This week's Gallery request is shoes. I had lots of ideas: the Girls' First Shoes, which sit, framed, in their bedrooms; my well-worn sneakers, a result of training for Shine 2011 (incidentally, if you haven't please consider sponsoring me. The link is to your right); my favourite shoes, the ones I got married in; the first pair of shoes DH bought for me on our first romantic mini-break; the welly rack that sits by the back door. There is never a … [Read more...]
The Gallery: Animals
Wednesday morning dawns murky and just a little bit cold in Bromley. There is an air of finality, a whisper of autumn in the air. This time last week The Girls and I were enjoying the sunshine poolside in Burgundy, where they learned to spot 'vaches' and buy 'French bread'. I suppose that it was our last fling before term time beckons: the week ahead is filled with haircuts, dental appointments and nametape-ironing*. I didn't turn on the laptop, … [Read more...]
Water, water, in your hair: The Gallery
I tell you, the summer holidays seem to be whizzing by now. Even the British weather seems to have co-operated to a certain degree, so we have plenty of good days at the beach with friends and family. Of course the thing about the beach is that, no matter how hard you try to clean it off, the sand welds itself to the parts of your children's anatomy that are most sensitive and hardest to clean. Like the scalp. And the undercarriage, or groovy … [Read more...]
Birth and all that.
I never got the natural birth everyone talked about at NCT, which was fine because Lord knows I didn’t want one. I’d have been very happy to have had an epidural at 7 months, just to get me into the swing of things. In fact I went to my first NCT class knowing that I’d be induced at 38 weeks because of the crippling pain I was in from SPD. Sadly one mention of this put me automatically at the bottom of the class (along with a diabetic and … [Read more...]
Vintage Family Album
That bloody Tara Cain has had me all misty-eyed this week: her vintage theme sent me to the land of nostalgia, where everything is tinted pink. I have been blubbing like a whale since dawn. It may be down to the fact that I have been up since dawn that I have been blubbing. I'm not sure. Thus I give you me: before the internet, when all I cared about was playing, a bit of cake for breakfast and ideally a trip to the pool after the … [Read more...]
The best bit about travelling
...is the coming home. I grew up overseas, which necessitated Boarding School and long-haul flights lugging my incompetent less capable brothers behind me. We flew to Cairo and Tirana, Larnaca and Brussels for every major holiday then back to Giggleswick, via Manchester or Heathrow or Leeds/Bradford. When I went to University, the travel continued, to France and Germany, The USA and Caribbean, until I found myself travelling for a living, … [Read more...]
Grandparents, benches and a proposal
We’ve just spent the weekend with Grandparents and PD has been in heaven. Mamma and Daddy were merely servants: seen but not heard. PD did craft with Grandpa and sat next to Granny at mealtimes. She’s really starting to understand family connections and talk about people when they are not there. Skype has been a big help with this, enabling us to talk to the GP’s every Sunday, see Uncle Neal in America and Uncle Wilbur in Australia. To help with … [Read more...]
