And here we are, landed in 2016. It’s the last day of holiday for me and as I’m lying on the couch hearing Daddy sing bedtime songs to the kids upstairs I am searching my mind for a topic to write about. This holiday went by in a flash and although it was hard work (it always is when you…
Category: Other
Reflections on a sad day…
In this sad day for France (and for the whole world) I remember that life is fragile and it is those who stay behind that suffer the lessons it teaches. For me the biggest lesson of all continues to be that we have to remember what is truly important in life and value it above all. Stuff – cars, houses,…
Coming home…
Wow, it feels like it’s been ages since I’ve written anything. In fact, in the last few weeks all I’ve written is a heck of a lot of emails. It seems the problem with going on holiday is that you come back to the same inbox, only fuller. We arrived back from holiday on the 2nd of September and, to…
PHSD – Post Holiday Stress Disorder
Something that most parents probably know is that going on holidays with kids is not a holiday. It’s just time off work. You spend most of your time running around getting them to the beach or to the pool or to the new best friend’s house that they just met yesterday. And even in those times where you force them…
PMS, road trips and small children…
We set off on our summer holiday yesterday. As has become our family tradition, we go by car to Portugal. We drive down to Portsmouth and take a 24 hours ferry to Santander, Spain. Then we drive the rest of the way, normally staying at hotels or visiting friends for 2 nights. Last year we had an awful start. An…
Summer holidays!!!
The sun is up and we’re finally in August. Officially speaking I’m going to be 41 tomorrow, but as far as I’m concerned the official stance is overrated, so I’m gonna be 40 (again). The summer so far has been your typical British summer, i.e. some warm sunny days interspersed in between miserable, cloudy and wet weather. But at least…
“I speak half Portuguese”
We all went out for dinner on Monday with a friend that was visiting from South Africa. We had no babysitter and as the kids are on holiday it’s ok for them to sleep late so off we went. There’s a new(ish) Frankie & Benny’s in our town and I found out the other day that the Manager is Portuguese.…
Come join the party…
As I lie here awake on the evening of my daughter’s seventh birthday in a hotel room on the other side of the world, I am thinking of all the things I still have to do before their birthday party on Sunday. Mr A and Miss Z were both born in June so I normally do a joint party for…
When you’re not there…
I got back to work from my last maternity leave 7 ½ months ago and until now I haven’t had to travel for business. I like travelling on business (I guess most of us do) because you get to experience countries and cities that you’d probably otherwise not visit if you had to pay for it. But ever since I…
Moms are Superheroes
I don’t mean to blow my own horn here… Last week I had flu which turned into a serious chest infection. I also had asthma which I haven’t had in years. I had to take a course of antibiotics and that made me feel sick in my stomach. I’m all better now from the infection, my stomach is not yet…