May 2013

May 31, 2013

I was still completely exhausted when Lyra came in all bright and cheery at 7:30, and staggered around like a zombie all day. Three and a half hours sleep just doesn’t cut it. At least Adam got up with her and sorted out her cereal while getting himself ready for work.The ball was in my court by 8:30am. We made a batch of muffins before I allowed Lyra to she go down and wake the big girls when they were cooling. To their credit, they were pretty cooperative about getting up and hanging out with Lyra all morning.

The pair of them left to meet Shira’s mum in the village and have lunch at Cote. I fixed a couple of sandwiches for Lyra and me and repaired to the couch. There was no chance of a nap, but it definitely felt better being horizontal. Lyra was very good today, and largely content to pursue quiet solitary pursuits, like making a stick-on butterfly mosaic, or reading.

I had no appetite for dinner and Adam wasn’t around for the third evening in a row, opting to attend some sort of picnic social for the people in his office building. I made the girls chickpea pasta soup and left them to it while I went to Archway Video to return our dvds.

It turns out we still have two more days to rent dvds. On a whim, I picked up the rest of the first series of Treme. It will be a challenge to see it all by Sunday evening, but it’s worth a try now we’ve started.

Managed two more episodes once Adam returned home and the girls were in bed, but I was nodding off by the end of the second one…

May 30, 2013

Went for a run this morning before breakfast. My legs are still feeling a bit tired from the long run, but it was better than last time. I’m never sure what to do about those aches and twinges that can materialise during a run. I mulled it over as I ran, and decided that feeling a sensation is ok, even an ache is probably ok, but pain or anything that impairs movement is not. On that basis, I ran through the funny twinge in my quad and slight chafing in my arch, that signalled the start of a blister.Adam arranged a four-hour playdate with Margaux at ours this morning, then promptly fucked off to his office. Nova headed off on the bus to do some cooking with Beulah, which left me with the two little girls. They get on fine — and it was probably less trouble than having Lyra on her own — but I felt constrained by it all the same.

Lunch was a bit of a fiasco. We have next to no food in the house, and it turns out Margaux doesn’t like polar bread, cream cheese, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, cucumber or milk. Apparently she would have liked the ham in her sandwich if it hadn’t touched any of the above offending items. “Man, are you ever fussy!” Lyra said, “Oh, I know! Margaux agreed, as if Lyra had paid her a compliment.

Once Margaux left and Nova returned, I squeezed in a visit to Waitrose before my second shift of hosting other people’s kids began. Tonight was the much awaited Shira sleepover, which presented a different problem. Primarily, I had to keep Lyra distracted so that Nova and her friend could spend some uninterrupted time together.

Lyra was happy enough to help me make bahn mi sandwiches for dinner — that girl is a whiz with a vegetable peeler. When Adam wasn’t home by 6:30, I ate with the girls. For dessert, we had the profiteroles and chocolate sauce that Nova had made with her grandmother. They were delicious, and made me want to try my hand at making choux pastry.

The girls spent the rest of the evening making a film trailer, and even involved Lyra, which was nice. It took until 10pm, but Lyra went to bed happy. We shooed the big kids downstairs and watched another episode of Treme, which I’m really enjoying.

At midnight, Adam went down to make sure they’d gone to bed. “They’ve fallen asleep with the lights on,” he reported. Personally, I doubted it, and sure enough minutes later I heard them talking and giggling.

We gave them another half hour, then went downstairs again and removed all the electronics. Still the noise carried on… I wouldn’t say it was keeping us awake, but it wasn’t conducive to going to sleep either.

Finally at 4am I went down again. Shira pretended to be asleep, but I told Nova enough was enough, and that she wasn’t improving her chances of future sleepovers. It was getting light by now, so I turned out the toilet light she always keeps burning when she sleep downstairs, and headed back to bed again…

May 29, 2013

“What’s a swear word?” Lyra asked today at breakfast. “Swear words are bad words that people shouldn’t really say,” I told her. “Like what?” “Well, like ‘shit’, or ‘goddamn it’, or the worst one, which is probably ‘fuck’,” I said. “Wow, dad says swear words ALL THE TIME!” was her response…After breakfast, Adam headed off to his office, and I hung out with the girls. The weather was lousy again — absolutely bucketing down — so we were pretty much stuck indoors.

Nova spent the morning using the sewing machine to do some DT homework, before braving the elements to go hang out with Etta and Sarah. When the rain finally let up a bit, I took Lyra to the library. She wanted to get the Daisy book she hasn’t read. Unfortunately, it was checked out, but we’ve reserved it — and managed to find a few others that she was keen to read.

On the way home, we popped into Greta’s for a cup of tea. There was another little girl called Bea there, and she, Greta and little sister Tilda were in the middle of a live performance of Little Red Riding Hood. Lyra obligingly stepped right in and started played role of the wolf.

When Adam wasn’t home by dinner time, I ate with the girls — a sausage and fried rice invention of my own making. Nice enough…

Watched another episode of the series on Queen Victoria’s Children. It focussed on her daughters this time, and confirmed my opinion that she was a domineering old cow. The daughters all seemed quite impressive actually, and did their best to struggle out from under their mother’s oppressive thumb. I don’t know what the boys were like — they’ll be covering them in the next episode…

May 28, 2013

Didn’t feel much like going for my week day run, but got my ass in gear eventually. My legs felt a bit tired after Sunday, and I was a good minute slower than last time I ran the route. It was a wet morning, and the weather somehow contrived to be both cold and muggy, which can’t have helped…Booked plane tickets to Canada this morning. We fly out on 2 August, and return on the 21st. It’s less time than we often take, but with Adam’s new job, it was all we could manage. As it is, he’s planning to spend a few days working in the Vancouver office.

Yesterday morning when I was hanging up the laundry, I dropped one of Adam’s socks in the (still unused) kitty litter tray. “Oh, no! Now you have to wash that sock again,” Lyra said. “No, I don’t,” I said, “We just won’t tell daddy…” But this morning, the cheeky little minx handed Adam this note:

MUM DROPT DADS SOCK IN THE CAT LITTER

It was pelting with rain by noon, and we were pretty much stuck indoors for the rest of the day. Bit of a nothing day… Did my housework and watched a show on Queen Victoria’s Children with Nova — what an old bitch she seems to have been.

Pho for dinner — nice, warming soup is what’s called for at the end of May. I’ve even had to turn the heat on again, which causes me actual, physical pain…

May 27, 2013

Felt a bit stiff this morning, but I don’t have any residual knee pain, which is a relief. Lingered in bed watching a documentary called Food Inc on Netflix. All about US agribusiness, and how the corn lobby has deformed farming policy.It motivated me to make wholemeal pancakes with added wheatgerm for breakfast this morning in a bid to give the girls something healthy and unprocessed. Actually, we eat mostly whole food as it is — weetabix, ketchup and mayonnaise, and bread products like english muffins and bagels are about as processed as it gets around here. That said, there’s alway room for improvement…

It was a lovely day — the sky was a deep, deep blue and it was even warm. Though there was a pretty brisk wind to keep us from getting the idea summer might be on its way. Did some work in the garden moving the bottomless pile of dirt from the front right to the back left. Adam put in an appearance to help for a bit…

Broke off to make polar bread sandwich rolls for lunch. The plan was to set off on a family walk down the Parkland Way to Finsbury Park. The girls lacked enthusiam for this plan and dragged their feet getting ready to go. Lyra was particularly surly and uncooperative, which eventually tipped Adam into a rage. After bellowing us all into tearful submission, he stormed off on his own.

After a half hour cooling down time, we reconciled over the phone and the kids and I joined him at the start of the walk. It was a perfect day for it, but the effects of the fight lingered and I can’t say I enjoyed it. Had a snack in the Finsbury Park café before catching the 210 home.

It’s John’s 93rd birthday today, and they’d invited us for a drink. Adam popped round when we got back to apologise if his tantrum had disturbed them and say that we were still planning to attend. He ended up staying to help them prepare the canapés, such as they were — triangles of bread with paté or smoked salmon, and bowls of crisps and nuts.

Pat and Tony and Katie and Owen turned up as well, and the six of us got through four bottles of champagne with no difficulty while the girls hoovered up the crisps and biscuits. Didn’t bother with dinner after all that party fare…

May 26, 2013

Did my longest run to date this morning –an hour and twenty minutes. After my main Heath route, I added a loop that took me into Hampstead Garden Suburb before bending back to Spaniard’s Lane. For twenty minutes the run was pretty much steadily uphill, aside from one short, sharp descent (exactly the kind of downhill I need to avoid). 

Towards the end, I noticed a slight twanging on the outside of my right knee. I had only two minutes left so I decided to keep going. By the time I finished the long walk home it was feeling okay again…

Adam met me at the front door. He was just setting out to find me, having grown worried when I was gone longer than expected, what with the ten minute walk at the end.

There were delicious apple muffins waiting for breakfast, which we scoffed before setting off on a family outing. Took the tube to London Bridge and walked along the river to the Tate. My knee was flaring up again, and I found it especially tricky going down stairs. Happily, it eased off as the afternoon progressed.

It was the last weekend for the Lichtenstein exhibition, and I’m glad we made the effort. I was surprised and impressed by the range of his work, particularly by the landscapes. Before now, I’d never seen anything but the post-modern comics paintings.

Afterwards, we walked across what will forever be known to Londoners as “the wobbly bridge” — though the wobble was shortlived and long since sorted — to St Pauls. There’s a new building with a terrace that offers a great view of the dome. Adam had called to confirm the terrace café would be open, but in the event it wasn’t, and we ended up eating in a fast food sushi place instead.

Caught the bus home up Grays Inn Road. When we got back, I rested my knee for a bit while Adam cooked bacon tomato pasta for dinner. It’s a great and rare pleasure in my life to be cooked for…

May 25, 2013

I’d stuck a sign on the door when we went to bed explaining that we’d got home very late, and would appreciate it if the girls didn’t disturb us before 8am. To their credit, they pretty much respected it, though I was woken a bit before 8 by Lyra’s howls. Turns out she thought she’d broken her lip salve (it was fine…)I got up and sorted out some breakfast — smoothies and coffee — and put in a passable performance as a functioning parent. There was no way I was going to do my planned long run — that’ll have to wait until tomorrow…

Adam summoned the energy to take Lyra swimming at Archway Pool, and I pulled together some lunch for when Nova returned from drama. Kept it simple with bagels all round. I did make some flapjacks, so we each had one of those as well.

After a bit of web research, we’ve decided to give Netflix a try. It’ll help soften the blow when Archway Video closes next week, though they have nothing like their range of films. In fact, one online reviewer uncharitably described it as “the typical selection you’d find at your local service station”. We worked out how to connect the computer to the telly for the full “cinema” experience before Lyra happily disappeared into her bedroom to watch Horrid Henry on the iPad.

Kept dinner simple too — a potato pea curry and some basmati rice, which Adam supplemented with samosas, naan and a chicken curry from Kiplings. Watched Clueless for movie night. I thought Nova would like it given how much she enjoyed Mean Girls, and I was right. Everyone in bed pretty early tonight…

May 24, 2013

Found time for a bit of meeting prep this morning before I had to leave to attend Lyra’s school assembly. The theme was colour, and we were treated to some lovely singing –“One, two, three, I’m glad to be me” — poems, and interpretive dance.It was pretty much time to leave for my meeting when I got home. It was pelting with rain and incredibly chilly, and I opted to drive instead of taking the tube. Not an area of north London I’m familiar with, but my phone GPS got me there without incident. How did I drive anywhere unfamiliar before Google map? Maybe I didn’t…

The meeting itself was a bit shambolic, and the client is all over the map, but I’m reasonably confident I can improve their site. Agreed to do a little proposal for them, and we’ll take it from there…

Nova had a day off from school, so I took her for sushi and some shopping at Brent Cross. She wanted to buy herself a new outfit, and most spent her own money, though I chipped in a bit. I bought her some new socks, a dress and some crack nail polish for the girls to share.

Picked up Lyra from her playdate at Greta’s, fed Nova, then headed off for dinner at Lynne and Duncan’s. Turns out the other couple cancelled due to flu. Fine by me — we had never met them anyway, and it was more comfortable with just the four of us. Maybe too comfortable — it was nearly 3am by the time we got home, way too drunk…

May 23, 2013

Wore a new pair of trainers on my run this morning. They aren’t exactly new — in fact I bought them just before I discovered I was pregnant with Lyra and my running routine came to a crashing halt. I haven’t run enough since to properly wear out my last pair until now.Lyra is intrigued by the concept of shoes that are old but unused. All the way to school, she pondered over whether you can consider shoes that are older than she is(!) to still be new. Knocked two minutes off my 3.5 mile route, so maybe it was time for a new pair…;-)

Full-on work day — haven’t had one of those in a while. I’m mainly working on the engineering site. Now that the project is back on track, I want to get something in place for them then invoice for work to date. Took me until about 5pm, but managed it.

Broke off to pick up Lyra mid-afternoon. I fixed her a snack, settled her in front of the telly and soldiered on. I find it really difficult to get the right balance of paid work in my life. In an ideal world, work would take about three hours a day, and the rest of my time would be spent on all the other stuff…

Didn’t get to do much research for a possible GP website as I’d planned — I have a client meeting tomorrow in West Hampstead, and was hoping to be better prepared. I needed to stop working to feed girls, then it was time for Adam and I to leave for a wine tasting in Crouch End. The wines of the northern Rhone as interpreted by Paul Jaboulet Aine… Some great stuff, though pretty much all of it miles out of our price range. Fun to try it though…

May 22, 2013

It’s just too bloody cold around here…:-( The sun did not shine, it was too cold to play, to paraphrase Doctor Seuss. At least, I’m finally getting spend some time doing my supposed day job…It was Lyra’s turn to go back to Alex’s house before swimming, so I was able to work straight through until late afternoon, when a slight improvement in the scowly weather lured me outside.

I’m gradually shifting my compost heap to the back of the veggie patch where I plan to establish a bed of flowers, shrubs and perennial herbs. So far, the lilac is anchoring the left corner, and I’ve transplanted a couple of bulbs I found in the compost. I intend to lift some of the random bluebells that are blooming where I want to seed grass, but not sure how/when to move them — need to do some reading on that…

Adam was out at an evening sustainability conference, so I ate dinner with Nova — salmon, rice, broccoli — a former weekday staple until the fish hater entered our lives…

Watched an excellent creepy German film this evening called The Silence…

May 21, 2013

Ran three laps of Highgate Woods this morning, which is approximately 3.5 miles and took me about 40 minutes. I could extend that by running more of the to/from the Woods, but for now I’m going to concentrate on bringing that time down.Finally bit the bullet and bought myself some proper web space. It wasn’t that much money, and I can use it to develop sites for clients as well. Lots to learn about the hosting interface and .org version of WordPress. Fun and daunting…

Latest from the veggie boxes: our radishes, spinach and peas are all emerging, though no sign of the carrots as yet. There’s still got a good sized block of space to fill. I was considering strawberries, but they sound like too much of a faff — and inconsistent with my plans to rotate the beds each year. Maybe leeks…?

Dinner was steak salad, followed by a lemon tart recipe I found online. It sounded a bit too easy and I wasn’t entirely happy with the result. I was tasty enough, but looked a bit odd and didn’t fill the pastry shell properly. Either the woman can’t measure a pan properly or I did something wrong this end…

Nova has her last two exams tomorrow — maths and french. Inevitably, coming at the end, she hasn’t allowed enough time to revise for them adequately. I seem to recall getting into the same situation when I was a student…

May 20, 2013

Very hungry this morning, surprise, surprise… Of course I did skip dinner last night, but I’m always surprised how quickly my appetite scales up when I give it the chance. In theory, it should scale down as well, though I can’t say I’ve noticed that…;-)Was meant to meet my friend Wendy for a coffee at 8am, but Adam had a new breakfast meeting so I had to postpone. Didn’t go for my run either, as I had a meeting with my engineering client that I was feeling underprepared for.

It went okay in the end. The project has stalled a bit, bogged down in endless tiny amends, but after talking things over we’re taking a step back and going down a different avenue, which should work better for all concerned. Now to invoice for the work to date, and get back at it…

I’ve been having a bit of a hiatus from paid work, which pretty much coincides with Adam starting his new job. For one thing, there’s no work from him at the moment; for another, the shape of my day is suddenly very different, with me taking on nearly all the housework and childcare in his absence. And the garden has become a pretty large focus of attention as well. It seems I’d rather be deciding which seedlings to pull out of the ground and which to let grow than faffing around with websites…;-)

May 19, 2013

“I am having so much fun!” Nova popped upstairs to report at 8:30am. “I’ve been bouncing on the trampoline, and now I’m drinking delicious orange juice while watching Modern Family on their 60-inch HD telly and playing on the iPad. And Jules has made pancake batter!” Sounds about right for a Birkby weekend…Had a pre-prandial walk round the grounds admiring the gardens and wandering domestic fowl. The apple orchard is just coming into bloom, and the frothy white blossoms look amazing against the swathes of golden rape in the background.

Grown-up breakfast was eggs benedict with beautifully fresh poached eggs. Afterwards, Adam and I spent an hour mowing the grass in the walled garden — it was a lovely day, and I welcomed the exercise. Jules and Mary certainly have a lot of garden to maintain — maybe as well as chickens, they should invest in a couple of sheep — but perhaps they’d eat the flowers as well…?

There was a barbeque planned for the afternoon with the family of a school friend of Bella’s who’d driven up from Muswell Hill. Their daughter (also called Bella) boards during the week. Drank champagne and nibbled on snacks in the garden, while identifying our inevitable common north London acquaintances.

The sun was a bit in and out, and we ended up eating indoors: delicious grilled meats, salads, and a beautiful pavlova for dessert. Tottenham and Arsenal were both playing important matches today 00 a Champions League place was hanging on the result. The other family are Tottenham supporters, which spiced up the atmosphere. I left them to it and did the washing up instead…

Had a much smoother journey home, making it in well under two hours. There was still enough daylight for a quick look in the greenhouse and veggie boxes o make sure that everything got along fine without me (it did)…

May 18, 2013

Did my 60 minute run before breakfast. Am now about two and a half minutes faster than the first time I did it. It would be great if I could run 10km in an hour, but I’m a way from that still. I estimate I’m doing more like 8.5km at the moment…Spent the morning getting sorted for our weekend visiting Jules and Mary in Suffolk: packing bags, making a car picnic, picking up gifts, getting the house in order. We were just about to leave when Adam discovered the mouse from last night cowering behind some boxes in our bedroom. He managed to capture it in the butterfly net and release it outside. Pretty crap cat behaviour, bringing mice into the house then letting them go…

Set off at 1pm, and after the hassle of leaving London, it was plain sailing. Two hours later, we turned into their place to encounter a mother duck hurrying four ducklings down the drive and out of harm’s way. Mary was just rushing off to buy a strimmer, but Jules and the kids were there to welcome us with tea and cake. Two cakes on offer, a Swedish apple cake and a four-layer chocolate confection that looked amazing.

Mary returned about an hour later bearing the strimmer. “It was much harder than I expected, as there were about 30 different kinds to choose from. So I just bought the most expensive one, that’s my usual technique,” she explained cheerfully. The thing looks mighty powerful, and apparently can be contorted into various configurations to perform all manner of services.

It wasn’t long before the cocktail hour was upon us. We introduced Jules to the pleasures of the sazarac, which turned out a little differently as a result of using absinthe and Jim Beam instead of bourbon — still mighty good. Mary served up all manner of snacks to go with: crostini with whipped feta and tomatoes, crisps, various olives, crackers with lobster butter… I eventually had to move away from the table or I would have had no room for the lovely dinner she was managing to prepare at the same time.

It’s been two years since our last visit — not sure how that happened… We used to get up here a few times a year. It’s great to see everyone. Jules and Mary haven’t changed a bit, but you can see the passage of time in the kids, especially Bella. Rollo is pretty much a ten-year-old version of his eight-year-old self, but Bella is very much a teenager now, albeit a sweet, well-spoken one.

Nova and Bella both spent long stretches of the afternoon revising for their year end exams next week. They are both key stage three, though Bella is in year 9 and Nova in year 7. Lyra and Rollo had fun collecting eggs their nine hens had laid, and bouncing on the trampoline. Lyra also spent ages exploring the various staircases with interconnecting doors and landings, and odd little rooms that you come upon unexpectedly. It really is the most fabulous house…

Dinner was served in the dining room, with its amazing carved pillars and fireplace you could roast an ox in. Hadn’t gone that route tonight…:-) We had a beautiful fillet of rare beef served with a wine reduction, julienned carrots and green beans, new potatoes, asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli. A big hit with everyone — Lyra hoovered her plate up in about five minutes, and even went for seconds.

Dessert was a fig frangipane tart that I wish I’d thought to photograph — it was a thing of beauty, with the figs just surfacing through the filling, and the kind of perfect crisp golden pastry I never manage to achieve. Delicious as well, and again Lyra was back for seconds, although she confessed afterwards that she had an “unhappy feeling in her tummy”. I’m not surprised…

By now it was almost ten o’clock, and well past bedtime for our two. I’d committed to reading Lyra the final chapter of Beezus and Ramona, and by the time I returned downstairs, Jules, Mary and Adam were comfortably settled in the television room with a second bottle of red, and a platter of cheese watching the Eurovision song contest. Life is good… Denmarks’ turn this year, with Azerbaijan a respectable second.

May 17, 2013

Adam ended up staying home today, which was unexpected. He’d planned to go to his new office, but got stuck into something and never left. We ate lunch together and everything…;-)I pootled around the house and garden, and made a trip to the garden centre for bamboo canes and marigolds to add to my beds. It’s looking good up there — just need this unseasonably cold weather to improve..

Picked up Nova and Evelyn after their swimming lesson, and drove them back to Evelyn’s place. Christine cooked some dinner for us, then we settled in their lounge to watch the final Twilight movie. It was a bit of a damp squib actually — the vampires seemed to spend a lot of time getting ready for a great confrontation that never happened. I did snooze a bit though, so I may have missed the exciting bits…

Much more excitement to be found at home, when Cleo brought a live mouse into our bedroom in the middle of the night, and promptly lost it…

May 16, 2013

“Everything we own in made in China or from John Lewis,” Lyra informed me this morning. Actually, she’s pretty much on the money…Lyra was very keen to get to school early for some reason. “There’ll be loads of my friends there, mum,” she insisted. Not today there weren’t, though we didn’t have to wait too long before they started trickling in… Did a 38 minute run in Highgate Woods afterwards, then returned home to a wide open day to myself, as Adam was at his new office and Lyra had a playdate after school.

Put in a good few hours in the garden. I have stuff in all four raised beds now, and it’s looking really good. Time to start tackling the landscaping changes I want to make. I’m not feeling so confident about it, but I don’t suppose I can do any harm and I’m not planning to spend any money. (Except maybe investing in a swing seat or comfortable bench when I’m done so I can contemplate the fruit of my efforts in comfort…)

Trish came round with bag of clothes for Nova. She always gives us such beautiful stuff, and I’m pretty sure most of it has never been worn. After she left, I baked a rhubarb crumble cake for dessert this evening. There was a dicey moment when I thought the pan I’d chosen was too small, but the cake managed to contain itself…

Adam stopped in briefly before heading out to an evening meeting. I got the girls through their evening routine and helped Nova with her revision. She thinks the science test went okay — at least she’s feeling more confident than she did after the previous physics test, which is encouraging…

May 15, 2013

Nova starts school fifteen minutes later on a Wednesday. I generally wake her at 7am instead of 6:45, but this morning she asked me to wake her at the earlier time so she could have a bit of a “lie in”. Not convinced it’s such a good idea, and meant me getting up an extra time to roust her out of bed as well.The weather is horrible again… It’s frustrating, as I’d like to be gardening, but actually there’s nothing much happening out there when its so wet and cold…

Alex came back for a play and some dinner before swimming lessons. The girls were calmer today, and spent a lot of time enjoying the our revamped toilet, which Alex pronounced “way more beautiful” than the previous toilet.

Adam got home in time to take them to the pool, and I fed Nova who’d just returned from netball and concert orchestra. Dinner was veggie soup and a “Persian rice salad” from Laurel’s Kitchen for dinner. The cookbook claims that this exotic combination of dates, dill and cashew nuts will transport you to the middle East, but it was pretty mundane by today’s standards…

I finally got a bit of time in the garden, though it wasn’t long before I was called back in to do Lyra’s music and bedtime, and quiz Nova on science. She has her year-end exam tomorrow, and it turns out she hasn’t revised from her textbook or her class notes… Instead, she’s taken the revision topics and pulled together some nice but pretty elementary notes from the internet. She’s treated it more like a project, which makes sense given that she’s never actually had to revise for a subject before…

May 14, 2013

Took Lyra to gymnastics then went for my weekday run in Highgate Woods. I ran for 37 minutes today. My original plan was to work up to 45 minutes, but instead I’ve decided to build up to three loops, which should take about 40 minutes. and then work on reducing the time it takes me.Nova had her friend Anna back from school today. She’s one of the HBS girls who lives closest to us, and seems very nice. I could hear them giggling away in the bedroom, while I kept Lyra distracted.

Unfortunately, it was too cold and wet to garden, so we did some reading and cooking instead. I made burrito bowls for dinner — essentially, taco fillings served on a bowl of cilantro lime rice instead of a taco shell. Nice enough, but nothing to get excited about.

Anna’s mum round to pick her up, and stayed for a bit of a chat. Turns out Anna is one of seven kids — ay caramba…

May 13, 2013

Had a long overdue hair appointment to get my hair coloured and cut. I went for darker highlights this time. It will show the grey a bit more, especially as it grows out, but it feels more “me”. Went for a blunt chop that is just long enough to tie back when I’m running. Edmund did my haircut today. He’s not so opinionated as Becky, and pretty much did what I suggested…Made gnocchi from scratch for dinner. That was quite the palaver, especially as I had to stop twice during the process to pick Lyra up from school and then from drama. Everyone seemed to like them and were keen on the simple tomato sauce I served them with. Just as well — I’ve got a freezer full of the things now…

Adam suggested wine but I declined — I’ve got a taste for the £40 stuff now, and nothing else will do…

May 12, 2013

Did a 70 minute long run this morning. I was planning to add my Stormont Avenue route onto the main Heath circuit, but messed up and ended up going down Sheldon Avenue instead. This meant I ended up right at the bottom of North Hill, but actually the timing worked out about right. Adam had made a batch of rhubarb muffins while I was out. They didn’t actually taste much of rhubarb, but were very nice all the same…There was a little farmer’s market in Highgate Village today, which I went along to support. There were only five stalls — I bought some cheese from one guy and a salami from the bespoke furniture maker in the high street who was flogging Piedmont cheese and charcuterie. Carried on to the garden centre to buy a new pot for the cordyline. It was a bitch to carry home — I never seem think these things through in advance…

Pork loin for dinner. I wasn’t sure how to cook it, and ended up rubbing on some spice mix I’d made a while ago and completely forgotten about. Ended up roasting it for 20 minutes, then serving it with rosemary roasted new potatoes and green beans.

I asked Adam to bring up a bottle of wine and the silly beggar ended up opening a very special bottle that Bruce Fraser had bought for us to save for our 20th wedding anniversary. In spite of Bruce’s writing on the label, Adam regularly chooses it from the wine rack, but I’ve always managed to stop him up to now.

Once I got over my annoyance, there was nothing to do but drink it — and very nice it was too. Adam popped out after dinner and procured another bottle from the wine shop. £40 that set us back…

May 11, 2013

No repeat of the hand numbness thankfully… That was really unpleasant, and a bit scary too…The weather was a bit dodge, but I found a window of opportunity to get my latest seedlings in. Did the rest of the beets, the kohlrabi (those look like such bird food to me — I’ll be surprised if there’s anything of it left within a week), and some parsnips, before the cold drove me back indoors. I wasn’t inside five minutes before the rain was pelting down, flattening my poor little plants, no doubt.

Made banh mi sandwiches for dinner using turkey courgette meatballs, which were a big hit with everyone. Once the girls were in bed, I watched an episode of Arne Dahl. I assumed the name must mean something in Swedish like “murder squad”, but it turns out it’s the author’s name.

May 10, 2013

I was woken in the night by numbness in my hands and pain shooting up my arms. I tried various things — shifting position, massaging them, sitting upright. The pain would lessen, then return again when I fell back asleep. I expect it’s some sort of RSI, brought on by moving all that dirt.I remember when I was tree planting I’d wake in tears from the pain in my shovel hand. In the morning it would be curled into a stiff claw that I would ease around the handle of my shovel when it was time to start work.

Did some gardening with Lyra after school. We planted peas, spinach, chard and more beetroot seedlings, and started pots of sweet peas and basil in the greenhouse.

For movie night we watched Grease. What a great movie — the singing and dancing is wonderful. The dialogue gets pretty rude in places, though that mostly went sailing over the girls heads.

For example, there’s a character called Frenchie, who got her name for her skill at French kissing. “What is French kissing?” Lyra asked. “When you put your tongue in someone’s mouth when you kiss them.” “That sounds disgusting,” Lyra said. “Have you ever tried it?” I admitted that I had, and said if you do it right, it actually feels quite nice. “I do that at school sometimes.” Lyra said. “Really? With boys?” I asked. “No — just girls”. “Your best friends?” “No, actually. Well, first I did it with Alice, but I’ve done it with Lily and Grace too. And someone else…”

May 9, 2013

Got out early to shift dirt, and was scraping the bottom of the bag by 11am. As the online soil calculator predicted, I haven’t ordered enough soil — the fourth box is only half full. I moved last autumn’s onions into a freshly filled bed and planted a couple of rows of carrots as well before breaking off for lunch.It started to rain while I was eating, and didn’t let up until after the school run. Lyra was keen to help, and together we shifted the garlic, planted out the beetroot seedlings and potted up the parsley.

Yet another Masterchef leftovers meal. I pan roasted my second pair of duck breasts, and stretched my blackberry jus with red currant jelly. Polished off the rest of the celeriac purée as well. Rhubarb fool for dessert, using our own rhubarb.

Lyra has been singing one of those number based songs — “When I was three, I cut my knee” etc — lately. When we got to seven, I sang, “When I was seven, I kissed my friend Kevin.” “No!” Lyra yelled, “I say ‘When I was seven I drove to heaven! And when I was eleven, I met Kevin!” “So when do you actually kiss Kevin?” I asked. “When I’m 27!” Lyra said, “Though I think he might be bored of waiting by then…”

May 8, 2013

Lyra visited in the middle of the night. She’d had a bad dream where people kept vomiting everywhere and was quite up. Personally, I though it sounded like a typical family car trip…It was a cold, wet day, and I decided to blow off my run. I was confident I’d get plenty of exercise today shifting dirt. While waiting for the rain to let up, I gave the bathroom an initial coat of paint. In the event, I had time to do a second coat before it finally cleared.

When the gardeners showed up they offered to help me shift some dirt. They laughed at my two bucket system, and decided to do it with a garbage bin. They were gasping and wheezing when they arrived with the first load, but eventually managed to shift the remainder of the first bag.

Made a quick trip to Muswell Hill to buy Lyra’s violin book and some fish for dinner as Lyra is eating at a friend’s house for dinner. I’d just washed up all the painting stuff when I noticed I’d missed one (very prominent) spot. Considered just leaving it, but eventually broke out the painting stuff again and finished the job properly.

Dinner was sea bass fillets with the rest of the beurre blanc sauce and new potatoes. When Lyra arrived, she was keen to have some potatoes and beurreb blanc, and even tried a bit of fish as well, which she claimed to like ok.

Kept sneaking looks at our transformed bathroom all evening. It’s amazing what a difference a coat of paint makes…

May 7, 2013

Today was pretty much a housework day after the long weekend. At least until my two tonnes of dirt arrived. The photo below doesn’t do them justice — those are enormous bags of dirt. It was a shame the guy couldn’t maneuvre them round the corner to the patio area, but there was no way his hydraulic dolly thing could have made the turn… 

Alina came round to play after school. I prepared a picnic in the garden for them, then spent a good half hour shlepping double buckets of dirt from the front of the house to the veggie patch. Pretty tiring, and hard on the hands as well. I managed 32 buckets, before it was time to break off and prepare dinner.

I was just getting the plates on the table when Veronika turned up with Marli and Sania. We sat on the balcony and drank Coronas while they ate up. Adam arrived home and joined us, then after they left we did another 32 buckets between us.

Popped up to the Franklyn’s to give Fay a little birthday present and card, and have a slice of birthday cake. She liked the little camel bone box and “hand of Fatima” charm from Morocco, but was mainly absorbed with the enormous Gurkha knife she’d got from her parents. A heavy, curved kukri, with two additional penknife sized blades in the handle. Fay asked for it apparently, and is hoping for a samurai sword for Christmas… Who knew?

We were late getting back, which meant no music practice, and poor Nova up until ten pm doing a maths revision test that was due tomorrow…

May 6, 2013

Bank Holiday Monday, and another day of filming for Nova. She’s really enjoying it and earning £50 as well, but she’s getting behind on her school work and music practice…After breakfast Adam headed back to IKEA, as he’d purchased the wrong style of towel rail yesterday — confused his Snek with his Smaj or something…;-) On his return, we made the final improvements to the room and stood back to admire our efforts. It looks really good — just needs a lick of paint…

Lyra put in a session on her bike this afternoon — she’s definitely getting the hang of it, and speeds along at an alarming clip now. Adam sensibly has her practicing her controlled braking.

When Nova returned, we had pasta with roasted veggies for dinner. Not a huge hit with the girls…

May 5, 2013

Made apple muffins for breakfast, which were ready just in time for Nova to take one to her video filming. I walked down with her to get a sense of it. The other kids had just arrived, and the production team was bustling around preparing for the shoot. It seemed like a kosher set-up, and I felt comfortable leaving her there for the day…Spent the morning hanging out with Lyra, then delivered her to Esther’s pottery party in the afternoon. Adam and I used the two hour slot for a DIY blitz, hitting Homebase, Costco, IKEA, and Wickes, arriving back at the pottery café with five minutes to spare.

Our neighbours the Whittingtons were having an open garden afternoon. Adam and Lyra headed straight over, and I followed after unpacking the car. Their garden is so beautiful, and seeing other people’s gardens always gives me ideas of things I can do myself.

After dinner, we sat down en famille to watch the fourth Twilight movie. It was the usual yawn fest until the very end, when there were some really nasty “emergency caesarean” images, performed by non-doctors. It was so out of keeping with the general coyness of these films that it came as quite a shock. “Look at this pillow!” I said, covering Lyra’s eyes. “NO!” she yelled. “OK, look at my hands!” “WHY?” she said, wrestling to get free. “I just don’t want those images in your head,” I said. Or mine, for that matter…

I remember mum saying that. At the time I thought it was silly, and happily consumed every teen slasher flick that hit the cinema. Now i think i was the silly one… I did let Lyra watch the vampire venom coursing through the veins stuff, which was kind of neat for the non-squeamish…

May 4, 2013

Repeated the long run route I did last week, and managed to complete it about a minute faster this time. As I’m committed to running for 60 minutes, this meant carrying on past the house, and around the block into North Hill before time was up.After a bit of recuperation, I threw together a batch of celeriac soup with the leftover celeriac and shavings from the fondant potatoes. Not exactly Masterchef fare, but a good way to clear out the veggie tray…

Did the Waitrose run with Adam, and spent some time checking out bathroom stores for a towel rail as well. I think I’m going to have to go online — everything is too long for the space we have available.

We were having Pete and Pasc round for dinner, and I hadn’t allowed enough time to do the cooking. I was gone 5:30pm by the time I got started. A sazarac cocktail was just the thing to get me in the right frame of mind…

I still had 20 minutes of work to do when they showed up early, but they were happy to hang out in the living room drinking Prosecco and hoovering up the olives and breadsticks with enthusiastic help from the girls. Dinner was an Ottolenghi affair — spinach date salad, chicken with ouzo, and rice with chickpeas and currants, and chocolate raspberry ice cream for dessert.

The ouzo I used was the bottle Pete and Pasc gave me at their Christmas party. It had been sitting untouched on the drinks table, and Pasc mentioned that they’d owned it for over 12 years, and had no intention of drinking it themselves. When I said she should cook with it, Pasc suggested I cook with it instead…

May 3, 2013

Tony turned up bright and early to fit the new sink. I’m really pleased with it. For one thing, the basin is wider and deeper than the old one, but narrower too, so more sink AND more space. Also, we now have a mixer tap and the option of hot water, not just cold like before. We’d been thinking about boxing the pipes in, but have decided to replace the towel rack with one where the hanging towel will most cover the pipes instead.Made a trip to the garden centre to investigate soil options for my raised beds. Turns out that for the quantities I need, it would be crazy not to order in bulk. As I was there, I bought a few veggie grow bags, which I dumped in one of the smaller boxes, filling it about half way. I now have two tonnes of top soil arriving next week — less than the online soil estimator calculates I need, but enough to be getting on with…

After a bout of weeding and planting out the campanulas I bought in the side bed, it was time to eat. Adam is working from home today, so I had company for a change. The weather was nice enough for us to eat our salad on the balcony.

Did a bit of grocery shopping in the village for a Masterchef-inspired dinner before swinging by the school to pick up Lyra. She was keen for an ice cream, so we joined the throng in the cake garage before heading home.

Started cooking shortly before Nova left for swimming, with a view to having dinner on the table the minute she returned. With Lyra’s help, I plated up panfried duck breasts with fondant potatoes, celeriac purée, Chantenay carrots, and a blackberry jus. “This meal is tied for favourite with pesto pasta!” Lyra decided. Nova pronounced the “sweet and sharp blackberry sauce with the moist and juicy duck was a lovely, lovely thing.”

Everyone was similarly enthusiastic about the rhubarb compote with Barbados cream and coconut granola I served for dessert, though Nova thought that I’d “let my presentation slip”. Settled down to watch the last two episodes of this year’s Masterchef.

Our favourite, Cockney DJ Natalie, came storming through to claim the title, with a menu of lobster tail with compressed fennel, roast pork belly with pork tenderloin and pomme purée and vanilla chocolate pannacotta with bitter chocolate tuile, caramelised pears and hazelnut crumble biscuits. Definitely put my modest efforts back in the shade…;-)

May 2, 2013

My GPS watch wasn’t working on my run this morning, so I just did the same route as last time but ran another minute or so of the way home.Did some work on the botox website — it’s good to go, I just need the client to approve the final images and some new text I wrote. Spent the afternoon in the garden, and finally built the fourth raised bed. It was difficult to get it aligned properly as the wall is far from straight, and the ground is uneven, but I finally wrestled it into a position I’m reasonably happy with.

Greta came round to play after school. I’m always happy to have Greta — she and Lyra are so sweet together, and always get up to something creative. They requested a picnic in the garden, so I spread a blanket on the lawn, then arranged a tray of apple slices, carrot sticks, mini marshmallows, biscuits, goldfish crackers and glasses of squash.

I could hear their conversation as I worked in the veggie patch. They were adlibbing something called the “Andy and Mandy” show, delivering one-liners like miniature Two Ronnies, and giggling madly. Very cute…

I made them sausages, carrots and corn, with tropical fruit and yogurt for dessert. They got busy making Lala Loopsy movies after eating, and managed to fill the whole iPad memory…

Nova, Adam and I ate leftover turkey meatballs cooked with rice and a tomato sauce — a sort of Spanish rice thing. Headed out to the school quiz night to join my book group, who had reserved a table. Named our team the Clitoris Allsorts, which the churchy type who was reading out the results opted to shorten to the Allsorts. We performed more respectably than our name, ending up fifth out of the eight teams. There were two clearly brainy tables, two hopeless ones, and the rest bunched together in the middle.

I was strongly encouraged to go to the Wrestlers afterwards, where five of us polished off a couple of bottles of white wine. Because we just hadn’t drank enough at the quiz…;-) Home about 1am…

May 1, 2013

May already! Gahhh — how did that happen? Suddenly, summer seems to be upon us…When the gardeners appeared for their usual hour of lawn mowing and edging, I roped them in to help with the digging over and shifting the paving stones instead. I’m in a good position to build my fourth bed now, though I couldn’t get started on it as it was time to pick up Lyra from school.

Alex came back to our place today. When she’s here, there always seems to be some issue. They are never satisfied with what’s available, but always want to be ordering something on the internet, or starting some unsuitable activity kit like tie dying.

Today, they dragged every bit of outdoor play equipment we own from the garage, played with it about five minutes, then were disappointed they couldn’t go cycling on the parade ground. Half way through building a complex den in Lyra’s bedroom that involved sofa cushions and multiple blankets, I could hear Alex pestering Lyra to build a different den outside instead…

The porcupine meatballs I made went down okay, and after dinner I got them to change into their rabbit onesies and we headed off to swimming lessons. I decided to walk today as the road tax disc for the car has expired. The two bunnies got lots of looks and smiles from passersby, especially as they were also singing along to Adele songs Lyra was playing on her iCod.

Lyra’s got a really good swimming teacher this term. I was pleased to see that — the class was stuck in a rut with that former girl. She seemed to be perpetually cross with them all for some reason I couldn’t fathom from my perch in the bleachers.

Nova arrived home from school while I was out, and helped herself to the rest of the meatballs and carrots. Still no Adam when I got back at 7:15. He was meant to be signing the contract for his hotdesking office space in Kings Cross. I thought it was a five-minute job, but apparently not. At least he arrived home just in time to do Lyra’s bedtime…

Once the girls were down, I made the two of us some ham and asparagus linguini. It was nice, though I’m a bad judge of pasta quantities and always make too much. Then eat too much…