Friends, I am officially Public Enemy no.1. Not wanting my very handsome middle son to end up like the image, left, we went to the hairdresser.

I offered the choice of gents' barber or unisex hairdresser. No preference was expressed. Neither, in the past, has cooperated with my efforts to see my son's face.

I resorted to bribery this time. Well, that was the aim. In fact, since he compromised with me, I compromised with him. The hairdresser didn't cut as much fringe as I'd hoped for ...

As we left town, the radio was playing a Kyrie by Richard Harvey, from the Da Vinci Code. Requiem for a Fringe?
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Six in ten Scots children do not know how to boil an egg. Cate Devine revealed our national shame in the Herald yesterday (Wednesday 20 May 2009).

( - and if your kids happen not to LIKE eggs???!)

MUMMY THE SHEEPDOG - HERDING HER FLOCK

You'd think I'd asked him to jump into a peat-bog, not do his practice! Did you hear the squeals, screams and yells? Piano came first. The piano is in the dining-room. My desk is there, too. I couldn't write a SENTENCE!

Tinkle, tinkle. (That was the highest notes on the piano. Painful on the ears.) 'How about starting your practice, son?'

Plink, plonk. (The left hand is a tone too low, AND he's decided to play with F sharps not B flats in the bass clef.)

Ah, progress. Three consecutive bars. No. False start, false hope. He can't get the hands together.

Saxophone next. That lives in the lounge. But the screams and yells would have made the neighbours think I was assaulting him. Truthfully, all I did was stand at the lounge door, 15 feet away from him, and ask him to practise. I pay the fees, he plays - seems a fair deal to me. (Boo-hoo! Big bad Mummy.)

I've given up work for tonight. No-one seems to realise that I'd actually have quite liked a couple of quiet hours revising my introduction ...

The image is from Zazzle.com - I hope they will forgive me, because I did order a t-shirt from their website this afternoon!

Bibliographing, that's what I've been doing.

Listen up, folks! I've written seven chapters, compiled my appendices, compiled and formatted my bibliography, formatted ALL my footnotes!, and revised the first two chapters.

Now I'm waiting for feedback from my supervisor so that I can revise the other five chapters. I want to submit my thesis by 31 May, so this is really rather urgent!

However, tonight, I have a special treat in store. Going through the bibliography, I noted a few references that I ought to revisit, in case there's anything I need to mention in my thesis. Heavens, some actual reading again? Now, that does make a change!