Hi, it's daughter here. I thought I'd take over Mum's column while she's at work and I'm off school.

Anyway I haven't got anything better to do apart from some boring revision for next term's exams.

According to the list Mum left on the table this morning before she went to work, I am also supposed to be cleaning the microwave, tidying my room and doing some ironing.

Unfortunately the list accidentally fell into the bin while I was in the kitchen earlier, so I haven't read it. What a shame but never mind.

I think the microwave bit was because of the cheesy waffles. They are something I invented and delicious to eat.

You just take eight frozen waffles, place them in a pile in the microwave, put loads of grated cheese on top and heat.

The cheese melts all over the place, which I suppose does make a bit of a mess but you have to eat waffles like this while they are still hot, so there's no time to scrape the extra cheese off the inside of the microwave. Mum's just being fussy anyway.

She's also being very fussy about my room these days. It's not really messy, it's just that I like to keep most of my belongings on the floor, that way I know where they all are.

I have tried to tell her that I am in the process of collecting old pizza boxes for a modern art project called "uneaten bits of pizza in various stages of decay".

I think I will be in line for the Turner Prize for this once the Tate gallery accepts it. When I told Mum this she just said, "I don't think so," and handed me a bin bag, which just shows how lacking in understanding she is.

You can tell she is lacking in understanding because she actually made me go to the opera with her last week. She kept muttering something about a bit of culture not doing me any harm.

I tried to explain that if any of my friends saw me going in to see Carmen I would be socially dead for years.

I suppose it wasn't all that bad, the dancing bits were quite good although the singing wasn't a patch on Westlife or Mis-teeq.

Anyway, I secretly took a book with me to read during the boring singing bits. It was a bit hard to see the type and Mum kept hissing "For God's sake put it away," but a girl's got to do something to stop being bored during these excursions hasn't she?

Mum is off work next week so I am planning some exciting trips out for us. I thought we could go shopping in Churchill Square one day, then go to Bluewater to look at the shops there another day, then maybe have a daytrip to London to do some more shopping.

I will have to find some more places to go shopping during the rest of the time. Otherwise she will start dragging me round art galleries and the like.

Seeing as how I did the culture bit at the opera, I don't think I should have to do anymore of it these holidays, but mum just doesn't understand me.

I suppose that's because I am a really cool teenager and she is too old to remember what it was like.