After years of being a swim club child, I’m now a swim club parent. The grandparents have taken him so far but I’ve now had a turn. It’s not v easy to get to, only 2 miles but I wouldn’t let him ride his bike on the best route & the bus gets snarled in rush hour traffic. He’ll have to rely on lifts.

“Kidical Mass has been in existence for 15 years, and demands of our leaders - who seem not to be listening - the fundamental children’s right to be able to cycle and play safely outdoors,” says organiser Dr Ewan Hamnett, a retired Birmingham GP’ www.birminghamworld.uk/community/bi...

Today I did the same trip out to the Scout camp site as last night, but this time just me and less kit, so the best tool for the job was train plus bike. It was a fun day with all sorts of activities. Back out there tomorrow in the CoWheels club car to collect 4 kids and all their muddy kit.

This evening I deposited 4 children in a field in the middle of nowhere for an all-section camp with Scouts. We just about fitted everything in the CoWheels club car. Easy to hire for a couple of hours on the app, no need to own a car. I’ll be off out there tomorrow for the day, on bike and train.

Had to buy a new waterproof coat for my daughter from a shop during my lunch break today. Normally buy clothes secondhand, but obviously the day before the kids all go on camp (after torrential rain and flooding) is when all the zips on anything we have that fits her are suddenly broken 🤦🏻‍♀️

A grand day out in London for me - data and transport 🤓 Learned a lot from all the talks, from specific use cases of AI in transport to public attitudes to its use in consultation. Also it was lovely to meet in person one of the team at Solve the School Run, who told me about the conference.

Normalising walking in the rain (with wellies for splashing in puddles) for the next generation. We’re not made of sugar. We got wetter on the way home, but still just changed out of wet clothes. There were kids playing football matches on Rowheath playing fields who were A LOT wetter than us.

Oh interesting, I don’t remember a tax mentioned. I know locations can vary, but it just struck me as very different considering both are central and near to international rail connections. Obviously there are many factors, just surprised it was so different.

Thanks, I thought this might be the case, because I recently booked a hostel of the same brand in London and Paris on consecutive days - the Paris one was almost twice the price. I obviously paid it, and good to know it contributes to public transport.

I don’t miss the washing and drying, for sure! But I like the thought of how much money we saved.