04-Nov to 10-Nov 2012

Sun 04-Nov: How on earth do I get myself into these fixes? Over the last year or so been issuing the grandchildren Bank of Grampy currency faster than the Bank of England's quantitative easing, and now the chicken has come home to roost. All four are at Becky's tomorrow and they've extracted a promise from me to pop round so they can exchange the notes for real money. Maybe a bit of a mistake to give Sammy an A4 sheet of paper containing several denominations of notes; having scanned the paper, he's been printing notes like they're going out of fashion. Paige has also caught on and I had to deliver her a wad of notes this afternoon Thought up a wheeze that just might get me out of trouble... to exchange the notes for shares in the Grampy Great Ideas and Money Making Company. If I do four fancy share certificates for 1,000 shares each with a promise of a monthly dividend and board meetings to make decisions and come up with ideas, especially if I give them their very first dividend of £1 each, maybe, just maybe, I'll get out in one piece. Think Sammy and Connor will go for it, but Paige and Izzy are a little more sceptical and will be the real challenge!

Mon 05-Nov: Well, the Bank of Grampy solution ended up with 3 out of 4 grandchildren still speaking to me and happy with the arrangement. Unfortunately Sammy was reckoning the thousands of pounds of notes must be worth at least £6.40, the price of a mammoth soft toy he was eagerly anticipating. So the £1 plus a share certificate didn't measure up, resulting in me being ungrampied... I'm now one grandchild less than I had this morning! Here's Paige and Sammy immediately before I explained the offer, and the note he did me after. There's a chance all is not lost... having crumpled up all the Bank of Grampy notes in anger, tonight Sammy was desperately searching through the recycling bin trying to recover them all.

Tue 06-Nov: Still not decided what to put on the kitchen walls to bring a bit of variety from the mid blue. I fancy a few pastel coloured simple shapes in a variety of sizes along one of these themes. Can I convince Linda?

Wed 07-Nov: This is currently the routine first thing each day on the iPad, and equally the repeated source of disappointment. The new iMac is 'coming soon', but NOT SOON ENOUGH!

Thu 08-Nov: First squash session for 2012/3 this afternoon with the grandsons. Here they are posing for their start of season snap before battle commenced. And no surprise when we got to the vending machine after... neither had any money and I was swiftly £2.80 the poorer.

Fri 09-Nov: Few things give me greater pleasure than the happy chatter of my two beautiful daughters. Here we are having beverages and cakes at The Dolphin this morning. How many people do you see in the photo? Two? Wrong... it's three, including Beth's little baby in her tummy.

Sat 10-Nov: At the Hartford Mill for lunch with Becky & Barry, my birthday treat. Here's the great view we had out the window. Sammy on good form... managed to squeeze more money out of me to buy his magazine. Tried all ways to get a discounted price, but he had every option covered.