Mum's home

Last night, as the clock struck 8 (actually, about 8.23 ish, but that sounds less dramatic) Carole returned home. Unluckily Luca was already fast asleep, while I was well on my way to a level of inebriation equal to that of Keith Moon's lunchtimes

In other words, veering toward a jolly level of squiffy but still essentially intelligible

She didn't seem to mind too much however, and after the prerequisite hugs and kisses told me all about her trip. Unfortunately as I continued drinking I can't recall too much of what she said.

Later we watched "The Blindside", a Sandra Bullock film (based on true events - allegedly) about a large, ill-educated, black teenage boy who comes to live with a well-to-do white family. He overcomes all obstacles along the way and go's on to become both a success, both in his career path (he becomes a famous American football player) and in a social sense too (he's a wonderful human being).

Honestly, I'm not making this up. Someone in Hollywood gave the green light to the biggest load of schmaltz that ever exploded across a cinema screen. Seriously, it was so "worthy" it was borderline racist. Only "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Green Mile" have had more generically backward black characters.

Sample dialogue:-

Rich white mom - "We'd like to become your legal guardians"

Big black teenager - "What does that men?"

Rich white mom - "It means we want you to become part of our family"

Big black teenager - "I thought I already was"

I'm not making this up.

Anyway, what is this? "Film Review 2010" with Jonathan Ross? We were woken early this morning by Luca's abrupt arrival at the foot of our bed. "Morning time" he squealed before yanking open the curtains to prove his point. As glad as she was to see him I'm certain his Mum wasn't over enthused by his presence at that early hour. We still rolled out of bed though, and joined him downstairs for some breakfast. "No like that, no want that" was Luca's response to every breakfast item offered to him by his Mum, as if he felt the need to abruptly remind her that her rose tinted view of him after three days absence doesn't change the fact he can be the most obstinate, pedantic little monkey in the borough.

Later we drove to Aberdeen together to collect the in-car DVD player we'd ordered for Carole and Luca's journey to Lincoln in a fortnight. On the way home we took a diversion by a field I pass every day on my work commute. I'd surmised that Carole and Luca might be enchanted by baby ponies (as depicted in today's picture) and wasn't proved wrong. "Bye bye horseys, I'll be back soon" called a clearly enamoured Luca as we left.

**Useless fact of the day - Sima has now officially been renamed Yoda. The new dog tag with her new name arrived in the post today and will be modelled by the pup in the next blog**