image A thousand thanks to Welshcakes Limoncello for her precise proof reading of the final draft of myfoto.0 research assignment on how MPs write their blogs and engage in two-way communication. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it and finally posted it off today to my excellent course director Heather Yaxley, who writes a great PR blog, and has an expertise in the motoring industry.

Which reminds me, please be patient when you see learner drivers on the road, my son David has just signed up for lessons and is a real pain in the …..

Every five minutes or so, he insists on telling me that I should be two chevrons behind the car in front, and I should be doing this or that according to the Highway Code. As someone who has passed her Advanced Motorist Test and loves being behind the wheel, I find it quite amusing, but also very irritating, there are limits. He is desperate for me to take him out in my car, I guess I will have to soon, but can parental relationships survive this gruelling test? And doesn’t the insurance cost an arm and leg?

My other son James has had a golf mad summer, it’s his latest passion and at 14, I so admire his confidence. He has joined two local clubs, a “posh” one, in his words, and a “not so posh one” run by a former SAS soldier turned mercenary who quit when he saw a colleague blown next to him in Iraq. They are both excellent. Each day this week I have dropped James off at the “posh” club which he joined as a junior member last week and, if alone, was taken under the wing of other players and invited to join them. I think it is great he had the confidence to go there unaccompanied. I firmly believe that confidence is worth more than any education, it is a skill that carries you through life. He was lucky enough to have been born with it.

James invited me to be his caddy today (I am a non player), only the printing and binding of my project, as well as the heavy traffic to and from Cambridge, meant it took forever, and I was unable to join him. I was so amused by the seriousness of his invitation, the way he questioned whether my white linen three-quarter length trousers were smart enough. He even checked the golf club’s dress code and was very concerned that they might be regarded as “cargo” trousers, and not suitable. How incongruous is that? My son telling me that I am not smart enough to accompany him to his golf club!

So the summer hols have come to an end, I always regret the passing of this passage in time as I love spending these special weeks with my boys. It means normal blogging will be resumed, earlier darker nights – and how long before Christmas cards are out in the shops?