst this bite was different to the usual mosquito bites that I suffer from on a regular basis, it still seems to respond to the same treatment. Generally I find the best thing to is to open up the bite wound every evening and squeeze out as much of the pus as possible. Whilst this does really hurt, in my experience getting rid of the poison helps the bite to heal more quickly. It also seems to reduce the infection making the bite feel less hot and reducing the itching sensation. In combination with this I also find that using tea tree oil or a bite cream that includes tea tree overnight  tends to work quite well. Saying that the best thing to do is try to prevent getting bitten in the first place. Whilst I never know when the critters are going to get me at home, when going abroad I take a course of garlic tablets. These are available from most health food shops and I find taking them for a couple of weeks before you go abroad and whilst you are away does cut the amount of bites I receive, although some of the more determined insects will still get you.

I have a very swollen foot where something has bitten me. It started at the weekend when I noticed a small black beetle type creature on my ankle. At the time, I just brushed it off and thought little more of it. Now, however my whole foot is swollen and is covered by a very itchy and painful rash which surrounds a single puncture wound on my ankle. I'm not entirely sure what the creature was that bit me, but this is a different type of insect to the normal ones I have. It seems to be more painful and it is taking longer for the swelling to go down. Do you think you know what it was that bit me, if so let me know here?