Ahhhh, look! How could you you give him up?

My son R (aged 7), found and kept a small soft toy and named him Scruff. When I learned about it, I asked him whether he thought someone might be feeling very sad, missing his fluffy companion. I told him the story of how, when I was either 6 or 7, I lost my soft, toy rabbit and how it had made me sad.

Eldest daughter J came to me later, reporting that R was crying. On investigation, it transpired that R was feeling upset for his disenfranchised counterpart (alright, that's not quite how he put it) and wanted to return the toy to the management where it had been found. Bless him, he's the sensitive kind.

We decided on a strategy of writing a letter to the management explaining that if anyone came looking for 'Scruff' they could get in touch with us, otherwise we would adopt him and make sure he had a good home. I'll let you know if Scruff is reclaimed by his original owner!

[Yes, I have done my homework tonight!]

I didn't study last night because D and I went to see 'The Da Vinci Code'. I told D afterwards that she is my "Sacred Feminine" and it's true.

I'm not studying tonight because of a company bowling team thing. It's late and I'm tired. I must atone for my sins tomorrow night.

Must study, must study, must study, must not blog! If I get started now, I can do an hour and still have time before Lost. OK, so I'll just leave a quick note.

Work has reached an interesting and potential tipping point. The product I am helping to go live has been demonstrated to the client. Needless to say (as it is an IT project) it is late, but today, the first real demonstration was done to one of my client's clients. No feedback yet, and tomorrow I'm not in because I'm on one of these company team building things; archery, quad bikes etc. So Thursday there may be some very interesting news. Either we've been heading in roughly the right direction and will need to make some minor alterations to the course, or completely in the wrong direction and the whole thing may be canned.

Must go and say good night to the kids and then do homework...bye!

Argh! I have a course coming up. I must revise and do homework for the first time in many years. Sorry, but my blogging will be much lighter than in the past for a month or so.

Apologies folks. I don't anticipate getting much time for blogging this week. Things at work are pretty hectic! I don't tend to talk about work very much, but that's because it's pretty dull.

I had a drink with Otherphil last week and at one point in the evening, he told me of the one occasion he shoplifted many years ago! Yes, I was stunned! It's not for me to divulge the full details here, but suffice to say he felt entirely justified. Anyhow, this moment of honesty compelled me to reciprocate and so he learned about my alter-ego, Penny. He took it very well and asked tons of questions and we are clearly still friends because he joined B.I.L. (brother-in-law) and I for a spot of mountain biking at the weekend.

Has anyone else out there got any criminal past to admit to? Shoplifting? A spot of arson perhaps (erm...more on this one another time...perhaps)?

Venice was fantastic! Here are the sketches I managed to do and D was very patient while I did them.

A view from Piazetta di San Marco

Ca' da Mosto, a house on the Grand Canal

Church of Santa Maria della Salute

Church of Stanta Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Top tip: Forget St. Marc's square in the day time. It's crowed and smelly with thousands of pigeons. Urgh! But in the night time...oh, then it is truely magical. The pigeons are gone, the school parties have all gone. It's all lit up and string quartettes play.

Hurray! One more day at work and then D and I are off to Venice to celebrate 13 years of marriage! The grandparents are sharing the task of looking after the kids, bless them!

Will post when I get back. Unlike the recent windsurfing trip to Margarita, I doubt there will be time to post while we're there.

Some months ago, I promised I would start regular contributions to charity. It's later than I promised, but today, my daughter 'adopted' an Orangutan through the WWF. I prepared a shortlist of charities and predictably, she went for animals.

The original plan was for us to decide as a family, but I knew my family would agree on one charity. Have you any idea how hard it is to get a 9 year old, a 7 year old and a 4 year old just to be quiet for 15 seconds, let alone consider options and reach an informed decision. So I decided to let my eldest daughter choose for the other two.

D and I will argue at a later time to decide where we should pledge some more money. I will, of course, let you know whether we opt to help sick people, hard-pressed animals, the poisoned environment or under-pampered cats in the South-East of England!