No boys allowed

With Rob away this weekend on a boys' trip to Budapest for Giles's birthday, Scarlett, Florence and I were prepared for a top girls only weekend. We began on Friday evening with Ruby's 8th birthday party. Originally only Scarlett was invited but when we went to drop her off, Florence was invited in too. I made short work of saying my goodbyes before heading to my sister's, just a few doors down, for dinner with Maria and Lol. At about 8pm (hic), I returned to pick up the girls from a very successful party, but a mistake with the pouring of red wine, meant a very short taxi ride, rather than a walk, home suddenly became highly appealing. On Saturday, I took over Rob's regular routine - pancake-making followed by a movie at the local cinema - this time Horrid Henry, the movie version of Scarlett's favourite books. We stopped in at a charity shop on the way home to pick up VHS tapes (we are the last home in Britain with a VCR) of Grease, Madeline and 101 Dalmatians (3 for a quid). With the newspapers under  the other arm, we headed home, in violent wind and rain, to settle in for afternoon of movies, reading and snacking. After dinner we changed in comfy PJs, made popcorn and snuggled together for The X Factor, which is getting better every week. I am LOVING this year's judging panel, much improved by the departure of Simon Cowell and the arrival of Gary Barlow. What's not to love?

On Sunday we awoke to beautiful, clear, blue skies and made plans to meet Maria and Lol, Dad and Alexandra at the Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival. We went last year as Hastings newbies and loved it. the sun shone, people swam and waterskiied and we lay on the beach. This year, just as we were leaving the house it started to chuck it down and we cocooned ourselves inside raincoats and cowered under umbrellas. Once at the seafront it cleared up a bit and by the late afternoon the beach was bathed in sunlight. I drank quite a few halves of Biddenden cider, the drink of my youth, and the girls and I shared fish gougons, grilled sardines and whitebait. We spent a good while in the kids tent making a giant pink fish out of foil and listening to a great storyteller. Having met up with everyone (including Maggie and Popi, Adrian and Laline plus several others we knew from school and around about - making us feel very much the locals) we moved to the music tent to listen to cover band Quiff Richard and the Shadows.  At 6pm,  I rounded up the girls from the seashore and we headed home to meet Rob. However halfway home he called to say he had missed his flight and was still in Budapest until Monday night. D'oh!