Oh yes, time for an update on Coward on the Beach. Absolutely ripping stuff, exactly my kind of book. Funny, very English, historically convincing, and intensely moving. I was really, really enjoying it, until I heard the author (James Delingpole) on Womans Hour today (long story). They were talking about who's better at bringing up kids, men or women. James, who sounded quite a genial sort of chap, as you'd expect from his work, made a comment about how some Dads sort of pretend to be 'new men' and put on an act about enjoying time with their kids when, really, they'd rather be doing something tedious instead, like mowing the lawn. What an odd view. I've been lucky enough to participate fairly fully in my family's development, and whilst I didn't relish changing hideous "I've been dipped in a barrel of chocolate" nappies any more than anyone else, it's all part of it. The idea that one sex is somehow better prepared for that kind of thing is absurd - sure, some people cope better than others, but to say that's down to sex is monstrous. Plenty of women are rubbish at child rearing, just as plenty of men are rubbish at bring home the bacon (as Delingpole put it). I shall continue reading his oeuvre in a new light.

Busy day today. Saturday morning footie, exam prep, and preliminary investigations into just what on earth we've been storing in our loft for the last year 8 years. Cute stuff mainly, but it's all got to go. In fact, it's not just the loft, I've been thinning out our book collection this week. 1 bootful to the library, who were a bit sniffy, and 2 bootfuls to the charity shop, who weren't. It's quite cathartic (I'd better check that in a sec, make sure it means what I think).

I had an interesting conversation today, whilst covered in grease and rust and rubber (rear puncture on the folder, before you ask). It went like this
"So can we talk about adopting a panda tonight?"
"Oh, ok. Why do you think we should adopt a panda?"
"Well, they're going extinct, and we need to save them, because they're great, dur!"
"Yep, they are great, but are you sure that sending some money to someone will help them? I mean, how will we be sure that they really are looking after the panda?"
"But we want to adopt one, not send someone some money. We'll be looking after it ourselves, dur!"
"Ah, I think we need to have a little chat..."

So we finished Mortal Engines last night. I kept them up far too late, because we all wanted to finish it (and anyway, Mrs Mumble was having a book-club evening downstairs, so there was no chance of sleep anywhere in our house). We knocked off the final 50 pages without stopping, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Tell you what, Philip Reeve doesn't seem to mind too much about killing off major characters.

I finished HMS Surprise last week. Luckily, to celebrate my 15,341st day on this mortal coil, santa brought me the The Aubrey - Maturin Chronicles: v. 1 read by Robert Hardy (whom I will always think of as Siegfried). What tremendous stuff that is. Proper stories about real heroes, read in exactly the right voice. Perfect :). To keep me going on the train, I've turned to Coward on the Beach - I'll let you know how that goes.

Transferred the remainder of my 2008 Delhi trip to here.

We went to a friend's funeral today. I always forget just how intense funerals are. Apart from a school friend 26 years ago, I hadn't been to one for my generation. A beautiful service, very moving; I'm glad we didn't take the kids though.

I've started reading Mortal Engines to the kids. They're 7 & 10 now - it's still ok to read them stories before bed, right? I'm not ready to give it up yet anyway. ME is my favourite 'kids' series, and I've wanted to read it to them for a couple of years. We did Northern Lights (another favourite) ages and they loved it - we timed it so we finished just as the film (which is good, but not as good as the book) came out. Before ME, it was The Princess Bride - a fabulous roller-coaster of a read; again, we watched the film after reading it, and again, it was good, but nothing like as good as the book.

I went to Delhi in March last year and May this year. I've decided to share my experiences, as recorded at the time, here.