Another sign of my ageing as I put Children's TV on to distract Bethany whilst I prepared tea and found myself narrating to her "Ooh look it's Makka Pakka" and realized that I can name every character from "In the Night Garden" but was not fully au fait with the England Rugby team in the recent autumn internationals. It's one more of those youthful tests that I can no longer pass like Who is number one in the single charts? I long ago stopped even caring about that and I suspect that the chart compilers aren't too bothered either now that you can make the top 10 by selling about 50 records. I was still vaguely aware of who was in the charts as I would listen to Radio 1 for a couple of shows that still had some merit but that stopped when John Peel died and 6music started.
   I had an earlier portent that my life as an individual was over when we were on holiday in Ilfracombe the other month and some children came over in the pool to fuss over Bethany and I realized that I am no longer Richard but Bethany's dad. I quite like that actually.
   Bethany has taken her attempts to tidy up after herself to another level today after previously replacing toys in the box (before taking them back out) by helping me with the laundry. Pulling the wet clothes out of the washer I started carrying them to the clothes horse to find Bethany copying me and walking back and forth with Alison's underwear and placing it on the one rung she could reach - it's about time she started puling her weight!