Fat Purple Thumb

I'm in great pain. I dropped a jar of aubergine pickle on my thumb. My thumb has now turned aubergine coloured.

That isn't good for a thumb.

But never mind. It looks like I can still just about type, and it also looks like it's been ages and ages since my last post here. (Not 'last post' as in playing the bugle. I can plau the bugle, but I've never done it on my blog. Not to my knowledge.)

So why the blog silence?

Simple answer: Sky Broadband is rubbish. We've moved house, and apparently that's beyond the technical expertise of the Sky organisation. They haven't hooked up our TV either. And they've been ignoring me.

More complicated answer: I've been travelling around like crazy on Week 6 of my 7 week tour.

I've been to Torfaen, in South Wales, to visit a couple of libraries, talk to loads of great people from schools with amazing names that I couldn't pronounce.

I've also been to Pinner, which is easier for me to spell than the Welsh school names.

Hi to everyone I met on my amazing Welsh trip, especially the hardworking teachers and librarians (OK, hi to the lazy ones too). And a massive hello to everyone I met in Pinner.

The excellent Children's Bookshop in Pinner now has a massive pile of signed Jimmy Coates books, so get down there and pick up a copy.

This week I'll be trekking down to beautiful Southend to meet everyone at Cecil Jones College; I'll be taking a trip to Kent to visit Mascalls School in Paddock Wood; I'll be swinging by Chertsey, Surrey, to say hi to the good people of Christ Church Junior School.

I may also be popping in to casualty to get my thumb fixed.