June 2015

June 30, 2015

The Allianz Park run went without a hitch. We had to leave pretty early, as I knew the traffic was going to be bad at that time of day. I had to bring Lyra along too, as Adam was off at a meeting.It took an hour round trip, and got Lyra to school with minutes to spare. Fortunately Adam was around to do the afternoon pick up and spare Lyra and me another trip up the A1.

Our piano teach Anita had her annual concert this evening at the school. All her students — and there are a lot of them — perform a song or two, which takes a few hours. A significant number of parents arrange to have their children perform early then bog off, which is pretty poor form in my opinion.

That said, it is a long evening in a hot auditorium and the children get pretty bored, and tend to goof around after they’ve performed. Lyra was under instruction to behave, but kept mucking around with her friends and had to be threatened with leaving early. An effective sanction, as Anita lays out a big spread of exactly the sort of food that appeals to kids…

Both girls performed well — Nova did a slightly tentative but very melodic Gymnopédie 1 by Satie, and Lyra played Abba’s “I Have a Dream”.

June 29, 2015

I need to drive Nova and her friends to a sports day at Allianz Park — home of the Saracens rugby team — tomorrow. It’s not that far away, but I’ve never been myself even or driven round that area, so I made a dry run with Adam this morning.Turned out to be pretty straightforward and didn’t take that long, although it’ll be a different story in the rush hour traffic tomorrow. Since we were out that way, we continued on to the Watford Costco.

It’s a bit further than our usual branch, but is much nicer, and feels more like a North American Costco to me. The one in Enfield is pretty third world in comparison…

Stocked up on loads of fresh fruit and veg in preparation for Nova’s birthday on Saturday — one of her gifts is a NutriNinja for making fresh juices and smoothies.

Had a meeting with Kiran and Birgit this evening, about catering their 20th anniversary dinner party next month. I’ve decided I’ll give it a go… Eek!

Six courses (including a complex Austrian dish called tafelspitz that I’ve never made or even eaten) and fifteen guests. It’s intimidating, but with enough planning and organisation I should be able to pull it off.

Left with a piece of beef to practice making a tafelspitz, and a lovely bottle of wine from Kiran’s cellar to accompany it…

June 28, 2015

I’m very impressed with my new bamboo pillow. I’m pretty sure I didn’t wake all night, which is unusual for me…Didn’t bother with breakfast at all this morning, though Don did produce a round of coffees to get us in motion. The first cup of coffee can be a challenge on holiday, what with strange coffee machines, unfamiliar stove tops and brand of coffee. Even the water makes a difference. I had a friend whose parents always travelled with the own coffee machine and pounds of Danish coffee when they went on holiday.

Went for a Dutch pancake breakfast, which we ate perched at a tiny table that was actually smaller than our plates. My brie and raspberry combination was very good…

Normal Amsterdam weather service has resumed, now that the little mix up they had yesterday with Rome has been sorted out…;-)

We spent a couple of hours avoiding the drizzle by visiting the Amsterdam museum, which had a very interesting historical display that attempted to show how the Dutch have developed the tolerance, sense of social justice and creativity that they are known for.

By this point, it was pretty much time for us to head back to the houseboat to collect our bags. Shenda and Don walked us to the metro station, where we said our goodbyes. What a lovely weekend…

After a smooth journey to Schiphol, we squeezed in a bit of lounge time before our flight. The BA lounge is currently under construction, which meant a rather unglamorous trek through what was essentially a building site. They didn’t have the full facilities on offer either, but compared to the alternative, it was pretty decent nevertheless.

A smooth flight was made even smoother by a couple of glasses champagne. Ubered it to Highgate, where Nova was waiting. She’d got back from her friend Sarah’s at noon.

Veronika turned up with Lyra shortly after we got in. She said they’d had a great time, and Lyra concurred. Even so, she seemed to be in a funny mood, and was a bit touchy and prone to tears all evening…

Nova had ordered sushi from Atari-ya, which Adam went off to collect. Hung out together as a family until bedtime. It’s good to be back — I missed my girls!

June 27, 2015

There wasn’t much breakfast food on the houseboat. A bit of fruit and cheese to nibble on with our coffee. It was enough — I’m still processing that amazing rijsttafel…Stopped for a second coffee at a charming little place on Utrechtstraat. The owner took such obvious pride in making and serving his coffee beautifully, in that very Dutch way.

Carried on to the Albert Cuypstraat street market, where we browsed the stalls and picked up food for lunch. Such a lovely sunny day — what a contrast to the rain drenched experience that Nova and I had a couple of years ago.

This is the most glorious weather I ever had in Amsterdam — the sky is picture-postcard blue and the temperature is approaching hot. I’ve been to Amsterdam seven or eight times over the years, in all seasons, and one thing I’ve never been is hot. Chilly, damp, cold, wet, soaked, frozen — yes; hot — no. I’m struggling to recall if I’ve even been warm.

There were all sorts of interesting stalls to peruse. One guy was selling bamboo-filled pillows with an engaging sales patter and demonstration that involved dropping a 5lb dumbell onto a regular pillow and the revolutionary bamboo one. Even speaking Dutch, he managed to convince us — we bought three of them.

The new herring season has started, and there were a couple of places offering beautiful, sushi-fresh herring on a soft roll with pickles and chopped onion. Delicious…

Headed back to the boat for lunch, then off to the Rijksmuseum. It’s only recently reopened after years of renovations, and is vastly better than I remember. Rembrandt’s Nightwatch is the still the big draw, but there are other works of his as well as paintings by Vermeer and Hals.

I particularly enjoyed this painting, entitled “A Mother’s Duty” by Pieter de Hooch. Painted in 1660, it shows a woman nitcombing a little girl. Three hundred and fifty years later, and we’re still at it…

There were also some amazingly fine etchings of naval scenes. This image doesn’t do it any sort of justice — some of the lines were so fine they looked like they had been made with a single strand of hair.

But for me, the high point was seeing Petronella Oortman’s dollshouse, which played such a large role in the novel The Miniaturist.

There was also an excellent exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of Battle of Waterloo, though the museum was closing by then, so we had to whiz through it. The highlights for me were the Duke of Orange’s horse Wexy, who was taxidermied after he died, and the photos of French veterans dressed in their uniforms and photographed decades after the event.

We’d planned to have a beer in the garden afterwards, but we weren’t the first people to have that idea. In fact, it was so popular that they’d run out of Heineken. I didn’t even know that was possible in Amsterdam…

Instead, we wandered towards the Jordaan, stopping for a beer, a cone of frites, then another beer, just enjoying the unexpectedly gorgeous afternoon…

After an obligatory jenever in a very funky brown café, we had a tapas supper then caught a tram back to the houseboat…

June 26, 2015

We got Nova and Lyra off to school, then headed straight to Paddington in a mini cab. Let the weekend away commence! We’re using points for the flight, and because there was nothing available in regular class, we’ve ended up with business class seats.It was hard to see how BA could make business class worthwhile for such a short flight, but they did their best. Airport lounges are always a treat — it’s definitely worth something extra for access to those. All the food and drink you could want, comfortable seats, and the luxury of space and quiet.

We had time to quaff a couple of glasses of champagne with our croissants before it was time to board the plane. There wasn’t a business class section per se, but instead of seating three people on each side of the aisle, they’d converted the middle seat into a shared table.

The moment the plane was in the air, a steward was on hand offering more champagne and nice sandwich plates to the sixteen of us in business class.

We were seated in the last row, and it was interesting to see how abruptly they shifted service gears. It was pre-poured glasses of water or orange juice only for the folks behind us. I think they might have also tossed over a few mini bags of pretzels for them to scrabble for…;-)

“First on, first off” meant we were through passport control quickly as well. We had only carry on luggage,and Schiphol is so well laid out that we were in the centre of amsterdam less than a half hour after touching down.

Shenda had provided clear instructions for finding the houseboat, so that went without a hitch as well. It was great to see them both, and immediately felt like it had been a few weeks since we were together, not a year.

After a cold beer and a bit of a catch-up, we set off for a walk, leaving them space to get ready for the little drinks party Shenda was hosting for a few conference colleagues.

We arrived at the rijsttafel restaurant Shenda had booked to discover that our reservation was actually for yesterday. Funnily enough, it was the same place in Utrechtstrasse that Nova and I had eaten rijsttafel at a couple years ago. Of all the hundreds of rijsttafel restaurants in all of Amsterdam…

Set off in search of another rijsttafel restaurant with a table for eight on a Friday night. Ended up in a massive place in Rembrantsplein, which looked like a bit of a tourist trap. There was a guy playing easy listening classics on the piano as we entered what felt like a hotel lobby, which didn’t bode well.

Surprisingly, the food turned out to be extremely good — much better than it needed to be in that location. We stopped eating only when defeated by the sheer volume. We made a good dent in everything, all the more impressive given one of the Canadian guys was too cautious to even taste half the dishes.

After saying goodbye to the Canadian colleagues, we had a little post-prandial wander. Checked out the Tuchinsky Cinema (it’s still my ambition to see a film there one day), and ended up at a bar near Waterlooplein for a nightcap.

Our sofa bed is very comfy, and there’s a curtain that transforms our end of the boat into a little bedroom…

June 25, 2015

Very busy morning… We’re off to Amsterdam tomorrow to meet up with Shenda and Don, and I have a ton of work and getting ready to do before we go…It was Lyra’s sports day, which required special clothes, a poster, sun screening, and packed lunch — all by 8:30am. She also needs three party gifts purchased and wrapped for the latest installment of birthday parties.

I have absolutely no groceries and two meals still to prepare, a client meeting I’m under-prespared for, and I’m determined to run because the last few week’s have been shit on that front.

Managed to squeeze a run in by skipping the start of sports day where they compete at things like nerf javelin throwing and ball bouncing. Got there in good time for the races. Lyra was in the dressing up race, where you had to stop to put on various pieces of clothing on the way to the finish line.

I like the way they’ve come up with races that give a wider range of children the chance to excel. This particular race was won by a most unlikely competitor, who would have been left eating dust in a straight running race. Lyra herself finished third, earning a medal…

June 24, 2015

Woke to discover two painful cold sores emerging on my lips..>:-( I blame the post-traumatic stress I’m suffering after yesterday’s zoo trip…Adam was up all night working, so it fell to me to do the morning stuff. As it should be, but it meant I didn’t have time to get organised for my run. I feel like I’ll be starting from scratch again when we get back from Amsterdam.

The housework has been very neglected for the past week, I just haven’t been around to do it. I tackled three loads of laundry, and a couple of hours’ cleaning and tidying before I could start any of my own work…

“Swimming makes Wednesday my least favourite day,” Lyra complained. “I hate swimming lessons, and I know I’m never getting out of group five!” It’s starting to seem that way… Not that she isn’t improving, but other kids just seem to be improving faster. Partly because she’s feeling so demoralised I suspect…

Dinner was pancakes with a chickpea masala — sort of a dosa idea. Made a nice coconut chutney to go with it. There’s definitely a very good recipe in there, but it needs a bit more work before I post it.

Adam is absolutely ploughing through the work and meetings today. He was home briefly to eat, then headed straight out again, and right back on his computer typing up notes as soon as he got back, before finally crashing about 10:45.

I watched some a TV show on soup, then to took myself off to bed. Rock ‘n’ roll…

June 23, 2015

Had to run around like a lunatic this morning to get everything in order and be at school in time for the class trip to the zoo. Especially as I was one of the parents going along…Carol and Scott are flying home this afternoon, so we said goodbye to them as well. It’s been lovely having them, though it made our lives a little more interesting and eventful than we are used to. We’ll definitely shift things down a gear once they’re gone.

Collected my group of six kids from the classroom, vested them up and headed for the bus stop. We just missed the bus and had a twenty-minute wait until another one came, which was bad luck. For a group of super-hyped eight-year-olds, they were pretty well-behaved on the bus (aside from getting ahold of a copy of the Sun, with its topless page 3 girl…)

Once we reached the zoo, my group went around with Millie and her six charges. A good idea in theory, but in reality it meant you sometimes you had ten or eleven kids in your charge if the other parent was dealing with an incident, or if someone peeled off in the wrong direction.

We started with the gorilla house, where the kids immediately began running about like apes. “Don’t run, Damian. Don’t run! Don’t run!!” “Stop screaming Charlotte, you’re upsetting the colobas!” It was true — a threatened coloba threw itself at the glass with bared teeth, terrifying the little buggers, and totally serving them right…

After heading through the gorilla house like a dose of salts, we mounted an assault on to the tiger enclosure. More mayhem, running, yelling and wrestling, in spite of being told off endlessly. We were awesomely close to the tigers at some points — it would have be wonderful to spend more than ten seconds looking at them…

A rare instance when all twelve were present and accounted for

As a rule, the kids were way more interested in animal statues than actual animals, especially if they could climb on them. Any interactive displays were for clacking, banging and twisting. God forbid they’d actually read the accompanying text to figure out what they were supposed to do.

Exercised better crowd control in the reptile house. We positioned one adult at the front of the pack and one at the back, then let the kids go wherever they wanted as long as they didn’t pass either of us. By walking backwards and not looking at any of the displays, I managed to prevent anyone getting lost.

The butterfly tunnel captured their interest for a short while, but unfortunately one kid had a phobia of butterflies, so I had to take him outside. At least the penguin show kept them quiet and sitting down for fifteen minutes…

At the lunch meet-up, I realised that forgotten to pack any food for myself. So instead of having a well-deserved rest, I hotfooted it across the site to the cafe for an egg sandwich and a coffee. It’s a shame they don’t sell vodka shots…

The tiger education session provided another quiet hour, plus Mr Randall and the educator were in charge, so I was able to sit back and actually take something in.

We had just enough time afterwards for a foray into the African zone. The kids resumed running past animals as if they were trying NOT to see them. “Let’s see the giraffes!” someone would yell, triggering a stampede towards the giraffe enclosure. “Yuck, it stinks! That giraffe has a bum!! Ha ha ha!!” “Let’s see the zebras!” Rinse, repeat…

The lemurs had been billed as an interactive experience, but they seemed to be on valium when we passed through. The rainforest environment? “It stinks!” Butts, poos… “Did you see the little bearded monkey, Sascha?” “Yeah, whatever…”

“Fuck you, too…”

We actually did have to move briskly past the meerkats and otters to get to the meeting point, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the little effers could have moved briskly in the same direction for once…

They seemed to deflate a little on the trudge back to the bus stop, and waited nicely for both buses. (Aside from immediately finding “THREE SWEAR WORDS!” — Pissed Jeans, Holy Fuck, Hot Bitches (all the names of bands) — on a wall of music posters in Camden Town.)

The bus ride itself inspired more mayhem, but thank the merciful lord Jesus, we finally arrived back at the school. Staggered home and collapsed until it was time to collect Lyra from her dance class.

Watched the final episode of No Offence this evening, which featured most spectacular killing of a baddy (using insulating foam) that I have ever witnessed. I watch a lot of crime shows, and I’m amazed no one’s thought to do that before…

Start of the new series of True Detective as well. I enjoyed it, though the first series is hard act to follow. All the more so if you opt to ditch the main actors, storyline and location. I also realised that a weakness of the series might be it absolute humourlessness…

June 22, 2015

Today was Carol and Scott’s last day in London. They’d booked the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A, and generously treated me to a ticket.We set off about 1pm, spent a couple of hours touring the exhibit. I’d expected it would be more about the man as well, but there was nothing biographical whatsoever. Just room after room of stunningly beautiful clothing — works of art really…

Made our way to Knightsbridge afterwards and had a cheeky pint, followed by a swift half. (Interesting how one’s always “cheeky” and the other “swift”). We also had a sharing platter of scotch egg, pork pie and other pub snacks to sustain us on the journey home.

Got in about 7pm. The girls had already eaten, but Adam had a bowl of Vietnamese chicken salad ready. Worked our way through a large jug of Pimms to before sitting down to dinner…

June 21, 2015

Happy anniversary to us — eighteen years! Who’d have thought it…;-)18 years.
It’s Father’s Day today too, confusing the celebration hierarchy. I bought Adam a Tintin teeshirt from Uniqlo and a pound of Monmouth coffee beans. He slunk out and bought me an anniversary card from whatever shop he found open that early in the village…Carol and Scott had bought bubbles and orange juice, which was a nice treat. Didn’t bother eating breakfast, as we’d been invited to lunch at the Boswells. Actually, I’ve never met them — Adam knows them through his local Friends of the Earth group and the climate change hustings he recently chaired.

They’d invited twelve for lunch, and we were decades younger than the rest of the guests. They were an interesting crowd, very political (mainly left wing) and well educated. Former head of the British Council, professor at Harvard Business School, economics journalist, and a number of psychoanalysts. A little intimidating to make lunch conversation with.

Nova was meant to babysit Lyra, but when she got an invite to hang out with Shira at the mall, we allowed her to drop her off. All the oldies were delighted with her, and Lyra was happy to help polish off the dessert leftovers.

Carol and Scott spent the afternoon at a Hyde Park gig — which sounds great. A 67-year-old Grace Jones, naked but for body paint, Kylie singing all her hits, Chic doing le freak — what’s not to like?

June 20, 2015

My pub client mentioned a new food market in Bermondsey that I wanted to check out, so Carol and Scott and I headed down there after breakfast. Bit of a faff to get to — requiring a tube to Bermondsey followed by a bus ride — but it was worth the effort.The market is in a little alley called Ropeway, next to an elevated railway line. Some of the stalls are set up in what must be builders’ stores the rest of the week. It all had a funky, fresh, rough-and-ready, undiscovered feel to it. Like Borough Market used to be about ten years ago.

Bought delicious sandwiches and artisan beers, which we perched on bollards in a nearby car park to eat.

Afterrwards, we walked back along the Thames, ducking into the Tate Modern turbine hall, which the guys had never seen.

There was an incredibly noisy all-girl thrash band giving a live performance and making a hell of a racket. I actually saw two small children crying from the aural assault, and any number of frownie faces. It was pretty funny…

We were almost at the Southbank when the rain started pelting it down. Made a dash for Waterloo station, followed by a very damp train ride home.

The girls had their own thing going on today, as is the case more and more. Lyra was at a sleepover at Grace’s house, and Nova spent the day out with friends, popping home briefly for some dinner before heading out to babysit Max and Leo.

Treated Scott and Carol to dinner at Del Parc, a local Spanish place that I’ve been keen to try for some time. It’s a little hole in the wall with a tiny central kitchen, just big enough for one. You don’t order anything in particular — the tapas just keep coming until you’ve had enough. Great food, great evening…

June 19, 2015

Took the day off so I could hang out with Carol and Scott — at least for the hours that Lyra is at school. Plan A was to check out Grow — a gardening exhibition on Hampstead Heath. But when I looked at the website for it, I realised it was a full day out, and there was no way we’d have time to justify the entrance fee.Especially as it was almost noon by the time we set off… We walked across the Heath, which took longer than usual as I can no longer cut across on my preferred diagonal now that the anti-flood works have started. Gah!

Had a look at the Grow show, which looked interesting, but not the sort of thing you just pop into. Went for a swift half at the nearest pub instead. I don’t remember that place being nearly so fancy — it was all chandeliers, velvet wallpaper, soft jazz, wine buckets, and moneyed Hampstead types quaffing champagne on a friday afternoon.

Made our way up Haverstock Hill. I needed to find a couple of birthday presents for Lyra’s busy party schedule. I had the perfect book in mind, but unfortunately Waterstones doesn’t stock it.

There was just time for me to fit in another (very) swift half at The Hollybush, which is one of my favourite London pubs, before we parted ways. I hoofed it up to Spaniards Lane to catch a bus back to Highgate, and Carol and Scott continued mooching around the pubs of Hampstead.

I’d agreed to collect Lucia as well. The two girls had a lovely afternoon choosing outfits and dancing to pop songs. Scott and Carol rocked up about 7pm, and we all headed off to Kiplings for dinner (their treat). Very nice it was too…

June 18, 2015

Dizzy for some reason, wonder if I have a post-viral ear infection…:-( Decided I felt well enough to run and knocked off four miles after delivering Lyra to gymnastics. Faster than on Tuesday, but still feel pretty sluggish compared to where I was a couple of months ago.Now that the pub website is live and the client happy, I turned my attention to the architecture website I’m developing. Had a meeting with the client to catch up on where we’ve got to in terms of the design and to start tackling the text.

Lyra was at Beatrix’s after school, Carol and Scott were in town, Nova’s still on the school trip and Adam was dashing about attending various meetings into the evening, so I had a lovely quiet afternoon to myself.

Evening too as it happened… Adam joined Carol and Scott for a couple of pints in the village after his meeting while I stopped in with Lyra. Early night and all that…

June 17, 2015

Spent much of the day processing the images from the pub photoshoot — I’m really pleased with how they turned out, as is the client. I’d felt a bit nervous about doing it. It’s one thing to photograph your own food for your hobby website, quite another to put yourself forward as a food photographer for a business…That project is pretty much in the bag now. I’ll give it a few more days to bed down, then try to get formal signoff from them so I can invoice.

Such a nice summery day that I didn’t feel like cooking anything much. Greek salad, hummus and pitta bread hit the spot…

June 16, 2015

Adam is back in work mode with a vengeance. He’d arranged meetings for 7:45 and 9am, a phone meeting for 10am, then headed off to his office at noon. He also has a school meeting this evening…I got Lyra to school then went for my first proper run since Paris. I managed four slow miles without stopping to walk or cough. It’s a hot one today, so I’m glad I got that out of the way early.

Carol and Scott are arriving from Berlin today, so I needed to sort out the flat as well, plus do a mountain of laundry from the weekend and Adam’s trip. It had gone 2pm by the time I sat down at my desk.

Made some dinner for Adam and Lyra (lemon risotto and asparagus), then headed up to my pub client to take food photos. They’re launching a new menu today, and I’d offered to photograph some of the new dishes for the website. Had a bit of a tasting session too, which was fun…

I’d had to arrange babysitting for Lyra as Adam was out at a meeting. Home at 9pm to discover Lyra and the sitter eating Nutella from the jar and watching telly, instead of doing bedtime as instructed…

Carol and Scott finally made it about 10pm. They’ve been in Berlin for a couple of weeks, so they weren’t jetlagged, and we sat up for a few hours having some drinks and catching up. Great to see them!

June 15, 2015

In spite of all sleeping through our alarms this morning, we managed to get Nova up to school with her gear in time for the Field Centre coach departure.I brought Lyra along with all her school kit, in case I needed to drop her off on the way home. But traffic was good and we had just enough time to drive home again before walking back to the school.

Just Lyra and me at home this afternoon and evening. She’s currently very keen on the Hetty Feather book series. She’s ploughing her way through Emerald Star, which allowed me to carry on working until it was time to walk her to drama.

Adam got in about 9:30pm. His trip sounded really good — it’s nice he gets the chance to go away with a group of men like that. Self-described gamma males, apparently they had a good laugh about how different the decision-making process would be if the wives had accompanied them…

June 14, 2015

I was woken by loud voices outside the bedroom window — workmen doing something at the school I guess. I read the time as 6:45am on the clock, and was just about to yell at them to keep it down when Dorothy called up from downstairs to say that she was off. Turns out it was 8:45am — a good night’s sleep for me…After saying goodbye to Dorothy, I gave Nova a thorough nitcomb while Lyra made the breakfast muffins. They were really nice, although I think our self-raising flour might have lost it’s oomph (I almost never use the stuff), because they didn’t rise as much as usual.

Nova headed off to Shira’s birthday party followed by an afternoon’s shopping, and after successfully transferring the pub site to its new host and ensuring it was working fine, I fulfilled my promise to take Lyra to Brent Cross.

Hit the big Gap sale, bought Lyra another school dress and new underpants, a few things at Waitrose for supper, and some special curl conditioner at Boots. Lyra spent her pocket money at Claire’s Accessories and on a big bowl of frozen yogurt.

Banh mi sandwiches for dinner and chopped mango for dessert. Spent the rest of the evening getting Nova packed for her week at the school’s Field Centre in Wiltshire.

Watched a great wildlife documentary with Lyra this afternoon on the Beeb — Unexpected Animals — about all the ways animals adapt to living in close proximity to man.

One of the most interesting stories was the substantial population of hippos that now live in Colombia, having escaped from Pablo Escobar’s private menagerie after he was killed. They are thriving in the much wetter conditions, lack predators, and are breeding at a much faster rate than they do in Africa.

The coywolves feasting on rats in Central Park, and Burmese python infestation of the Florida Everglades (thanks to Hurricane Andrew) were fascinating as well…

June 13, 2015

Happy birthday, Dad — 84 years old! It was nice to be able to get in touch this year — he’s often away trapshooting at this time of year…With Adam away in the Scillies, there was no chance to go for a run this morning. I took Lyra ice skating instead and Nova got herself to and from drama. One of the girls in her class (and a former student at the primary school), died of cancer this week. It was detected just over a year ago when she was the age Nova is now. Heartbreaking… I can’t stop thinking about it…

Went to the Fair in the Square after lunch. One of the women in my book group lives just off Pond Square, and was having an open house. After an our of checking out the stalls and entertainment, Lyra and I ducked in there for a barbeque lunch and a break from the crowds.

Went to the Henrietta Barnett quiz night this evening. Nova’s friend Chloe’s mum organised a table of parents of the girls’ friends, as an opportunity to get to know each other better. Nova was out babysitting for Ute, but with Dorothy in the flat I was able to leave Lyra on her own for a few hours.

I was feeling a bit intimidated about it — it’s such an academic school, and a lot of the parents are university lecturers, scientists and so on — but I was totally fine. Being such a generalist stood me in very good stead. We were actually in the lead at one point, and ended up finishing a narrow second out of eighteen teams. Yay “Foregone Conclusions”…

June 12, 2015

I’d just got back from dropping Lyra at school when my mobile rang. It was Nova’s school informing me that Nova had a migraine and needed collecting. By the time I got there, she’d thrown up in the office, but was still feeling terrible.She also threw up beside the car, on the ride home, and a few more times after that before finally falling into a doze. After a morning’s sleep she felt much better, ate some lunch, which stayed put, and was fit for her babysitting gig in the evening.

Adam headed off first thing for his walking weekend in the Scilly Isles. Because of predicted high winds, their scheduled flight has been cancelled. Instead, they are spending an unscheduled night in Newquay before catching a ferry in the morning.

The pub website domain still isn’t working… I’m 99% sure that it’s coincidental. I can’t see how anything I’ve done on the servers could have had an impact, but I don’t want to complicate things by migrating the site and then not being able to check whether everything is in place.

Lyra noticed me reading the Karin Slaughter mystery I’d checked out for myself when we went to the library the other day. “Is that really her name?” she asked. It is a very apt name for a crime writer…

After dinner, the two of us watched the film Billy Elliot. “I really like this film!” she kept saying. A certain amount went over her head — I had to explain the miner’s strike to her, for example — not that I’m so strong on the details of it myself…

June 11, 2015

When I was testing the new website before migrating it, I discovered that the theme I’ve chosen is too old to be responsive. This means it doesn’t modify itself to display better on mobile phones…:-(After some research into ways around the issue, I reached the conclusion that it was best to rebuild the site using a responsive theme, which was a pain in the ass. Took half the day, but I finally produced something so close to the original that unless you had them side by side you couldn’t notice the difference.

Once again, I was just about to transfer the website when another issue cropped up. The domain name for the current site is no longer working. Had a moment of panic that I’d caused this problem, but I don’t see how I could have. Decided to just shut down the computer, and hope it had resolved itself by the morning…

Our godson Adam is in town. He’s studying music in Rostock, Germany now and was visiting London to catch up with some friends. Took him out for dinner at Zizzi, which we used to do occasionally when he came to stay with us from Manchester.

On the walk up to the restaurant, the two guys were walking ahead. “We can’t really call them ‘big Adam’ and ‘little Adam’ anymore, now that Adam’s taller than dad,” Lyra said.

“How about ‘fat Adam’ and ‘thin Adam’?” Nova suggested. “Or ‘old Adam’ and ‘young Adam’?” offered Lyra. “‘Boring Adam’ and ‘stylish Adam’? ‘Bald Adam’ and ‘full head of hair Adam’?” were Nova’s next ideas. Heartless little beggars…

June 10, 2015

Feeling anxious about my pub website project. I had a meeting with them at noon, and still hadn’t settled on a theme that felt right. In a panic, I went back to a very basic theme that I hadn’t used in a few years, but was comfortable customising and flew at it.Within an hour, I’d come up with something I was happy enough to show them — phew… Even better, the client loved it and is happy for me to launch it as soon as possible.

I made a few further changes, then asked for final approval and a written sign off by the end of the day. Funny how some projects go like that — I had basically nothing in the morning, and by evening I had a polished website.

In our meeting, the client mentioned that they were launching a new menu next week. I said it would be good to take some photos of the new dishes, and offered my services. We’ve arranged a photo/tasting session next Tuesday…

Made a nice pork saltimbocca dish, which I served with a white bean and asparagus salad. Adam was around to do Lyra’s swimming lesson, which made a nice change…

June 9, 2015

Did my first proper run since this wretched cold struck. If you can call dragging my sorry ass around an abbreviated two-mile route a proper run. Got to start somewhere…Had our houseguest Dorothy up for a meal this evening. Made a fresh tuna niçoise for dinner. Dorothy brought a bottle of wine, and Lyra made brownies, which we ate with strawberries and tiramisu ice cream for dessert…

June 8, 2015

I think I’m finally getting better… I even felt well enough to start tackling my work again, which has been languishing since our return from Paris. Adam was around today as well, which made a nice change. We barely saw him last week…Kiran sent me an email today asking me if I’d like to cater their 20th anniversary dinner party in July. I’m very flattered to be asked, but a bit nervous about it too. Will definitely give it some thought before deciding either way.

Took Lyra to the public library after school so she could check out Emerald Star — the third book in the Hetty Feather series by Jacqueline Wilson. There is a bit of a buzz around these books at the moment, and a complicated swapping system between the girls in her year, that has got out of sync. Fortunately they had a copy on the shelf, or I would have had a very disappointed girl on my hands…

Adam and I went to see Amanda Palmer perform at the Union Chapel this evening. I leapt on the tickets when they came out a couple of months ago. Just as well — they sold out in a few hours. It’s a farewell tour of sorts — she’s six months pregnant, and performed the show barefoot and in her negligée.

After the show she leapt straight into a cab, and was appearing on Newsnight talking about women in the music industry (still in her nightie) by the time we got home…

June 7, 2015

There was another email from my cousin Terry this morning. His life partner Ron died yesterday — scarcely a month after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. It seems to have come out of nowhere, one week his doctor was telling him he’d live to be a hundred; a couple of weeks later and he’s undergoing palliative radiation therapy…It was the school Fun Run this afternoon. Now that I’m on the committee, there’s no danger of actually having to participate in the un-fun thing. I worked the registration desk and then the finish line. You need three people verifying the finishes — there have been some serious altercations over who won what.

Speaking of winning, our class relay — headed up by Adam — came first. And Lyra came fourth out of the girls in her class for her 2km race (though the girls and boys in the other year three class blew our bunch out of the water).

In spite of our best efforts, there was a mix up with Nova’s friend Evelyn, who crossed the finish line first in the 11+ 3km race. She was so far ahead of the rest of the field — including a boy her age who was a legendary runner during his years at the school — that the assumption was made she’d accidently missed a lap.

Both she and the girl who came after her were given winners’ trophies, because it was deemed an honest mistake. In the event, the superfast boy had accidently run an extra kilometer and still placed second overall…

June 6, 2015

Our first guest in a while is arriving today… Dorothy is Carolyn’s son’s wife’s mother, and is staying with us for a week to kick off her three week trip to Britain and Ireland.Having got the flat in good order, I put in a bit of a blitz in the garden as well. As I’ve never met her, I have no idea if gardening’s her thing, but it’s a jungle out there, and the first thing she’ll see out her bedroom window. First impressions and all that…

With that thought in mind, I also cleared up in front of the house and gave the stoop a good cleaning. She finally staggered in about 4pm, having had an improbable two-hour adventure finding her way from the bus stop in front of Lyra’s school to our house.

Had just enough time for a quick restorative cup of tea before heading off to Ben’s annual asparagus fest. He’s recently moved to a lovely little house in Archway, which is much easier for us than trekking off to Stoke Newington.

Just as well, as we had a second invitation this evening. Just enough time to sample the asparagus soup shots; asparagus-haloumi-pesto salad; and asparagus-cheese-onion pie before we had to make a move.

I was driving, as I’m still feeling semi-crap with the dregs of my cold. Picked up the girls and carried on to Will and Sara’s for a barbeque and the Championship final between Barcelona and Juventus. I was rooting for the underdogs, but mighty Barcelona prevailed. At least it was an exciting game…

I can’t say that we were dazzling guests. Nova was exhausted from her sleepover with Jess and Shira last night. Apparently, they were up until 4am. Lyra was whiny about not having anyone to do stuff with, I was stuffed with cold, and Adam was knackered from the working week. Home about midnight…

June 5, 2015

After about five hours home, Adam hopped out of bed and headed straight out to a conference. He’d arranged for Junxion to have an exhibition table. He’s had a pull-up banner made, and printed loads of copies of their recent guide to CSR.I headed back to Veronika’s after school. Lyra played with the girls while we caught up around the kitchen table. We started with lemon tea then moved on to the wine spritzers.

Adam came by to collect us, and stayed until I had to leave for my book group. Got home just in time to meet Lynne, who was collecting me. Only four of us this evening, and I’m pretty sure I was the only one who finished the book. The other woman who said she had was pretty vague on the details…

First exam result: Nova scored 100% on her Chemistry year-end final!

June 4, 2015

It’s a nice warm day at last — it’s been unseasonably chilly for the last couple of weeks…Drove to Finchley for my annual eye test this morning. My left eye seems to be a tiny bit weaker than last time, and I’m slowly edging into bifocal territory, but my overall eye health is excellent.

Spent an hour converting the flat back from Nova’s bedroom to a guest suite for the impending visitor season. Also tackled the blown down wall of kerria and the jasmine that has been invading the camelia bush. High drama in the garden that had completely escaped me in my weakened state.

It took a good hour to sort it all out, and I felt like crap afterwards. I’m getting to that stage of a cold where you think you’re feeling sort of okay again — until you try to do anything much at all…

Treated the girls to dinner at Fabrizios, an authentic little Italian trattoria across from the Whittington. The food was great, but there was too much of it. I ended up bringing a full pizza home. Had my first drink in a week, a single glass of white wine that went straight to my head…

Headed home for some tiramisu ice cream I’d made at Nova’s request. Nice enough but missing the wow factor in my opinion. Tried to wait up for Adam, but his plane was delayed. It was almost 1am by the time he got home…

June 3, 2015

Still feeling pretty ropey…:-( The cold seems to be moving to my chest now… Nova’s exams today: English, German, History. Nine down, three to go…Adam headed off to Sweden to facilitate a comms workshop with his Nordea client. Before the trip was planned, he’d arranged for the Haringey planning department to make a site visit to our house to assess the impact of Highgate School’s development proposal on us.

It fell to me to show them around and speak about our concerns. I was okay doing it, but he’s much more up to speed with the detail of the proposal, having participated in a number of meetings and conversations already, so I had to gen up a bit…

Grilled salmon for dinner. Lyra wasn’t best pleased but managed half a fillet. I’m going to push a bit more on the salmon eating. What kind of self-respecting Canadian (even an expat, juvenile, half-Canadian) doesn’t like salmon?

Did Lyra’s swimming lesson afterwards. Nova cried off tonight to revise. She has Physics, Calculator Math and Geography exams tomorrow, then she’s all done!

June 2, 2015

Nova’s exams today: Latin, Spanish, and Biology. Once again, she was reasonably pleased with how they went. It certainly makes a difference when you revise properly beforehand…Made a swoop on the big Tesco to pick up some ingredients for the Angolan chicken dish I was making for dinner tonight. Muamba de galina — or chicken stewed with tomatoes, squash and okra — with a blob of fungé (cornmeal porridge).

Lyra was happy enough to eat it, but it really wasn’t working for Nova. “Can we go out for dinner on Thursday after my last exam?” she asked. I said we probably could. “Good,” she said, “that way I won’t have to eat I don’t have to eat Kazhakstan food or something when I’m trying to celebrate…” Ouch…

June 1, 2015

Rabbits… I could use some luck right now…
I’m absolutely wretched with cold, and could barely drag myself out of bed this morning to do my breakfast–packed lunch–school run routine…Nova starts her year-end exams today — Chemistry, French, and non-calculator Maths. Sounds like they went alright, although the French aural was tricky — she’s definitely the best prepared she’s been for her exams.

Mushroom barley soup for dinner — it’s that cold at the start of June this year that it seemed like a plan. Adam was out at meetings this evening, and didn’t make it back ’til after Lyra’s bedtime…