The big smoke

I was in London again this week, to interview master chocolate maker, Paul.a.Young, the 'a' there presumably so we don't confuse him with the Paul Young who laid his hat all over the place in the 1980s hit parades. It's an enjoyable train ride through some lovely countryside and then along the backs of homes in London's suburbs, which I love perving at. I stopped at the Australian Embassy on the way to my meeting to renew mine and Flo's passports, a super efiicient, easy peasy process. I had a nostalgic walk through Covent Garden's back streets on my way to my meeting in Soho, particularly around Seven Dials where I started my career in journalism, as Editorial Assistant on Essentials magazine, at the time the second highest selling monthly magazine in the country. My first office on Earlham Street is now this luxury shopping mall. 
The Coach and Horses pub on the corner became our second office, until we moved up to Long Acre, where the Kembles Head pub (now a smart restaurant) was the nightly stopping off point for everyone at GE Publishing, until the entire staff was barred after the antics that took place at my leaving party. But that's another story.
Onwards then to Wardour Street, to the chocolate shop, where I was to meet Paul and watch him make me a bespoke chocolate. I had the chance to peruse the astonishing collection of hand made chocolates, before I was told the meeting had been cancelled and could I come again next week. Sure thing - it's only a 4 hours round trip from Hastings. I wasn't really that bothered. I got to eat lots of chocolates before leaving, had our passports all sorted and I get to go again next week. 

On the way back to Charing Cross, I stopped in at the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibition of images of the Queen. I love this image, made up of hundreds of small images of Diana, Princess of Wales.

I spent as much time as I could with Janice this week, in the run up to the removal van arriving on Thursday. I helped Janice pack and clean the house, and she and Mathilda spent their last night in Hastings with us on Thursday. There were tears at our farewell on Friday afternoon, but we have already planned a weekend visit to them at their new home in Crystal Palace next month.

I took my mind off  Janice's departure on Friday night, meeting 3 friends from school at the Stables Theatre to see a play in which our friend Lisa played two parts. Lisa is lovely, but not someone who strikes you as particularly funny, but she was hilarious in both her comic roles on stage. We all loved seeing her in what was otherwise a very intense and sombre play about a couple's problems adopting a baby from a junkie birth mother.

 On Saturday we were without Scarlett for the day and she headed off with a school friend and her family to a theme park nearby. I hung out with Flo until it was time for her to go to a friend's birthday party, and then the evening was all about X Factor. Awful but unmissable. Yesterday the weather changed for the worse, wild weather warnings punctuated the news bulletins, and we battoned down the hatches. I spent the day in my PJS and we devoted the whole afternoon/evening playing Monopoly with the girls, which we all loved. Rob is a ruthless property tycoon who cannot be trusted.

Back to normal

I was in London on Monday for some work I'm doing for a magazine. I had to interview someone in Vauxhall and got to the interview by walking along the river from Waterloo. It was a lovely day and took me along the river path opposite the Houses of Parliament, passing Lambeth Palace. Job done, I walked over Westminster bridge and up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square to soak up some of the atmosphere of the parade of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. I was too early to see the parade but managed to see some of the action on a big screen in Trafalgar Square before being squashed and squeezed as I fought the crush to Charing Cross station. 

Here is a lovely shot of the girls with our neighbours Mathilda on her 11 birthday - September 11. Yes, Mathilda was born on September 11 2001. I can't imagine what a frightening day that must have been to become a parent. Mathilda is moving to London on Friday with her parents, our lovely friends Janice and Roger. We are thrilled they are making a move they have wanted for years, but will miss them as they have become our closest friends in Hastings.

Yesterday Florence lost her first tooth. She was absolutely thrilled and wasted no time popping the tooth in the pocket of her tooth fairy pillow hoping for a coin to appear overnight.

It was gorgeous weather so we walked into town for the annual Seafood and Wine Festival, held on the beach. It's our favourite event of the year in Hastings, with 50 odd stalls selling seafood, wine, cider, cheese, fresh bread and more. I stuffed my face with smoked mackerel and organic chilli sauce on sun-dried tomato bread. We also tried a mackerel wrap, fried octopus and fish gougons, washed down with local cider and beer. We met up with a couple of families from school, as well as Maria and Lol, and spent the afternoon on the beach in the sun.

In the evening we went into Janice and Roger's for pizza and wine while talking all the way through Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor. Very funny. However, let's just say that as a result of a thoroughly enjoyable day and evening, the tooth fairy may have fallen asleep and forgotten her responsibilities on the coin delivery front. Flo woke and was very cross to find no money left for her tooth.  Some slight of hand, soon fixed that and a coin miraculously appeared, moments after me helping Flo search for it.
As I type (it's 12.16pm on Sunday), Rob and the girls are in bed playing Top Trumps, I am still in my PJS and we are contemplating a second day at the Seafood and Wine Festival, with a different group of friends.

Late Summer

Scarlett and Florence went back to school on Wednesday after 6 lovely weeks off. They are now in years 1 and 4. The weather has been so warm this week, they went back in their summer dresses and we spent two evenings after school at the beach. On Friday we drove to Barming for the weekend with Dad and Alexandra. As always, it's like a weekend at a 5 star hotel with fabulous food and drink on tap. We spent Saturday morning at the market and brilliant Sydney-style deli at nearby Faversham, before retreating to the back garden for that always unforgettable view, a couple of G&Ts  and a paddling pool, before driving through the countryside to The Black Horse for dinner.

Today, we started late after a lie in and spent the entire day soaking up the rays in the garden. Breakfast, lunch, G&Ts. You get the picture. The drive away from my Dad's house is my least favourite journey.

The end of Summer

Another really great weekend camping at our new secret dingly dell campsite. This time we managed two nights as the weather was gorgeous. Lucy, our 4 girls and I arrived on Friday lunchtime and spent an hour setting up camp on pitches 5,6 and 7, allowing us to commandeer the whole southern end of the campsite including a generous firepit. Instead of our big family tent, I took our two, 2-man tents which worked out really well and they were very snug and comfortable. We then strolled through the apple orchard, along the train track and beside a peaceful slow-moving river to Bodiam to the pub for a pint or two of cider while the girls did gymnastics on the huge lawn. Later we were joined by Rob and Aid and Lucy and Aid's mate Dave, with his daughters Grace and Eloise. From that point on we hardly saw the girls, with the older ones organising games and adventures around the woods and fields. It all went off beautifully, there were no arguments or accidents or disagreements of any sort. I did dinner and breakfast the first night and morning, before a pub lunch and some fishing off the bank. Lucy took care of dinner on Saturday night and this morning's epic fry up. We sat around the campfire for hours telling stories and laughing, a lot, stopping only to tell the girls to 'Take your sticks out of the fire!!!" It was a brilliant mix of people and we are already planning a return trip in October if the weather holds. The girls go back to school this week, which astonishes me as it really has gone so fast. We have had a huge amount of fun and packed plenty of stuff in. Scarlett and Florence are very excited about heading into Years 1 and 4 and are both becoming so grown up, beautiful and fun.