Back in Barnes

Well, here we are in Merrie England. I got caught in a positively HK-style downpour yesterday waiting for the 337 to Barnes at Clapham Junction (only cold, as well as wet) and now I have a cold. We are living in the house of a French couple, which is very petite but has everything you need, and which some judicious snooping in local estate agents' windows has established must cost in the neighbourhood of GBBP750k.

Spent most of yesterday trying to finalise plans for the kids' schools. I think we are going to end up in Earlsfield. Also trying to understand how the Oyster card works: from an Indian lady at a newsagents off the A3 - "well, you can get pay as you go, or you can get a weekly travelcard, but if you are in zone 3, you only need to get zones 1 and 2, but only for the bus, not for the tube and the mainline." Well, that's all very clear then. Come back, Octopus card!

I do not know this part of London at all, but it all seems very green and leafy. We go around muttering, Oooh, very bijou, and marvelling at the house prices. Currently also very muddy. I was taking a shortcut along the railway line yesterday while doing the Standard killer sudoku, to take mind off my coldness and misery, when I came across a huge unpassable puddle. An American who was walking his dog behind me strode smugly through it in his big rubber boots, and looked back to say, "You'll have to take your shoes off!" I looked at the puddle. I looked at my feet. Impasse. Then I gave up, retraced my steps - which I hate to do (my motto is: Never retreat) - and took the long way round over the level crossing.