My beloved Birmingham City spent the only dry day we've had recently showering points like so much confetti on our Premiership relegation rivals - just to spice up the end of the season, of course. Then the proper rain begins. But I'm okay - I'm possessed of a brown corduroy flat cap, which was a gift from Mrs C.
The afternoon is spent on a routine visit to a junior school, though there's nothing routine about it. A tough spot in one of our tougher towns. But the school is an oasis of learning, fun, inclusion and beautiful, beautiful manners.
Tuesday: An evening at the AGM of the county's youth council. The venue is Winchester's medieval Great Hall, drenched in history and tradition, but tonight teeming with youthful energy. It's too much fun for us oldies to feel our age.
Then the young people hold their annual elections for their officer posts - one of which is the post of webmaster. Webmaster? I am intrigued about what this means and what the department must do to relate.
Wednesday: One of a round of staff briefings throughout this vast county in the bewildering systems that make up children's services. The briefing is focused on the future, seeking views from colleagues about forthcoming contact centre and website developments. The staff are gushing with ideas. We show them the YouTube video Shift Happens.
The pace of technological change ahead is bewildering - apparently in three weeks' time they will have developed a handheld device that can keep Birmingham in the Premier League. It's a shame that there are less than two weeks left of the season.
I go to my daughter's glorious school concert then get home in time to catch the end of The Apprentice. From the sublime to the ridiculous. It's mesmerising. I watch and think back wistfully to the manners of the eight-year-olds I met on Monday. It may be a matter of editing, and I'm sure this will provoke the old public-private-sector debate, but on this showing most of this lot wouldn't last a week in children's services.
Thursday: Amid it all, we've held our conference preparing for a full rewrite of our local children's plan. I'm thrilled that the youth council reps tell me it wasn't too boring - but perhaps they're being kind. And I'm supposed to miss being ADCS joint-president - there just isn't time. Maybe the cap fits.
- John Coughlan is director of children's services at Hampshire Country Council.
