It seemed like a good idea at the time. Cath had been muttering about getting Olivia a slide. I had been nodding agreement without ever really looking up from the paper. Next Cath announces that she's ordered a slide on-line. Still i don't look up. Then -after some heated exchanges with the delivery people who seem oblivious to the courtesty of letting us know when they will be dropping the thing of - this huge pile of wood arrives. Finally I look up from the paper.

Now, you don't need to have been in my woodwork class at school to hazard a guess that my carpentry skills are rudimentary at best. And this was clearly not your average Ikea style tap a few nails in and call the job done project.

So our thanks to Lucy, and especially Iain, who sacrificed an entire weekend to help constuct the mother, father and four kids of all slides. I say help. Iain virtually erected the things single-handedly.

At time of writing - about a month later - Olivia still loves the thing. And well she might. For the toil invested she'll be playing on this thing until she's 27 at least.