I am almost at the end of my week without my two youngest children and their Dad. They have been visiting Nan and Granda for the past week and, judging by some of the phone call updates, I feel that their grandparents still need to get a few pointers straight when it comes to having the grandchildren stay for a few days.

Number one: if you don’t want something touched, broken or played with you should place it on a high shelf or in a cupboard. Number two: young children know exactly what a TV remote control is for – it is for pressing the buttons! Number three: Granda needs to hide the remote control without forgetting where he put it.

Number four: a handful of red jelly babies are not a good idea half an hour before bedtime; Number five: Mummy will get around to teaching them The Lords Prayer soon…I promise!

On the other hand, over here the silence could not be more deafening. But there are some advantages: I can cook something without tripping over a toddler on a trike; I can make a cake without tossing a coin as to who will lick the bowl because I will; I can watch a DVD from start to finish and it will not have Postman Pat or Fireman Sam in it; I can take a bath/wash my hair without Daddy sending out a search party for me; I can eat a whole bar of chocolate and not have to share – funny thing is I am so used to sharing that I cannot finish a bar of chocolate on my own anymore!

Well, tomorrow the silence will be replaced by noise once again; toys will breed around the floor and I will need to post a notice where and when I go to take a bath; I will be cutting meat into tiny portions again and watching the next instalment of Balamory.

Life will return to normal again – and I cannot wait.