Friday 23 May 2014

Making It Easy: Travel with a Toddler

I bit the travel bug when I took a gap year aged 19, and I've never been able to shake it off.

Plus taking my daughter to amazing places around the world has always been one of things I really want to do as a mother.





Sunday 18 May 2014

Monday 12 May 2014

Inspiration Monday: 12.05.2014

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.  


John Lubbock, The Use of Life 1894

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Working Life: Swings and Roundabouts with the Finance Director

It was great fun to start the long weekend hanging the park with one of my oldest friends, Alex. Our dads met at university so long ago that women were not allowed in... but somehow they managed to find our respective mothers and the rest is (now ancient) history.



Friday 25 April 2014

Adventures in Architecture

How many of us Londoners chastise ourselves for not making the most of what our city offers?


Knowing that the RA's Sensing Space exhibition was in its last days, and having heard how good it was, it was first thing on my list when I was able to catch an afternoon off.


Monday 21 April 2014

Inspiration Monday 21.04.2014




Tis' the good reader that makes the good book.



Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882



Sunday 13 April 2014

Weekend Photography Course

Becoming a parent involves learning so much and acquiring so many new skills that it can be challenging to find the time to learn something for yourself.

I'd always wanted to develop my photography and have a better technical understanding... but doing this blog and, of course, having a beautiful daughter gave me two brilliant excuses to finally get round to it.

The Nigel Wilson Weekend Photography course is rated as one of the best in London, and it was easy to see why.




Inspiration Monday 14.04.2014

Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions.

Woody Allen

Trip on the London Eye

When I realised that neither I nor my mum had been on the London Eye in the 14 years since it opened, it seemed the perfect outing for her birthday.


Two mums - and Kiddo of course!

Monday 7 April 2014

Inspiration Monday 7.04.2014


Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.


Barbara De Angelis

Monday 31 March 2014

Inspiration Monday 31.03.2014

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.  

Sophia Loren

Sunday 30 March 2014

Sunday brunch in Islington

I hadn't been back to Islington since I moved away four years ago. It was a pretty lively area then but now it is seriously buzzing.

It seems that the Islingtonites go out in force for coffee and brunch to soothe the excesses of the night before.










...

Friday 28 March 2014

Fat Friday Hamburger

After a few hard weeks at work, I'm having a day at home.

A bit of work to do, but still time to go on the Easter Egg hunt, give Kiddo a healthy lunch, put her down for a wholesome nap - and then sort myself a big fat Friday burger!



Saturday 22 March 2014

Inspiration Monday 24.02.2014

It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.

Rainer Maria Rilke






Friday 21 March 2014

Hey Brother!

My little brother is not so little anymore! Having finished university, moved back down from Manchester, and landed himself an engineering job in London, he has set up home with his lovely ladyfriend.




Thursday 20 March 2014

First Breath of Spring!

Everyone has their own wisdom for knowing when it is time to welcome the arrival of spring - the first sound of birdsong, turning down the heating, rhubarb coming into season...

When my camellia first flowers, I know that winter is over.



Sunday 2 March 2014

Inspiration Monday 03.03.2014


We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Toni Morrison

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Working Life: Not just any supermarket...

I'm going to introduce you to a good friend of mine.

Back in our schooldays, Christabel was always top of the class and scooped up by Cambridge University to read History. She was always the person helped me make sense of my economics homework. All those graphs!



Monday 17 February 2014

Inspiration Monday: 17.02.2014


"There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."

Henry Kissinger

New York Times



Sunday 9 February 2014

Inspiration Monday: 10.02.2014


Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe.

Muhammed Ali




Wednesday 5 February 2014

Chinese New Year!

It's not often I find myself in Soho at 10am. I hadn't joined in the Chinese New Year festivities since I was a child, and it seemed a terrific way to spend the morning with Kiddo.

















In Chinese culture, red is the colour of celebration and brings good luck.

Monday 3 February 2014

Inspiration Monday 03.02.2014: Philip Seymour Hoffman


The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.



Philip Seymour Hoffman, 1967-2014

Friday 31 January 2014

A Night at the Ballet

Some things never stop being magical. Visiting Covent Garden yesterday evening to see Giselle, I melted in wide-eyed wonder.



A friend had cancelled on the day: my babysitter was booked and I was hot to trot. Rather than slope to the cinema or grab some sushi, I decided to see if there were any tickets left for something a little less ordinary.

I wasn't disappointed.


Monday 27 January 2014

Inspiration Monday: 27.01.2014


"It's crazy" she'd said, "but I'd be perfectly happy if I could sit looking at the same half dozen paintings for the rest of my life. I can't think of a better way to go insane." 


Velasquez, Las Meninas, El Prado Madrid

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

Sunday 26 January 2014

(not so high) High Tea

This weekend I saw Wolf of Wall Street on Saturday, then had my neighbours over for tea on Sunday.

It really was a perfect yin and yang: the fast-paced excesses of a Scorcese epic and the gentle pleasures of Earl Grey and local gossip.




Monday 13 January 2014

Inspiration Monday: 13.01.2014




Let it be. Just let it be.


If you can't let it be; let it go.
If you can't let it go; let it be.



Mark, my yoga teacher.

Thursday 9 January 2014

New Kid on the Block: West Elm



The best thing about meeting my accountant is that he is based near the lovely homeware shops on Tottenham Court Road. A little wander round after our meeting can often take the edge of things. And this year, it was an opportunity to visit West Elm, the New York store that has just come over to London.




Sunday 5 January 2014

Inspiration Monday: 6.01.2014



Good resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.


Oscar Wilde

Aaaah Detox!

It's a relief, isn't it, when New Year arrives - the relatives gone, the presents given, the food eaten, the drink drunk - and the quietness, the drabness, the raininess of January spreads itself out. Thougts of detox bring one fellow blogger to mind. Several friends, when I told them I had started a blog, shuddered and said "oh, please, not like Gwynnie's?" Well, only inasmuch as I am the shorter, plumper, rock-star husband-less twin of Gwynn ;-)