NotSheep

I’m going to write boringly about cars now, so if you want to skip that, just jump to about half-way down this post.

I love my car.

Okay, so it’s ten years old, and it’s done 170,000 miles, and it might not be as snazzy or flashy or sexy as some of the other MPVs that are around now - but it’s comfortable, easy to drive, it fits in loads of people and loads of stuff, and I have loved it since we bought it seven years ago. It has only ever let us down once, and that was a couple of weeks ago, when it didn’t start - and a tune-up sorted that out, and now it starts with no bother at all again. It’s a Peugeot 806, and I always thought that when we finally replaced it, we would probably buy a Peugeot 807. So when I went to test-drive one of those today, I thought I’d get out of it and say, “Yep, that’s what I want - we’re looking for one of those.”

Eh… it turns out, not so much.

I do know people who own and love 807s - but I’m afraid that I much prefer the 806. The 807 just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t like the dashboard, I didn’t like the automatic doors, and it just didn’t feel good.

So I think the 807 is off the short-list. Bit of a surprise there.

I looked at a Chrysler Grand Voyager earlier this week, and I really liked that, but that particular vehicle wasn’t meant for us, and there are very few used ones for sale around here, so I don’t think we’ll get one. But one of the things I liked about it was the way the seats are laid out - from front to back, the rows have two, two and three seats, in that order (unlike most MPVs in the UK, which have two, three and two seats). And I figured I’d be lucky to get one like that, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Sedona also has that set-up. Or rather, it did, until the 2006 model - but then we’re not looking for a 2006 model, so that’s okay. So now the shortlist reads: Grand Voyager, Voyager, Sedona. I might settle for the standard seat set-up though - but I’m holding out for sliding doors

Right. That’s enough about cars.

This afternoon we all went swimming as usual. One of the nice things about going early on Friday afternoons is that we usually get the entire pool to ourselves for at least some of the time. Even when other people arrive, it’s usually very small children. And that means my guys have all the floats and balls etc to themselves too. Today they made the most of it, setting up horse-and-cart type arrangements with huge floats and pool-noodles and various other bits and pieces. Toby has really come around to liking swimming - as soon as we get into the changing-room he starts trying to remove his clothes, and once he’s changed and on the floor, he heads towards the door to the pool He even lay on his front on a big frog-shaped float today and got pulled around on that, having a great time

I left Barney and Henry in the pool and Freddy at soccer while I went for Scratchy, then we headed back to collect Freddy and make sure Henry got to soccer on time. After dinner Henry went to basketball with Scratchy, but Barney chose to stay at home, saying he was tired and wanted an early night. Huh… yeah, right. He might have climbed into pyjamas early, but there was nothing early about when he finally went to sleep. He is completely incapable of just putting a book down and closing his eyes; he has to keep reading until either we turn off the light or he just can’t keep his eyes open any longer. He’s not the only one who regularly falls asleep reading; we’re quite used to hearing an occasional thunk after the boys are asleep, as their books fall out of their hands and off their beds…