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So in class today we had to do public speaking, by standing up in front of the class and reading out some lines. This does not pose a problem to me, as I have stood up in front of many people before on numerous occasions, and spoken aloud (I'm reasonably good) or sung aloud (I'm not that good).

But we had to do tongue-twisters. So there was the one about some broad who flogs seashells on the beach. There was a new one about 2 witches who both have watches, and we wonder which witch was watching which watch. We unaccountably failed to compare the benefits of red lorries versus yellow lorries, for which the Leith Police dismissed us, and the good old favourite about Pete the flautist who picked a bagful of pickled gherkins.

OK, so you've just got to take your time and screw your tongue in the right way up. But we had to do it in teams, and as the old adage goes, never work with children or animals, because both groups will end up barking and crapping themselves on camera.

So what the audience heard did not really match up to the promised Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

I took Sam home today and showed off my big bedroom and all the strange ornaments and things, we have an affectation at the moment where we say sh instead of s, sho Sham and I shaw it wash shunny, and shaid letsh shlip off to the schwingpark.

In the park, a surprisingly good number of known faces met us. We are getting to that in-betweenerage time where the average age of the park attendees is 7, and we're 10, and it's still before 630 when the actual teenagers take over with their pretend girlfriends and pretend cigarettes. But we still had a quorum (and didn't clean it up) and played ball-tag and ran around perfectly well thank you, LittleMax has had a haircut but grown significantly, perhaps his haircut had anti-Samson properties.

Jof had worked extra hard to obtain one of the new fivers. It has a transparent bit which turns silvery and lots of shimmering sections when you flange it in the light. It's also distinctly smaller and more plastic.