'Merch'

In an ideal world, teenagers would all be granted a driving licence, a car and some common sense when it came to using the roads. But this isn't an ideal world and - especially in rural areas- parents are condemned to several years of driving these gregarious youngsters around, particularly at weekends. 

I guess there are two ways of approaching this situation: one is to be grumbly and resentful, and the other is just to roll with it, which has always been my preferred option. Today, Dan wanted a lift into Lancaster so he could hang out with his friends for a couple of hours. This is just far enough away to mean that there's no point in me going home between dropping him off and picking him up. Instead, I stayed in the car, reading my book and then having a nap, before heading out to do a bit of shopping.

We rendezvoused back at the car at four o'clock and headed home, picking up Abi from her mum's on the way. The plan was that the Minx would come up for dinner and she duly arrived with some arty activities for Dan and Abi to do. Abs was particularly taken by the shrinking plastic templates and took it upon herself to devise some prototype 'merch' for Electronic Ears.