Budget cuts

Just been reading about budget cuts in the Times. Free school meals are going to be cut for 500,000 of the lowest paid. Ok so they haven't had free school meals yet but now are not going to. This will cost families earning less than £307 per week about £600 a year. What is galling is that families on benefits still get them. Even more of an incentive , for the low paid not to work and live on benefits instead. When will someone sort that out?

That said, I agree with government plans to question all government spending to determine whether it is needed, whether it is cost effective and whether the service would be better provided by the private sector. I always go back to America where private companies sponsor stretches of interstate, presumably paying for cleaning, maintenance etc. Why can't we do that here for starters?


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Postcrossing

Have discovered a great new website, http://www.postcrossing.com where you send postcards to strangers round the world, and in return get postcards sent to you from other strangers round the world. Sound barmy? When you log on to the site and choose to send a postcard, the site randomly allocates you a name and address of another postcrossing member to send a postcard to. You are given a unique postcrossing Id number to put on the postcard for the recipient to input at the other end. Once they have received and logged your postcard, the site gives your details to another random member from somewhere in the world for them to send a postcard to you. The fun is not knowing when a postcard is going to drop through your letterbox and where it will be from.

I have sent 4 so far which means once they are received I should have 4 postcards from across the world heading for my doorstep. I can't wait!

Busy times

It has been several weeks since I blogged - I would apologise but it would only really be to myself so what is the point?

Work has been busy and a bit stressful, though still enjoying... Rachel only seems to sleep all evening every other night and has been struggling with her teeth the last few days. We have also had Kate's parents up over the bank holiday weekend so not much time all round.

One thing I do think is that less is more at the moment. I enjoy the weekends most where we are not rushing round places but are mostly at home and can potter round, do a bit of gardening, cooking and relaxing.

This week, Rachel hasn't slept a lot but evenings have been quite nice. What have I done? Cooked tea, with nice fresh Greek salad. Made sandwiches for us each day. Watered plants. Not a lot else but that was nice. I wasn't trying to do lots which was important. I think in future I should have 5 minutes in garden before going to bed if warm. It is so nice and refreshing late in the evening.

I am thinking of doing some drawing or painting again, not sure what yet though.

Next time: garden update, holiday plans and some old fashioned blogs unearthed!