May 2006

May 31, 2006

Adam went back to work today, but I’m off for the rest of the week… Nova’s on her half term break, so it’ll be just us two girls… (especially as he’s off to Dartmoor for a weekend break on Friday)…Nova saw a “flower cloak” in her princess magazine that she wanted to make, so after breakfast we drove to Muswell Hill for the supplies: half a metre of hot pink cotton, pink and green felt squares, fabric glue, sequins. I bought her a proper pair of scissors as well. There was no danger of her cutting anything with those plastic safety scissors she’s been using.

I ran the hems up on the sewing machine while Nova traced flower shapes using a template and cut them out. The project took most of the afternoon, but it came out pretty well. She’s been wearing it non-stop…

Freddy and Beulah came round for dinner tonight — grilled lamb chops with lemon and mint, new potatoes, peas and rocket, and rhubarb crumble ice cream for dessert.

May 30, 2006

Packed up and were out of the cottage by 10am. We decided to give Nova a break from the hiking, and drove into Stoke-on-Trent to the Bridgwater Pottery. They had a studio where you could paint your own plate, bowl, jug or whatever. Had a fun morning producing a trio of family portrait bowls, which will be fired and sent to us in ten days time.Ate lunch at the Red Lion pub in Hollington, just east of Ashbourne. There was a great menu and wine list — it was more of a restaurant that serves beer than a pub that serves food. Adam had lamb chump, I had duck breast, with a glass each of Merlot, and Nova had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. We each had a pudding as well — strawberry pavlova for me, sticky toffee pudding for Adam, and a chocolate Baileys mousse for Nova. I was surprised she liked it, as you could certainly taste the alcohol, and was in high spirits for the whole three hour drive home…

May 29, 2006

Nova clambered down from her bunkbed and peeked out the weather first thing. “Oh well, it’s raining…” she reported. “Too bad. Let’s stay inside and tell Disney stories.” She wasn’t impressed when we decided to go ahead with today’s country walk around Wetton.Aptly named, as it was a wet one… Within minutes of setting off, we were being pelted by icy rain. Nova fell face first in the mud, and the whole thing was descending into farce… We were too distracted and wet to pay much attention to the vague, confusing directions in the walk book, and ended up heading straight for Thor’s cave, which was an optional detour from our intended route. It was very impressive, and apparently was used by prehistoric cave dwellers.

The rain blew past, and we picked our way down from the cave through a hazel wood carpeted with bluebells and celandine to rejoin our intended path. Followed the Manifold Way, a tarmacked trail along the river, popular with cyclists. The river banks were thick with wild garlic, giving off a pungent smell.

We were caught in a few more downpours — “I wish we were in Spain!” said Nova — before the final climb back up to Wetton, with a wonderful view of Dovedale. Had a pub lunch, then headed to Cotton to have tea with Norah, who is the widow of Grandpa’s cousin Alfred. Mum had a bit of a correspondence with them, but I’d only met her once before. It took a bit to get the conversation going (she’s a bit deaf) but we had a nice visit. Alfred died a month after mum in November 2003. I spoke to her on the phone a few months after that, and she was understandably very low, but she seems to be doing well.

May 28, 2006

Exhausted this morning after staying up until 1am watching movies… I got us up at what I thought was 8:30, but turned out to be 7:30. Had breakfast, organised daybags, and headed off to Thorpe in the Peak District National Park.It was a cold morning, with a sharp wind blowing, and it was bloody chilly once we got up high. We were lost within twenty minutes. I’d forgotten that aspect of walking — the getting lost, standing around in muddy fields, arguing over a soggy map, and whether you’ve “beared slightly left” after the right “coppiced oak”. I think I blank it out, otherwise I’d never go on another walk.

Sorted ourselves out, and struck off over a series of thistly fields. Had a couple of encounters with cows (protective mother with calf; field full of what looked like bulls, but turned out to be steer) before reaching Tissington.

It was well dressing weekend. This ancient Derbyshire custom involves creating a biblical artwork entirely from natural materials such as flowers, leaves and pinecones. There are six wells in the village, and each had one of these pictures behind it: Moses and the burning bush, Balaam and the angel, that sort of thing. They were intricate and very beautiful.

Ate lunch at a pub in Fenny Bentley (good beer, but not really our kind of place) before finishing the walk. We were really impressed with how well Nova did. No whining or complaining, she just walked along cheerfully, regularly picking “wish dandelions” for us to blow on or singing Disney songs, up hills, over stiles, cattle grids and rickety bridges, and even up a creek bed once, for a good five miles.

Drove to Alton, which is only a few miles south of where we are staying. Had a look at Fernlea (now a guesthouse) and stopped for a pint at the Talbot. Mom and I ate dinner at the Talbot twenty years ago…

It made me a bit emotional being back in Alton — it’s the first time I’ve been back here since she died, and it’s the only place in England that I really associate with her…

Had nachos supreme for dinner, ill advisedly followed by the Christmas pudding and brandy sauce Pasc foisted off on us when they came for the other day. I couldn’t believe it when she turned up bearing those “gifts”. I’m constantly trying to reduce the supplies in our own cupboards, and have no need of someone else’s unseasonal, nearing sell-by date, cast-offs. If I was a more passive aggressive person, I would have made a swift adjustment to the menu and served them Christmas pudding and brandy custard after their Thai meal…

May 27, 2006

On my run with Pasc this morning, we got into a major debate about whether married couples should have separate bank accounts, and the kms just clicked past. She can’t imagine having a separate bank account, I can’t imagine not having one…Set off about 11am. We hadn’t been on the road for fifteen minutes before Nova threw up all over the back of the car. We weren’t expecting it, cruising along a straight highway. We veered onto the hard shoulder, and Adam changed her clothes while I scrubbed down the upholstery with wet wipes.

Nova didn’t seem bothered about the car and clothing, but became very emotional when she realised her she’d ruined her “Little Girls Who Love Pink” magazine. “Oh, no! Oh, dear!” she sobbed. When we stopped at the Derby services I quipped “I’ll see if we can get you another ‘Little Girls Who Love Puke'” magazine.” To her credit, she found it pretty funny.

Spent £10 on two mediocre sandwiches and a piece of chocolate cake. As always, I found myself distracted by the strange looking people you always seem to see in motorway service stations — the red noses, bulging bellies, goggling eyes, chainsaw haircuts… It’s as if they’ve been placed there by central casting — you can’t imagine encountering them anywhere else. Maybe it’s a side effect of British motorway travel…

There was a little M&S food shop in the services, which I thought might be a good place to pick up something for dinner, but after five minutes of clashing baskets in the tiny aisles while trying to squeeze past the scrum in front of the sandwiches and cakes I abandoned the idea. Bought an air freshener (to take the edge of the vomit smell) and a Disney Princess magazine in the newsagents and got the hell out of there.

Reached our cottage about 3:30. It’s nothing special, but we have everything we need. Drove into Leek to do a little grocery shopping, and also picked up a “pub walks in the Peak District” book, a little backpack for Nova, and more underpants for Adam who’s had to come away with a bag of wet ones. He’s convinced someone is making off with his underpants, but I think he flatters himself.

Made bacon and Boursin pasta for dinner (a little fat fest). Got Nova settled in the shared bedroom (a double and bunk beds) then watched some TV. Deliverance was on — such a great film, I’ve seen it any number of times, and never tire of it.

May 26, 2006

A little hungover, or just lazy… At any rate, I cancelled my body pump class and lounged around with Adam most of the day, catching up on recorded episodes of The Apprentice and eating leftovers.We also organised our weekend away. We’d planned to go camping with Pete and Liana, and I managed to find a campsite, but by this time, they’d lost enthusiasm for the plan. Given the persistent drought, we decided camping might be a bit of a risk, so we found a self-catering cottage in Staffordshire instead.

May 25, 2006

When I picked Nova up after school, she whispered that she’d had “an accident” in her knickers. She still wanted to go to ballet, so I cleaned her up as best I could in the loos once we got there. Her knickers went straight in the bin, and it was a bit tricky getting her into her leotard and tutu without anyone noticing her bare bottom.The other mums will often bring some biscuits or chocolate along for a snack, and share it with the other children. Nova’s been after me to bring something, and this week I remembered to take a bag of chocolate wafer squares. Nova was so happy offering them around, and unlike the others who share only with the other girls from Orange class, she took pains to offer them to the whole class.

I had Nova fed, bathed, read to and in bed before Adam returned from work. Pete and Pasc were coming for dinner, and I hadn’t done much, but they were late arriving, so we were alright. Started with green destiny cocktails (Zubrowka vodka, apple juice, kiwi, cucumber) with Thai spiced mini sausage rolls, then yellow seafood curry, pad thai, and the lime-basil sorbet and strawberries.

May 24, 2006

Worked from home today. I got through a lot of my to-do list, which is just as well, because I have next week off for half term.Adam was working at home too. He never seems to do much work when we both work at home… more likely than not he’s reading sports news on the BBC website when I look over his shoulder.

Nova and I are reading The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. She’s really enjoying it, and although the language seems a bit advanced, her comprehension of the story is good.

Pete came round to return the babysitting favour, and we went out to dinner at Morgan M with Doron and Antonia. Nice evening, very good food: champagne, seared tuna, sea bass with asparagus sauce, rhubarb tart, coffee…

May 23, 2006

Solid meetings, six and a half hours’ worth — I even ate my lunch in one…Sid and Fay came round at 6:30, so Pete and Pasc could go to an ELO concert, of all things… The three kids watched Sleeping Beauty in the livingroom while Adam and I knocked back gin and tonics in the kitchen.

Sid, who is eight, may have felt the need for some grown up conversation. He marched into the kitchen and blurted, “Do you know what the smallest mammal in the world is? I do. It’s a mouse. There were also some very small dinosaurs. A baby blabbityblurbosaurus was the size of a kitten, and the anothernameosaurus was the size of a rabbit. I think that’s very interesting,” before spinning on his heel and returning to the livingroom.

Adam took them home at bedtime and settled them in their own beds. I put Nova down, then made myself some asparagus for dinner. I’m on a mission to eat as much asparagus as possible while the season lasts…

May 22, 2006

“Who do you support?” Nova asked me at breakfast. I thought it was one of her religious questions, and was just picking through what she might mean, when she added, “I support Chelsea!” Adam just about choked on his Weetabix…This afternoon at work, while saving a bookmark to a website in Explorer, I discovered a comprehensive directory of porn websites (Anal, Lesbian, Mature, Weird, you get the picture…)on my computer. I certainly hadn’t put them there, and IT have no idea how they got there either. It was a little embarrassing reporting the problem, and because of the way we share desks, I’d infected most of my team’s computers as well…

Returned home to a message from Air Canada on the answering machine. Apparently, there was some issue about booking a ticket through Canadian technical support with a British passport. They wanted him to either:

• fax them a photocopy of his passport and both sides of his credit card, or
• go to Heathrow Airport(!)

to complete our booking. Neither of these options appealed, and another evening was spent in trans-Atlantic argument and recrimination before the matter was resolved.

May 21, 2006

An absolutely miserable day, weatherwise… This “drought” is really getting me down. According to the weatherman, this is the wettest May in ten years. In spite of the endless rain, Thames Water has imposed a hosepipe ban, preventing people from watering their gardens or washing their cars. Personally, I think the 35% leakage from the Victorian water pipes they’ve been too busy making record profits to replace might be contributing to the problem…They sent us a patronising letter telling us that “every drop counts”, and how they have started an upgrading programme to replace 250 miles of their 10,000 miles of leaking pipes each year… At that rate, I’ll be in my eighties before they sort it out.

Set off after breakfast for the “fun” run. The rain held off during Adam’s 10km. After cheering him off, Nova and I amused ourselves with face painting, merry-go-rounding and an African drumming workshop. When the first runners started trickling in, Nova and I positioned ourselves at the finish line. She got talking to another little boy who was waiting for his daddy. “My daddy has no hair and he’s just medium,” Nova informed him. Adam completed the run in a respectable 49:59.

By now it was pissing down and the wind had picked up. We dithered about whether to stay on another hour and half for the under-six girl’s run until it was time for it to start. A surprising number of little girls were up for it — there must have been fifty of them. Most had mums or dads running with them. Nova and I started in the middle, and moved steadily through the pack. She didn’t tire at all, nattering away happily as we ran. We were very proud of her.

Booked our Air Canada tickets this evening. What a palaver… I don’t have the energy to record the grief they put Adam through — the website showing tickets that didn’t exist, the hours long phone calls to technical support in the UK and Canada, the wrangle to keep the discount for booking online… The ordeal lasted about five hours, but at least it’s done…

May 20, 2006

Went for my usual run with Pasc. We did another five km, which felt better than last time… After our usual blueberry muffins we headed to Brent Cross to buy Nova some new trainers. I did the Waitrose shop while they were getting fitted, then we carried on to Oriental City.Had an unsatisfying lunch in the food court. I would have liked sushi, but you have to sit at a special counter for that, and Nova was insisting on her usual “prawns on a stick” from the Vietnamese place. I didn’t want to get something too rich, so opted for an insipid prawn pho (soup). Picked up some sweet basil and a few other groceries.

I needed the basil to make lime-basil sorbet. The recipe used regular basil, but I thought it would be even nicer with the slightly liquoricy Thai basil, and I was right. It was absolutely delicious, and Adam’s suggestion to pair it with fresh strawberries was inspired. Lamb rack chops marinated in Thai spices, grilled on the barbeque and served with choi sum beforehand.

May 19, 2006

Adam doesn’t usually work on a Friday, but after taking two days off for the big game he thought he’d better show his face round the office. I travelled down to London Bridge and met him. Went for lunch at Borough Market, and picked up a few groceries as well. It’s a great place to shop, and must be relatively unique among food markets for being so international. I’ve been to terrific markets in Paris, Barcelona, Venice, Vancouver, but can’t think of one that covers the range of food and cuisines that Borough Market does. French, Italian, British, Spanish, Lebanese, Indian, Swedish, Japanese, Mexican, Greek — it has it all…After lunch, I headed to the West End. I want to buy a new pair of trainers, and phase out the pair I ran the marathon in, but the adidas shop didn’t have my size in the ones I wanted. I thought I might get some new leggings or shorts (most of my athletic clothes are pretty ancient) but again, I didn’t see anything I wanted.

May 18, 2006

On discovering that Nova had wet the bed when I checked on her last night, I brought her in with me. We were awoken by the radio filling us in on Arsenal’s defeat. “That’s the game daddy went to Paris for,” I told Nova. “Oh, no!” she said, then “Was he playing or watching?”She went off and made Adam a terrific card with a picture of player (number 420) standing on the pitch with a football. The message told him not to worry because you can’t win all the time. Our little philosopher…

When I picked Nova up from school she had an enormous bump the size of a plum on her forehead. The teacher didn’t know anything about it, but it turned out that she’d run into a brick wall at noon playtime. I was a little annoyed, because she said she’d cried and one of the playground supervisors helped her. They are supposed to be checked by the nurse automatically after a head injury.

Adam got back from Paris (hoarse and hungover) and we all had dinner together — ham and pea pasta. Nova picked away at hers for a while before looking up at me and saying, “Mummy it’s strange, but these peas are making me not like them…” She ate it anyway, followed by a fromage frais and a slice of date square.

May 17, 2006

Adam headed off first thing to catch a flight to France for the Champion’s League final this evening. In my opinion, he should have saved himself the hassle and airfare, flogged his ticket on eBay, bought a wide screen TV with a small portion of the money he’d have made, and watched it in the comfort of his own home, where he’d be able to snap it off in disgust after Arsenal lost… 

I worked at home until 3:30, then picked up Nova and her friend Isabella from school. I really like Isabella. She’s a savvy little cookie, full of fun and gossip. “I know what a snog is!” Nova announced after Isabella left. “It’s a kiss that lasts ten seconds!”

Jeraldine Drexel was my source for that kind of information. It was Jeraldine (Jelly Bean to her friends) who told me about necking, and tried to get me to practice with her in their basement rec room. She also knew about go-go dancing, and the cancan, which I was completely skeptical about until mom told me there was such a dance, and you did it just the way Jeraldine had showed me. She also used to make “goulash”, by stirring up shampoo and cosmetics and anything else she could get her hands on. I was pretty sure she’d invented that one as well, and never gave in to her pressure to try it…

Made myself a warm asparagus salad, substituting goat’s cheese for the beetroot in the recipe. Watched telly, flipping between various programmes and the match in Paris. Needless to say, Arsenal lost… after fighting valiantly, bad refereeing decisions, yada yada yada…Quelle surprise…

May 16, 2006

Went to a module of my management training course today. I’m not quite sure what it was about, but the moderator was very good. We were supposed to be looking at service reconfiguration… 

Dropped into Monsoon (looking for a black cardigan) and came away with a summer dress — jersey knit in browns and greens, simple and nice.

Made a cauliflower pea curry for dinner, before heading off to the cinema with Antonia. We saw Brick, teen romance meets film noir meets edgy drug thriller. The usher gave us a glossary printed on a little card as we went in, but it was California slang and I didn’t have trouble with it.

May 15, 2006

I was exhausted this morning… and not feeling particularly well. Too much shitty Disney food perhaps… Went into work for a pointless meeting, then spent the rest of the morning sorting out emails and fighting small fires, before leaving early.Both Neusa and Simonia were in the house, so I tried to keep a low profile, especially after Nova got home from school.

We had a snacky sort of supper: gouda and crackers, melon and parma ham, roast asparagus with parmesan. Watched an episode of Martha Stewart Apprentice — Jim the psycho has survived his fourth trip to the boardroom. I’m pretty sure the producers want to keep him in the series to mix it up a bit.

May 14, 2006

I woke up at 6:30 (UK time again). This morning Nova woke up too and we whispered away together until Christine and Evelyn finally surfaced. Went down to breakfast (where I made a round of sandwiches for later and pilfered yogurts), then returned to pack up and check out.Got to the park about 10:30am this time. Nova and I headed straight to the “Meet a Disney princess” queue, while the other two went off to Autopia. The line was very slow moving, and after a half hour it became obvious that we were going to miss our 11:15 rendezvous. For some reason, Christine’s mobile wouldn’t accept my calls, and I had to resort to telephoning Adam in London, to phone Gerald, to phone Christine and tell her where to find us…

It took about an hour in the end, but Nova’s excitement at meeting Snow White, then Cinderella made it worth it. Not that the photographs captured that. Whenever she’s aware of a camera, she presses her lips together in a bloodless little line and looks off to one side.

Spent the remainder of our time visiting: Sleeping Beauty’s castle; the dragon’s lair (“too scary!”); the Aladdin adventure; Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (“Ohhh! I wish we lived in a tree!”); a very dubious pizza restaurant for some nasty pizza; the Peter Pan ride; and the Snow White ride.

Made the much anticipated gift shop stop, where both Nova and Evelyn got Minnie Mouse ears and teeshirts. For their “one special thing” Nova chose a set of Sleeping Beauty figurines, while Evelyn picked a three foot long plastic Excalibur sword, with which she menaced friends and passersby on the walk back to the hotel.

Collected our bags and made our way to the train station, where we discovered that our connecting TGV train to Lille was running twenty minutes late, and due to a fire in Britain all Eurostar trains were stopping in Kent. At Lille, the Eurostar was delayed an additional half hour. We ate our sandwiches and played cards through the Chunnel, before being unceremoniously dumped off at Ashford.

Two Eurostars had arrived at almost the same time, and there hundreds of disgruntled passengers shuffling along the platforms and through the concourse, dragging great mounds of luggage. Honestly, the amount of baggage people take away with them – they can’t all have been returned from three month holidays…

We wondered whether there’d be space for everyone on the local Sunday service to London, but it was fine, at least down our end of the platform. Although it was getting late, the girls were very good, with little arguing or whining. We got to London Bridge at 9pm, where Adam picked us up.

Nova was asleep by the time we got home, and I put her straight to bed. Adam had brought me a plate of leftovers from Ben’s asparagus party this afternoon, and I noshed on those (and a well-deserved glass of wine) before calling it a night.

May 13, 2006

I woke up at 6:30 (UK time) as always. The others were still sleeping soundly, so I washed and dressed, then went downstairs to check out the swimming pool. There were a surprising number of families up and about, and by the time we were organised and got ourselves down there, the lobby was a zoo.Mickey Mouse was putting in a guest appearance, and Nova and I queued so she could meet him, then we queued again for breakfast. I was a little surprised at that – breakfast is included in the room price, and you’d think they’d be equipped to cope with a full hotel. Can’t have been the first time it’s happened…

The breakfast buffet had been ravaged, but we pulled together bowls of cereal for the girls, and fruit, yogurt and coffee for myself. I took advantage of the European-style cold cuts and rolls to make ham and cheese sandwiches for Nova and Evelyn to eat later.

We got to the park fifteen minutes after it opened, and went around booking FastTrack tickets for the most popular rides. You’re given a half hour time slot to return, and a shorter queue to join when you do. That taken care of, we got down to enjoying ourselves. Over the course of the day we: visited Sleeping Beauty’s castle; saw the Lion King show; rode the Pirates of the Caribbean (“too scary – don’t ever do that one again!”, Buzz Lightyear (twice), Peter Pan, Snow White (twice), Nemo’s submarine, the carousel, and the Thunder Mountain rollercoaster (and probably others I’ve forgotten…)

I was in two minds about doing the rollercoaster. Nova just met the height restriction by a millimetre, and there were warnings for people with motion sickness, and a range of other medical conditions. Actually, I think she quite enjoyed it, but Evelyn found it scary, and soon had Nova convinced that it was terrible.

The queues were noticeably longer today, and we were put off from doing a few rides we would have liked. We ate lunch on some plastic rocks in Futureland – packed sandwiches for the girls, jacket potatoes with lurid orange cheese sauce and gristly chilli for us. The food at Disneyland is pretty terrible. Lots of restaurants and concessions selling nasty, overpriced junk.

It rained in the afternoon again. We’d planned on a swim before dinner, but when we got to the pool it was closed due to the possibility of lightning. Which seemed odd for an indoor pool… Returned to the Rainforest Café (more fried shit with chips), where Nova fell off her chair, and Evelyn upended a table spraying a full glass of milk across the floor.

The pool was open when we got back, and the reason for the strange lightning message became clear. The pool was connected to an outdoor pool, with a glass barrier separating them outside the summer months.

The girls were knackered after a full day traipsing back and forth across the park and an hour’s swim, and we had no trouble getting them settled. Returned to the bar for a planter’s punch before calling it a night ourselves.

May 12, 2006

I was up by 6:30am, and after a quick scan of the weather forecast (F: Sunny, 25; S: Sunny, 22; Sn: Sun/Cloud, 19), revisited our clothing choices. Woke Nova up in time to have some breakfast before the taxi arrived. We swung by to pick up Christine and Evelyn, then headed off to Waterloo.It all went relatively smoothly, and by 9:30 we were enroute. The girls were giddy with excitement, but relatively well behaved, colouring away in their Disney activity magazines and chatting about what they were going to do when we got there.

The Hotel New York (experience Manhattan in the French countryside!”) was minutes from the train station. A nice enough, enormous American-style hotel, with a cavernous marble lobby, and decent sized rooms. We dropped our stuff off, packed a day bag and headed for the park. It all felt very American – the neon, the landscaping, the cleanness, the newness, the people… You would never think you were in France, though it’s not exactly Manhattan either…

May 11, 2006

Spent most of the day getting ready for the Disney trip, though I managed to fit in my spinning class.Nova has competition for Evelyn’s affections. Elena no longer plays with Viva, and has set her sights on Evelyn. She’s pretty blunt about it, and has told Nova that Evelyn is her friend now, and to get lost basically. Nova’s feeling a bit down about the whole thing.

Had a bit of a disaster in the greenhouse this evening. The shelf that runs along one wall collapsed, dashing all my potted seedlings onto the ground and breaking a pane of glass. The wood supporting the shelf had rotted away.

Made salmon wellington for dinner — salmon fillets in puff pastry with pesto and slices of tomato. Nice. To bed about 1am…

May 10, 2006

I’d arranged to come home a bit early today so I could look after Ruby for Jemima, who was going to a lecture. We’d discussed whether Jemima should pick her up afterwards or if Ruby should sleep over. Being a school night, I wasn’t that keen on the sleepover idea, but Jemima told me that Ruby had her heart set on it.Something had definitely changed by the time Jemima dropped her off. Ruby was not a happy camper. She wouldn’t play with Nova at first, claimed she wasn’t hungry or thirsty, and cried for her mum at bedtime. Nova felt pretty bad about the whole thing.

Made prawn satay with salad for our dinner, then headed off to Pasc’s to watch the final of The Apprentice. Of the two remaining women, one was a turbo-charged, ball breaking go-getter with a face like a monkey’s behind, the other a vacuous blonde babe with next to no business experience whose strategy was to be nice. Guess who Alan Sugar picked for his apprentice? Business as usual…

The Martha Stewart version of The Apprentice started straight after, and I watched the first episode with Adam when I got back home. Half the candidates seem to be Barbi blondes. There is also a psycho ad exec called Jim who’s going to keep it interesting.

May 8, 2006

It bucketed rain this morning, the tube was running like a dog, and I arrived at work late and bedraggled. The website was also running like a dog — maybe the rain was affecting it as well….Met Adam in Piccadilly Circus after work and went for Korean barbeque before seeing a play — Michael Frayn’s Donkey’s Years, a comedy about a class reunion at an Oxford College. A good, mindless laugh.

May 7, 2006

Did another 5km run this morning, and felt it in my hamstrings afterward. Annoyingly, my satellite GPS thing doesn’t seem to be working properly. It’s very difficult to pick up enough satellites when I start off, because we’re so built up around here. And then once I get into the woods the signals are weak as well. Sometimes it stops measuring distance for a while, then when it starts again I think it just draws a straight line from where it lost contact to where I am at that point. I can get quite wildly different estimates for the same course at any rate…Adam went off for an hour and a half run with Javed, and returned with the big idea of entering into the Crouch End 10km fun run in two weekends time. There are children’s runs as well, and we’ve entered Nova for the under 6 girls mile run. Be interesting to see how that pans out…

Put in some good gardening work, with some Nova help. She had to leave after half an hour to go to Fay’s birthday party. Her big party with her classmates was yesterday, but Pasc had a little tea for Fay’s three non-schoolmate friends.

Nova sent Dave (currently travelling in India) a sweet email this evening:

Hi Dave,
At the Easter party my daddy dressed up as the Easter bunny, didn’t he, but he wasn’t a real bunny because if he was a real bunny I wouldn’t have a dad. And also if daddy was a real bunny who could mummy marry and who could be her husband?

On Friday me and Evelyn are going to Disneyland, and Evelyn hopes that we are going to go on all of the rides. And we are going to have a hotel which has a swimming pool. And we are going to go to the park for three days. On Sunday we go home.

In Amsterdam one night we went in a lovely and calming restaurant. Because one time daddy wanted to go there because he needed to, but then he couldn’t. Because they shouldn’t be seeing anyone that night. So we had to go to a different restaurant. But one night we went to that restaurant.

We played a game of matching shoes when daddy was the king, mummy was the queen and I was the princess. And we had to try to find shoes that matched. If they were red, they belonged to the queen. And if they were pink they belonged to the princess. And if they were white they belonged to the king.

And I looked out the window to see what we had seen in Amsterdam. And there were tulips and we went to a tulip garden. It was really beautiful. And also we had chips and sugar waffles. And one day it was Queens Day. Everyone was wearing orange and pink and red and purple. They are the colours you should wear on Queen’s Day, you should.

love nova

May 6, 2006

Went for my run with Pasc. We ran the 5km route — it’s been months since I’ve run that far, and I felt pretty ropy afterwards.After breakfast we headed to the garden centre, where we filled the car with seedlings and bedding plants, and checked out their garden furniture. The table on the patio is half rotten, and the little set on the balcony is pretty decrepit as well. They had some nice stuff, but it was far too expensive. It would have cost considerably more than the dining table. Also, no matter what they say about weatherproofing, I wouldn’t feel happy leaving a nice teak table outdoors to face the English winter (or summer for that matter). I think a tile table like the ones we saw in Morocco might be our best bet.

When we got home there was a message for Nova from Ruby: “Hello, Nova! Come over right now!” After lunch, she set off on her own for their house, with a warning telephone call to be on the alert for her arrival.

Rebecca dropped round for a visit bearing cakes from the patisserie in Muswell Hill. It was great to see her — it’s been a couple of years. Since leaving her job at the design company she sold C21 to, she’s been busy developing the building she owns in Shoreditch, and has recently taken a job overseeing the marketing/communications at a vibrator (sorry, sensual massager) company called Je Joue. Apparently, it’s based on something called grooves, which are patterns you programme into it, but it didn’t make much sense to me.

Soup for dinner, then settled down to watch Weekend, by Jean Luc Godard. Unwatchable wank or cinematic genius? Either way, we didn’t finish it. I seem to recall walking out of it in my university days, and I had a lot higher tolerance for pretention back then…

May 5, 2006

Had our team away day. It’s encouraging to see how far we’ve come since last year. People are feeling much more positive, and I think maybe they have a lot more confidence in Tina and me now that we’ve delivered on the website relaunch.At our November away day (a negative blamefest) the facilitator had us make a list of what our aspirations for the team were. People said things like motivated, happy, respected by other teams, productive etc. I’d been thinking that it’s well and good to come up with a list like that, but how do you know if you are making progress towards it. I’d thought we might do some sort of stock taking exercise, but when I asked them about it, they felt that we were already there.

Ate lunch at a local pub, where I had a Philly cheese steak wrap. You would have expected cream cheese (at least I would, though I haven’t had one before) but they made it with grated cheddar. Still pretty tasty…

It was still warm and sunny when I got home, and I put some time in the garden before dinner. Digging. There’s a change in weather coming, and I want to get as much as I can in the ground before that happens. Salad for supper to compensate for the Philly cheese steak.