What We Did This Week

There’s nothing I love more than some quiet time spent reading blogs: whether they’re parenting-focussed, all about beauty, lifestyle or food, I just love the insight blogs give you into other peoples lives. And it’s often the mundane day-to-day that I find most inspiring or interesting, the simple pockets of observation that are glimpsed in 500-600 words and a few pictures.

It’s like watching an episode of a soap but with fewer murders.

Yet every time I sit down to write about the simple nuances of our weekly life I feel ever so self-indulgent, like really? Would my daily blog visitors really care to read about what we had for lunch on Wednesday or how many birthday parties we went to that week?

I’ve decided to go for it, anyway, to start boring you with the minutiae of our little lives. Because I don’t want to sit down on a Friday any more and think… ‘well that was a busy week. But what did we actually do?’ Now I will have to remember because I’ll be writing about it.

I’m going to digress a bit here for some background to our Monday and talk about where we live: if you’d asked me 3 years ago where I wanted to settle down and put down roots I would have mentioned a lot of places. London would have been top of my list, perhaps followed by somewhere by the sea side. Milton Keynes would not have figured on that list, but life takes you to some funny places and here we are.

And you know what? I’m happier here than I’ve ever been anywhere else. It’s not a particularly sexy place to live but this town feels safe, I’ve made some wonderful friends here and it’s affordable. I can get into London in 30 minutes, my family is close by and there are stacks of things to do with the kids.

So on Monday we met up with some friends for local lunch and kids entertaining. We ate at the Xscape, overlooking the snow slope so the kids could have a good look at what was going on. They had a play in the small soft play there – we were the only people using it for the first hour which any parent can testify was heavenly – and then went to the viewing gallery at Airkix to watch the skydivers. Elfie was mesmerised and my friend Amy and I were happy as the young diving instructors left their changing room door open :). That was definitely a happy Monday.

Tuesday was the standard: early gym, Waitrose, work. Kids home at 3 for some drawing – I’m so excited about the Spring, soon we’ll be able to start burning off that late afternoon steam in the garden.

Wednesday was, like, the most exciting day of all: I was only on The Alan Titchmarsh show. Much loved of grannies (and the odd Titchmarsh-loving SAHM, I’ve since learned) I was taking part in the ‘ding-dong’ spot where two people debate a topical issue. For mine the subject was internships and I was in the ‘pro’ corner; at my last permanent job I managed a small team that included interns so I used my experience there to formulate my argument. It must have been OK because I won the audience vote and absolutely adored the whole experience. All that Am Dram finally paid off!

You can see my segment here, starting at a little more than 20 minutes in.

After the show I took off into Soho to meet my brother (wasn’t going to waste that telly make-up on the commuter train home) to take him out for dinner for his birthday. We went to 10 Greek Street which was absolutely divine and had the loveliest white Rioja. My hangover the next day was less lovely.

Thursday was more work and one of my standard Paleo lunches of roast Aubergine, Courgette, Feta and Pomegranate seeds with some leftover Bombay Potatoes from the curry I made at the weekend.

Elfie has the whole day at pre-school on Friday so Hux and I have a special day together. This Friday we paid the new Byron at the shopping centre a visit as it was opening day and I’d heard they might be giving away free burgers. NOT TRUE, and even worse, I was kind of disappointed with my cheeseburger. Really looking forward to re-visiting them this Wednesday with Bryony and giving another burger a shot. Someone’s gotta do it.

That evening I went to the gym and then joined Amy again for a night of Prosecco and a beetle drive to raise money for Elfie’s pre-school. My team won! Success.

On Saturday I journeyed into London for a bit of solo R&R at The Cavendish Hotel in St James’. It was such a beautiful day for it, the sun was out and the city looked glorious. I made the most of it and had a wander along Piccadilly and spent a long time gazing at that incredible view. I tried to not do anything apart from just rest and enjoy a few hours alone: a haircut with Sam at Ena, room service and book reading (finally finished Gone Girl!) were the order of the day.

The evening was spent at the Hotel’s restaurant, Petrichor, with my lovely friend Caoimhe. We drank far too many cocktails and Prosecco when we moved round the corner to Quaglino’s but we had an absolute blast. I always think girls’ nights are good for the soul, am I right?

I landed home on Sunday with a massive thud, or rather a stinking cold. Hux has been the same so he and I have spent our Monday alternating between sleeping in my bed and watching Tree Fu Tom (Hux: “Too Too Tom! Too Too Tom!”) and Raa Raa repeats. We both have temperatures and sore throats, and from the way he’s been rubbing his head and saying “Ow” I’m assuming he’s got a nasty headache like me, too. Waah waaah, I can’t stand being ill. It feels like such a waste of productive time. Sorry CBeebies, but I can think of a million and one ways I’d rather spend my day than watching you.

And that was our week. Stand by for another riveting instalment of ‘What Alice Did…’ next Monday ;)