July 2004

July 31, 2004

Decided to give my foot another day’s rest. I went for a swim instead, and did one kilometre this time. Went to Oriental City afterward to pick up some groceries for a couple of Thai recipes I want to try. Nova really likes it there, and it is easy for Adam to keep her amused while I do the shopping. 

Nova has inherited Fay’s old tricycle, which is a little bit bigger and has one of those handles at the back so you can push them. Joined Pete and Pasc on the parade ground in the evening with their two kids so the kids could have a cycle. I brought along a pitcher of watermelon daquiris to liven things up a bit. The kids all had a little taste. “Oh, I like that!” Fay said, the little minx…

July 30, 2004

I was leafleted on my lunch hour today. An earnest young man handed me a slip of blue paper that said:

“Are you:

• Looking for extra income?
• Been made redundant or fearful of redundancy?
• Hate your job and/or reached a career dead end?
• Fed up with commuting and missing your family?”

“How spookily accurate,” I thought. The leaflet went on to offer me the opportunity to earn $$$ assisting with “worldwide expansion from the comfort and convenience of my own home”. There was a URL and phone number provided. I resisted the urge to race back to the office and hand in my notice…;-)

I did check out the site at the end of the day though… It was suspiciously vague about what you’d actually being doing to earn all this easy dosh, and peppered with ass-covering clauses, such as: “It is illegal for a promoter or a participant in a trading scheme to persuade anyone to make a payment by promising benefits from getting others to join a scheme.” and “Do not be misled by claims that high earnings are easily achieved.” You needed to submit your details to get any more information, and I can only imagine the flood of spam you’d be subjected to were you to be so unwise as to enquire.

July 29, 2004

We interviewed a childminder this morning — someone to pick Nova up after school and look after her until I get home from November. She seemed alright, but she didn’t wow us. She seemed a bit flat and disinterested, and I could just imagine her ignoring Nova the whole time.

On the plus side, she had loads of children’s books, and seemed to be quite a reader herself. She looks after a five year old boy as well, and I asked to speak to her as a reference. She called me back almost immediately and gave the woman a glowing reference, saying how wonderful she was and how lucky they were to have found her. We’ve made a few more calls, but no one else has got back to us yet.

Spent the morning in the garden. Nova got a flower fairies book for her birthday, which has awakened an interest in naming flowers: she can now identify hydrangea, roses, tulips, pansies, lavender, sweet peas, and now agopanthus. I think she likes saying the big words. It makes me realise how well Nova and mom would have got on, and all the interests they share.

Met Rob, Jemima and Ruby at the Flask in the afternoon. They were having a late lunch, and we joined them for a drink. It was lovely, until the girls’ high spirits led to injury: Ruby fell on her back swinging between two tables, then later dragged Nova over, causing her to cut her elbow on broken glass…

Nova had her dinner round at Antonia’s this evening. Quite a fraught occasion actually: the baby was fretful; Oliver refused to share any toys, and screamed “MINE!!!” whenever Nova touched anything, making her cry; Nova didn’t like her dinner, and it took some persuasion to get her to eat it. They had about five minutes of fun together playing with the curtains, then it was time to go home.

July 28, 2004

Made it into the office today, although I’m still limping pretty badly… My foot actually seemed to improve over the course of the day. Left work a bit early for my cholesterol test at the Whittington. The walk up Highgate Hill proved too much for my foot — I think all the hill running may have contributed to the problem. I’m going to give it another couple of days before I try working out…

July 27, 2004

I had to take the day off work. While I can put a bit of weight on my foot this morning, but there’s no way I could walk the half mile to the tube (or stand for forty minutes on the train).

Nova was quite resistant to the idea of going to nursery. Maybe seeing me in sweatpants instead of work clothes alerted her to the fact that I was spending the day at home. “Shall we put on your panties?” I said. “NO PANTIES!” she yelled, snatching them from my hand and running from the room, “Throw my panties IN THE BIN!!”

Had a pretty relaxing, couch-bound day, napping and finishing a novel. I spent some time going through my photographs for images to include in the cookbook — I’ve got to get moving on that project again. Drove down to pick up Nova from nursery. It’s perfectly legal to park on either side of the road in England, not just the side you are driving on. I’ve never really got the hang of parallel parking when I’m on the curb side of the car, and spent about ten minutes executing the most embarrassing park job ever — it must have taken about twelve tries…

July 26, 2004

I was still pretty tired when the alarm went off at 6:00 this morning, but I got up, gnawed my way through a PowerBar, organised my kit bag, and headed out the door by 7:15am. It was the perfect temperature for a long run — cool, with a slight breeze. The first few miles felt great, then my right arch started nagging at me. I was hoping it would ease up, but it got worse and worse until the pain was quite sharp. I debated whether to keep going and take the consequences later, but eventually decided that would be foolish and pulled up about at about nine miles. I limped home (another two miles), took an anti-inflammatory and lay down with an ice pack. When I tried to stand up half an hour later, my foot was so painful I couldn’t put any weight on it, and there was a lump the size of a walnut in my arch. Spent the rest of the day on the couch, hopping about the house when I had to. Don’t think I’ll be doing any more running for a while… 🙁

July 24, 2004

Woke up stupidly early, as you often do in a tent. I tried to get back to sleep, but eventually decided to make the best of things, and got up in time to see the sun rise over the sea, which was quite spectacular. Jemima was the next up at about 7:30am, and after a cup of coffee, we went for a morning swim before the girls got up. The shore is very flat, and you can walk out quite a way before the water is above your waist. There is something so restorative about a morning swim. I’ve never swum in the Thames before, and it was marvellous to be floating there in the morning sun with the seabirds wheeling overhead. In fact, a flock of birds came skimming along the water, not ten feet in front of us, which was quite a buzz…We had a lovely day together, eating, relaxing, eating, swimming, eating, playing Scrabble and boules. The girls played nicely together, and with five adults it was easy to get little stretches of kid-free time. The only cloud in this idyll was an incident that happened in the late afternoon. A family that Rob and Jemima know had arrived at their beach hut a few lots down, and their two little boys were playing out front. Nova and Ruby headed off to see them. After a few minutes, Jemima, Adam and I walked down to see how the girls were getting on. We rounded a curve to see them holding hands and standing in the sea up to their waists. We called to them, but instead of coming out, they walked further in. Suddenly, the water was up to Nova’s chin, and she got a panicky look on her face. We rushed to pluck them from the water, and carried them back to the house. Neither one could explain why they went in the sea without an adult, and it is frightening to think what might have happened if we had left things for a few more minutes before checking up on them. Jemima had assumed that the little boys’ mother would be keeping an eye on things, but that wasn’t the case…

We consider staying another night, and setting off first thing, but I have a long run scheduled for tomorrow, and Adam needs to do the church thing. We put the girls to bed in Ruby’s room, ate a quick meal, packed our things up and set off. The journey was very smooth, and we were home by 11pm.

July 23, 2004

I took a day’s leave today, and after packing up for our Sheppey expedition we headed off to see Cathy, Dave and Maya in Berkhampstead. On the way, we stopped for Sheppey groceries at the Brent Cross Waitrose. While Adam was paying, I dashed over to First Sport to continue my quest for a tracksuit. There wasn’t anything I liked, but as I was leaving I noticed a pair of denim shorts on a for sale rack by the door. They were my size, and thinking they couldn’t be any worse that my only current shorts (a pair I bought for $1 on Commercial Drive a few years back), I decided to buy them. The cash register had one of those electronic displays, and when the girl swiped them, the word “hot pants” appeared in big green letters. I was amused and horrified in equal measure — it’s been quite a few years since I’ve owned anything that could be described as “hot pants”. Examining them more closely in the car, they are pretty short, and have a ludicrous diamante badge on the front that says “McKenzie” of all things…Cathy is an old, old friend — a fellow Canadian who I met teaching in Japan. We’ve kept loosely in touch over the years, but I haven’t seen her since her wedding in the early 90s. She, her husband Dave, and 9-year-old daughter Maya are in England for three weeks. After lunch at Cafe Rouge, we visited in the local playground while the girls had a run around, then walked back along the canal feeding swans. Maya was lovely with Nova, happily pushing her on the swing, and reading to her. She’s a beautiful little girl and such a contrast to so many English children — strong, athletic, tall, fearless, healthy looking. It was so nice to see them, and as is the way with old friends, Cathy and I fell into conversation as though it was ten days — not ten years — since we’d last seen each other.

We were on the M25 by 5:00pm, heading for Sheppey. I called Jemima to give her an ETA, but just after hanging up phone, we hit a wall of traffic. The radio traffic updates informed us that the whole M25 was the next thing to a parking lot. It took about a half an hour to cover the next five miles. We were debating whether to abandon the whole idea, when Nova declared she needed a wee. We left the motorway and found a petrol station, where she had her wee, and I bought her some “preformed ham” for dinner (I don’t really want to think about it…) as the most foodlike item on offer. We decided to try the North Circular instead, and joined it to discover that it was eerily deserted. Everyone was on the M25 I guess…

The rest of the journey went pretty smoothly. We pulled up at Rob and Jemima’s beach hut at about 8:00. Ruby and Nova went running off together to find rabbits, while we knocked back a couple of glasses of Pimms and some restorative snacks, before pitching our tent, and settling Nova for the night.

The hut is quite basic, but nothing that would phase a Canadian (or so I imagine — I’ll have to ask Sam…;-)). There is a gas stove, indoor toilet and sink (though no running water). It’s right on the Thame’s estuary, with a long strip of beach leading to the water. Once the girls were down, we played a game of boules on the sand in the gathering dusk, then went inside for a meal. Jemima and her brother Charlie had made a Thai seafood curry and rice, and we had chocolate truffles and Kahlua to follow. Headed for our tent about midnight, squeezing ourselves on either side of Nova’s inflatable bed. I think it’s time to consider a family-sized tent…

July 22, 2004

Went to the gym first thing this morning for my run. The weather was a bit iffy, and anyway, I enjoy running on the treadmill occasionally to get an accurate time/distance measurement. I did my best time ever — 38:04, which means I’m doing about nine and a half minute miles on my gym runs. Not breaking any land speed records, but it’s all about personal improvement. Headed home for my shower so that Adam could get off to work.Spent the day working from home, accomplishing little bits here and there whenever I managed to distract Nova for a stretch. She’s going to do four days at the nursery, starting in August, which will make things a bit easier…

Sam came round to babysit this evening, and Adam took me out to dinner at the Eyre Brothers restaurant in Shoreditch. They are credited with inventing the gastropub. Quoting from the Independent’s article on Britain’s top 50 foodies:

“Britain’s biggest food revolution for decades began in 1991, on Farringdon Road in London’s Clerkenwell, when Eyre took to the kitchens of the Eagle pub. There would be no table cloths, no menus and no pretension. Instead, there was a blackboard, olive oil in bowls on the tables for the great bread, and hearty, well-priced food. The gastropub was born.”

The design is sleek and stylish, and the food Mediterranean, with a strong Spanish/Portuguese influence. Everything was wonderful, from the bread and olives, grilled chorizo, salt cod, roast lamb and rosemary potatoes, to the pannacotta, and the bottle of Spanish “Martinberdugo”, Ribera del Duero (2000), was the best bottle of red wine I’ve had in ages. (I made a note of the name in hopes of tracking some more down…) It was a really terrific meal.

Settling up with Sam, we got talking about her summer holiday plans. When she announced that she’s off to Ancient Greek camp for two weeks, Adam joked, “You sure know how to have a good time!” “Actually, I do!” she replied. “We may be classicists, but we are teenagers!” After that, she jets off to Canada, which she’s been to “so many times”, and informs me “is really nice, although there’s no culture.” Apparently, Montreal is great — “that’s the French part” — not that she’s actually been there. Adam asked me with a mischevious look, what I thought. I said, we’d have to try it sometime. Honestly, we should pay her extra for all the amusement she gives us…

July 21, 2004

I’m really lacking motivation at work at the moment. Could it be because we are being reorganised yet again… hmm, I wonder… There’s an announcement expected tomorrow, telling us what we already know, that we are being subsumed into NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.Whatever the reason, I took the tube up to Selfridges for an extended lunchtime spot of shopping. I want to buy a tracksuit, and found a very nice one in Calmia, although it was a bit pricey, even on sale. I might have bought it, but they only had the bottoms in small.

I did pick up a few nice things at Jigsaw though… a silk, V-neck sweater, wrap-front mint green teeshirt, and a gorgeous, greeny-blue, layered skirt that makes me feel like a mermaid.

Nova was in high spirits when I picked her up from nursery, and we had a very nice evening together. I cooked an interesting salad for Adam and I: beetroot, steamed green beans, crumbled goat’s cheese, toasted walnuts, and a dressing based around chopped capers and garlic. It was pretty good, even though neither of us like beets. It got me thinking about how we’re the kind of people who cook and eat beets even though we don’t like them…

July 20, 2004

Happy birthday, Wendy!
Quite the week for controversial documentaries… I went to see Supersize Me this evening after work. We got an invitation at work to an advance screening at a film company in Soho. I made arrangements for Scarlett’s mom to pick Nova up from work and take her back to their house for dinner, where Adam could get her later.The documentary is about a guy who spent one month eating three meals a day from McDonalds to see what impact it might have on his health. He visited three separate doctors for thorough health checks before he started, which showed him to be in excellent health. He established a few ground rules for his experiment:

1. He ate only food that came from McDonalds, including water, and ate nothing that didn’t.
2. He tried everything on the menu at least once.
3. He didn’t overeat — for breakfast, he had a breakfast choice; for lunch and dinner, a burger of some kind, fries, a drink and a dessert.
4. He only “supersized” his meals when offered.

The effects on his health were catastrophic, and astounded his doctors. Within a week, he’d gained 11 pounds, and by the end of the experiment he’d gained over 20. His liver “turned to paté” (in the words of one doctor); he experienced palpitations, shortness of breath, loss of libido, headaches, and mood swings. Apparently, since the release of the film, McDonalds has decided to phase out “supersize” meals, so that’s a result…

July 19, 2004

The situation has normalised around home, which is good… Adam managed to get all his work done now, so he’s feeling a lot happier…I cooked dinner for us both tonight, and afterward he went to the Phoenix to see Fahrenheit 9/11 as well. I had a look on the web today to see what kind of impact the film is having in the US. The overall verdict seems to be that it will make a difference, particularly by galvanising young and undecided voters, but wouldn’t be enough to swing the election.

July 18, 2004

Went for a 3.5 mile run this morning to work the kinks out. I did it purely by heart rate — whenever it went over 140bpm, I slowed right down.Took Nova for her weekly swim at the gym. Adam and I had a huge fight on the way home, which put a damper on the rest of the afternoon. Apparently he has a lot of work to do this weekend, and I knew this, and should have carved out twelve hours of space for him to work in. I asked if I was supposed to use my legendary mindreading skills to deduce this, seeing as he hadn’t mentioned it, and it got nasty from there…

Nova and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden, or reading stories in our bedroom once the weather turned cold. I ate dinner with her, then headed off to the cinema once Nova was in bed to see Fahrenheit 9/11. There has been so much hype about the film, I wondered if it would be a letdown, but I thought it was excellent. Regardless of how people quibble about the details, the bare bones of the film are a searing indictment of Dubya and his gang. I can’t see how anyone who sees it could vote for that bastard afterward. The Iraq footage was very upsetting. The image of those American soldiers in their tanks blasting Iraqi civilians with power rock blasting on the sound system made my stomach churn.

July 17, 2004

Went for an eight mile run this morning. I felt so strong that I ended up starting out too fast, and by the four mile mark I was beat. I spent the rest of the time trying — and failing — to get my pulse down to a more comfortable zone. It was quite unsatisfying. There’s so much to learn about long distance running…We went for a lunchtime picnic in Golder’s Hill park. I’d promised this picnic outing to Nova days ago, and forged ahead with the preparations while the rain pelted down and thunder rumbled outside. If necessary, we would have had our picnic in the livingroom, but the rain let up about noon, and we set off.

We strategically arranged our picnic blanket under a large oak tree (in case of further downpours) and set out our feast. At Nova’s request, I’d packed everything the hungry caterpillar eats on Saturday before giving himself a terrible stomachache: chocolate cake, ice cream cone, pickle, cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake, and watermelon, for those of you not in the know… We polished off the food, then had a kick around with our football. The sky looked a bit threatening at times, but happily the rain held off.

I had another picnic date in the evening with Jemima and a couple of friends of hers. Every Saturday in July and August, there are outdoor concerts on Hampstead Heath. When we first moved here, they were quite stuffy affairs (chamber music mainly), although we did see Kiri Te Kanawa sing once. In the last couple of years they’ve broadened the programme quite a bit, and tonight’s offering was Bryan Ferry, of Roxy Music fame. We all contributed something to the picnic, and had Pimms, focaccia sandwiches, Greek salad, olives and artichoke hearts, and lots of chocolate. Bryan did the obligatory late rockstar thing, and the woman who introduced him said that he’d be cutting his performance short as he was suffering from sore throat. His voice sounded fine at first, but as the performance went on you could hear him starting to strain. He had a couple of lissome dancers writhing away on a platform, and quite a large band that included a harp. He did a number of my favourites, although I was sorry he missed out Jealous Guy and These Foolish Things. We all got up and danced for Let’s Stick Together, which turned out to be his curtain call. It was really good fun, actually…

July 16, 2004

Happy anniversary, Greg and Wendy!
Adam stayed at home with Nova today. Her took her to the nursery sports day, as a small window in the generally relentless drizzle allowed it to go ahead. Apparently, Nova was the only kid who refused to participate in every activity. Made grilled salmon with quinoa, peppers and corn for dinner, and had a quiet evening in.

July 15, 2004

Happy birthday, Landyn!
Went for an early gym workout. I only had time to run, and drove home to shower so that Adam could get off to work.At lunch today, I insisted Nova try a bite of red pepper. When she refused to chew it, I stood my ground, a good half hour before she finally swallowed it, which was a big drag for both of us. We don’t make her eat things she doesn’t like, and we don’t make her clean her plate, but we are trying to establish the principle of tasting things at least…

It was bucketing with rain most of the day, and we both got a bit cabin fevered by the end. Went over to the Stillman’s for tea with fresh snickerdoodle biscuits we’d made. Nova was very sociable, and told a number of little stories…

She’s mad for puzzles at the moment, and we did all her jigsaws after dinner, including quite an intricate wooden one, where the pieces go together in an abstract way to form a moose. Seventeen puzzles in all… She’s big on counting, too…

July 14, 2004

Got to work late, as I made a detour to return a CD I’d bought and hated — the new Streets album. I thought it sounded like something I’d like from the reviews I’d read, but man, was I wrong… It wasn’t one of those albums you thought might grow on you… Anyway, they were very relaxed about refunding my money, and the guy at the till admitted he didn’t like it much either…Went gel shopping at lunch. I got a PowerBar brand this time, with added caffeine. I was chatting with the guy at the till about using gels, and he stressed to me the importance of drinking at least a cup of water when you take the gel. Otherwise it coats your stomach and gives you terrible cramps, which was exactly what happened to me.

Left work a bit early and met Adam at the Lister Hospital for a follow-up appointment with Dr Sheharta. My test results were completely normal, and there was no indication whatsoever that I had a excess of killer cells. In spite of this, he suggested that I try his steroid treatment anyway. I got a prescription and all the information I need to go ahead with it if I decide to, but I think it’s unlikely I will.

Adam out for dinner with Doron this evening, so I had some leftover tuna chowder for dinner. Spent the evening talking on the phone with Jane Steedman. We always end up talking about her brother John (who died twenty years ago) and about Mom’s death. I suppose it’s because there aren’t many people in our London lives that actually knew the people we’ve lost…

July 13, 2004

Frantic morning getting ready for my presentation to NICE (the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, the agency we’re going to be absorbed by). I was feeling quite stressed and anxious about it — presenting is just not my thing — but in the end, it went quite well. The meeting was quite informal, and I easily handled all their questions.Made Nova a fishcake with broccoli for dinner. I had a banana myself, and once Adam was supervising her bath, I headed for the gym. Did a hard four mile run, and got my best ever time of 38:22. I was tempted to blow off the rest of my workout (cycling, weights etc) and head for the sauna, but then I thought, if it becomes the norm just to do the run, what do I do when I need to cut myself a break? I’ve missed only one of my scheduled workouts since I started training for the marathon, and that was because of a nagging hamstring I thought it better to rest an extra day before my long run. I’ve been pretty tough with myself on that score — I figure if I just do all the workouts, the marathon will take care of itself… It’ll be tricky to keep to schedule when we go on holiday at the end of August…

Adam waited dinner for me and we watched an episode of Law and Order and had a big bowl of tom yum soup.

July 12, 2004

Spent most of the day finalising a website impact report, which my director needs for a Board meeting in a couple of days. Massaging those statistics makes you realise what a black art it is…Made pad thai for dinner (we’re eating a lot of that lately) then Adam headed off to Jenny’s to babysit, and I avoided working on a presentation I’m giving on Wednesday by watching Faking It, USA. This Greek tomboy paramedic had four weeks to pass herself off as a beauty pageant contestant in Miss New York City, like that Sandra Bullock film. She was a nice enough looking girl, but I thought her looks alone would expose her, until I saw the rest of the contestants. At least three were a good twenty or thirty pounds overweight (one more like fifty pounds), and a few were homely as hedge fences. That’s Americans for you — why let a little detail like a lack of physical beauty deter you from your dream of being Miss USA. “If you really believe you can do something, yada yada yada…” The paramedic was exposed in the end, but it was her awkwardness in the interviews, and generally bolshy attitude, that gave her away. They’re going to try to pass a mousy librarian off as a Coyote Ugly bartender and dancer next week…

July 11, 2004

Got up bright and early, and downed a PowerBar before setting off on my 16 mile run. I didn’t have the heart to try another gel, so I carried an extra PowerBar with me instead, and ate about half of it over the last hour.I was pretty tired by the time I staggered through the front door three and a half hours later, and took straight to bed — Adam brought me a smoked salmon bagel and big glass of water to recuperate with. Took about a half an hour before I felt ready to get up again.

Took Nova for her weekly swim. It’s quite theraputic for the legs to stand about in that cool water while Nova splashes about. Wendy’s sister Gail actually stands in the lake after her long run, and imagine that would feel pretty good. All that lake bottom silt is probably nice on the feet as well…

Nova wanted to have fish and chips for lunch, but our two local cafes were closed, and we ended up at Rani for the Indian buffet. Nova was pretty unimpressed. She ate a couple of pieces of chappati and some plain rice but refused everything else. She wouldn’t even try the watermelon… I wonder how you go about introducing little kids to spicy food? There were lots of little Indian children in the restaurant happily devouring curries and chutney and pilau rice, so it must be possible.

Made Nova sausages, chips and corn for dinner –her favourite. We had onion-tahini sauce with brown rice and steamed spinach, followed by an array of cheeses. I’ve really been craving cheese for the last few days, and we bought a few nice ones on our last Waitrose shop. Watched the Road to Perdition — good film, although it was hard to buy Tom Hanks as a gangster somehow…

July 10, 2004

Lazy morning… Adam didn’t even get out of his pajamas until 3pm. The weather was so lousy, there wasn’t much else to do, but sit around watching cartoons with Nova. You need a day like that once in a while…The day’s main activity was a trip to Waitrose for the weekly shop. We took advantage of an hour’s dry weather to have a barbeque for dinner: chicken souvlaki, Greek salad, tzatziki, pita bread. The rain held off until we were just finishing up. You’ve got to grab your summer where you find it in this country…

July 9, 2004

Pasc got the Channel Four job — we took a bottle of champagne round after work to celebrate. (Although, purely selfishly, it means she can’t be our nanny again when Nova starts at the school nursery in November.) They had relatives from New Zealand staying for the evening, so she’d stocked up on champagne as well. We got through three bottles before it was time to get Nova home to bed. (I’ve decided I’d better do my long run on Sunday this week — strictly for medical reasons of course…;-))Adam had agreed to babysit for Jenny and Paul this evening, and I just had time to cook dinner before it was time for him to go over. He headed off with his dinner in hand. We’re lucky to live in such a neighbourly neighbourhood. Most of London isn’t like this… It’s a shame Jenny and Paul are moving — they’re very socialable, and organise a few social events in the close each year.

July 8, 2004

I decided to skip my usual morning workout, to give my hamstring a bit more rest. Adam and I went to the gym together in the evening instead (Jenny sat for us). I ran 2.5 miles very gently, which didn’t feel too bad, then had a long soak in the hot tub.

July 7, 2004

I should have iced my ass as well… The top of my left hamstring was tender this morning, and made a funny sort of “click” when I walked. It’s not particularly painful, but doesn’t seem to work quite right.Sod’s law, we had a fire drill at work this morning. I had to limp down seven flights of stairs, and several blocks down Holborn to our mustering point in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

I left work a bit early as I had a doctor’s appointment to ask about the chest pains. He said it was unlikely to be angina, which tends to be reversible and occur in the same spot. My heart and lungs sounded good, my blood pressure was excellent. He referred me for a cholesterol test at the Whittington, just to be on the safe side…

I’ve really been enjoying playing the piano these last few days. It’s really comforting. I can remember mom saying how I’d regret abandoning my piano lessons when I was older, and thinking how wrong she was… The keyboard came with a music book, and I went through it picking out tunes that I knew. I felt a bit like mom, sitting there playing Christmas carols in July. I can picture her sitting at that little organ in their livingroom, working away on her carols in months out of season…

July 6, 2004

The nursery phoned me at work this afternoon, telling me that Nova had diarrhoea and seemed unwell. Adam went to pick her up, as he was working at home today, and found her completely restored. It’s all because she still doesn’t like doing poops. She’ll hold on as long as she can — a few days sometimes, and then gets stomach cramps and ends up pooping her pants. The ongoing joys of toilet training…Nova got a parcel from Dad, with a Winnie Pooh teeshirt, jeans, and Christopher Robin figurine. She’s mad for Winnie Pooh at the moment, so they were a big hit. She went to bed clutching the little figurine.

Once Nova was down for the night, I headed off to the gym, even though I didn’t feel much like it. I’m finding it hard to motivate myself for these evening workouts at the moment. I’m just too tired and hungry by the time I get a chance to go…

My foot was sore afterward, so I iced it, while eating my tuna chowder and toasted bagel. I don’t think it’s plantar fasciitis — I’ve had that before. Probably just arch fatigue…

July 5, 2004

When I found myself awake at 5:30am, I decided to go for a run on the Heath. It was a gorgeous morning, and I ran a very enjoyable four miles by 6:45. It’s hard to to believe that you can get up at 5:30 and still be late for work, but I managed it. It didn’t stop me sloping off mid-morning to drop off the films at Snappy Snaps. (We accidently loaded a roll of 100 ISO slide film in the camera and shot it at 400, so I needed to see what could be done about that…)Spent a quiet evening in, as Adam was off babysitting for Pasc so she could pick Pete up from the airport. It’s quite a funny story actually… Pete is a maths teacher, which means great summer holidays, but it also means it’s difficult to take time off during term. A few weeks ago his dad had a stroke, and Pete had a couple of days off work to visit him in the hospital. A few weeks later his dad had recovered enough to be sworn in as mayor of Rugby. Pete wanted to go to the ceremony, but didn’t think the school would look kindly on him taking time off for that reason, so told them his Auntie Rosie had died instead. The very next week, Auntie Rosie actually did die (she was 93) and her funeral was on Monday in Ireland. Pete set off for Dublin on Saturday, leaving an email for Pasc to send in on Monday morning, telling the head he’d eaten something the night before that had given him food poisoning. However, Pasc accidently sent the email on Sunday morning. Frantic long distance calls ensued… In the end, Pete called in from Ireland on Monday morning, to say that as expected he had become so sick overnight that he was unable to come to work. His explanation of the premature email was that when he realised he was getting ill he tried to get as much done as possible before he got too sick… That’s believable…

July 4, 2004

Happy third birthday, beautiful Nova!
We all slept in this morning… It was about 8am when Adam and I went in to Nova’s room. She burst into tears when we sang “Happy birthday” to her. I don’t think it was our singing — she used to make me sing that song over and over again.Nova was thrilled with the keyboard and her presents. She liked everything, and spent time playing with each gift before opening the next one. All of this meant it was after 10am by the time Adam and Nova went off to buy bagels — my cue to get the party food organised, rearrange the furniture, decorate etc. before the guests started arriving at 11am. Fortunately, Jemima was able to come over and help. In fact, I was downstairs wrestling Nova into her fairy dress when the first kids arrived…

The party itself was controlled madness. The eight kids all got on well, and there were no fights, aside from a little tension over the music box Scarlett gave Nova. (Fay helpfully opened most of Nova’s presents for her…) Even the “pass the parcel” game worked out.

I felt completely wrung out when it was all over. Nova was pretty bushed as well, and spent a couple of hours lying on our bed watching videos. Dave showed up mid-afternoon with a slew of presents, and Jenny dropped by with a pair of Winnie Pooh pajamas.

I rashly asked Nova what she wanted for her birthday dinner without checking supplies first. “Sausages and chips and corn,” she decided. I opened the fridge only to discover that we were out of her little organic pork chipolatas. I found a packet of twelve Italian sausages in the deep freeze, went to great lengths to chisel off two, and grill them for her. “These sausages taste yuck!” she announced after one bite.

Adam and I had mangled sausages for dinner as well, grilled and served with a tin of lentils seasoned with wine, onion and garlic…

July 3, 2004

Happy birthday, David!Went for a seven mile run on the Heath this morning. I was feeling pretty energetic, and thought it might be a good one, but within about a minute of setting off I got this weird chest pain. It was kind of like a side stitch, but in the middle of my lung, or lower shoulder. I ran for a bit more, but it didn’t wear off, so I stopped and walked. It was like that for the whole run — I was able to run for five or six minutes, then the pain would sharpen up and I’d have to walk again. It was frustrating, and also a bit worrying, given our family history of heart disease. I doubt that it’s anything, but have decided to ask the doctor about it to be on the safe side.

We went to Oriental City after lunch. I thought it might be good for party bag supplies (the things I was blissfully ignorant of a few years ago). It was a bit of a washout actually, but Nova loves it there, and Adam kept her busy drinking tea in the Chinese tea house, riding the Bob the Builder and Winnie the Pooh rides, and dancing to Thailand’s answer to Tom Jones who was performing live in the forecourt while I did my shopping. Fortified ourselves with a few bites of sushi before tackling, Waitrose, the toyshop and Woolworths.

We spent the evening on birthday preparations: I made a cake, Adam fixed the broken chair, we assembled the keyboard, wrapped Nova’s presents, and finally fell into bed about 1am…

July 2, 2004

Adam stayed home with Nova today. I think Nova’s impending birthday is making me miss mom more than usual…I was in a card shop on my lunch break looking for Nova’s birthday card. None of the cards were good enough for her. It made me think of how mom would put so much effort into finding the perfect card for me, and all the cards she made herself. I remembered the one she sent for our anniversary when I was expecting Nova — June 21 was actually her due date. Mom had cut out all sorts of pictures of babies and glued them into a collage. Inside she’d written in her calligraphy:

Babies come into this world so innocent and helpless;
our hearts are drawn instantly to them.
They’re ours to cuddle and care for, to train and to love.
They’re ours to watch grow, and slowly let go,
to fulfill their own dreams of a lifetime.
Parenthood is such a privilege.

Just thinking of it made me so sad, I left the shop in tears… and ended up making Nova a special birthday card on the computer.

Food supplies are running low around here, and neither of us felt like cooking, so we ordered pizzas from a Crouch End place we haven’t tried before. Good home-delivered pizza is hard to come by in the UK. You can get a decent thin-crust pizza in a restaurant, but for delivery you need the thick, chewy, doughy kind. Since Perfect Pizza went out of business, we’ve tried out a few of the places that have leafleted us, but have been pretty disappointed with the results. These guys weren’t bad — they had interesting toppings, but the crusts were pretty average…

July 1, 2004

Happy Canada Day!
I wasn’t feeling motivated enough to go to the gym this morning, but managed a three and a half mile loop round Highgate Woods. Working at home today. Pasc dropped by for a coffee, before her second interview at Channel Four. She’s hoping to get a two day a week job share in the scheduling department. Her last job in television was about four grades higher than this post, which is proving to be an obstacle. They can’t believe that she’d actually want to do such a junior job, while in fact it’s exactly what she’s after…Went round Jemima’s in the afternoon. Nova and Ruby made glittery paper crowns and had a long, toy-packed bath together, before sitting down to a meal of “wiggly worms” (spaghetti) with butter and cheese.

Adam was out for dinner with Nick this evening, so I made my own bowl of wiggly worms and used up the tomato sauce and some of the meatballs from last weekend. I’ve been feeling down the last few days, and mindless TV is the best way I know to shut off. The red wine won’t have hurt either…