I've never seen three people so transfixed by a pre-season friendly between Brighton and Nottingham Forest...


I wouldn't mind, but it wasn't even real. I bought a copy of 'Football Manager 2009' for £1.70 from an Uckfield charity shop on Thursday, and this was the result. Amelie got so excited, her furry bunny ears fell off.

Anyhoo, if you're thinking that I've lost weight and Lisa gets younger every day, thanks, but that's my brother and his daughter. He, she and my sister-in-law came to visit for a few hours this afternoon, en route from Hastings to their home in Essex. They'd heard that we urgently need reinforcements to keep up with Amelie's reading.

So while my daughter got through about twenty-seven books with her cousin and aunt, I got on with the important business of ordering takeaway pizza with my brother's credit card. I'm actually on a strict diet at the moment, but when I broke that news to my brother, he studied me up and down, looked shocked and said "Are you???!". So it obviously isn't showing. I decided a sausage & bacon pizza wouldn't make any difference.

I ended up eating mine standing up, partly because we don't have enough seats, but mainly because I was constantly back and forth to the coffee table, removing a baby with a wagging finger to the sound of 'no, no, no'.


Mind you, I wasn't the only person on my feet all afternoon...

She's made great strides in the past two weeks. On 30th October, we were giving a standing ovation to this little effort. Now we ignore her when she walks the length of the living room. We're such fickle parents.