This is obviously the week for apologies. I understand that people need, nay crave, a little bit of stability in their lives and really should expect to find it here. After all the Rainbow Slider and myself are sensible women, level headed and calm in the face of adversity so it is with surprise I'm sure that you've clicked on the blog to find it changed yet again. What can I say? She gets bored easily and while I clean (that's a downright lie, forgive me) she fiddles with the blog. I've lost count of the number of changes we've had recently but it's a lot. The blog has had more changes of faces and styles lately than the Labour Party. She doesn't tell me she's going to do it either so when I click on to do something I feel I should apologise for walking into someone else's living room by mistake.

I've been preparing new courses for the approaching term. NO teachers do not sit about all summer painting their toe nails and watching day time telly ( well, not all the time anyway). Back to the subject, I've been writing handouts and other fiddle faddles for Social Science 101 and this week have been looking at the changes that have happened for various groups in society over the last decades. You may have gathered that I have the attention span of a small insect - bigger than a gnat, but not a lot. Maybe a butterfly. Or a sparrow. I know that's a bird and not an insect! So, anyway, I decided to go up the lane and visit with my neighbour - other people get the neighbours from Hell, I got the neighbours from Heaven - who is in her 70's and is full of stories and chat about what her life was like as a young woman. The fact that I can also guarantee that I'll get a hug, a coffee, something nice from the biscuit tin and a laugh makes the walk a pleasant one.

I wish I could take her into class with me to talk about what life was like for her. It's not so many years ago and yet could be a world away. She was a nurse and had to stop work when she married because you couldn't work in the hospital if you were. Your husband and looking after him was supposed to be your job. Teachers, bank staff and civil servants all fell under this rule.

One of the biggest changes she thinks is the amount of independence women have nowadays. Her granddaughter has just left on a round the world year out, and she's both proud of her and stunned by her.

She does think that women of my age have been conned though. As a child born in the sixties (shall I wait while you do the calculations?) I suppose we were the first generation who were told we could have it all. Unfortunately no one told the men and society that that meant that they had to change too. Which means that we work double shifts. We do our jobs and then come home and do it there as well. Apparently by the end of term this year I looked like death warmed over. She doesn't believe in shielding you from the truth - no fadging there. Personally I think we'll have equality when men drive home wondering what's in the fridge for tea and desperately trying to remember whether you need to stop at the Spar for loo roll and milk, oh and stop thinking that there's a toilet cleaning fairy, and stop talking about babysitting their own kids. In her eyes my generation got to go to work and have careers but didn't realise that nothing else would get done that didn't get done by you. I hold greater hopes for my children's generation.


Then the talk got to sex. She brought it up, I didn't. Nice girls didn't. Full stop. Actually they did. It's always been around just not talked about. She didn't know much before she was married and neither did her husband but, and this is her quote, 'We soon worked out what went where.' She thinks her grand daughters and grandsons will be better off for knowing things beforehand. It reminded me of a conversation with my grandmother just after I got married. As a good Baptist woman, she never said the word 'sex' and I'm assuming it wasn't the most enjoyable thing about married life for her. The BigLad and I had been married just a few months, she still couldn't pronounce his name - it is odd - but anyway. The men had left the room on some pretence, leaving just the women. There was a lull in the conversation and silence reined for a minute and then she turned to me - first grandchild married and all that - and asked "Does he bother you much?" "Pardon?" "Does he bother you much?" This time with a suggestive face on her. My Aunt didn't appreciate my reply of "About as much as I bother him Granny." Granny told her afterwards she didn't realise I was one of those fast girls.

I wonder what she'd think of the stories?

Three days Ms Slider - amazed much - yip thought so. I am too. It's your fault by the way that Chapter 6 has now stalled - I'm too busy thinking about the blog.