OK. Two days in a row; that nearly makes it a routine. It's cold this morning though, making it more difficult to get up.

268 emails awaited me on my return to work, 167 were spam or office cruft (the post has been delivered type messages) of the remaining 101, only three required a response from me, the others were FYIs. I like email, but I wonder if this is a good use of time and resources.

Not much else to relate. Sally's mum returned from Scotland, where she'd been since mid-December, and she was welcomed by the children very enthusiastically. Paddy is being difficult about sleeping. He won't sleep in his own room much anymore so he goes to sleep in our room and I move him when we go to bed. He also insists on me staying with him until he falls asleep, which is OK as I get to read -- my own book -- which is half an hour more than I usually get.

Anna has a friend staying and they made some sort of tooth aching confection which lurks in the fridge as I speak. It involved melting four or five Mars bars and a substantial amount of chocolate into a bowl of Rice Krispies. There's all your food groups right there.

Today is the official end of the twelve days of christmas, and I'm amazed how quickly it all passes. Christmas decorations looked old a few days ago and now that most people are back to work, it all seems so far away. When school's back it'll be even more distant (and the traffic will be back to it's usual level too!).