Someone's in a fowl mood...


That's Amelie playing chicken with a couple of roosters. It was basically a hen party, but with more big breasted birds than you could shake a stick at. And believe me, Amelie tried.

But that aside, if there's one thing I like to do at the weekend, it's to visit the hairdressers. I'll be forty in a few weeks time, and I plan to have a mid-life crisis and start spending all my money on Regaine, so it's important I check out the latest styles. I don't want to look like an idiot when I'm out clubbing.

As the photo above illustrates, Amelie was on the fringes of a bad hair day herself. It's like she's permanently peeping through a hedge. As for Lisa, she doesn't need much persuasion to visit the nearest salon, and she's even more keen to visit the one in Portslade. So the upshot of it all is that we headed out west yesterday afternoon to take in the bright lights of the Old Village, and the Outshine Hair and Beauty salon.

Which just happens to be down the road from a farm. To be honest, I'd never heard of Mile Oak Farm until a colleague mentioned it to me on Friday, but I'm all in favour of free places to visit, so with the sun shining almost as much as the weather forecasters had predicted, we decided to put the baa back into barber by stopping off there on the way.

And very nice it was too. Here's my wife posing next to the health & safety information...


That was pre-haircut, of course. I had her dipped and sheared shortly afterwards.

To be honest, the public part of Mile Oak Farm is basically just a farm shop and café, with some chickens, ducks and goats, but when you're four years old, that's pretty much all you need. Apart from ice cream, of course. And fortunately they sell that too...


Like mother, like daughter. It's a good job Toby and I can laugh at them.

Anyhoo, we spent 30p on a bag of corn for the chickens, and Amelie spent an enjoyable ten minutes flinging it at them like birdshot. Despite the evidence of yesterday's animated gif, she warmed to the poultry considerably and even ended up stroking a rooster, which is surprising, as she won't touch chicken at home. By the time we'd tickled a few rabbits and watched a bit of duck sex, we'd all had a very nice time.

The true test of an afternoon out, however, is the size of the tantrum you get when you leave, and on that evidence, Mile Oak Farm was a hit. Which is what I was tempted to do to Amelie. Still, at least Toby had a smile on his face...


Right up until we got to the hairdressers...


I think he wants to grow his hair like his father.