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.

Inspiration Monday: 19.05.2014

A good artist copies; a great artist steals

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

Inspiration Monday: 12.05.2014

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


John Lubbock, The Use of Life 1894

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.

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.

Inspiration Monday 21.04.2014

Tis' the good reader that makes the good book.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

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!

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

Art for a Kitchen Wall

Reports that an Italian factory worker had a stolen Gauguin on his kitchen wall made me wonder what I would chose.

..

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 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.

...

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!

Inspiration Monday 24.02.2014

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

Rainer Maria Rilke

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.

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.

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

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!

Inspiration Monday: 17.02.2014

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

Henry Kissinger

New York Times