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Back this afternoon from a packed family weekend. Straight from school on Friday we all drove to Kent to spend the night at Dad and Alexandra's house. Alexandra mixes a mean G&T, while Dad's domain is the kitchen where he prepares a feast for dinner. On Saturday after a full English breakfast we drove to Chatham to Dickens World, a sort of indoor theme park devoted to the life and works of Charles Dickens who grew up nearby. It was pretty amazing, with old laneways, houses, shops and a river that felt like being on the film set of the film Oliver! There were live performances of Dickens' work, a scary boat ride that left Dad and Alexandra soaked and Scarlett and Flo in tears, holograms of the ghosts haunting Scrooge and a great 4-D film about Dickens' life that soaked us again. Back at Dad's we had a lovely lunch in the garden and then walked down to the church to check out the headstones of people who had been buried in the 16 yers since Rob and I were married there (the spot we stood in for wedding pictures is now full of new graves) and then carried on down to the river to play pooh sticks off Kettle bridge. Walking through the fields I used to go to as a kid with my girls makes me indescribably happy. We were having such a nice time that the girls and I decided to stay another night so sent Rob back to Hastings as he had to get up for work this morning. Today was Mother's Day so after a quick breakfast, Dad and Alexandra drove us back to Hastings, stopping at a great little market in Staplehurst where I bought plants for the new garden bed and an old foot stool, I plan to recover, for the bargain price of 6.50. We drove to Maria and Lol's for a smashing roast lunch cooked by Rob and Lol. Despite some friendly rivalry in the kitchen amongst the boys on the best way to cook roast potatoes and Dad's nursing hurt feelings over the new twosome in the kitchen usurping his usual role, the lunch was a triumph.


This afternoon, while Flo played some computer games and Scarlett and Rob took her bike to the park, I managed to get my new plants in the garden and read the whole paper. This week we're promised temperatures of 21, which bodes well for our mini camping trip the week after next.