Last Friday night my husband and I turned up to a school function – that didn’t exist. The school gates were closed, the place was in relative darkness, and no one was around. That’s because it was meant to be this Friday, not last. My bad, I think.

But whichever one of us was at fault it was nice since we had the babysitting to have a surprise opportunity for a little date night.

Problem is, we do it so rarely we didn’t know what was around and open (and not full of teenagers). We found ourselves in one of those chocolate-themed cafes at the local shopping centre which had a young-parents-out-with-their-post-bedtime-baby vibe.

It wasn’t the most chilled atmosphere in the world but the hot chocolate was good.

This week I’ve read for work God’s Name is Mercy, a book-length interview with Pope Francis, which is lovely. I’ve been slightly obsessed with some of the conversation in the media about artificial intelligence and turned in a column on it partly to get it off my mind. I puzzled over my children’s book idea with my mum over a cup of tea at her house on the weekend and she gave me a pretty good angle and an ending to consider. This might be her hidden talent – fancy finding one in your 60s!

Our kids have been making friends with our neighbour’s kitten who lives across the busy road. A couple of times he’s come on the weekends when we’re all at home, and if we’re out, he’ll hang around waiting for us to return, then go back to his place late for dinner. I’m not looking forward to potentially finding it squashed on the road so the kids have agreed to have a little play if he turns up and then take him back home. And not feed him. None of us has got the heart to scare him away so that he stops coming across to our side. I hope it’s a compromise that works.

The only other news is I’ve got back into my daily walking after about a month off with shin splints and a cold virus. That’s pretty much all I’ve been up to – how about you?