WALKS, TALKS AND CAKE

So far so good on my university children. Have barely heard from them at all which is a very good sign. My daughter sent me a photo of her room having found girly pink bunting for 50p and my son has sent me a photo of his very badly sprained ankle after injuring it in a football match. Apart from that it is all fairly quiet. I know my daughter is having an amazing time because on the very few occasions she has remembered to phone she is distracted by visitors or about to go out or is laughing about something. Just lovely and I’m so happy for her. Others are not finding the first few weeks that easy and that makes things hard for all concerned.

My third child was clearly destined to be an only child and is wandering around like a pig in shit. I suspect he will miss his older brother and sister at some point, but not yet. NOT ONLY THAT but I have seen the bottom of my laundry basket for the first time ever. I kid you not. Dealing with just two rounds of dirty clothes rather than four is IMMENSE. My fridge is full too. My mascara is where I left it, my Uggs have not yet been ruined and I can still see my floor.

I’m still missing them but it’s all OK. You’ve got to see the positives and honestly the laundry basket positive is huge. I will never cope again when they bring back their sack fulls at Christmas time.

I’ve also been keeping super busy – my friend from Australia has been staying which has most certainly filled the large children shaped hole in my life. It’s been a busy old week moving from the sublime to the ridiculous:-

1. House of Lords for a Space For Elephants event to update us the severe drama and what they are proposing to do about it.

2. Playboy Club with a girlfriend for dinner (she got free membership):-

3. Handmade Fair at Hampton Court which I’ve reviewed separately but I love this photo of swans that I took:-

4.Three very late nights chewing the cud with my friend from Oz – which meant my cold escalated into a super bug of some description and I’ve been ill – as has my daughter – same excuse and frankly I should know better. She has Fresher’s Flu which is a well known ailment – she said in her first lecture which consisted of about 300 hundred students she couldn’t hear the lecturer because everyone was coughing so loudly.

5. Lots and lots of walks in the park, mainly with my friend – she and I made up the original Monday Morning Walking Group, now disbanded owing to everyone going back to work or leaving the country. The park is astonishing at the moment with all the deer bellowing away and behaving very strangely:-

Old man and the sea:-

6. Intelligence Squared Debate at the RGS (again separate blog post) which left us feeling very Unintelligent Squared. Hangover from the previous night would no doubt not have helped.

7. My new little nephew is already ONE and I haven’t seen him for AGES because I have been ill, my son has had salmonella poisoning or he hasn’t been well, so between us with all manner of contagious diseases we have had to delay celebrating his first major milestone. We are going to do a repeat performance when everyone is better and my brother has stopped working 24 hours a day.

8. I actually had to fill in a long questionnaire from the British Health Authority about the above mentioned salmonella. Guessing that as he contracted it in Thailand, they won’t need to ask any more questions.

9. A lovely meal out to welcome home (briefly) our walking friend – so the group that used to walk all went out for dinner to the fabulous Ham Yard Hotel in Soho. Very impressive venue and the food and service were delicious too. Unbeknownst to two of us, they’d done a birthday cake! FAR too early for me, but I’m not complaining:-

10. My other brother has moved house and couldn’t be happier because there is a pub five minutes down the road.

11. A Saturday night curry with friends and then I was on my knees:-

My GF left on Sunday am and whilst I was supposed to do a sponsored walk, I simply couldn’t stay standing for a moment longer, so crawled back to bed for most of the day. Feel much better now and can’t quite believe we are already halfway through the following week! I CAN’T KEEP UP!!

OH PS yes very importantly I learnt how to make the perfect Caipirinhia – made with just limes and the sugar cane spirit cachaca – so delicious and next time I make them I’ll remember to take photos and pass on the recipe.

Our little bench of life-