At Ed's and my Mum's insistance, I have put Philip on the waiting list for a nursery school today (where he won't go until he's at least 3 years old). I can't understand why politicians are worried that pushy parents get all the best places!

While I'm on the subject of political issues, since the Government seems to want to create a nanny state, I think they should start looking into our traditional nursery rhymes and the messages kids get from them. I've got a CD which has a song about a woman living in a shoe starving and beating her children. Why did we decide to adopt this song as a British custom? Is the moral that we shouldn't live in shoes (which I think Philip will be quick to work out are too small anyway)? Or that if you're unsure what to do with your children you should look up the recipe for broth before giving them a good hiding?

To return to more sane topics, my proposal for a university student to be placed at Stanford Lake (the school Ed used to work in in South Africa) to do technology outreach to rural schools for the summer has been accepted, subject to finding the right candidate. It'll be advertised during February so fingers crossed. The project is a bit of a departure from what Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has done in the past, though it fits very well with their mission statement, so I'm pleased they've been bold enough to take it on.