May 2017

May 31, 2017

Made packed lunches for both Adam and Lyra this morning — the fridge is currently an intricate puzzle of leftovers and earmarked ingredients that only I am capable of negotiating…;-)Lyra got a ride to her workshop with Lily’s dad this morning, so I was able to go for my run. I was rolling along nicely until my ankle clicked out of alignment about two miles in. I carried on, having learned from experience that it is usually best to run through it.

Two minutes later, I started developing a migraine aura. I wasn’t sure how to deal with that one. As I was on the far side of Highgate Woods (as far from home as my route takes me) I opted for a mix of walking/running back to our gate. I sat on a bench for a bit hoping it would pass. When it didn’t, I decided I should walk home.

I’ve had migraine aura a few times over the years. When it first happened, I went to the GP and got it properly checked out. I even had neurological tests at the Royal Free.

I learned that auras are akin to static electricity being discharged in the brain, and that I’m in a minority of people who get auras but no headaches, which is sometimes called a “silent migraine”.

So while it’s not terribly worrying, it is certainly unpleasant — especially when you reach the stage where you can barely see. Other symptoms of the aura phase are anxiety, weakness, and confusion. Once I started experiencing those, I decided it was a good idea to call Nova and ask her to come meet me.

I was very calm when I spoke to her, but she came tearing straight down. “It was your extreme calmness that frightened me,” she said. I was doing much better by the time we got home. I had a little lie down, then we had some pork pie (which was gorgeous).

After lunch, Nova headed off to an exhibition on the Russian Revolution at the British Library with her friend Iris. I collected the little girls from drama, bringing Lily back for a play and some dinner. Those two are such nice friends — they are really suited to one another…

I’d just got stuck into some gardening (staking up my wildly overgrown sweet peas) when Adam called. He’d managed to miss his flight to Copenhagen (by sitting at the wrong gate) and was in a panic.

The best option seemed to be to fly somewhere near to Copenhagen, then get a plane or train first thing tomorrow. Malmo would have been ideal, but there were no flights this evening. “Wrclaw?! Where’s Wrclaw W R C L A W!!?” he shouted while I googled furiously.

It turned out Gothenburg in central Sweden was the best bet. While he waited to speak to a ticket agent, I researched morning flights and Swedish hotels. He made it onto the flight, and the crisis was averted…

By the time I finished gardening, I’d missed the start of leaders debate. I thought it was good, despite the seven-party format being a bit chaotic. Corbyn acquitted himself well. May didn’t bother to show up, sending Amber Rudd in her stead — a serious miscalculation, which led to a heap of well-deserved scorn.

May 30, 2017

Sophia seems to have slept the night, or if she didn’t, none of us noticed. The little sweetie was no trouble at all, aside from the necessary cat management. I let Cleo out first, then gave Lyra the heads up it was safe to emerge. She promptly got dressed and took Sophia off to Pond Square to do her business.We delivered her back to the neighbours at 9am. We were both sorry to see her go. “Don’t you feel emptier already?” Lyra asked on the way home. I wouldn’t go that far, but I certainly enjoyed having her, and would happily do it again. (BTW, I even googled “miniature schnauzer puppies for sale”, and discovered that they cost about £1000 — so don’t see us getting one of our own.)

Lyra is signed up for a Musical Theatre workshop at NLPAC this week with her friend Lily. We’d arranged to share the driving, but ten minutes before they were due to collect Lyra, her mum texted to say Lily wasn’t feeling well yesterday and decided not to go today. Good thing I hadn’t already left for my run…:-(

After dropping her off, I made a shopping trip of it: petrol, groceries, garden centre. I had a hankering to spend some time in the kitchen, and picked up the necessaries to make another pork, chicken and cranberry pie. I got it mostly done before I had to collect Lyra, leaving Nova to finish it off, decorate and pop it in the oven.

Salads for dinner, followed by the fruit pizza I also made. With everything sitting there on the dishwasher, I felt quite the domestic goddess. “Let’s get you back to the 1950s, shall we mum?” Nova quipped.

Also got some good gardening in: clearing the path, staking rogue roses, transferring my new plants outside. I would have done more but the mosquitos became too annoying.

After doing Lyra’s bedtime, Adam and I finished watching SS GB. I hadn’t realised it was a Len Deighton script. Or that he’s still alive. Or what a renaissance man he is: graphic designer, spy novellist, cookery writer, military historian…

May 29, 2017

Had a good night’s sleep for once, making it to after 7am before I woke. At which point I realised Adam had got up earlier without disturbing me. I always sleep more soundly when I have the bed to myself…I had the idea of getting the whole family to focus on an hour’s full-on housework. I let the kids choose their tasks — Nova sorted the piano corner, Lyra mopped the kitchen floor and tidied the DVDs — then cranked the music and flew at it. I got half an hour productive work out of each of the girls before they bailed. Better than expected actually…

I’m fasting today, so lunch preparation fell to Adam. Out of the blue he announced he was going to make bacon and egg in a glass. In our thirty years together, I have never heard him mention this dish, but apparently it was a Garfunkel favourite.

It is exactly as described. You peel a soft boiled egg, drop it into a glass and top with crumbled bacon. I didn’t taste it myself, but the girls were quite enthusiastic about it…

Spent the afternoon in the garden, despie spitting rain. Cleaned the patio area and side path, as well as the black storage cupboard beofre the weather finally drove me indoors.

In the face of steady campaigning from Lyra, I have agreed to have Sophia the neighbour’s miniature schnauzer round for a sleepover. Walked over with Lyra to collect her bed, blanket and teddy, lead, kibble and treats.

Lyra was enormously excited. Actually were all very happy to have the little thing here. All of us except Cleo… she got all hissy/growly whenever the dog came near, and it seemed prudent to keep them apart.

May 28, 2017

Woke up too early again. I’m feeling that rum punch… definitely a mistake…Made a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast. Lyra went to church with Lily, then back to theirs for lunch. And then ours…

After lunch, Nova set off to her friend Clara’s to study history. We’d arranged to visit the free Japanese koto music recital at the garden centre with Pete and Pasc, so the little girls had to either come with us or return to Lily’s. Unsurprisingly, they chose the latter…

A few years ago, some overseas property developers who bought the garden centre intending to build three luxury homes. Having been knocked back twice by planning decisions and local opposition, they are taking a different tack.

They’ve opened the site this week as part of the Chelsea Flower Show Fringe. It was clear that their “gardening” efforts had been knocked up in a few hours and the former store had been given a cursory facelift.

I don’t want to be cynical, but I remain to be convinced that they have changed their spots and this isn’t somehow part of a campaign to secure planning permission by “engaging with the community”…

Headed back to theirs for tea and cake, then played a couple of rounds of their new Secret Agent game (which I was predictably crap at…)

Another evening, another meal out… Sounds churlish, but I’ve had enough of all these lovely meals, and am quite looking forward to tomorrow’s fasting day. I never thought I’d be thinking that…

Tonight saw us round at our neighbours Brian and Karin’s. They’d invited another couple in our street, their niece (our age) and her husband. It was a very pleasant evening. The food was very good, and it was weirdly fun to sit down with an unfamiliar group and practice the art of conversation…

May 27, 2017

Felt a bit rough this morning…:-( Too much to drink and not enough food… Thinking about it today, I’d be surprised if my relatively expensive asparagus starter contained an entire spear of asparagus. It definitely didn’t include two. There was a lot of artistry with foams and gels and pickling and so on, but even so…Took it pretty slowly all day. Adam set off before 9am to collec Lyra from Charlotte’s and take her ice skating. Exam day… she didn’t pass, though her friend Palak did. I don’t think she’s hasn’t practiced enough –two skills she hasn’t mastered yet.

Went round to Will and Sara’s to watch the FA Cup final and have a barbeque. Nova was at a gig in Brixton, so Lyra had no choice but to come with. Brought a case beer and crisps, and Sara made rum punch — so I had that too…

It was a good match. Arsenal scored straight away — I think they actually set a record for fastest FA Cup goal scored. And when Chelsea eventually equalised, Arsenal immediately scored another one.

It was very tense at the end, despite Chelsea going down to ten men, but the Gunners prevailed and salvaged something from what has been a very mediocre season.

It was after 8pm by the time we sat down to eat. In the excitement of the match, I’d drunk too much without eating again. You’d think I’d learn… Still, it was a fun (if tipsy) evening. Lyra flaked out on the sofa eventually, and when it was time to go it seemed easier to leave her there than coerce her to walk home at midnight…

May 26, 2017

Ran four miles to Whitestone Pond and back. What with fasting the day before, I did it at my long run pace. I haven’t been running the Heath lately, for various reasons. I’m out of the habit, there’s less road time involved in running to the Woods (and thus better air quality), it’s cooler, and I love the stretch up to Ally Pally with the views over London.

However, I miss seeing the emerging blossoms on the Heath, particularly at this time of year, when the rhododendrons are at their best. They didn’t disappoint, although I’m probably a week late to see them in their fully glory…

Nova’s English exam went well. She says it was much better than the previous one on Jane Eyre and Romeo and Juliet, where the questions bore no resemblance to those on the specimen questions they were provided as study aids.

Had a meeting about the school website with Adam and the head teacher after school. The teachers are going to do a bunch of the writing, and we helped manage the process by preparing the writing brief they should adhere to.

Lyra had left for a sleepover at Charlotte’s by the time we got back. As Nova was out babysitting, we took the opportunity for a date night. I mixed up a couple of bloody Caesars before we set off to make a clear break with what has been a very busy working week.

Went to the Rio in Dalston to see “The Other Side of Hope“, — a Finnish film about the refugee situation in Europe. I’d booked a nearby restaurant called Salut! for afterwards — somewhere I’ve been wanting to try for ages.

It’s a tiny place with an open kitchen and great atmosphere. The food was very good, but there wasn’t enough of it. Especially considering I’d had a beer during the film. Also, I’m drinking a lot less these days — when I do, I find I don’t have the legs for it…

May 25, 2017

Fasting day today. I’ve becoming routine now — I don’t experience much, if any, hunger, and I love the time it frees up.Nova is doing the first of three maths papers this morning. This is the first year of new-style English and Maths papers (courtesy of that asshat Gove). Nobody has sat one until today — thus there are no sample papers from previous years to base your revision on.

Everyone was quite worried, but it sounds like it went okay. Tough but doable — though lots of students didn’t feel that way. It caused such an upset it made the evening news.

Had a meeting with my architecture client about the new website I’m building for her Roman villa project. We also went through the text I wrote for the Process section of her current site, which I uploaded when I got home.

Margaux came round to ours for a play after school. She’s a famously fussy eater, so I made a plain tomato sauce pasta, which seemed to go down alright.

Nova is running very short on sleep and got a bit tearful about her Lord of the Flies & poetry English paper tomorrow. Students actually need to memorise and regurgitate quotes from the book in their essays, which is just ridiculous.

Her tired brain wasn’t able retain them accurately, which was upsetting and worrying. I advised her to go to bed — sleep is definitely more important at this point. I also offered to get up at whatever ungodly hour she deemed necessary and help her memorise stuff. I think the system pushes them too hard — it seems wrong to me…

May 24, 2017

Helped Nova revise for her first (of three) physics papers, then drove her to school. The timing was tight, as I was invigilating a physics exam at the high school as well. They are sitting a different board, but it did occur to me that invigilators are well placed to cheat the system.I could be photographing exam pages and texting them to Nova or emailing her questions — especially today when I was assigned a separate room with only two candidates. I was on my own with the papers for twenty minutes before the students arrived.

The same two candidates I’ve had a couple of times — the tricky customer and the one who needs extra time. At least the tricky guy didn’t try to get me to answer questions this time, but he did stop after twenty minutes and want to leave.

In the end, I managed to keep him there for almost the whole hour (though I wouldn’t have actually done anything if he’d ignored me and walked out except make a note on the file).

Got home just before Lyra, who headed straight out again to walk the dog with her friend Saya. Too late to eat first by the time they got back, plus I had actually managed to cook anything. Dropped her at the pool then headed back to make salad rolls.

Adam briefly graced us with his presence before heading out for the evening. I ate with the girls in front of MasterChef, then did the full suite of Lyra stuff before bed. At least Nova wasn’t swimming again (first maths paper tomorrow)…

May 23, 2017

Woke to the news that there was a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena last night. Twenty-two dead… no doubt many of them the young girls who were attending the Ariana Grande concert. Any incident like this is incomprehensible and sickening, but even so, what kind of a person targets twelve-year-old girls..?.We were up until 2:30 last night making amends to the bank copy, and I put in another couple of hours this morning to complete them. We’ve pretty much spent the budget now, so here’s hoping we’re close this time.

(Speaking of banking, I’ve been billed twice for my web hosting, which happens every damn year…>:-( )

On a positive note, I received three nice compliments today:

Kid to Lyra: Is that your mum?
Lyra: Yes.
Kid: She’s beautiful!

Fifteen minutes later, running in Highgate Woods, I came up behind a little boy being carried in his mother’s arms. “Wow! That mummy is fast!” I heard him say as I chugged past.

Veronika popped round to collect some round lending her some stuff — windbreak, beach umbrella, cooler, etc — for their half term trip to Woolacombe. Apparently my olive and silver teeshirt is perfect on me, and really brings out my eyes and hair colour. That’s assuming I can still get it over my head, after all this praise…;-)

Adam out again this evening at another meeting, but at least Nova isn’t swimming (physics exam tomorrow), which makes life easier. We did some revision once Lyra was in bed. She seems to have the content down pretty well…:-)

May 22, 2017

Found it tough to wake up this morning, but managed to haul myself up by 7am. Managed to sort Lyra’s lunch, and form my over-risen dough into loaves before I had to rush off.Left an unwilling Adam to do the baking… I was hoping to say goodbye to the the McLaughlins, but it was all quiet in the flat, and I didn’t want to disturb them. It’s been so nice having them here…

Did my biggest exam so far — English Literature with more than 100 candidates. They’d pulled in a couple of agency invigilators in to make up the numbers. I can see why they are trying to build up internal capacity. Aside from being more expensive, they were pretty gormless. I suppose every school has their own way of doing things, but still… They were a right pair of wallies…

English was a two-hour exam, and after the first hour we were steadily taking candidates to the loos. They could only go one at a time and an invigilator had to accompany them, and wait outside the door.

Once we’d sorted out the papers from that exam, I had an hour and a half to kill. Not quite long enough to go home, unfortunately. It was a lovely day so I went and sat on the Heath. I would have eaten lunch there were it an eating day. As it was i just sat and read my book. (I’ll be glad to get my bloods done and discover whether this fasting is having the desired impact.)

Had a one on one exam in the afternoon — geography with the fidgety candidate from last week. I’d heard through the grapevine that he’d failed to write a single word in his english paper this morning, and the supervisor wasn’t even expecting him to turn up. He did — more or less on time — and off we went.

His manner was noticeably different today. I thought he seemed anxious, and made efforts to set him at ease before we got underway. Once again, he asked me a series of questions about the paper itself, which isn’t supposed to be happening.

Though it’s pretty awkward not to acknowledge someone when it’s just the two of you in a little room. I opted to help him when he didn’t recognise his OS map because he hadn’t unfolded it, but didn’t enlighten him when he asked me what “deprived” meant.

All told, I thought he made a pretty good fist of the exam. He wrote steadily, and commented a few times that there wasn’t enough time to get it all done. I discussed the situation with the exam supervisor afterwards, and he was reassuring about how I’m handling the situation. Our goal is to deliver a fair exam process that gives each candidate the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

If you’ve got a student who is to anxious to sit his exams in the main hall, I can’t see how scowling and shushing him is going to help him do his best. Equally, giving him any help on interpreting the questions would be unfair to all the other candidates…

Walked home afterwards, which takes about half an hour. Nova was in having finished her English Lit exam. (It was tough, but she thinks it went okay.) Adam was out for the evening, so I threw together a quick cauliflower curry for the girls, which they ate in front of MasterChef.

No exams tomorrow, which will give me a chance to get on top of things around here…

May 21, 2017

Lyra was keen to go to church this morning, as a few of her friends were going to be there. We were actually going to give it a miss this week, but in the end Adam took her along.

I sorted stuff around here — food, housework, yada, yada, yada — so that we could spend the day out with the McLaughlins. Nova was studying of course, and Lyra had Esther’s climbing party she needed to be escorted to and from, but we worked it all out eventually, and set off about 12:30.

Took the tube to Embankment, then took a TFL ferry out to Greenwich, using our Oyster cards. It was a lovely day for it — I’d brought a jacket, anticipating it would be cold on the water, but needn’t have bothered.

The trip took about half an hour, and was really good fun. (I’ll definitely do it with the girls (or at least Lyra) soon. She’d love it…)

Ate lunch at the Gipsy Moth pub, nabbing a seat in the crowded garden with a nice view of the Cutty Sark. My plan was to visit the Royal Observatory, but my the time I prised the gang from the pub and we trekked up there, it had closed. Oh well…

After a pint for the road, we headed back via the DLR, then the tube again. The men didn’t quite make it home — opting for another pint at the Wrestlers — but I wanted to ensure the girls were fed and sorted for the evening. Plus three pints is plenty for me, regardless of how much I space them over the day…

May 20, 2017

Woke the little girls before 9am, with the idea of getting Lyra to her ice skating lesson. She pleaded exhaustion, and I decided to let her off, figuring if the space campout had gone ahead, she wouldn’t have been skating anyway.Adam made them pancakes instead, then they hung out in their pjs until Millie and her friend Nannie came round to collect her about 11:30. Ended up going to the Gatehouse for lunch (except Nova, who opted to stay home and study).

Just as well… the service was super slow, she would have been climbing the walls… At least the food was good when it arrived — everybody’s but mine…:-(

Adam and Nannie had pluma (Iberian pork shoulder), and Millie and I went for steak. I rarely order steak in restaurants, and don’t know what possessed me today. Millie’s medium was a thick, beautiful, juicy medium-rare; my medium-rare was the thickness and toughness of a shoe sole.

The McLaughlins turned up about 8pm, having flown in from Belfast earlier today. Great to see them, and hear all about their time in Girona over a beer before bed.

May 19, 2017

Feeling a bit blue this morning, for no obvious reason…
Maybe it’s the suicide of Chris Cornell (Soundgarden’s frontman) at exactly my age. Maybe it’s the soul-destroying Trump/Brexit/election news. Maybe it’s the miserable British weather weather, where “the sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine”. Who knows…?Increasingly, I realise that life is a long game. Respect to those people who play the whole thing well. Coincidentally, Adam asked me this morning who I thought was the better artist – Basquiat or Picasso? (A Basquiat painting recently sold for some eye-watering amount.)

Impossible to judge… Basquiat achieved a lot in his 27 years, but was he the painter Picasso was at that age? Would he have stayed the course (as Picasso did)? Does dying young, and beautiful and tragically feed into his mystique?

When I went into the garage by chance, I discovered that the freezer door had been left ajar since the electricians visit. The food near the front was half thawed, resulting in an abrupt change to our dinner plans — plus some random cookery (apple leather, raspberry coulis).

Lucia is sleeping over tonight (Nova babysitting) so that we can all go to Millie’s 50th birthday party in Kentish Town. Caught the bus down after feeding the girls, and despite going quite early (I thought) yet again we managed to miss the food. Practically missed the booze as well, though I did neck a couple of glasses of pinot grigio before supplies ran out. Home about 1:30am…

May 18, 2017

No rest for the wicked…;-) Nova was in just before 6am so we could put in more chemistry revision before her exam this morning. She’s feeling a little anxious — and there are definitely topics she hasn’t spent enough time on — but she’s pretty solid on lots of it, and I expect she’ll do fine.We had an electrician round to sort out a myriad of little jobs that needed doing: a socket that’s hanging off the wall, two lights and a socket that have stopped working, the outside sensor light, and the weird circuit-tripping thing that happens every couple of weeks, leaving the boiler, phone and deep freeze without power all night…

He did the straightforward stuff, but doesn’t have a good explanation for the circuit problem. His theory is that it’s either because we are so close to the sub-station (it’s right next to John’s house), or that our deep freeze is antique.

I knew I wasn’t in any shape for brain work today, and could easily spend the day slumping around the place. So instead I threw myself into the housework — multiple loads of laundry, a top to bottom hoover, thorough cleaning of the girls’ room, which had descended into chaos.

Veggie soup and toast for dinner in front of MasterChef (though not for me, as it’s a fasting day). Nova’s exams both went well today — she felt pretty good about chemistry, and got her drama paper completed in time. Spanish tomorrow, then that’s three subjects down, eight to go…

Lyra’s space campout tomorrow evening has been cancelled due to the lousy weather forecast. She’s disappointed of course, as are a lot of parents in our class. It’s Millie’s 50th tomorrow, and people were counting on it for babysitting. I’ve said that Lucia can come here and Nova will look after them, but she’s predicting a fair few guests won’t be able to make it now…

May 17, 2017

Did my first exam in the main hall today — two different Maths papers. There was a lot more prep involved, and for the first time I could see the sense of getting there 45 minutes early. We had to:

• cut out candidate cards for each student
• arrange the candidates’ desks in a specific order
• set out the corresponding papers and formulae sheets
• mark any special requirements on their candidate cards
• interrogate them at the door about phones
• hand out a surprising amount of stationery (pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, calculators…)

Once things were underway, and the register marked, it was largely a matter of handing out more stationery, fetching tissues, accommodating latecomers (who still get the full time, so noting their separate start/finish times), and completing the register.

When the final late/extra-time student had left, we needed to sort and count the papers, sign the official register, seal the exams in special mail bags and deliver them to reception, and gather up the stationery that hadn’t been nicked. All told, I was there for over three hours…

Tried to get back to my banking web writing, but there was plenty of other stuff clamouring for my time and attention — swimming lessons, fixing dinner, unblocking the balcony drain, maths with Lyra, chemistry with Nova, piano practice, bedtime reading…

It was 10:30pm by the time I could focus on it properly. When Adam got home, we managed to get a decent first draft over the line by 1am…

May 16, 2017

Nova starts her GCSEs today… with two French papers, and her first Biology exam. She’s feeling pretty confident, which is nice to see. She’s been working pretty effectively since November, and I’m hoping it’s going to pay off for her…

I was invigilating a Biology paper in the afternoon, but managed to get a small chunk of writing work done this morning. They want us there 45 minutes early, which seems a lot — there isn’t much to do.

Once I was issued with my supplies I headed off to my room, stuck up the external notices, wrote all the relevant details on the white board, checked the clock was working, set out the papers and candidate cards according to the seating plan — which took about ten minutes — then waited for my two candidates to arrive.

They are sitting a massive Biology exam in the hall, but there are three side rooms for candidates with special arrangements. My two both required a “separate room”, though it didn’t indicate why.

It soon became clear… One candidate seemed quite anxious and high strung (and was also allowed an extra fifteen minutes). The other was fidgety and disruptive — within the first ten minutes, I’d confiscated his iPhone, helped him fill in the information on the front of the paper, and called over to determine if one of the questions “was a mistake” (it wasn’t).

After about twenty minutes, he closed his paper and asked to leave. (No, for one-hour exams they are required to stay the whole hour.) “I want to sit by the window.” (“You need to stay at your assigned desk.”) He then started doodling on the front of his paper, and loudly erasing it, making a sort of clicking sound, and twirling his pencil.

It didn’t seem fair to the other candidate (whatever his special needs might be), so I went off to consult with the head officer, who agreed we’d let him go after 45 minutes. He responded to that news by picking up his pen and writing steadily for the next ten minutes until he was allowed to go…

Nova came home completely buzzed about her first three exams. Apparently, they went really well, and have motivated her to study even harder. After a little debrief, she headed downstairs to do a practice Chemistry paper.

Moujadrah for dinner — a Persian version that I have made a few times and quite like. Lots of cumin, coriander, turmeric and cinnamon, with a heap of fried onions stirred through at the end.

May 15, 2017

I had an early exam to invigilate this morning. I was the first one out of the house at 7:45… It was just one guy doing an economics paper (the full-on GCSE cycle doesn’t kick in until tomorrow).My candidate was well-organised and serious, and worked steadily and efficiently without pause. There was nothing at all for me to do, except watch him without being creepy about it. I was feeling pretty fuzzy headed, and I was glad of the cold emanating from the draughty window that kept me awake for the whole 90 minutes.

Afterwards, I caught the train from Gospel Oak to the office, where we had a meeting about the website content. We’ve divided the sections between Shayla and me really, but had a productive discussion about how to make it less texty and more “fun”: quizzes, games, interviews, videos, checklists and so on.

Left about 5pm and had a great commute for once — making it home at 6pm. Just enough time to throw together a quick pot of pasta for everyone before heading right back out to attend my first neighbourhood forum committee meeting.

After half an hour of quibbling about the process for electing officers, bickering about the previous meeting’s minutes and splitting hairs about the terms of our constitution, I was thoroughly wishing I had never heard of the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum.

Things looked up when we started talking about what we might do with ourselves, assuming the referendum to endorse the plan goes through in July. Bless Alicia, she’s really made an effort to get some younger, new faces on the committee, instead of the usual Highgate Society stalwarts who run everything. We’ll see how well that pans out…

May 14, 2017

I was planning to go for a run, but was waylaid by an IT issue, and the window of opportunity closed…:(Our Vancouver friend Scott is DJ’ing on NYtheSpirit radio these days. His partner Carol has sent me rafts of info about how to subscribe to it, which I wanted to do so we can listen to his show this evening. Eventually got it set up on my computer, phone and through iTunes, but pretty sure it’s not going to work on our fancy new speaker thing. Grrr…

Made breakfast burritos for brunch, then switched to working on the Nordic web copy until we were due up at Footie Fun Day. Predictably, they were running late, and we stood around for a good hour before Lyra’s games got underway. At least the weather was nice…

Our class played a year 6 team first (1-1 draw), the other year 6 team (1-0 to us), and then came the grudge match with the opposite year five class. It was very evenly matched… they scored in the first half, and we equalised at the start of the second.

It was all very tense with good chances at each end, but then Lucia fell over a boy who tripped, which somehow resulted in a penalty to them. Which they scored… Another few minutes and the game was over. “It’s just a game” and all that but still bloody annoying to have it settled on a dodgy penalty. (And I’m definitely one of the more sanguine parents. “You’re so fucking Canadian!” Millie observed when I said something mildly positive about a player on the other team.)

Raced home to throw together dinner for Trevor and Marni — a complete repeat of last weekend, aside from making the potatoes lemony instead of saffrony. Great to see those guys, who are on the way home from a conference in Spain.

Ten years ago, Trevor won the rights to market the .eco domain. It has been a hell of a saga, but he finally launched a couple of weeks ago. Needless to say, the domain name market is unrecognisable from when he set out, and the business case isn’t what he’d envisaged back then.

Lots of commiserating about the trials of entrepreneurship and being your own boss — which basically means having the kind of dickhead boss you wouldn’t tolerate for a week in a normal job…;-)

To bed about 1am after too much port. Going to feel that tomorrow…

May 13, 2017

I was woken this morning by the sound of someone moving around upstairs.I was confused to discover it was 6:15am, and momentarily thought it was a work/school day. But it was just Nova getting up early to hit the books…Plenty of time for Adam and I to have a coffee-and-crossword session in bed — which isn’t code for anything more exciting…;-) He then headed off to the rink with Lyra, and I made a grocery list and menu plan. We’ve got Trevor and Marni coming round for dinner tomorrow.

Did a speedy grocery shop while the girls picked up our Greek staples (and ate lunch) at the farmer’s market. Lyra had footie training in the afternoon so Adam did that while I put in a couple of hours on our Scandinavian project.

I’m struggling to visualise exactly what it is we’re aiming to deliver. In my experience, one good way is to do what you think is right and the client will soon set you straight…

Salads for dinner — potato salad and Vietnamese chicken — in front of MasterChef. We’ve got yet another 50th birthday party this evening (our friend Karen’s this time), so was hedging my bets in terms of food.

Decided to glam up a bit too, after my experience with Pasc’s party. Pegged it about right — most women were in cocktail dresses, jumpsuits, that sort of thing. Could have got away without eating. They had someone tending an enormous paella pan in the back garden, and a table of salads as well.

There was also a marquee on the lawn and a live band playing salsa music. Their lawn is only slightly less slopey than ours, and you couldn’t help but notice that people were clumping up at the “bottom” of the dance floor…;-)

Never mind… by midnight I was out there, trying gamely to dance to salsified Gloria Gaynor, in heels, on a 20° incline…

May 12, 2017

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t feel like restarting my running routine this morning… Took a couple of paracetamol, and a gentle attitude to myself until the fog lifted around noon. Adam wasn’t feeling too powerful either, and opted to “work at home” until his afternoon meeting in Shoreditch.I did manage to edit and send that new web text to my client by 10am (followed swiftly by my invoice), so the morning wasn’t a write-off. Also baked a batch of gingersnaps as we are completely out of baked goods. I find cooking on fasting days to be a bit odd, as tasting is so integral to the process. I just wasn’t as confident that cookie dough was right without licking the bowl clean…;-)

Adam was out at his book group this evening, so I fed the girls pesto pasta and we watched a couple of episodes of MasterChef together. It’s the finals this weekend — no way we’re going to be caught up by then. We’re on episode 11 out of 24.

Once Lyra was down, I wormholed into Twitter to see what that asshat of a Trump had got up to in the last 24 hours. Threatening tweets to Comey alluding to an illegal recording he claims to have made at their last meeting. Oh, and the global ransomware attack that shut down 44 NHS hospital trusts, Spain’s main telephone service, and businesses in 97 other countries. What a world…:-(

May 11, 2017

Started my morning with a big argument with Lyra who is cultivating a really rude tone these days. Something she said made me lose my temper and yell at her, and she ran downstairs in tears.She insists that the rudeness isn’t intentional — but that doesn’t cut it with me. Made up in time to walk her to school and parted on good terms, but the incident coloured my morning.

Mixed up a batch of sourdough starter at breakfast and by 3:30pm I had two lovely finished loaves cooling on the rack. My starter is so much zippier these days…:-)

A good chunk of my day was spent squeezing out a thousand words of web copy for my architect client. I’ve been failing to get it done for the past month, partly because I wasn’t happy with the structure we’d agreed. I’ve actually produced something quite different — and a lot better — than what we’d originally thought was needed.

Had Lucia round after school to help out Millie. The girls disappeared the moment we got home, and when the doorbell went I had that slightly embarrassing thing when the mum shows up and you realise you have no idea where their child actually is. Are they in the flat? The garden? On the parade ground? Buying sweets in the High Street? Dog walking in Waterlow Park? Happily it was the first option…;-)

Fixed Lyra a microwaved jacket potato with beans and cheese for her dinner. Nova was eating at Wahaca with friends, and Adam and I had a last-minute freebie to an Errazzuriz wine tasting dinner in the Angel.

Ruby came round to babysit and I headed off with a printout of my just-that-moment finished draft of my text, which I edited on the tube. It needs a bit of a polish and sharper messaging, but I’m broadly happy with it now.

The event was crowded, though not with our friends who usually attend. Becky and Edmund were, so it was a chance to catch up with them. Adam picked up a hot new business prospect as well, so all in all it was a very good night…

May 10, 2017

Better again, though going to give it a couple more days before I return to running…I did my first invigilation shift today. It was an atypical one — just three students sitting two different English exams. Nevertheless, they had to provide two invigilators so that one could leave the room if necessary (to accompany a student to the loo, say) without leaving the other candidates unsupervised.

It was also surprisingly eventful… One candidate didn’t show up, one required a laptop, which meant rearranging desks. An unregistered candidate turned up ten minutes late, and was eventually accommodated, which meant three different finishing times.

There were questions, laptop issues, a trip to the loo, and a teacher rattling at the locked door despite the “Quiet — Exam in Progress” sign (I didn’t let him in). Hard to imagine how the situation might scale up when we have a hundred candidates to manage…

Pork-chicken pie and coleslaw for dinner in front of MasterChef. Drove Lyra to swimming, where parking was so awful I ended up coming home again then returning for her twenty minutes later. Adam back in time to collect Nova and Evelyn, sparing me a third trip…

May 9, 2017

My throat feels a bit better today. I’m still croaky and have developed an irritating, dry cough, but not turning into a full-on head cold, fingers crossed…Into the office with Adam for a briefing on our new project — writing the copy for an onboarding website for a Scandinavian bank. After the meeting, I pulled together a draft site map before it was time to head home.

Lyra was already in when I got back, and on her own as Nova was studying at school today. I threw together a quick potato-egg curry (Nova thought it was the best curry I have ever made, bless her) and watched an episode of MasterChef with the girls.

They were pretty low calibre contestants. Barring disaster, I would have sailed through the first round, and probably made it through to the quarter-finals — and I never think that.

Ruby came round to babysit for a couple of hours this evening. I dropped Nova and Evelyn at swimming then carried on to Muswell Hill to meet a few class parents at the cinema.

Millie organised the outing to see Mindhorn, which one of the dads in our class stars in and wrote. I didn’t think it would be up my alley, but I really enjoyed it — funny, silly, and touching in equal measure…

May 8, 2017

I could tell the moment I woke that my throat was worse. I’ve pretty much lost my voice as well. I need to have it back by the time I start invigilating on Wednesday afternoon, so it’s a steady flow of lemon-ginger tea and salt water gargle for me.Lyra’s throat is sore too — we’ve probably contracted up the same virus. Sent her off to school all the same — Monday is her busy day, with gymnastics, violin, girls’ sport and drama. It’s a lot to miss…

Knocked off that proposal I’d avoided writing on Friday and sent it off, then carried on with the endless mum-housewife-consultant-blogger juggling act that comprises my life.

Nova was hard at the revision today — her GCSEs begin next Tuesday. She had a productive morning of biology and French. After lunch, she got some exercise taking Sophia for a walk, then hit the books again.

I plugged away at various things, including preparing food like hummus, house salad dressing, and pesto I always aim to have in the fridge. It was slightly complicated by being a fasting day — ie, no tasting — but I’ve made those things so many times, tasting isn’t essential.

Chickpea pasta soup for dinner (ditto), after which we were going to watch an episode of MasterChef. When Lyra bagged my spot, I huffed off and refused to watch.

Also bailed on going to the AGM for the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum. I’m standing for a place on the committee, so really ought to have gone, but hated the thought of sitting there while they chose me (or not), or worse having to stand up and croak out some sort of appeal for votes.

Adam went along, while I changed into my pyjamas and took to my bed. He texted to let me know they decided to accept fifteen nominees and co-opt the remaining three, so I’m on. Yay…

May 7, 2017

I heard the little girls chatting away by 8am, which was just as well, as we needed to bring the sleepover to an end at 9:30 so Lyra could go to church, then straight on to Saya’s horseriding party. Happily, Tanja texted offering to take Lyra to both — yes please!

Popped out to the pharmacy as soon as it opened to collect a prescription. (I actually needed it last night, but with all the unexpected dinner party excitement, I forgot.) Jamie Oliver’s wife and two of his daughters were the only other customers.

Jools was buying a fistful of toothbrushes, multiple bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and multiple sachets of baby food. I was surprised by the baby food — you’d think Jamie would be up to whipping up some “pukka” purées when required…;-)

In the afternoon, I took Nova to TK Maxx to look for a prom dress, but the shopping gods weren’t smiling on us. I did get a cute little handbag for myself, and a birthday present for Fay, so it wasn’t a complete washout.

On the way over to give Fay her present, we got chatting with Sophia the mini-schnauzer’s “parents”. When Richard floated the idea of Sophia coming round ours for a sleepover, Lyra nearly short-circuited with excitement. It’s okay by me, though I’d want them to have a look round the house first to confirm the little thing can cope with our open staircase.

Made a pork and chicken pie for dinner (I’d like to get that Great British Bake-off challenge off my list). It was quite fun to make — hot water pastry is rather sculptural.

The damn thing took forever to cool… I ended up having to cut it while it was still bit warm, which wasn’t ideal. Vegetarian Lyra was pretty underwhelmed by her store-bought cauliflower cheese pie. “Why didn’t you get one with vegetables I like?” she complained. (That would be because there wasn’t a cucumber, carrot, and corn-on-the-cob pie on offer…)

Ate in front of MasterChef. The humourless Russian woman who made a starter of buckwheat sushi with horseradish and pickled cabbage was the highlight of this episode.

Once Lyra was down, I ran a bath and had an early night. I can feel a sore throat menacing. Feck… no running for me tomorrow…

May 6, 2017

I’m very happy to have my guy back, though he does have a negative impact on the quality of my sleep. Having woken me before 5am with his thrashing about, he immediately dozed straight off again, while I lay awake for an hour…:-( And when I finally managed to drift off, I had the weirdest dream:

I was visiting Tom Cruise and his wife, who had a gorgeous marmalade cat. When I went to pick it up, the cat said in a strange growly voice, “Don’t cuddle me, I don’t like it.” I thought it was amazing that it had been trained to parrot that phrase, but it turned out to be a talking cat with opinions on all manner of topics.

The others guests were pretty weird. Many of them were in their 60s or older, and seemed stoned for the most part. They were wandering around half out of it and half dressed — getting into infantile arguments with one another.

Tom Cruise had a very ordinary little house, similar to our home on McBride. In the backyard, was an enormous capybara in a cage. And across the fence, his neighbour had a giant grouse the size of an elephant. It was jumping up and down, raising great clouds of dust…

And then I woke up… Where the hell does this stuff come from?

Made a batch of sour cherry muffins before Adam took Lyra ice skating. Home for a quick lunch, then off to football training in Highgate Woods. Adam and I headed to Finchley afterwards, where I had an eye test (all good) and he visited his parents.

We were heading to the supermarket to get some groceries when he informed me he’d agreed to Lyra having a double sleepover at ours with Charlotte and Lucia. Not thrilled with the idea, as she’s had sleepovers the last two weeks, but there it was.

Picked up ready-made pizzas, a microwaveable brownie cake, and some snack treats to the shop for the kids’ meal, and fresh squid and prawns for the fennel-seafood salad I’d already planned to make.

Earlier in the week, Adam had invited Kiran and Birgit for dinner. Having not heard back, we assumed they weren’t coming. We were just paying up, when it became clear that they were coming (Adam hadn’t received their reply for some reason). He took the groceries to the car while I did another quick spin round shop composing a dinner party menu on the fly.

We were pretty tight on time… Adam tackled housework while I got the four girls fed. Once they were out of the way, I threw a batch of saffron potatoes in the oven and prepped the seafood-fennel salad.

There wasn’t much I could do in advance for the main dish (roast cod loins on a bed of chorizo and samphire with lemon sauce). Adam roasted some almonds for the starter and we hustled downstairs to wash and change.

It was a really nice evening, and all the dishes turned out went pretty well. I wish I’d made croutons instead of serving the seafood salad on toast, and the lemon sauce could have been better, but those are quibbles.

Dessert was mango ice cream with fresh raspberries, followed cheese and grapes. To bed about 1am.

May 5, 2017

During morning cuddle, she asked me how to make granola. “Well, you take whole oats and mix them with nuts and seeds, then toss them in a mixture of…” I began, before she interrupted. “No, how you make it for breakfast?” Five minutes later, she was back with a bowl for me to enjoy in bed, bless her…XI’d thought of going to a boxing class this morning, but the sun was shining gloriously and a run seemed more appealing than a smelly gym. Plus, I didn’t have the £10 to hand. Ran to Ally Pally along the Parkland Way, then an extra loop round Highgate Woods to make a 4.5 mile route.

Couldn’t seem to get down to my most pressing work task today — writing a proposal for a possible new website. Instead I did some housekeeping on two sites I manage, wrote a food post, cleared a backlog of emails. I never like writing proposals, and now I’ve got one hanging over my weekend…:-(

Made cold plates for the girls’ dinner (I’m fasting today, starting after the unexpected breakfast-in-bed treat): tabbouleh, tzatziki, olives, pitta, and mum’s potato salad, which proved a huge hit. (I seem to remember them bitching about it the last time I made it.)

Lyra discovered that we somehow missed the return of MasterChef (it’s at episode 20 already) so after dinner we sat down and ploughed through the first few shows. Inspiring stuff — I jotted down several ideas….

I was still awake when Adam got back from Stockholm at midnight. Sounds like the workshop went well, and the client is happy. Happy clients — that’s what we want…

May 4, 2017

Invigilation training at the local boy’s high school this morning. Unsure about how long the walk would take, I hopped on a 214 that was just leaving. That took all of four minutes…There were five new recruits at the session, three of whom I remembered from the “interview” day, plus a PhD student who’s picking up extra cash while finishing his thesis. We’re quite the mixed bag…

It all sounds pretty straightforward, though there is a lot to keep track of as well. With even more form filling, the whole thing took about two hours. I am now an auxilliary member of staff…

Walked home, which took exactly 25 minutes, and was good exercise as it’s basically all uphill. Did some architect work as well as some reading around Theory U, which will inform the new project we’re doing with the Scandinavian bank. Adam is flying to Stockholm this afternoon for an all-day meeting with them tomorrow, and our project kick-off is on Tuesday.

When the girls got home, my focus inevitably shifted to helping with homework, supervising music lessons, housework and making dinner. We had a courgette filo pie and salad — I liked it, but it was a bit of a bomb with the girls.

Conversation at dinner… Me: “Are those three candles I noticed in your bedroom scented?” Lyra: “Yes, they’re strawberry, pine and dishwasher.” Nova: “Linen!” Lyra: “Same difference…”

May 3, 2017

Woke this morning to the sound of Lyra playing the piano — Morning (from the Peer Gynt Suite). How lovely to hear that drifting through the floorboards…:-)Nova had another dress up day at school. Yesterday was “naughty St Trinians”, today it was “dress the decades”. She headed out in a hot pink vintage dress of mums and a pair of her heels. I used to love that dress as well, and wore it all the time when I was in my teens:

Freaking cold again today. I had to relent and turn the heat on for a bit as my fingers were too cold to type…:-(

It was pelting with rain when it was time for Lyra’s swimming lesson. Plus there was a special event at the Mallinson and no parking anywhere close. Dropped Lyra off, and ended up circling the neighbourhood twice before I ended up parking closer to home than the swimming pool.

Cauliflower-chickpea curry for dinner. I’ve told Lyra that I’m completely happy for her to try being a vegetarian for a month and to adapt her meals accordingly, but that the rest of us will continue to eat as normal.

But the reality is we don’t eat meat all that often. Plus this is a great opportunity to put some new veggie dishes on the table that she might have turned her nose up at.

May 2, 2017

Ran four miles this morning, for the first time in ages. According to my running app, I last ran that distance on January 19th. That’s not great…Today is a fasting day. I find it works well to fast after a run — running seems to suppress my appetite for one thing, and I definitely wouldn’t feel like running after fasting for a day.

Got some “real” work done, though it’s never as much as I’d like or intend: a catch-up meeting with a website one of my clients advertises on, a few emails that required some thought, and a stack of on-boarding forms I need to complete before my adjudicator training on Thursday.

Did some tutor homework with Lyra, sat in on her piano practice, mended and pressed a dress of mums that I used to wear in high school so Nova can wear it to school herself tomorrow, made dinner, cleaned and tidied the house, and whoosh… the day was gone.

May 1, 2017

Remembered to say “rabbits” this morning, and to get Adam and the girls to say it too. I know it’s silly, but I like it when the month starts that way.We’d planned to do another bluebell walk this morning, and despite the chilly, grey weather, lack of enthusiasm on the girls’ part, and failure to get away as early as we wanted, we followed through.

At times we seemed to be driving into the eye of a storm as we made our way to Essex. But the weather gods weren’t out to get us today, and while it was definitely the shittiest day of the weekend, we avoided getting rained on and the bluebells were excellent.

Lunch was a sandwich and a pint at the nearest pub before we headed home. Lyra is going vegetarian this month — this was her first test. She ALWAYS orders some sort of chicken when we eat out, but instead had a mozzarella and red pesto toastie.

The rain kicked in big time on the journey, but that was no skin off our noses. Stopped at the supermarket for some essential groceries, and got back mid-afternoon. Adam and I took turns napping on the sofa, Nova hit the books, and Lyra pootled around doing not much of anything.

She’ll need to change her ways for the next few months. She’s got a looming violin exam, piano recital, as well as the first half of the Latymer entrance exam, which she’s keen to do. She’s a lot less keen to practice for any of these things, which resulted in Adam losing his temper and Lyra in tears…:-(

Finished watching Big Little Lies this evening. I was a good adaptation of the book (in some ways better), though it got a little confused at the end. Adam didn’t even realise that the big reveal had happened…