This morning I took my younger daughter to school, along with her latest school project: a contraption of waterwheels fashioned from disposable plastic plates, toothpicks, wooden skewers, an old ice cream container, a pulley used in sailing dinghies,  and Daddy's old Meccano from when he was a boy.  She has so much stuff to take in that she does it in two trips, leaving me to stand at the drop off point holding The Contraption.

How come everyone is looking at me?  Oh, it's not because of The Contraption.  It's because I'm wearing baggy olive tracksuit pants, the T-shirt I slept in, a navy jumper, and warm, old sheepskin boots.  Also I haven't shaved (I did manage to comb my hair though).  All the other parents are wearing office suits or immaculate day clothes.  Seriously, those author photos are such a lie.