My wife was interstate for a few weeks, visiting her mother. The old dear wasn't well and wanted some company and Irene had bravely volunteered to go and visit. I did suggest that we make a family trip of it, driving up with the kids and spending my holidays there. She wouldn't have a bar of it. Said the kids would be too much for her poor mother. The real reason, I suspected, was that she thought her mother would be too much for the poor kids. Whatever the reason, the result was that she went north and I took my holidays at home, babysitting.

Not that I spent all...