Sigh. Christmas and the single parent. It is very very hard and ridiculously complicated. Thankfully my children will wake up on Christmas morning at my house. But then, after our pressie-fest, they have to leave. It is still painful. I […]
A strange thing has happened to my fridge since my teenage son has left the building – when I open it there is still food in it. Quite a lot actually. It keeps making me jump. We are settling into […]
The Chiswick Festival, I have to say is one of my yearly guilty pleasures. A festival on my doorstep that doesn’t involve any mud. I don’t have to stay in a tent or sleep in my clothes. It is an […]
Here are my 19 year old son’s top tips for where to stay and what to do as a young person in Bangkok. Very short and to the point with clearly not much emphasis on sight seeing:- BANGKOK – THE […]
Did i mention that I was in Portugal recently? I was there on a top secret mission that I can't talk about at the moment. However, I am allowed to suggest that if you want a short break recommendation that's cheap and fabulous at this time of year, then here it is. It was a lovely time to go. Nobody there. Gorgeous weather - really quite hot during the day and cool in the evening. Delicious food. Sea too cold but that was fine with me, you can barely get me in the sea in August. Most of the bars and restaurants were open but empty which was sad to see - they're all just gearing up for the season to start - but that does mean that there are some cheap deals to be had. There were quite a few music events going on which was great to see. I especially loved the very cool Orleans jazz band.
I'm now very excited to be invited to an event at the PORTUGUESE EMBASSY later in the week and I'll tell you about that later. In the meantime, here are some photos to show you what I mean:-
Sunset:- 
My most favourite dish in the world:- 
Beach:- 
Me:- 
Music:- 
Hope all you lovely mothers out there have had a really lovely day with or without your children or your mothers..... We are clearly a popular bunch as restaurants around the country were fully booked and what I loved was seeing teenagers - especially the boys wandering around with bunches of flowers, cards and boxes of chocolates. Yes, I know that we shouldn't all need a "special day" in which to force our nearest and dearest to spoil and acknowledge us, but still....rather like Valentine's Day, why not have a day allocated to make a fuss? What's wrong with that? Commercialism or otherwise.
I didn't have my children today but with a bit of a spin on how it might be good to spend the day sans enfant, I found myself thoroughly enjoying my day. The kids came back at 7pm - my daughter with flowers:- 
and a homemade voucher to take me to The Wolseley for coffee which has become an annual event that I love (trying not to criticise the spelling):- 
and my 11 year old promptly got on with cooking us a three course meal! Spectacular. ALL BY HIMSELF. I believe he even got all the ingredients himself. So for a starter he made a tomato and mozzarella salad:- 
Followed by chicken in a spicy sauce with rice and then HOMEMADE chocolate mousse:- 
Very impressive. One male friend of mine was gobsmacked. He said if it had been his son who is the same age preparing a meal it would have been Rice Krispies followed by Cornflakes followed by yoghurt or possibly chocolate mousse if already made and in a pot.
I'm very lucky.
Oh and firstborn son sent me a text at 7am this morning:-
"Hi mum! Can you please send the lead for the camera and get me that new sim card i've lost? Also maybe a memory stick or hard drive so I don't lose anything?"
I replied and quietly mentioned that it was Mother's day btw.....
"I looked it up and it says Mother's day is 25th of March???? But if it is today then Happy Mother's Day!"
Rubbish.
Well. I'm not doing very well so far. Totally disorganised still and my children are very cross with me for buying a black tree. They have accused me of being an Emo.
It's going to look great though - I keep trying to reassure them that this is the case.
Here it is, looking a little smaller than I thought and bare and well...black:- 
and here is my son describing how he thinks it looks, which is more than a little bit miserable:- 
We will decorate it tomorrow and it will look splendid. I'm sure.
In the meantime I am happy to point out that we still more than a week left before Christmas so LOADS of time to sort presents, food, activities, drink, plans in general.....
I'm not panicking yet. Although I tried to order my turkey yesterday and have been told I've missed the deadline. So now what?
Delegating my youngest son on to fudge making duties soon and hoping to even fit in an ice-skating trip somewhere.
My aunt took me to the hottest new restaurant in town last night - and she should know, she works for Conde Nast International.
