We've had a relatively quiet week this week, building up to the end of Barry's Harvard course tomorrow, after which he has two weeks off. He needs it, bless him - I don't think he's worked this hard for years!

We enjoyed a barbecue at our new friends' house last Sunday evening. Apart from the great food and enjoyable conversation there was a simple pleasure in sitting outside to eat barbecued food. Having no garden to sit out in and no barbecue to cook on is proving a little frustrating. Never mind, we can't have everything and it is only for a year. Anyway, we all had a great evening and as we have seen more of these friends this week it all bodes well for building a good relationship through the year.

Peggy and the kids (new friends) took the girls and I shopping on Monday to an extensive outdoor mall in Dedham, a Greater Boston suburb. We watched with disbelief and some horror as Taylor (going into senior year) and Megan (first year middle school) filled a trolley in Staples with required stationery for the forthcoming year - the list they were working from was very long and prescriptive. If the girls' school has a similar list it's going to cost us a small fortune to get them stocked up! After that we found the clothes shops. Say no more. Suffice to say the girls have been told they are not getting any more new clothes until the Winter.

Yesterday the girls and I went to our local cinema which is proving a regular temptation due to its ease of access (just two stops along the T). We saw Smurfs 2 which was entertaining enough - certainly nowhere near as annoying as Alvin and the Chipmunks - and the girls enjoyed it a lot.

In the meantime we have booked our first New England holiday! The week after next  we're going on a road trip through Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. We're staying two nights in Williamstown in the Berkshires (NW Mass, rolling hill and mountain country); two nights in Killington (Vermont ski resort in the Winter, mountain town with gondola rides in the summer); three nights in Waterbury (also in Vermont, home of Ben & Jerry's ice cream so factory visit a must, and close to Stowe, another Winter ski resort and summer base for the mountains and gondola rides, and also the US home of the Von Trapp family of The Sound of Music fame) with the final night in Hanover (New Hampshire, site of Ivy League Dartmouth College) before driving home through New Hampshire. Dougal is coming with us and we're all very much looking forward to it.