Morning walk.

Auto-generated description: A small blue and white boat named Rainy Day is moored on a tranquil canal lined with trees and other moored boats.

Sat on a tree stump for a few minutes enjoying the sunshine, breeze, and sights and sounds by the canal.

Hellish morning so far.

Little kid’s porridge was “too hot” so I stirred in some cold milk. Then it was “too milky” so I drained the milk with a sieve. Finally it was “too lumpy” so I put it in the food waste bin.

Then big kid’s “wasn’t right” so his went in the bin, too.

Little kid made the card at school and one of the parents handed out Happy Eid bags to the kids as they left for home.

Two Eid cards, one blue with a yellow crescent and star, and the other in black and gold with elegant writing, are displayed on a polka-dotted tablecloth.

Big kid has been eating porridge every morning for a few weeks, which means ten minutes of stirring the pan for me every morning. I don’t mind, I like doing it. So much so that I invested in a Scottish spoon this week to make it easier on my hand, wrist and arm.

Today, in a scene reminiscent of Andy and his carer in Little Britain, he jumped out of bed at 6:30 am ran into the kitchen and proceeded to slice a bagel in half, toast it and butter it all by himself.

Finished reading: The Son and Heir by Alexander Munninghoff 📚

Not a page turner by any means although it kept drawing me back in until the end. A true life story of very difficult family relationships centred on the author, his self-centred Nazi and all-round failure of a father, and his father’s father “the old boss”, who was a British spy, one of many strings to his bow.

🍿 A Complete Unknown (2024) - ★★★★☆

I really enjoyed this take on Bob Dylan’s electrifying personal highway to rock ’n’ roll superstardom hell amidst the increasingly furious shaking heads and would-be axe-wielding cable choppers of the folk establishment and elder guitar heroes.

Probably helps if you’re a Dylan fan. If you’re not, or you’re easily bothered by historical/factual inaccuracies in a “it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen” style movie then you should probably give it a miss.

Superb cast with highlights being Timothée Chalamet’s perfect portrayal of the obsessively creative introverted asshole Dylan and Monica Barbaro’s sensitive counterpoint as the already-a-superstar, slightly uptight but all-too-forgiving and exploited Joan Baez.

A Complete Unknown poster

Mum’s house has been on the market for just over a week, and photographs have been uploaded to the online estate agent listing for a full three days. She’s had three viewings, including one with a lady who really likes it and who’s friend lives on the same road - of course, she needs to sell hers first.

We’ve had an offer on the flat she wants near me provisionally accepted - just waiting on getting a firm offer on hers.

Now she’s panicking and looking at online house cash purchase merchants and auctions, because she reckons she hasn’t got time to waste, and she doesn’t want someone else to make a better offer.

Fundraising for my sons’ school got off to a slow start, mainly because the school was slow in sharing the online fundraiser with the school-to-parents messaging app, and then when they did share it they forgot to attach the link to make it clickable. As soon as they made it clickable and shared it again we got £190 in donations in one day. I’ve asked the school to keep sharing as “every day you share the school gets £200!”

My boy got his picture taken for the local council propaganda rag when they opened the school street this week.

Robin having a bath in the rainwater captured by the cover of the kids’ sandpit.