Half-term was a busy week. I returned from my mum and dad's, Dad being hopefully on the mend after his recent illness, with my nephew, Alex, in tow.

His dad, my older brother, was having babysitting problems and, as I was off work for the week, it seemed sensible to step into the breach.

Having an 11-year-old boy round the house as well as a 13-year-old girl was a whole new experience for me and all I can say is two of them together are much, much more than twice as loud as one.

In addition we had to suffer listening to a huge number of Playstation games that involved shooting people at high volume while shouting "Gotcha", which we are not used to.

In order to give Him Indoors a bit of peace, and to try to wear out daughter and nephew a bit as well as attempting to prevent any arguing between the two of them, I took the two kids out and about a bit.

We went to the pier and had fish and chips after they had spent that day's allowance on the fruit machines and rides we went bowling down at the marina and then to McDonald's.

We went to the greyhound stadium one night and spent another day's allowance betting on the dogs. Amazingly, the kids came away with more than they had started with.

By the end of the week I was both skint and exhausted and looking forward to work for a rest.

My other brother, who lives in Brighton, had arranged to take Alex back home at the end of the week so at least I didn't have to spend another two days travelling.

Once it was quiet again I decided to sit down and wade through the week's post which up until then I hadn't had time to open.

First item was the mobile phone bill for daughter's phone. "How on Earth did you run up a £112 bill for text messages in the space of a month?" I asked her.

Well, to be honest that wasn't quite what I said but the reality isn't printable in a family newspaper. We had what you might call a heated discussion.

Daughter was very apologetic and couldn't say sorry enough but unfortunately that doesn't help pay the bill.

The end result was her phone was taken off the contract we pay for and she now has the pay-as-you-go type, which she has to pay for herself.

In addition she gets no pocket money until the bill is paid off. Tough I know but this is the second time she's done something like this and I just cannot afford it.

I decided not to open any more mail in case there were anymore surprises for me that I wouldn't want to know about.