Yay! My stomach has been much better behaved today and so it enabled me to savour the delights of York. We went to the National Railway Museum which was quite good although I was doing my normal child-mimicking routine and asking if there were any engines or carriages I could play in. There weren't, which I found a bit upsetting as there's nothing I love more than experiencing a bit of real old stuff to push all my social history buttons.

Being a proud engineery-type H tried to explain to me how a steam engine works (well, I did ask) which I kind of got. At least now I understand about steam pushing pistons which make a wheel move. The wheel is then connected to the crankshaft which moves the other wheels and therefore the train. Or something like that. Are you impressed? I think that's right.

I did find some things to play with, including building a steam locomotive using wooden blocks which was very fun. H and I also played a mail sorting game which emulated what the postmen (or whatever they were called, oops obviously wasn't paying enough attention) did on the old mail sorting trains. Grrr why has Royal Mail got rid of them now? The old mail sorting trains were really cool and had baskets on the outside so mail bags could be picked up and dropped off along the route without the train having to stop.

The comedy moment of the day came when we were having some cake and a drink and I was just about to bite into my brownie (a poor, poor relative of even the not-very-good brownies I made this week). Anyway, as I bit into the chocolate, I fell on the floor. Literally. The chair just collapsed beneath me and I ended up in a crumbled heap. Luckily I wasn't hurt but it reminded me of a moment in Shallow Hal (vaguely funny film which was on TV the other week) when Gwyneth Paltrow sits on a chair in a cafe and all four chair legs splay out leaving her sitting on the ground. Oh dear, I don't think I'm doing a very good job of explaining it but it caused H to laugh for a good few minutes.

Finally, I'd just like to say a big GET WELL SOON to Emily who is currently recovering from a chemical pleuradhesis. This is a not very nice procedure which uses a special drug to make the lung stick together like it should. She needs everyone's sticky thoughts as there it only has a 50 per cent success rate.