16 lengths at the pool this morning. Without taking pain killers first! Good start to the day...

We keep catching trailers for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and quite fancy seeing it, so I've been keeping an eye out for the previous 4 films so we can catch up. And, being me, found them all (1 - 3 at 99p each in charity shops, Ghost Protocol cheap at Tesco) within a week. I may find Cruise's beliefs repugnant, but have to admit he's fun to watch as an actor. We've watched the first three and are planning to watch 4 tonight.

It was Kai's Introduction to the Philosophy of Science exam on Tuesday and it was awful. He's struggled with the subject since the beginning, and was panicking badly all last weekend and Monday. However, he has the extenuating circumstances safety net, and actually only needs 40% to pass, so please keep fingers tightly crossed. He has his Introduction to Computer Architecture viva (oral exam) this afternoon: he got to choose one of the three subjects so is going to talk about building his own computer (which of course he did, last year. Or was it the year before? Anyway, he knows that one inside and out so that should count for a lot). It's only a 15 min viva and he's a lot more confident in this subject, so hoping it all goes well.

In other news, I've now cleared the backlog, finished the clearing out, and am beginning to relax a little - just in time to get busy for the growing season! Though that being said, I'm sticking to greenhouse crops this year. The mange tout I planted out were completely eaten overnight (it's been a fantastic winter for gastropods, damn them), so I'm taking a rest this year. By next year I'll have the new greenhouse, raised bed (which I can protect with copper tape, which works pretty well), and more controllable veg bed in the centre of the garden. It means not having any sweetcorn this year, but we can live with that.

The last Poppy chapter I posted was July 6th last year. Going to try to get the next one done before the same date this year!