I WORK from home. This has the magnificent benefit of a one-second commute from duvet to desk.

It also means I could be answering the phone to high-level executives in my dressing gown with Weetabix on my chin (I don’t).

Over half term, the children were under my feet, a risky business. As I chat to Alan Sugar in professional dulcet tones, there could be an unexpected explosion of If You Wanna Be My Lover from the wannabe Spice Girls on the other side of the plasterboard.

I shuttled between the opposing guilts of bad mothering, ‘shushing’ from behind the laptop, and abandoning complicated work negotiations to take the children gongoozling.

This is a brilliant word which means canal-side idling. It could be mistaken for an arrestable offence in today’s society, but there’s something romantic about traditional narrowboats with their painted roses drifting by.

I’ve always been charmed too by the idea of brightly coloured gypsy caravans drawn from eras past with weasel casserole swinging above external campfire facilities, and, if I’ve understood correctly, adjoining orchards.

It’s not quite the same but The Partner-in-Crime has just acquired a caravan. As he’s spent six months behind Shed-Draggers Weekly and immersed in Everything-AND-the-Kitchen-Sink Monthly, it was no surprise to see a giant sardine can parked outside his pad, a spanking new towbar bursting from his bumper.

And these wheely-tins have great names. Is The Challenger Sport for sleeping in a field or Olympic bob-sleighing? The Swift Conqueror must be perfect for an autocrat to sweep across Europe whilst the Sterling Elite Diamond is surely a bling sensation on the motorway.

This particular model is cleverly equipped to sleep two adults comfortably and has hose-clean storage at the rear to hold extreme sports equipment or three children, so we rattled off to Snowdonia for a winter break in low-lying cloud cover.

As the sea fog and driving rain gently interchanged, we were as snug as the proverbial bug in a rug, awaking knee-deep in sheep to a private beach against a Snow-topped mountain backdrop. Duchess of Cambridge, eat your heart out.

A fortnight ago at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu we found, nestled amongst 50years of Bond cars, some fine examples of hand-crafted caravans from the Top Gear team who, while clearly lacking in design flair, obviously harbour a secret interest. And with good precedent: just along from The Bluebird (1927), the first car built to break the land speed record, The Youngest discovered an old Royal Caravan though they probably weren’t a touring pair.

The Middle One meanwhile unearthed a caravan attached to a giant airship, perfect for a global traveller. So, given the straitened ecomomic climate, how about a Windsor caravan instead of a new royal yacht to mark the Diamond Jubilee?