The bright side

My children never tire of hearing how, when I was at school, plimsolls only came in two colours; black or white, without laces, and cost around £1.99 from Woolies. If your dad was very rich and you played tennis (we all hated you, apart from NickC and Benelia who were 'ok') you might be lucky enough to own a pair of Dunlop Green Flash. We had horrid, horrid school shoes and probably slippers and that was about it. I literally have no idea what we wore at weekends or to the park.

These days my kids have school trainers, home trainers, football boots and Astros, hi-tops, Converse and shoes that you wouldn't wear to the park but you might wear to a party. These, above, are all Tom's. He likes them Bright.

Everyone piled into bed this morning for The Happiest Day Of The Year. Jamie's been away since Thursday, back tonight, so I wasn't sure if anyone had remembered THDOTY, but I had lovely cards and flowers and later we invented a new game which involved the girls and I cowering behind cushions on the sofa while Tom chucked a ball at us as hard as he could trying to inflict maximum pain. I laughed until I couldn't breathe. And it was genuinely a very happy HDOTY.