I have taken to using the train for my commute into Fleet this year; and the time had come to renew the insurance on the X-registration (2000) Honda Civic, plus we had to pay a hefty repair bill to get it to pass its MOT in February.

We decided after a bit of ‘what if’ scenario playing that we can manage with just one car. (One of friends thinks we should be able to manage with no car…but one step at a time!)

So, onto AutoTrader it went last Sunday.  This Sunday it was bought by a lovely couple who drove 3.5 hours from Devon to see it.  After a test drive out to Overton and back, we agreed on a discount because a cambelt was due for replacement.  We sat down outside to enjoy some coffee together, to celebrate the exchange and to fill in the V5C paperwork.

We’re going to put the purchase price towards our summer holiday, and a possible Brompton for me in the future…

A proud 'Star of the Week' (note how he is trying to hide the fact he's sneaking a candy)

Tosha is the ‘Star of the Week’!

He was given the coveted award for his determination to read well.

He reads books most nights to us; and obviously is enjoying reading at school, too.

He was very proud of himself this week, too, for starting on ’stage 2′ books which give him that little bit more of a challenge.

Well done, kiddo!

Something's missing!

We had delicious pancakes for lunch today.  There’s all kinds of tasty things we spread and put on them before rolling them up (for they are quite thin) and eating them.

My favourite is the ‘yoghurt goo’, which consists of Greek yoghurt, prunes, bananas, strawberries and nuts (or seeds) mashed together in a food processor.

Tosha enjoyed his pancakes covered with cream cheese then filled with sliced ham and grated cheese.

Tolii had the same as Tosha, then went for another, this time covered just with cherry jam.

He was savouring the flavour when he said, “There’s something hard in it”.

Tolii has been wiggling a loose tooth since at least November!

Katya said, “Its probably a stone from a cherry in the jam.  Just spit it out here in my hand.”

Tolii spat.  It didn’t look like a stone.  If it was, it sure was white. And small.

Katya looked at Tolii and smiled, “It’s your tooth!  It has finally come out!”

An different kind of smile!

Tolii smiled, and showed off his gaping hole. He immediately put the tooth into an old pill box and put it under his pillow (Is it nature or nurture?)

After lunch, we all went for a long walk around the countryside.  We played a quiz game as we went: 10 questions about teeth.  Go on, try to think of 10 questions about teeth!

One of the questions Tolii came up with was, “What does the Tooth Fairy do with all the teeth she collects?”

Hmmm.  I think she grinds them up to make snow. Tolii said she fires them out of fire shooters.  Tosha says she puts them all into a big bowl and rolls them around.  And, Katya thinks she repairs and builds extensions to her castle with them.

A gap for a straw.

As we continued our walk, Tolii discovered an immediate benefit to having a missing tooth: easy entry of a straw into his mouth.  Never was it so much fun to sip apple juice.  Gosh, now that’s something I remember doing when I lost my teeth as a kid!

We are now looking forward to tomorrow morning, to find out what the going rate is for teeth collected by the Tooth Fairy.  Its going into Tolii’s money box to be put towards a Nintendo DS Lite.

The Square, Whitchurch, Hampshire

The snow has stayed to the delight of our kids!� There were many opportunities to take some very pretty pictures around town (see our gallery).� That is, once I got into town after work…

I joined hundreds of others on the snow blown roads yesterday when the thick snow started coming down (again) yesterday around 3pm in Fleet.

Lynch Hill Park in Whitchurch, Hampshire

The M3 was a slow crawl from exit 4a through to 5 with cars packed in tight.� At exit 5 there was a lorry blocking a lane under the overpass but it was mostly the thick and accumulating snow that was making driving up the hill there tough. I saw cars sliding about even though we were all going just 10mph.� Thankfully, I had left when I did for things just got worse and worse. I kept to 10mph right through to exit 8 for the A303, where the conditions improved marginally.

About two and half hours after leaving work, I arrived home.

Many others didn’t have it so lucky – especially in Basingstoke (exit 6) where the entire city became grid locked (everyone decided to leave work when the heavy snow started, and I heard they shut the Festival Place shopping mall too). Hundreds descended on the slippery secondary roads all at once. The BBC has a report of all the abandoned cars littering the streets even still tonight.

Lynch Hill Park in Whitchurch, Hampshire

This weather reminds me of winters when I was growing up in Whitby (Ontario) in Canada.� At least there you had snow ploughs (my dad says the cats eyes in the roads here would be ripped up if the same ploughs were used here; instead its mainly gritters).

The M3 near exit 6 for Basingstoke on Tuesday morning

The M3 was cleared of all snow this morning for my commute to work, so they must have something to do that. I left work a tad early today, too – the thaw never really came and what did melt began to freeze. I drove through ‘icy fog’ as its called for large parts of the drive home, but at least I could see the road markings!