Bit of groundhog day this weekend. My PhD (started about 10 years ago now) focused on going out in public places with learning disabled children and McDonald’s featured consistently in the interviews with mothers. Or the ‘Land of the Golden M’ (as it was then) as one mum called it.

Children’s ‘busy behaviour’ was tolerated, the food arrived quickly, it was always identical (very important to a lot of kids who were on the autism spectrum) and sprinkled with that magic dust that makes it pretty taste-tastic for kids.

Regular readers will know that now LB is offered choices in a fairly blunt way, it can be difficult to encourage him to do things. Last weekend he said no to going out with us, so this weekend, we decided to fall back on the old favourite and offered breakfast at Mooky D’s. An instant “yes”.

Wow. Changes afoot in the Oxford branch; self service machines and a new queuing system. Even better for the less than patient. It was fast and we had a laugh.

LB was in great spirits and, once he’d noshed every bit of his food and drunk his milkshake, chatted about scrapyards and tyre disposal. Perfect.