October 2005

October 31, 2005

It was Simonia’s first day today. I resisted the temptation to call her until I was leaving work. It sounded fine, except for an issue with Nova that I couldn’t quite understand. Her English isn’t as good as I thought it was when I interviewed her. I guess it’s harder understanding people on the phone, but I hope it improves over the coming months.

They were sitting in the living room eating biscuits and watching TV when I got in. The incident turned out to be a bout of diarrhoea (not the most common vocabulary word I guess).

Simonia got Nova into her witch costume while I carved the jack-o-lantern. We headed over to Ruby’s, who was dressed as a fairy — “A night time fairy!” Nova corrected me.

This is the third year they’ve gone trick-or-treating together. Called on the usual suspects: the Martins, Anne and John, Etta’s, Pete and Pasc’s and a couple of other houses that had jack-o-lanterns in the window.

We had a reasonable crowd round ours this year — I think we got thirteen kids in the end. Nova was very tired by bedtime — I expect the full school day tuckered her out as well.

I had no energy left for going to the gym. We made a Vietnamese chicken salad and relaxed with a bit of telly.

October 30, 2005

The clocks went back this morning, which was a small mercy… We managed a bit of a lie in, before our parental responsibilities had us ambulatory. It was nothing a couple of ibuprofen and a large coffee couldn’t fix.Spent a good hour in the garden. While Nova picked apples, I cleared up the vegetable garden, and and winterised the patio. We’ve got a respectable crop of apples these year, though most of the garden was a bit of a disappointment.

Nova and I made sweet apple crumble (the last one was too tart for her), and a batch of chocolate Halloween cookies. Dinner was marinated tuna with basil polenta. Nova baulked at the crumble again. The whole crumble drama wound Adam up so much he had to leave the table. It turns out the problem is the texture of the apples — she doesn’t like the way they get so mushy.

October 29, 2005

Went for my weekly run with Pasc. We had an unofficial weigh in (we’ve given ourselves this week off) and we’re all 2-3 pounds up from last week, except for Adam (for obvious reasons).

Adam took Nova to the Balamory stage show at the Hammersmith Palace this afternoon. I was busy cooking up a storm. The recipes sounded great, but were quite a bit of work.

When they arrived, we had a round of wine spritzers, then sat down to our food: grilled prawns with mint-coriander chutney; cumin blackened chicken breasts, with a cauliflower pea curry, honeyed aubergine raita and chappatis; with mango rice pudding for dessert. We got through a couple more bottles of wine, and had a really good time.

Ended up dancing to the iPod on shuffle, which veered between pop, C&W, Nova’s car tunes, and a Bach prelude, to which we performed an impromptu gavotte. I’ve always maintained that the best parties have the fewest people. To bed about 1am…

October 28, 2005

Adam’s feeling a little better this morning, though he avoided breakfast. He’d made us appointments at a Muswell Hill dentist who’d stuck a leaflet through the door, promising treatment on the NHS. Dentists willing to register NHS (instead of private) clients are rare as unicorns, and we should have been tipped off by the way they were advertising for business.

We arrived at a grotty little shopfront in a down-at-heel parade of shops. The white dental surgery sign actually had thick green moss growing round the edges, which set a bad tone. The vertical blinds were creased and sooty. I wanted to keep on walking, but Adam prevailed.

Inside, it was pretty much a building site. There was a crappy typo-infested sign apologising for “any inconvenience” the building works might cause. A scruffy guy sitting at a computer (who I hoped to hell wasn’t the dentist) got us to fill out some forms, and kept mispronouncing our names. The was a builder on his knees in the hall (builder’s crack in full view). He was wielding an enormous masonry drill, which — like the mossy sign — created the wrong sort of images in your mind.

Adam went first… While he was gone, I decided to make a break for it with Nova. I actually got her back to the car on some flimsy pretext, but she was outraged at the idea of not seeing the dentist, and so we returned.

“Why don’t you like the dentist, mummy?” she asked. “Because it’s filthy,” I said. “In Canada, dentist offices aren’t filthy.” You couldn’t find a tattoo parlour on Hastings St in such a state. “Well, why don’t you pretend you are in Canada, then you’ll like the dentist.” she suggested. When it was our turn, we stepped over builder’s legs, extension leads, and round piles of crap to where the dentist waited.

She was a nice Middle Eastern woman, who gave me a cursory check, and scraped a bit between my middle teeth, and pronounced me done. She couldn’t have spent five minutes on Nova. No doubt she’ll bill the NHS hundreds of pounds for that “check-up”…

Ate lunch in Muswell Hill and did some shopping before moving on to Waitrose. Bought everything I needed for tomorrow’s dinner party. We’re having Pete and Pasc round. I’m reproducing an Indian menu from the Waitrose magazine, including the wine recommendations. It’s supposed to be relatively light for Indian food.

Nova and I watched Bambi this afternoon. When I asked her I she knew anything about the story, she said, “Oh, yeah, Bambi’s mum dies,” but she didn’t seem that bothered. Watching the film, it was clear she hadn’t really processed the information. She kept asking where his mum was, and got pretty unhappy when I said she wasn’t coming back. I can remember seeing it in the cinema as a little girl, and the shock I felt when I realised that she had been killed.

October 27, 2005

Our last day… I dropped the Moreau museum from the itinerary yet again (I’ve dropped that particular museum on any number of visits). Spent the morning at the Pompidou. There was a terrific children’s exhibit on shadows and light exhibition. You could take light photos of yourself against the wall, and there were lots of other fun things for Nova to get stuck into.

Rode the escalator afterwards, and took in the amazing views. Nova had spied a carousel in Les Halles, so I detoured by there so she could have a ride (Paris is full of gorgeous, antique carousels) while Adam went to pick up the bags.

Ate croque monsieurs at a Montorgeuil cafe in the sun, then caught the metro to Gare du Nord. Adam had misplaced his passport, and unpacked my entire bag on the concourse before finding it somewhere completely different.

The train rocked and swayed noticeably on the way back. I felt a bit queasy, Adam felt worse, and Nova ended up ralphing into a plastic shopping bag I hastily dug out of my luggage. By the time we got home Adam was feeling really sick, and eventually had a massive diarrhoea attack, followed by fever and chills. I think he must have food poisoning. I blame that dubious charcuterie.

I had a bowl of soup, and watched TV while he took to his bed. Poor guy, but that should teach him to eat raw bacon…;-)

October 26, 2005

Started with the Eiffel Tower this morning. There was a discouragingly long queue, but it moved quite quickly and we were in the elevator in about a half hour. It was reasonably clear, and we enjoyed the various views. Nova managed to wedge her head through the railings at one stage, but extracted herself before it turned into an incident.

Ate lunch in a great little restaurant in Rue Cler, yet another terrific Paris food street. Oysters (I could eat oysters every day), steak and chips, and a glass of red. Stewed apples and ice cream to share for dessert. (I would be an absolute tank if I lived in Paris…)

After stopping at a playground so Nova could have a run around, we boarded the bateau bus and travelled along the Seine to Notre Dame. An elderly couple kept looking at Nova and smiling and after a while the husband asked permission to take her photo. I noticed the woman looked a bit teary afterwards, and wondered if perhaps Nova reminded her of someone else…

The best part of the boat ride was looking at all the people sitting along the banks. They looked so posed with their thick tomes, and cool sunglasses and bottles of wine. I suspect they are all American tourists who think they are doing something Parisian, that in reality a real Parisian wouldn’t be caught doing…

Nova enjoyed Notre Dame. When I explained about all the little candles she suggested lighting one for grandma Fern, which we did. She’s really getting into all the Mary and Jesuses, and is curious as to why so many of them are missing their heads.

Bought Nova a crepe in a cafe, then headed back to the flat. Once she was settled, we ate a cheese plate dinner. Adam finished off some charcuterie he’d bought a couple of days ago. I wasn’t convinced by it last time. I thought it tasted like raw bacon, but Adam thought they wouldn’t serve raw bacon on a plate with salami and ham. Personally, I wouldn’t trust a nation that eats raw steak and even raw horsemeat — why wouldn’t they eat raw bacon? I chose to save room for the Italian ice cream I’d bought for dessert.

October 25, 2005

Almond croissants for breakfast this morning. Not my favourite kind — I hadn’t realised what a picky pastry person I am…;-) I like the flaky ones with the long strip of marzipan inside. These are the ones that look like they’ve been flattened by an iron.

The phone rang, and I picked up to a man speaking French. I was quite pleased with the way I could follow what he was saying, until I realised it was Pete. He and Pasc and the kids are also in Paris, and staying not far from us. We arranged to meet at La Défense at 11am.

There is a great glass elevator that whooshes you up the side of the arch, where you can admire the view, all the way down the Champs Elysée to the Arc de Triomphe. It was fun for Nova to be with her friends, and nice for us as well.

We ate a crappy lunch in a huge chain restaurant (there wasn’t much to choose from). Sid, and Fay had pizzas but Nova insisted she didn’t want pizza. “Would you rather have salmon and rice?” I asked. She agreed she would, but when it arrived she was disappointed with it. It turns out she thought she was ordering a salmon-rice pizza. Pasc swiftly resolved this problem by scraping the topping off a couple of Fay’s slices and arranging rice and salmon on top.

On two separate occasions, Japanese tourists took photos of Nova and Fay. They probably thought they were French…

Adam, Nova and I ate dinner at Bofinger this evening. Adam and I ate here eight years ago, and sat at pretty much the same table. In fact I’m pretty sure the same waiter served us. It’s a gorgeous Art Deco room, and the food is very good. We started with a dozen oysters, then I had the scallops and chanterelles, which was delicious but very rich. Nova wasn’t very hungry, and had a side of fries, and Adam ordered the “famous andouillete” (a type of sausage).

He wasn’t scared off when the waiter double-checked the order with him, though he should have been… The sausage that arrived was the size of a turd, and smelled a little worse, reeking of innards and death. It was a stretch to call it a sausage, the skin held together a loose mass of rubbery tripe and god knows what else (the filling is coyly described as “chitterlings”, which sounds far too benign for what spilled from that sausage skin).

Adam soldiered through it with grim determination, aside from the small bite I choked down. Dessert? Absolutely. They brought English menus this time, where I discovered we’d narrowly avoided ordering Nova the innocuous sounding “pied du porc pavé maison Harcouin, pommes frites et sauce Bearnaise” was actually “breaded pigs feet, St Menehould style”. There’s some truth in that old “fricassée of telephone book” joke.

Had a chocolate mousse, and a creme brulée (both served in veritable basins) and a pear tart with ice cream. Adam had a stiff Armagnac as well to wash away the memory of that famous andouillete. Walked until we found a taxi, then stayed up for a bit as we were too full to sleep.

October 24, 2005

Adam set off to forage for breakfast while the coffee brewed, returning with a croissant for him and a pain au raisin for me. It’s not my favourite pastry — there’s something off-puttingly eggy about them, but this one was delicious. It should be, coming from Stohrer, the oldest, and one of the most prestigious, bakeries in Paris.

Breakfast over, we caught the Metro to the Cluny museum (the museum of the Middle Ages). The big draw was the Lady and Unicorn tapestry cycle. Nova really got into it, and carried out a surprisingly insightful analysis. Each tapestry is about one of the five senses, which she picked up immediately. She was flummoxed by the final tapestry where the woman renounces worldly things, which is depicted by her rejecting some jewellery — “No, mummy, she’s taking the jewellery!” she kept saying.

I started feeling pre-migrainy, which sucked. Though nothing eventually came of it, I’m sure stressing about symptoms doesn’t help. Walked up to the Jardin du Luxemburg, which has an amazing children’s playground. I regrouped on a bench while Adam followed Nova around the various climbing frames, see-saws etc.

We’d noticed the author Will Self with a small boy, and after a bit, I went over and started a conversation. When someone has a particular public image, it’s always surprising when it doesn’t align with the real person. I was half expecting a coruscatingly sarcastic and witty putdown to my comment about Paris playgrounds, but he was charming and polite. Adam told him how much we’d enjoyed his essays on Radio 4, particularly the one on what an oxymoron “sports personality of the year” is.

Ate lunch at Cosi — a sandwich bar that cooks the bread on the premises in a woodfired oven. Adam ordered a plain smoked salmon sandwich for Nova, and became quite agitated when the man started putting in creme fraiche and chives and things. Those situations are often stressful, because you feel that your inadequate French might be the problem. Happily, we got it all sorted out, and had a very nice lunch.

Walked down Boulevard St Germain afterwards, past the famous cafes and pricey shops. Bought Nova a new skirt and top and school shoes. Walked back along the Seine, through Louvre, and home. We walked miles today, and Nova was really quite good about it, wanting shoulder rides only at the end.

It was my turn for a food foray: I ventured out and spent a very pleasant half hour buying slices of quiche, salad, ham, tomato, avocado, and a piece of strawberry torte for dessert. Polished off the bottle of complementary apartment wine along with it.

Nova wet our bed this evening. We discovered it when we were transferring her to the couch. We rotated the sheets and blankets around and put a towel over the wet spot on the mattress. She was probably too tired out from all the walking to wake up when she needed to.

October 23, 2005

Set off promptly at 10am. We’ve decided to travel light, and kitted Nova out with a little backpack containing all her clothes and toys. The Northern Line was crap as usual, which introduced a level of stress into what was an otherwise generous schedule.

The Eurostar has gone a bit down market since our last trip. The departure area was heaving with shell suits, bad dye jobs and kids munching their breakfast crisps. The same thing happened with air travel. I remember when our family flew to Whitehorse in the mid 1970s (the only family flight we ever took), we dressed in our best clothes for the occasion.

It was good to be back in Paris, and although it’s been seven or eight years since my last visit it felt very familiar. Our flat off rue Montorgeuil just north of les Halles was on the third floor, reached by ancient slanting staircase. It was very bijou as they say in the real estate world — actually it reminded me of my old Nelson Street flat.

Had a bit of a relax then set out for a walk, ending up at the Pompidou. Nova was very taken by the glass escalator running along the side of the building. Had a drink near the water fountain with all the Daliesque water sculptures, then ate dinner on rue Montorgeuil.

It’s a great area, very central and buzzy, with marvellous food shops and restaurants. We settled on a nice looking bistro, which filled up within about fifteen minutes of opening for the evening. I ordered the maché and parmesan salad, with duck confit and sauté potatoes, Nova had sausage and chips, while Adam had some creamy artichoke prawn thing, and roast lamb. We shared a half litre of wine and a melting chocolate pudding.

The one hour time difference worked in our favour. Nova was still on good form at 8pm, and wanted to talk about when she was a baby. She kept asking me to tell her baby stories, preferably ones that I hadn’t told her before. She listen intently, then tell it back to me but make it about her and baby Lola. The tables were very close together, and she drew quite an audience.

Back in the flat, we settled Nova in the bedroom, then spent the rest of the evening planning our itinerary. When it was time for us to go to bed, we made up the hide-a-bed and shifted her to the living room.

October 22, 2005

Pasc bowed out of our run this morning, but was still keen to do the weigh in. I discovered why when I arrived… She’s been on some sort of of bizarre starvation diet that she swears by, which promises you will lose ten pounds in three days. She’s done it for two days, and was down over four pounds. (I found a link to it on the web where it is erroneously described as a “food combining” diet. Any diet that recommends tinned hotdog sausages isn’t the diet for me…)

After her two days of deprivation she was planning a breakfast in bed blowout with the kids. I left her to that, and set off for a run on the Heath. I followed my six-mile route, taking a minute walk break after every ten minutes running. I’m used to doing nine and ones, but Wendy does ten and ones, so I thought I’d switch to what she does, in case I do end up running that marathon…;-)

Nova went to Hugo’s “spooky birthday party” in the afternoon. She looked fabulous in her witch costume, and had a great time scaring people (starting with Anne and John) and casting spider spells on the walk over. I stayed for the first hour, chatting and drinking wine with the other parents, then left her to it.

When I returned to pick her up, she was in a huff, because someone had cleared away her hotdog before she’d finished eating it. It looked like a great party even so… Her party bag was full of Halloween style treats and toys. Pulling out a little rubber skeleton, she cried, “Old rattle bones! I’m going to dance with him at midnight!” No idea where that came from…

October 21, 2005

Happy birthday, mom! You would have been 78 today…
Nova had a little boy from her class, Oskar, around to play after school Adam “supervised” while I headed into town to get Nova a witch costume for Hugo’s party tomorrow. It was her first ever male playdate, and apparently, they played really nicely together.

I found Nova a terrific witch costume in the Disney store, and bought her a pair of purple sequined shoes and a little bat wand as well. I also picked up an adaptor that will allow us to connect the iPod to the car stereo.

Oskar left at about 6:30, which gave us just enough time for a quick tidy up before Ruby arrived for a sleepover. Ruby is very at home at our place, and just marched straight upstairs and cuddled up beside Nova on the sofa. We let them watch an extra half hour of cartoons together before settling them for the night. During “hugs and busy day” Ruby informed me that she likes a lullaby, so I complied with a round of “With someone like you” before kissing them goodnight.

Had a long phone call with Margo this evening. They are back from their trip to Australia, which sounds amazing. They saw all the wildlife you would hope to see on a trip to Australia, including a wombat. I’ve always wanted to see a wombat.

We had a book when I was a child called, “Death of a Wombat”. It was about a bushfire started when someone threw a bottle out of a car window. All the animals fled as best they could, but the wombat moved “with a waddle and a crump”, and unable to escape the flames, died an excruciating death, painstakingly portrayed in a series of pencil drawings. Quite a memorable book for a child…

I was never quite sure how big wombats were. They looked a lot like guinea pigs, but I assume they are quite a lot bigger…? (I love the web… everything you need to know about wombats at your fingertips.)

October 20, 2005

Nova is at school until 3pm this week, which left me with a fair amount of time to myself today. After dropping her off, I spent a couple of hours having a good clear out in her bedroom. She’s been growing like a weed lately, and there are a number of little dresses that are just too short for her now.

Went to the gym for my weekly mile swim and sauna, then sat about in the cafe drinking freshly squeezed juice and reading my novel. Pottered about in Muswell Hill doing a bit of shopping. Home for a leisurely lunch. “Well, it must be just about time to get Nova,” I thought to myself. Looking at my watch, I discovered I had still another hour before it was time to pick her up…

Went to a cafe with Evelyn and Christine for coffee and cake before ballet class. The girls were rambunctious and badly behaved — climbing all over the furniture, yelling, scattering cake crumbs and rubbish across half the cafe. It was a far cry from her Claridges performance.

October 19, 2005

Had to go in to work this morning for a series of meetings. I don’t seem to do much working at home on my home day… Spent the whole morning meeting with various configurations of my team, then went out for a team lunch at a local restaurant.

Stayed late to finish off a few things before my week off in Paris. Got home to discover that Adam hadn’t had a chance to get dinner started, and we ended up ordering a pizza. I’m losing the diet plot here…

October 18, 2005

Today was the anniversary of mom’s funeral. I have quite a positive feeling about that day — all the people who loved her and made the effort to be there, the way family and friends stood up and spoke, the great party afterwards. Mom would have been amazed and very touched. I feel like we gave her the send off she deserved.

Adam took me out for dinner at Zuma this evening, a trendy new Japanese restaurant in Knightsbridge. The bar was heaving with trashy, flashy people. Lots of very short skirts with very long boots. The kind of tops you only see in fashion magazines and rock videos — strategically draped scraps and folds of fabric barely covering surgically enhanced breasts.

The food was very good. It’s one of those places where you order a series of dishes, as we had sushi, some absolutely succulent fried tofu, salt and pepper squid, a salt baked fillet of seabass, thinly sliced duck breast, an array of pickles… Everything was exquisite, including the bottle of sake we chose from the bewildering sake menu. For dessert I had a trio of sorbets (apple, plum wine and lychee) and Adam had banana cake with toffee sauce. Home about midnight.

October 16, 2005

Happy birthday, Gale!
Got off to a slow start this morning. We were all still in pyjamas at 11:00am… Nova was equally unwilling to start her day. “Let’s pretend you guys are two big, horrible bullies,” she snapped after I nagged her for the tenth time to go downstairs and get dressed.

Drove to Epping Forest for an afternoon walk in the autumn leaves. It should have been lovely, but Adam and I had a blazing row. He got his shorts in a twist because he’d missed some sign for the visitors’ centre, which was somehow my fault… I think it had more to do with our hangovers than anything…

Made chicken soup for dinner, complete with kneidlach (made by Nova), and collapsed in front of a Columbo movie before calling it an early night.

October 15, 2005

We all made weigh in this morning — everyone is down about ten pounds since we started. Had a good run with Pasc. She’s always going on about how she hates running and isn’t getting any better, but she completed nearly two laps with no walk breaks.

Did a Waitrose run and bought a new vacuum cleaner at Argos. Our vacuum has been dying a slow emphysemic death for some months now, in spite of filter changes and servicing — it sounds like a goat being strangled. We’ve replaced it with a gleaming new Dyson, Fisher Price for adults.

Had Trevor and Marni round for dinner this evening. Made the olive-gravad lax canapes (I’m going to keep making those until every friend we have is thoroughly sick of them), followed by sea bream with chickpeas, and some lovely little chocolate pots. Stayed up far too late, finishing off half a bottle of limoncello…

October 14, 2005

Nova was running a bit of a temperature this morning, which was a possible side effect of her jabs. She insisted she felt well enough to go to school, so I gave her a dose of Calpol and took her in.

When I told Miss Tait that Nova was a bit poorly, she informed me that it was Nova’s day to be class monitor today, which may be why she was so insistent on going in. She gets to return the class register to the office after attendance, to lead the class outside at playtime, and to blow out the candle after the school prayer. She’s been going on about this candle for weeks, but I didn’t realise it came with such a full range of responsibilities…

Simonia, our new after school help, came round to meet Nova today. She sensibly arrived bearing bribes, and the two of them seemed to get on really well. Nova took her for a walk round the neighbourhood to show her where the school, and shops, and park are, and we all had dinner together. Adam and I went off to the cinema and let Simonia put Nova to bed. Saw the new David Cronenberg film — A History of Violence — which I thought was amazing.

October 13, 2005

Arrived at the tube this morning to discover that they’d shut down the whole Northern Line. I don’t think that has ever happened in all the years I’ve lived in London.

I managed to squeeze onto a bus on the Archway Road, and spent the next hour and a half creeping towards central London. I was attending a training course on Gray’s Inn Road, so I hopped off after we crossed the Euston Road and made my way in foot.

It was pelting with rain, and the little map they’d supplied was completely inadequate, and as always in London, the roads curved about and ran into each other, and I ended up completely lost and soaked and fuming. I was a good half hour late by the time I managed to find them…The course itself was quite interesting. It’s for women in the NHS who are moving into senior management.

My journey home was equally awful. The Northern Line was still down, and it took me a good hour to get a bus from King’s Cross. We were all kicked off in Kentish Town, and it took me another forty five minutes to get home. I probably could have walked in less time. It makes you realise how dependent Londoners are on the tube, and how little it takes to throw it into chaos.

Nova went for her booster shots this afternoon, and apparently she was very brave and didn’t even cry. She’s such a little trooper when it comes to things like that…

October 12, 2005

I took the day off work, as I have a training course tomorrow. Went to Adam’s spinning class, which was a good workout. Swam half a mile afterward, then had a sauna and jacuzzi. 

Ate the game pie (may contain shot) I bought at the farmer’s market for lunch. Spent the afternoon researching and booking a Paris holiday for the half-term week. We’ll take the Eurostar, which makes a welcome change from flying, and found a nice little flat to rent in the 2ieme for five days.

Cooked red mullet and olive mash for dinner. I made the mash with some the strong Volos olives that Adam and I love, and fooled Nova into eating it by folding in slices of her tinned olives.

Had a long talk with Wendy this evening. She’s just completed the Victoria half marathon, and floated the idea of running the full marathon together next year. I’m tempted… I feel like I made every mistake in the book training for, and running, my first marathon last year, and it would be good to improve on that effort. A couple of definites if I do decide to do it:

• I want to lose about twenty pounds before I even start the marathon training, which should make it much easier on my feet and joints. (I was amazed that I lost only two pounds training for the marathon last time. Even though my marathon book suggested you might not lose any weight, I found it hard to believe that running four to seven hours a week had so little effect.)
• I would buy one of those gps systems that measure the distance you run. I estimated my distance by time, and it served me well enough up to a point, but it would be much better to know how far I’m actually running.

October 11, 2005

Had a good weigh in this morning… I hope I can do better than last week. Out to the Wrestlers with Pasc, Alicia and Deborah in the evening. Sunk a bottle of wine between us and resisted the crisps…

October 10, 2005

The Northern Line was broken today. After hanging around for fifteen minutes, wondering if they’d get it going again, I decided to work from home.

My work ethic seemed to be broken too… I did some work on this job evaluation form that everyone needs to do — a completely pointless waste of time in my opinion. Abandoned it after an hour and did some background reading on medicines and how they are developed and licensed.

No energy for exercise either… I blew off my gym workout. I did manage to finish my John Irving novel, which has taken me forever…

October 9, 2005

Martha staggered in about 7am, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and announcing that they were hungry. “You’ve only been awake for one minute,” I said. She headed back to Nova’s room, where we could hear her waking Nova, who sounded pretty grouchy at being dragged out of bed.

Adam and I decided to go for a run together while Pete kept an eye on the girls. Nova wasn’t keen on the idea, “This is disgusting!” she said angrily as we set off. She doesn’t like changes to the world as she knows it…

Pete and Liana set off about noon. It was a really good visit — the girls played so nicely together. Not a single upset in two two full days they spent together.

Took Nova for her swim, then swung by the farmer’s market, as we haven’t been for a few weeks. Spent the afternoon hanging out with Nova, reading and playing various games. There was one where we took turns making sentences on the fridge. One of my efforts was “A girl did a yuck poo”, which made Nova laugh, after confirming that she wasn’t the girl in question. A couple of minutes later, she called me into the kitchen to read her sentence: “A mum did a yuck poo”, which she thought was hilarious. For dinner, we shared a steak, along with broccoli, and fennel salad.

October 8, 2005

By some miracle I made the weigh-in this morning. I was about half a pound down. Pasc and Adam blew it though, so we all had to pay into the kitty. It had to happen sooner or later, but I’m glad it wasn’t me…

Had Margo muffins for breakfast. In the afternoon Liana and Adam took the kids to theatre, while I did the grocery shopping. Made Mexican wraps for dinner, which is a good one for kids. Once the girls were in bed, we watched Sexy Beast. That performance by Ben Kingsley is truly amazing. Even the back of his head exudes menace…

October 7, 2005

We went round to Paul and Alicia’s last night to cook dinner for them. They had a baby (Mason) about eight weeks ago, and I remember really appreciating people cooking for us when Nova was new. I was thinking of maybe making a lasagne or Mexican stacked pizzas, but with the weigh-in looming, I decided on a vegetable soup instead. I told them to take any comments on the menu up with Pasc…

I did do the gravad lax olive canapes with champagne to start, and an apple crumble for dessert. And Adam bought a great loaf of bread from Borough Market, so it wasn’t too abstemious. We got through a couple of bottles of red wine as well…

My head felt a bit fuzzy at spinning class this morning, but I felt better for it afterwards. Liana and the girls had arrived by the time I got back. There was just time for Nova and I to gussy up a bit before it was time to head off for tea at Claridges.

I was astounded by the volume of stuff Liana had to take to provide for baby Eleanor’s needs on a two-hour expedition — you forget these things… The Northern Line was acting up, and we had to make an extra change. Lots of lugging that enormous pram up and down flights of stairs in our smart skirts and heels…

Tea at Claridges is served in a beautiful Art Deco room with an amazing blown glass chandelier (described somewhere as a “Dale Chihuly light sculpture made of more than 800 pieces of hand-blown glass”). A quartet was playing tea music in the corner. The girls loved all the tea paraphernalia: sugar tongs, the silver casket for the sugar cubes, the strainers, the milk jugs.

Nova chose the Claridge’s Royal Tea blend from the extensive tea menu, and cheerfully drained four cups. I’m sure she would have had more if I’d let her… There were lovely finger sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, and an elegant array of pastries. All that tea meant numerous trips to the luxury toilets, where the attendant doted on the girls, filling their basins, handing them plush white towels to dry their hands.

In the taxi home (there was no way I was shepherding our caravanserai through rush hour Northern Line traffic), Nova was on a major caffeine buzz — singing tea songs at the top of her lungs, kicking her legs double time, and even bossing Martha around.

Ordered a Thai take away for dinner. I kept it light (a bowl of tom yum soup), as tomorrow’s weigh-in was weighin’ on me…;-)

October 6, 2005

Mom died two years ago today…
I miss her so much. I miss her happiness at recognising my voice on the phone. I miss her enthusiasms, and hearing about her classes and parties and meals and garden and birds and weather. I miss her calligraphy envelopes. I miss sharing Nova’s milestones with her. Her newspaper clippings in the post. I miss having a one-stop shop for all the family news, all those little details we don’t seem to share with one another.
Her absence is always present, and familiar as a toothache… 

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its colour.
(WS Merton)

October 5, 2005

Went to an excellent conference on managing intranets in times of change today. It was at Vinopolis in London Bridge. It was frustrating to be across the street from Borough Market and not buying food. Adam works in London Bridge twice a week, and if I was him, I’d be bringing home tasty treats every day.

Came home all fired up about work — until I had a call from my job share Tina. Apparently, today’s team meeting got a bit mutinous, with people annoyed that our director had imposed a design change they weren’t happy with.

It seems pretty clear to me that we are an internal agency and the senior management team is our client. They get to decide what things look like, not us… But the team don’t see it that way. They seem to think that their preference for blue should have the same (or more) weight as the CEO’s preference for pea green… There was nothing for it, but an evening with the Law and Order gang.

October 4, 2005

Up half a pound this morning. Just happy it wasn’t more…
I was feeling a bit out of sorts all day, and in the late afternoon I developed a migraine halo. I’ve had it a couple of times before, but not since I was pregnant with Nova. I get a sparkly blurry area in the middle of my vision, which is there whether my eyes are open or closed. As it spreads, it becomes very difficult to see — like having vaseline on your glasses. I had to go lie down in the sick room.

After a quarter of an hour, the first aider checked me over, brought me a biscuit and booked me a taxi home. It’s the first taxi I’ve ever seen with a TV in it, but I was too sick to look at it. The taxi motion was making me feel pretty dodgy and I wondered if I was going to be sick, but it was okay. We were blown off by another nanny this evening. Adam had high hopes for this woman. It seems quite an unreliable profession…

Vietnamese chicken salad for dinner, and zonked out on the couch.

October 3, 2005

Sacrificed my yoga time this morning to make Nova’s packed lunch: 

• ham and cheddar cheese sandwich on brown
• carrot and celery sticks (strings removed), cucumber rings
• grapes, raspberries, blueberries
• two chocolate biscuits
• bottle of water

We had arranged an interview with a prospective nanny this evening, but I got home to a message blowing us off. We’re having trouble even finding people willing to be interviewed. They are all looking for a lot more hours than we are able to offer.

Rosh Hashanah dinner at the Garfunkel’s this evening. We fed Nova at home first, then settled her in an upstairs bedroom before sitting down to a wonderful Beulah dinner: parmesan crisps; apples with three types of honey; chicken soup with kneidlach; braten; sticky toffee pudding; fruit soup; honey cake; and Belgian chocolates. I really did really quite well, although it’s nigh impossible to lose weight when you eat eight-course meals.

October 2, 2005

Took Nova for a swim this morning. Actually Adam did, while I did a gym workout. I didn’t think Nova would be very keen on that idea, especially after the fuss with the restaurant toilets yesterday but she was okay.

Picked Nova up a Disney princess lunch box in Muswell Hill on the way home. She was very pleased with it, and wrote her own name on the front in felt pen. We baked chocolate cookies in the afternoon so she could take some tomorrow.

We had a friend of David’s round for dinner this evening. Leisha is over here for a few months, and is currently staying in Finchley Central. I made grilled salmon with quinoa, followed by slices of lemon cake that Jenny brought last weekend.

October 1, 2005

I was happily surprised to be down a pound at weigh-in today (I was .2 pounds down on our scale at home…) Adam squeaked under the wire with a .25 pound loss. So far no one has had to pay up…

Had quite a good run with Pasc. I think we’re going a little faster than we used to. Came home to freshly baked bran muffins for breakfast. We got into deep discussion about what the difference between a muffin and a cupcake is. To my mind, a muffin should contain “healthy” ingredients, like bran, raisins or other fruit. A Google search turned up the following information from Diana’s Desserts:

Made using whole-wheat flour, wheat germ, bran, honey, fruits and nuts muffins can be very nutritious. But like the healthy granola craze which turned into candy bars, muffins also can quickly turn into cupcakes. Eating cupcakes for breakfast is your choice, but don’t tell yourself you are eating healthy breakfast muffins. A recent magazine article revealed some muffins available in New York delicatessens were claimed to be low fat, but actually contained up to 23 grams of fat. That’s more fat than two Egg McMuffins.

Took Nova’s scooter to the Heath. She was pretty tentative at first, but eventually scootered all the way from the men’s bathing pond to Swain’s Lane. Stopped for coffees and a chocolate milkshake. Adam took Nova off to the loo, and brought her back in tears. She was upset about using the men’s room — one of the downsides of her learning to read. I had to take her myself about ten minutes later to right the injustice.

In the afternoon, Nova and I headed down to Jackson’s Lane for a performance of Burglar Bill. Not bad, as children’s theatre goes, and Nova really enjoyed it.

We cooked little fishes for dinner. I find that involving Nova in the cooking is a really good way to get her to try new foods. She feeling a bit more adventurous at the moment. In the last few weeks, she’s tried:

• celery (yes, with the strings removed)
• mint tea (yes, with sugar added)
• honeydew melon (unconvinced)

Went to Ben Schneider’s party this evening. He’d done a lot of delicious food, and it was just as well that we’d eaten, as it kept me from going overboard.