Man, Woman or Person Who Swallowed a Box?

I was faced with this at the Thornhill Park and Ride, outside Oxford, while dying for a wee, and so I did not at all appreciate being subjected to an extra two seconds' wait to work out whether I was going into the correct toilet.

Yes, you will now say to me that I really should have just focussed on the tiny skirt (?) or tilted my head sideways to read the very arty-farty metal lettering that, in case you are wondering, says FEMALE. Let's face it, wouldn't it have been easier to have it just read 'Women' or 'Ladies' with the usual bog-standard stick figure image? 

As an aside, I find it intriguing and mildly amusing that Baby Nappy Changing Units are always located in the Ladies' toilet if there isn't enough space to give them a separate room. Are there never any men who may a) travel alone with babies and/or b) would like to change their babies' nappies?

Reality Check

We were treated to a reality check about being prepared to have children, when we had little S (3.5), his littler sister O (2) and their parents, from next door, over for dinner on Saturday.

To say it like Borat, we are so prepared, NOT!

We quickly realised that to our two tiny guests, nothing in our house was as it should be.

Our bread was brown and wholegrain, our jam had whole fruit in it and had no added sugar, our frankfurters were not fried, our chips were hand-cut rustic wedges and oven-baked, our ice-cream was Vienetta, and our apple juice was cloudy. To add to the equation, our couches and beanbags are super-absorbent and do not wipe clean, our coffee table has a precariously-perched glass top, our ceramic vases are on the floor and/or within easy reach, and either have prickly things sticking out of them or are full of water.

On the positive side, our carpets can be bleach-cleaned, we have flowers on our toilet paper, and to our orange-juice-soaked-crumbled-Madeira-sponge plus strawberries plus whipped cream dessert, little S proclaimed, "I LOVE IT!"

May be there is hope for us, after all.