It’s back to school, and so the subject of uniforms comes up once again. In the news recently  “Schools in England are being urged to keep the cost of school uniforms down, as many ‘rebrand’ themselves as academies.” It claims that more than half of England's secondary schools are now academies or in the process of becoming academies, and that the average cost is over £200 per secondary pupil to have all the necessary items – blazer, shirts, tie, trousers or skirts, socks, shoes, gym kit etc.

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With only a few weeks to go I can feel Christmas thundering towards me once again, with all the speed and head-on inevitability of an oncoming train. It always gets like this; I never seem to be able to slow it down and I know I can’t pause it. November has got to be the fastest month of the year. One minute the leaves are turning colour and falling, then the clocks go forward (or is it back?), and the next it’s the rapid, unforgiving countdown to The Big Day, with so much to do in between.

I’m so glad I didn’t decide to start jogging as my New Year’s resolution. I’ve just been for a walk in the park and some of the new joggers already show the look of having made a big mistake. Even during a short 30-minute stroll I noticed several people equipped with new gear and good intentions, but most of them look like accidents waiting to happen.

I was chatting to a neighbour the other day, or rather, she was chatting to me. I don’t see much of her and her family, as happens in a typically modern suburb community, and I’ve always known – as one does – that we’d never be more than neighbours. After our chat the other day, I am definitely going to keep her at a distance.

I was in London recently and had time to kill, so I decided to stop somewhere for a coffee. It’s not difficult these days. Everywhere you go, especially in the UK, there are places to get coffee  - from major chains to independent cafes. The rise and rise of coffee consumption globally is phenomenal, and the British drink more coffee than ever before. I don’t know if we now drink more coffee than the tea which our steroetype would normally demand, but I know it must be a lot.

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If you have experienced rail travel in the UK over the decades, as I have, you will have noticed some significant changes.

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I hate learning a language!              

Have you ever played hangman with a 5-year old? It’s not easy. I’ve just tried it with Elliot, my youngest. It was his idea. I didn’t know he knew the game. He simply said he wanted to play a game, and left the room to get some scrap paper and pens. When he came back he wrote my name on one piece of A4 and his on another. He draws the gallows on his.

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