October 2017

October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween! Lyra headed over to Nina’s after breakfast to hang out. Nova had school then headed straight to the London Dungeon with her friends. So no family Halloween this year, which is a bit sad — I love Halloween…Adam made it home early enough for us to do his vampire make-up before dropping us round at Charlotte’s for their Halloween open house. This year’s crowd was a definite shift towards friends from their children’s new schools, and I think Lyra felt a bit awkward at first.

There was food out for the kids, and after they’d had a chance to eat we headed out trick or treating. A bunch of us parents lots of parents went along with about forty kids. We tried organising them into smaller groups, but it was essentially mayhem.

They went tearing down one side the hill, disappearing down driveways and getting swallowed by gangs of kids. It’s a safe enough environment, but we still made attempts to keep them more or less together.

We were back at the house in about an hour. Trick-or-treating was slow round ours this year (only thirty-odd kids), and Adam joined us soon after for a drink and some curry.

Since they stopped making the the Halloween House map our numbers have really dropped off. The High Street and Southwood Lane are still busy, but people don’t venture down our dark spooky lane on the off-chance.

Tanja offered us a ride home, which I was happy to accept. Adam wanted to stay on for a bit, but Lyra had school in the morning. We were at the front door waiting for Lily to fetch something from upstairs, when I noticed my bootlace was untied.

The sofa full of children, so I went to sort of perch on the sofa arm to re-tie it. As soon as I made contact, the arm gave way and flung me backwards. I cracked my head on a heavy pedestal table before hitting the stone floor, dislodging a Chinese vase that toppled and broke. I also managed to gash my finger on a shard of pttery. Not my finest moment…

I felt absolutely awful about breaking their vase, and when I went to tell Roni I felt even worse. It turns out the vase had belonged to her husband’s recently decesased mother, and had great sentimental and monetary value…:-(

October 30, 2017

Nova is back at school today, but Lyra still has the next two days off for inset days. (Or “insect days” as she used to call them…)Drove Lyra down to Ava’s house after breakfast so they could hang out together. Considered doing a grocery shop (Adam and Nova appear to have existed on bagels and scrambled eggs the whole time we were in Amsterdam).

Decided that I had too much website work hanging over my head. Plus I was feeling crap. I think I held my cold off out of sheer bloody-mindedness, but it’s got a proper grip on me now…:-(

I’d planned to have a fasting day, but felt like I didn’t need that on top of everything else. (Though apparently fasting is good for healing… (And the first two Russia-investigation indictments were a definite mood lifter.)

Adam and Nova were both out this evening. I made dinner for Lyra and me then we sat down to watch Dial M for Murder. She really enjoyed it — she’s keen on murder mysteries, as I was. She should start reading Agatha Christie — I devoured that novels when I was her age.

In bed early tonight, well before Nova and Adam got back…

October 29, 2017

The clocks went back this morning. Always preferable to them going forward, though it did add a bit to the stress of ensuring we were on schedule for our departure from the flat (and from Amsterdam)…After I’d packed my bag, I gave the place a cursory tidy, fixed breakfast for the girls, and made sandwiches for lunch/train. Left the keys on the table, did a final sweep for forgotten belongings (chargers, toothbrushes are what I always look for), then pulled the door shut behind us.

Stopped in for one last delicious coffee at White Label before catching a tram to speaking rudely) and refused all food and drink, but Lyra did the double — hot chocolate and pain au chocolat.

Caught a tram to Centraal station, and stuffed our bags in a locker, before embarking on a one-hour canal trip. After that, we took the girls to the fun fair in Daam Square, and did a bit of shopping. Time for one last beer and some frites before heading back to the train station.

Our train rolled out right on schedule. The Thalys train was a pleasure once again. There is something delightfully fin de siecle about those trains. The Eurostar was running a half hour late due to the end of half-term crowds, but we got home relatively smoothly.

Walked home from the tube. I’d told Adam not to worry about dinner, as we’d eat something on the way. As it happened, we didn’t, but neither of us was hungry. Gave them their bits and bobs, had a cup of tea, then a bath and bed. Good to be home…

October 28, 2017

My voice is a bit better this morning. It still sound pretty ridiculous, but there’s a reasonable chance some sort of sound will come out when I go to speak…Allowed ourselves a gentler start this morning, after yesterday’s sightseeing marathon. Made the girls a bite of breakfast — toast with sprinkles, leftover doughnut slices with peanut butter and sprinkles — before heading to the café.

There was a little market in the Mercatorplein — clothes and bric a brac, mostly — and we had little browse before catching a tram into the centre to check out the much bigger Albert Cuyp market. It was better than I remember it — lots of stalls, and great food.

Frites, stroopwaffels, Indonesian fritters, crepes, herring sandwiches… we munched our way through the lot like hungry caterpillars. Felt a bit bilious by the end — I’m much less able to mix and match food than in my younger, cast-iron-digestion days.

When we realised we were going to be late for our pre-booked Van Gogh tickets, I suggested an Uber and it did the trick. I haven’t been to the Van Gogh museum in years. (It was closed when I visited with Nova, or I’d have definitely visited then.)

The girls really got into it. With its bright colours and fingerpainty strokes, I can see how Van Gogh’s work would appeal to younger visitors. Plus the collection well spaced out and an achievable size. My favourite work this time was the one with the crows at sunset:

After exiting through the gift shop, I withstood the clamour from all three to get another Uber. Made our way across the Museumplein to the nearest tram stop. Home in about twenty minutes, which was pretty sweet…

After some down time, Millie and I left the girls and ventured out for a beer. Checked out the local bar on the corner, which was amusingly called the Knibbel Knabbel Knuisje. When we walked in, I felt like those two travellers in An American Werewolf in London. The conversation stopped dead, as everyone turned to stare unwelcomingly at us.

We gamely perched at the bar, and eventually managed to order a couple of Heineken. Everyone in the place seemed to know one other, it’s possible they were related. Another two people walked in, and were greeted warmly. I had the impression we might be sitting on their stools.

The old drunk next to me was muttering and growling, which may or may not have been intended for us… There was nothing for it but to stand our ground and order another round. (Amusingly, back in London I happened to check out the Knibbel Knabbel’s Facebook page. Apparently the place is universally loved for its friendly vibe…)

Bought a few groceries and picked up chicken sandwiches from the rotisserie stall before heading back. It was a warm evening, and after the girls were in bed, we spent some time on our roof terrace, enjoying the view over the Amsterdam skyline (such as it is).

To bed a bit earlier than the other night, and finished The Book of Dust (excellent) before turning out the light…

October 27, 2017

Woke to discover that my voice has completely disappeared overnight. I could tell I had some sort of throat thing coming on a couple of days ago. I was hoping it might turn out to be nothing, but unfortunately not…Made a pot of coffee and fixed some breakfast for the girls while Millie made a round of sandwiches for later. Stopped at our local coffee shop — (one that actually sells coffee) that I’d read good things about. I’m not one to get over-excited about coffee (I leave that to Adam), but they serve one of the best cups of coffee I have ever tasted.

After that we rented bicycles and set off to explore nearby Rembrandtpark. The smallest bikes were a bit big for the girls — until they got the hang of it they veered crazily back and forth across the bike path like drunken pinballs, terrorising pedestrians and cyclists alike.

My original idea was to cycle from the Rembrandtpark to the VondelPark and back, but there was no way we were venturing onto an actual road. It was a relief to return the bikes a few hours later without any injury to person or equipment…

Wandered towards the centre of town until we found a tram stop heading in the right direction. Disembarked on Utrechtstrasse (one of my favourite streets), and moseyed along checking out the shops.

It was a giddy round of museums from this point: the Handbag museum (fabulous), Cat museum (eccentric), Tulip museum (skipped the exhibit, went for the bulbs), and Cheese museum (skipped the exhibit, went for the free samples).

Last up was the Anne Frank house. They are doing a better job of crowd control these days — it was definitely than previous visits. It was as moving as ever, I had tears in my eyes from the moment we entered the annex until our departure.

After a meal of Dutch pancakes, we set off to track down a tram to take us home. This was far from straightforward. The streets were poorly lit and curving, making it difficult to work out which side of the road to wait on My 4G wasn’t working, making it impossible to use an online map.

Also, I hadn’t realised that buses as well as trams stop in the middle of the road. After a comedy of errors that included Millie running into the back of a bus, me getting caught in the doors, the driver shouting at us for not paying for the girls (their passes had expired), and trying to pay with money when he only took cards, we found ourselves on a bus heading who knew where.

We were laughing so hard by this point that Millie actually had tears squirting from her eyes (I’ve never actually seen that happen before). A helpful young man piped up from the back, “So, is this your first time attempting to use the famous Amsterdam public transport?” which set us off again.

He came forward and kindly spoke to the driver on our behalf (and ended up missing his own stop as a result). We weren’t that far off as it turned out. The driver became helpfulness personified, carefully explaining where to change and how to find the tram that deposited us a short block from the flat.

It was almost 10pm by this point. The girls went to bed, and we sat up yakking for another hour or so…

October 26, 2017

Heading off to Amsterdam with Lyra this morning! We met Millie and Lucia at the tube then travelled to Kings Cross together. The girls are both very excited to be setting off on this Euroadventure…Bought coffees and breakfast in the station then headed through security. All very smooth — I love that aspect of train travel. We boarded on schedule, found our comfy table seats, then kicked back for a couple of hours until the train arrived in Lille.

With forty-five minutes to kill, we headed outside to check out the Yayoi Kusama tulip sculpture. Our Thalys train to Amsterdam also left without incident. This time we were seated in a private compartment for eight. I kept expecting someone would join us in Brussels, Rotterdam, Antwerp but it never happened…

I also love the way trains deliver you right to the heart of a city instead of dumping you in the agricultural hinterland. We strolled out of Centraal station, caught tram 13, and were in west Amsterdam in about fifteen minutes.

We’d arranged to collect the flat keys from the local bike shop, and that all went smoothly as well. The place I’ve rented is lovely — it arranged over two spacious floors, with a balcony off the kitchen and a large roof terrace upstairs where Millie and I have our bedrooms.

After a bit of downtime, we set out to explore our neighbourhood. West Amsterdam isn’t an area I’ve visited before. It seems very down to earth, with a mild Turkish vibe.

Did a bit of mooching round the shops before eating dinner in a local hamburger joint. Millie and I were angling for the cool-looking place that served great bitteballs, but the girls’ vote prevailed. I went for a salad instead of a burger, correctly predicting that Lyra would fail to finish hers.

Picked up some groceries for breakfast and snacks then headed back to our flat. The girls disappeared into their bedroom to practice singing routines, while Millie hung out in the living room with a bottle of wine…

October 25, 2017

Went on an invigilitor training course today. I’ve got Veronika on the invigilation team starting next month, and she’s being sent on the training as well. We’d agreed to meet up and travel together, but when I investigated more closely, the time she’d proposed to travel there was cutting it too fine.I moved our meet up forward, and arrived in Archway on schedule. Veronika called to say she was a few minutes away but planned to stop at the Whittington to collect a medical letter. When she told me it was in a department on the fourth floor, I decided to go on without her.

Caught the tube to Camden then a bus to Lords Cricket Ground. It was a long walk to the proper entrance, but fortunately the training room was right there. . I was almost ten minutes early and the last person to arrive (those invigilators are a punctual lot). They are an elderly lot as well — I was definitely among the youngest of the eighty or so attendees.

When Veronika arrived, I was able to fill her in on what she’d missed. I found it helpful to get an overview of the whole invigilation process. I hadn’t realised that there are more than 100,000 invigilators employed in the UK.

The trainer made the point a few times that he was giving us a standard description of how the job should be done. Individual exam centres are free to interpret the rules in their own way, and we should invigilate in the manner our centre ordains. Each centre is inspected during the main exam season, and have to be seen to be complying or they will be deregistered.

We travelled back to Highgate together, stopping off in Poundland as Veronika needed some supplies for an art class she’s teaching tomorrow. Walked out with £10 worth of stuff I had no idea we needed…;-)

Adam was out for the evening. I fed the girls then focussed on getting ready for our trip to Amsterdam tomorrow. (I’ve been too busy with work to devote much time to it before now.) In bed by 11:30…

October 24, 2017

Full-on day’s work today… Had a morning meeting with my architecture client, so did a couple of hours before sorting out her RIBA profile before heading over there.I’ve probably bitched about this before, but the RIBA interface is so confusing and the updating process so delayed, that it feels safest to do it in installments. That way if I mess something up and don’t realise, only a part of it will be affected.

Worked on the finance site in the aftenoon. Picture research is turning out to be the problem issue with this project. We are aiming for a certain style of quirky humour, and it’s a challenge to hit the right note. Slowly getting there…

Adam and Lyra headed out to see an Arsenal match this evening. They are meeting Nick and his daughter Frea — the girls haven’t got together in well over a year, so it will be interesting to hear how they got on.

Worked until about 10pm, then went to bed and read my novel. Still awake when they got back. The evening was a great success and Arsenal won in overtime…

October 23, 2017

The proper start to half term today. I let the girls have a bit of a lie in, but woke them up before I set off for my run — three miles plus wind sprints.I was just approaching Ally Pally when I witnessed something unpleasant. An unleashed pit bull charged a fluffy little poodle who was being walked a few yards in front of me. It snapped at the poodle who let out an awful squeal.

Fortunately, the poodle was on a lead, and the owner was able to pull it into the air where it dangled like a pinata, with the pit bull snarling below. The poodle lady’s friend kicked at the pit bull (which I wouldn’t have fancied doing). The pit bull owner was a young guy in a hoodie. He basically ignored the whole incident — just sauntered past and after a couple of moments his dog trotted after him.

Nova spent most of the day at Clara’s. I let Lyra have a lazy day of it, aside from subjecting her to a full-on nit treatment. I did my housework, project work, and ran a few errands, while she lounged about in her snow leopard onesie watching American sitcom reruns.

Late afternoon she roused herself to take Sophia for a walk in the park. At 4:45 I got a panicked phone call from her to say she was locked in Waterlow Park. I dropped everything and hurried straight down. All the gates were indeed locked, but I was able to get buzzed into Lauderdale House, and walk through it to enter the park.

In her panic, Lyra had dropped her phone somewhere and we had an anxious five minutes’ search in the gathering gloom before managing to locate it with a combination of deduction, ringing it and FindMyPhone. She was pretty shaken by the whole experience…

Nova was cooking dinner — she’s doing stirfry at the moment. Tonight’s featured leftover pork loin and random veggies. Adam and I went round to Pete and Pasc’s for Thai yellow curry and a round of Codeword (we won)…;-)

October 22, 2017

Feeling very blue this morning… It took a considerable amount of effort just to drag myself out of bed. I’m sure a run would have helped, but I didn’t have the resolve/energy to make myself do it.Instead, we drove to Golders Green for fresh bagels and fixing: smoked salmon, chopped liver, pickles etc. Lyra was off at Lucia’s making Amsterdam plans, but Nova joined us for a bagel brunch.

Lyra came back around 2pm, having swung by Lily’s to pick her up, as I’d agreed to have her for the afternoon. Adam and I pulled together all the information the accountant needs to file our taxes, and completed Lyra’s online school preference form — two good things to cross off the to-do list.

Had our coquille dinner tonight. Nova said, “I like this idea, and I’m going to do it for you and dad after you die.” The conversation then turned to what dish each of us should be remembered by.

Stroganoff is an obvious one for me, but turns out none of know what Adam’s favourite meal is, including him. With my parents, I’ve chosen to remember them with a meal they loved, that reflects something about them, and something we don’t eat the rest of the year.

In mum’s case, I would say coquilles was her favourite meal. But it’s also the way she would serve it on scallop shells to make it special.

Dad’s favourite meal was meatloaf. He’d always ask for it on his birthday, which was pretty much the only time we ate it. I’ve gone with clam chowder for him because:

• it was his signature dish, something he made week after week
• it reminds me of the ferry trips we’d take to Sydney to visit his parents and family holidays digging for clams
• it takes a bit of planning (tinned clams aren’t readily available here)

October 21, 2017

It would have been mum’s 90th birthday today. After fourteen years, she’s finally starting to seem old. Though with the longevity on both sides of the family, I had expected to have both mum and dad with us into their nineties…Lyra had her ice skating exam this morning. It was her third attempt at passing this level, and she was close, but no cigar. From what the examiner said, it sounds like she should manage it next time…

As soon as they got back, we raced off to Dylan’s bar mitzvah in Temple Fortune. We were a bit late for the start of the service — but given it was two and a half hours long and mostly in Hebrew, that was no bad thing.

After kiddish, we hung around chattig for a couple of hours before a sit down lunch: poached salmon and cold salads, fruit salad and bits of baking. There were a few speeches, and a photo both. Home about 4pm.

The family that plays together, stays together…

I’d planned to make coquilles St Jacques in mum’s honour tonight, but no one had any appetite for dinner, so I decided to do it tomorrow.

Started watching the American version of House of Cards instead. I’ve never been that interested — I’m a big fan of the original, and wasn’t convinced that even Kevin Spacey was likely to improve on it. Enjoying it so far…

October 20, 2017

The other day at lunch, we were talking about ear cleaning and how one shouldn’t use Q-tips. It ended up with Adam doing a web search for ear cleaning, and a pre-paid ear suctioning appointment for me.So this morning after breakfast, I caught the 143 to East Finchley to see it through. After examining my ears with magnifying binoculars the guy pronounced that they were largely free of ear wax, and had no need of suctioning.

He then gave me an ear test, first with headphones, then with a device that sends sound through the knobby bones at the base of the skull. According to him, I have a slight “wear and tear” hearing loss in my right ear, not unusual for someone in their 50s.

The hearing loss in my left ear is much more significant, and likely the result of an ear infection or virus. I had a terrible ear infection ten years ago, which affected my balance and hearing for a couple of months. I went to an audiologist not that long after and my hearing was pronounced fine.

He suggested another appointment to talk about fitting a hearing aid, but I said I was still pretty satisfied with my hearing and would have a think about next steps before taking further action. What I plan to do is see my GP and try to get a second test on the NHS.

School rep meeting at the pub before pick-up to discuss budget. I was feeling a bit down about the hearing thing and self-medicated with Corona. Millie had been waiting on a worrying health test as well, and just got the all-clear happily. Getting old… blecch…

Watched Priscilla Queen of the Desert with the girls for movie night. Such a good film, and a positive reminder of the progress we’ve made around gay acceptance (at least in the environment our kids are growing up in). I imagine even the outback of Australia is less homophobic than it was twenty years ago…

October 19, 2017

Foggy autumn morning… It wasn’t raining, but the air was saturated with moisture, and everything was wet or dripping…Four mile run after drop-off. First time I’ve done that distance in a good while, and I made sure to keep the pace gentle. Felt good throughout, and could have gone faster, but I was playing it safe with my ankle as well. I messed it up the other day when I sprinted back for Lyra’s violin and it’s been unstable ever since…

Put in a solid six hours on my finance site and finally launched it in the early evening. It’s looking good — I’m happy with it, and even happier to send them a substantial invoice. 🙂

Lyra cooked pesto pasta for dinner. I wasn’t eating, but the other three scarfed it down happily. I’m pretty sure that both girls would include pesto pasta in their top three favourite dinners.

Adam and I finished watching Her before bed. We’d dozed through the last half hour the other day, and had got round to finishing it off. Interesting stuff, and that Joaquin Phoenix turns in an amazing performance, giving you a lot of empathy for Theodore…

October 18, 2017

Returned to administer the second half of the marketing exam this morning. I wasn’t remotely surprised that the boys’ behaviour was pretty crap. It’s a badly designed exam process in my opinion.Two boys slept through the first hour, and handful more finished the work in that time. They could have signed a paper to say they’d opted to finish early and returned to class, but preferred sitting in the exam room.

Things deteriorated steadily in the last hour. “Miss! He took my pen lid, you saw him, are you going to let him get away with that? Miss?” It required self discipline not to reply “like I give a shit”. Pretty pleased when it was finally over…

By the time I hiked the hill home, I didn’t have much enthusiasm for getting stuck into my other work. Made some lunch and watched an episode of Riverdale. I’m trying to get caught up so that I can follow along with Lyra. It’s essentially a teen soap opera, but quite enjoyable.

Made jacket potatoes and salad for dinner — the proper ones that take an hour and a half in the oven. Baked an extra one, scooped out the insides and mashed them with butter, re-stuffed the skins, topped them cheese and gave them another ten minutes in the oven. Lovely…

Adam was out for the evening. I spent most of mine trying to resolve Lyra’s Spotify issues. Despite successfully adding her to the family plan, she’s still coming up as having a free (limited) account.

After visiting their website, reading the online help, filling in a support request, and joining user community, I still didn’t know what was going on. I took to Twitter and got a response out of Spotify in about ten minutes.

Turns out she has two accounts. The one I created, and another she set up without my knowledge, that was causing the problem…

October 17, 2017

Went for a three mile run first thing, then stuck close to home as we were expecting the girls’ new mobile phones to arrive. The delivery guy showed up about 1pm (just after my conference call and before my finance client showed up to go over text amends).Made beef tacos for dinner and a pot of applesauce as well. After a nice family meal, everybody was relaxed and on good form. When Lyra asked what was for dessert, I said there was “something apple-based”.

I pulled out the two iPhone boxes and handed on to each girl. For a few seconds, they stared in disbelief, then Lyra started hyperventilating. When she rushed round the table to hug me her heart was nearly beating out of her chest.

Nova was thrilled too of course, but her emotions couldn’t compare with excitement of getting your first phone. The rest of the evening was devoted to setting the darn things up. There were a few hiccoughs, but we got there in the end…

October 16, 2017

I was scheduled to invigilate an exam this morning, but when I checked my calendar I realised that I wasn’t sure when it started. I was anxious in case the time in my diary was the actual start time. Decided the best course of action was to just head down there…

It was a tricky group compared to last time. There were ten of them sitting the first two hours of a four-hour exam. The paper itself seemed laughably easy, but there was a lot of reading involved, which didn’t agree with two of the candidates. I’m back again on Wednesday to invigilate the last two hours…

We’ve decided to get the girls a pair of mobile phones — an upgrade for Nova, and first-ever phone for Lyra. She’s been bringing it up quite often. Lots of kids get them in year 6 as preparation for secondary school, and each week we’d get an update on the latest classmate to join to phone tribe.

It’s an obvious Christmas/birthday present, but I was already starting to feel annoyed about the expectation of it. That’s when I had the idea of giving her a phone out of the blue as a genuine surprise.

There was the additional complication of maintaining the family phone hierarchy. After going back and forth on it for a couple of weeks (and several calls to Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse), we settled on the idea of getting both girls new phones…

Spent the afternoon working on finance site, breaking off occasionally to help Nova with her Thai yellow curry. It’s her third time for that recipe — she’ll do something new next week.

I was supposed to go to a committee meeting at 7:30, but had a nasty tension headache that had been lingering all day. When I started getting visual disturbances, I shifted to the sofa for a lie down and sent my apologies by email.

The symptoms dispersed quite quickly, but I was still left with that wiped out feeling afterwards. Early night…

October 15, 2017

Felt a bit headachy this morning, more from a lack of food than excess of alcohol…:-(We’d planned on getting up and over to Holland Park to see the Alma-Tadema exhibition before lunch — until Lyra limped into our bedroom to announce she may have broken her toe.

She whacked her big toe on the piano stool doing gymnastics with Ruby. It is definitely swollen and painful to walk on, but having broken toes myself, I’m pretty sure there’s not a whole lot to be done about it. Settled her on the sofa, buddy-taped her injured toe for extra support, and got her an ice pack.

It’s important to convey competence when your child is sick or injured (even if you’re not entirely sure what to do). My mum certainly did that — to the extent that when I look back on my childhood, those occasions where I was home sick are among my nicest memories.

Mum was an excellent nurse — making with the heating pad, basin, humidifier, ice pack, or whatever the situation called for. She’d plump the pillows, tidy your bed when you visited the loo, serve light-but-tempting meals on a tray, and rustle up flat gingerale for a sore throat.

Being sick as a child can be scary, but I always had confidence that I was getting exactly the care needed to make a full recovery — and at least as importantly, I felt wrapped in love and attention.

Adam and I went for a walk after lunch — down to the heath and around to West Hill. It was a lovely autumn afternoon and North London out in force. I was surprised we saw only one person we knew.

While Adam cooked, I finished the case study I’ve been working on since Thursday. I’ve learned from experience that it’s always better to get it down on paper before too much time elapses. Otherwise you find yourself staring at phrases like”hub of U-shaped freeflow progression of rooms” and thinking WTF?

Adam’s dinner was delicious: chicken and shallots cooked in sherry and vinegar, with lovely mashed potatoes and beans from the garden. Coffee crisp bites for dessert (we’re working through the Canadian snack treats). That cooking effort finished Adam off. He dozed in the arm chair like an old grandpa for the rest of the evening, while I started reading Hillbilly Elegy.

I’m making a point of turning off the screens earlier in the evening, having recently read that the average person touches their smart phone 2,600 times a day — I find that extremely depressing. Adam got a smart phone before I did, and I can remember thinking how weird it looked when he stroked the screen like it was a pet hamster…

Ran a bath about 10pm and in bed by 11. Felt an enormous sense of well-being as I drifted off, and found myself thinking spontaneous gratitude thoughts (instead of prodding myself to do so because “it’s good for me”)…

October 14, 2017

Went for a nice three-mile run this morning while Adam and Lyra were at ice skating. It took me so long to get out of the house that I was in half a mind to call it off.(I fell into the time-sucking vortex that is my Twitter feed and spent far too long depressing myself with the antics of Trump and the Brexiteers before I managed to tear myself away…)

Nova is going to a house party in Lewisham tonight, which left us without a babysitter for Patricia’s 50th. I was dead impressed when Lyra came upstairs to report that she’d texted Ruby and arranged for her to sit this evening.

Set off about 8pm at a leisurely pace, owing to my decision to wear heels. They are comfortable, clunky ones, but they still require caution on slippery, leaf-scattered, uneven, downhill pavements.

It was very much a school reunion type affair — I caught up with loads of people I haven’t seen (since the last 50th or two) while quaffing prosecco. There were canapés on offer, but I’d positioned myself in a waitress-free Bermuda triangle, and only managed to score about five all evening…:-(

October 13, 2017

Happy birthday, Margo!
I’d thought of going to see the Alma-Tadema exhibition at Leighton House, but didn’t get myself organised early enough. We’re planning to do it with Lyra on Sunday instead.It was Nova’s turn to dress up for school today. Not sure what it was in aid of, but she went off to school made up as David Bowie…

Gave the bathtub a thorough cleaning with this wicked-powerful bleach Debbie recommended. Despite the wide open window, after a half hour of head-down scrubbing I need a little lie down to recover from the fumes I’d inhaled. The tub practically glows in the dark now…

Spent some time on my Google Analytics training course. I’m starting with the beginners programme as a refresher — I haven’t used Google Analytics in five years. Can’t say as that the interface has changed or improved much…

Lyra went back to Lucia’s after school, and Nova was out with friends. It was pushing 8pm by the time we sat down to dinner — tofu stirfry and crispy duck pancakes.

I’d thought we might watch a film, but it was a bit late for that. Instead, Adam and I watched an episode of our creepy Swedish murder series. It’s quite hard going glad to see the other side of it…

October 12, 2017

What an unexpectedly glorious autumn day! I didn’t get my morning run in, but at least I was able to enjoy it on the walk to my client meeting.My architect client has gone from having almost no work, to being quite busy and getting regular inquiries from potential clients. It’s gratifying to me that she credits the website we’ve built with some of this success.

After interviewing her for a case study on a recently completed project, we walked up to Gail’s for a bite of lunch and a personal visit. The place was heaving, as usual.

What’s interesting is that I recognise hardly any of the people in there. Highgate is quite an insular place — you tend to see the same people on the streets and in the shops. Who all these Gail’s customers are is a mystery, but let’s hope they invigorate the high street, which could use a kick up the ass.

Adam and I took Lyra to see Highgate Woods school this evening. I’ve always liked HWS, but it divides opinion. Most people are positive about it, but there’s the odd naysayer.

Lyra has definitely been influenced by Lucia’s older sister who had a bad experience there ten year ago. By the end of the visit, she’d turned her ideas around and now plans to put it third on her preference lists, after Marylebone and Wren.

Amatriciana pasta for dinner when we got back at 8pm. Lyra had made the sauce before we left, so it was just a case of cooking the pasta. I decided to eat with the family. I’d already had a crustless quiche at lunch, and it has been almost two weeks since we’ve sat down to a meal together…

October 11, 2017

World Book Dress-Up Day meant starting my morning digging through the garage for cat ears and converting the tail from a rat costume into a tiger tail before sewing it onto Lyra’s leggings.

Adam and I had time for a quick coffee in the village before we needed to be back at the school for a secondary schools advisory meeting with the assistant head. We’ve been down this road before, so there wasn’t a lot she could tell us.

One thing that is different is you can edit your school preference form after you’ve been allocated a school, based on where you are on the waiting lists of schools you’ve ranked higher.

Heard about the drama scholarship by email this afternoon. Lyra hasn’t been offered a scholarship. The emails started pinging round from the other mums whose daughters tried out. Heard from six of the eight, none of whom were successful either…

Met my friend Lawrence at the Royal Festival Hall for a drink and some supper. He’d had a full-on health senate away-day, and cut to the chase with a double martini. I joined him with a single, but not for the second round. Two martinis on an empty stomach — I’ve learned that lesson…

Shifted from the Skylon bar to the grill, where we had hamburgers and chips with a bottle of Primitivo before splitting a treacle tart for dessert. I love that restaurant, and haven’t been in years. Because we ate so early, we had a prime window table overlooking the Thames. Home about 9pm…

October 10, 2017

Walked Lyra to school, then went for a short two-mile run round the Woods. Beautiful morning for it — October is my favourite month for running. Low, yellow morning light filtering through the trees, leaves drifting slowly downwards and crunching underfoot, that crisp, slightly musty bite to the air. Such a pleasure to be outside enjoying it…

Spent the bulk of the day on website work. One final change to the Kenya site — I sincerely hope that’s the end of that project now, aside from some training and handover.

Started rebuilded my architect client’s profile on the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) website. What I thought would be a straightforward job is immensely complicated by their convoluted, flaky content management interface…>:-(

Margaux came home with Lyra after school. I prepared them chicken escalopes, Japanese rice and broccoli for dinner. Later, I made a grilled squid and fennel salad for the rest of us. Adam came back to eat with Nova and me before heading over to a new parents evening at the school.

We three girls watched the Bake-off. It’s Italian week: cannoli, pizza margherita, and a fiendishly difficult laminated pastry called sfogliatelle, which is Italian for lobster tails. To make the specified dozen required 18 metres of paper thin dough apparently…

October 9, 2017

Did my first shift of exam invigilating for this school year. It was surprisingly nice to be back. It’s pleasant enough work in small doses — I like my colleagues and the boys as well (somewhat to my surprise)…Headed straight from there to a very frustrating yearbook meeting at the Gatehouse. Having a certain amount of publishing and project management experience, I know we need to first define the scope, budget and other key parameters, so we can plan a book fits our circumstances.

Everyone else was keen to start designing pages, argue about fonts, and send emails to parents asking them to send us all the school pictures they’ve taken for the last eight years. I have a strong impulse to extricate myself from the project and let them go their merry way…

The Kenyan website has raised its head again, with another list of “urgent” requests. A few things I was willing to do, a couple I pushed back on. For example, there is no way I’m going through the entire site and justifying all the text. If it was so important, it should have been picked up during sign-off. Besides, justified text on websites is a complete no-no…

Nova cooked Thai yellow curry for dinner tonight. We thought Adam was going to be home for dinner, but he had a Jackson’s Lane meeting that took longer than expected…

He was exhausted by the time he got home — the jet lag catching up with him, I imagine. Within ten minutes of eating his curry, he was dozing in the armchair. To bed and lights out by 10pm…

October 8, 2017

Took Lyra to church this morning. Quite enjoyable for once… It was the harvest service, and the entrance, aisle and altar had been decorated with flowers, gourds and so on.For some reason, the new vicar was sitting in the audience, and the sermon was delivered by a German guy I haven’t seen before. He talked about his family’s wine growing operation in the Rhine valley, and brought it round to addressing intolerance and anti-Semitism. Interesting, provocative stuff…

Lyra enjoyed herself as well. They had Sunday school in the tower, and got to go climb up the little twisty staircase to the base of the spire to check out the view over London.

We’re out of coffee filters at home… Now the corner shop is no more, there are none to be had anywhere in the village. It got me thinking we should get away from using paper filters anyway.

I did some online research into permanent ones, but it was impossible to determine how big the things were. I don’t want some diddy cup topper of a filter…

Another leftovers lunch… They’re becoming a regular weekend feature, especially with the fasting days. Most meals make four portions, and we seldom eat all of anything we cook, for various reasons. With Lyra on school dinners, and Adam and Nova sporadic at best about bringing food from home for lunch, leftovers don’t get used up during the week.

Nova headed over to her friend Asya’s to study and have dinner. I ran Lyra and Lily down to Ava’s so they could plan their joint costumes for World Book Dress-Up Day on Wednesday. They are going as a quartet from the Jungle Book — Lyra is Shere Khan…

She ate out as well, so I made a burrito bowl for my dinner, finishing the last bits and bobs from Wednesday evening. Watched another episode of Riverdale together before she headed off to bed.

Read for a bit, had a bath, and was already in bed when Adam got home at 11pm. Great to see him — a week is a long time… Sounds like he had a great trip with a nice balance of work and pleasure. Brought lots of Canadian goodies for everyone to enjoy…

October 7, 2017

Woke up before 7am, without relying on the double alarms I’d set last night. Definitely didn’t want to be running around stressed before Lyra’s audition. Ate a bit of breakfast then left the house at 8:30.I’d built a bit of contingency in at every stage, but things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We had a good half hour before drop-off — a nice amount of time for a croissant at Pan Quotidien.

Once she went through, I hung out in the fabulous Daunt Books for an hour until it was time to collect again. Sounds like her monologue went okay. In her nervousness, she forgot one of her lines, but was able to ad lib.

Anyway, they didn’t collect the candidates’ scripts, so they won’t know that she changed it. They were cutting candidates off at 45 seconds, so she didn’t get to finish the whole thing. That didn’t happen in Nova’s case, but I imagine there are more girls applying now…

Walked back to Warren Street, then caught the tube home. After organising lunch, I was sandbagged by the lack of sleep and grabbed an afternoon nap on the couch.

Nova is babysitting this evening, so I made some Asian chicken noodle soup for Lyra and me. Watched a couple of episodes of Riverdale while we ate. The new series is out this week, and Lyra is keen for me to be up to date…

October 6, 2017

Fourteen years today since mum died. In some ways, it feels like something that happened a long time ago. In other ways, it’s still very much with me…

Had little time to dwell on things, as I was going non-stop all day. Made a batch of fairy cakes as soon as I got up, and had them cooled, iced and decorated by breakfast.

I was just picking up on my financial website image work when Jemima popped round. She’d heard there was a craft fair in the village and thought I might like to go with her. Turns out it doesn’t open until this evening, so we went for a coffee instead.

Back home, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, then some carrot cake muffins (which I also iced). Managed to finish 90% of the image work by the time I needed to head up to the bake sale. (Lyra was unconvinced by the wisdom of making carrot cake, but those babies flew off the table. I’ll make a double batch next time.)

The sale was crazy busy… We had lots of nice goodies to sell and plenty of takers. Ended up making over £200 in about twenty minutes…

By the time we’d cleared everything up, I had hour or so at home to wrap up my work and send an email to the client before we needed to leave for Friday night dinner at Beulah and Freddy’s. Just enough time to stop in East Finchley to buy Beulah some flowers, which were much appreciated.

I was surprised to find we weren’t the only guests — Tony and Glynnis (old family friends) had been added to the list. They were always my favourite of Adam’s parent’s friends, and I haven’t seen them in ages.

We started with smoked salmon, chopped egg and challah, followed by mac and cheese with bacon and roast tomatoes, and a chocolate, walnut and cream layered dessert (a fiddly but delicious Ottolenghi recipe). Left about 9:30. Lyra has her drama audition tomorrow, and I want her to get a decent amount of sleep.

Having had only one small glass of wine with dinner, I had the big idea of drinking a second glass and watching a bit of telly to unwind before bed. Dozed off ten minutes into an episode of Law & Order. It was 1am by the time I made it to bed, where I found myself unable to sleep. Lay awake tossing and turning until after 3am…:-(

October 5, 2017

Fasting today… By chance, there was an article in my newsfeed about a Harvard-educated doctor who has concluded thatpeople should eat one meal a day. He’s advocating the same principles I’m applying (intermittent fasting), taken that much further…One of the things I like most about my fasting days is the time that is freed up — especially when the girls cook dinner. I’d never really thought about how much time prepping and sitting down to eat meals and snacks involves, but the day certainly seems longer (in a good way) when I don’t do it…

Got on top of stuff at home, then headed to the supermarket for a top-up shop and some baking supplies — it’s our first class cake sale tomorrow.

My financial client came round in the afternoon to finalise a batch of text I’d edited earlier in the week. We did some good image research as well. They want a certain type of humour to come through with all the images.

Tricky to get it right, especially with stock (preferably free) images. They’d be happy for me just to grab images off Google and hope for the best copyright-wise, but I’m not comfortable with that at all…

A couple of examples of where we got to:

October 4, 2017

Walked Lyra to school this morning, then then went for a two-mile run in the Woods. It’s been too long…Much of my day ended up being devoted to school stuff — new website editing, class rep emails, and yearbook research. Being an active year 6 parent is a part-time job in its own right…

Veronika stopped by for a drink this afternoon. I’ve had a sense that she’s feeling overwhelmed from the texts and brief conversations we’ve exchanged , but for various reasons we haven’t got together since the school year started. Good to catch up…

Dave came round for dinner this evening. He’s been housesitting in East London for the last couple of weeks, but is heading back to the Midlands tomorrow. Haven’t seen him since early summer either…

He’s certainly looking well — new front teeth and much slimmer, thanks to a low-carb diet and no drinking. I was happy to work with that, and made veggie burrito bowls with quinoa for dinner…

October 3, 2017

Slept like a log last night with no Adam to disturb me. It was a bit chilly though — will take a hot water bottle to bed with me tonight…I finally launched Kenya website this afternoon — what a protracted saga that has been. A project that was meant to take two weeks has dragged on for almost three months.

There’s always that anxious stretch after you switch the domain name servers — the old site disappears but the new one doesn’t take its place for about an hour.

Filled the time with a kick-off meeting for the class year book. One of the mums who led on the project last year joined us at the Gatehouse to talk about their experience.

Personally, I think they lost the plot… It sounds like two of them laboured like slaves to produce this bloated, 150 page book that cost £19/unit to produce (all of which must be covered by class funds). They didn’t even have any fun doing it…

October 2, 2017

Woke to news that Monarch Airlines has declared bankruptcy. They are blaming Brexit — the weak pound, economic uncertainty that has people tightening their belts — and over-supply in the low-cost airline sector.There are thousands of holiday-makers stranded around the Med, as well as people with future travel booked who will need to make alternate arrangements. Ryan Air is currently experiencing chaos will cancelled flights all over the place.

All of which prompted me to make getting our train tickets for Amsterdam booked the day’s first priority. That was the theory — the transaction kept falling over at the purchase point for no apparent reason…

Adam offered to try on his machine, and managed to complete the booking. I reciprocated by doing his packing for Toronto. He’ll be gone for a week, which I think is easier to pack for than a few days.

He headed off to a meeting, after which he’ll go to the airport. Won’t see him again until Sunday…

Lyra had film club after school. I helped Nova get going on her Thai yellow curry, then headed up to collect at 5:45. Sent Lyra back to ours with Alice, and carried on to the Year 6 parents’ meeting with Christine. No big surprises (we’ve been down this road before), aside from the eye-watering cost of PGL this year — £400!

October 1, 2017

Rabbits! Lyra made sure the whole family got their coverage this month, bless her…Didn’t get up to much round here today. Adam is leaving for Toronto tomorrow, so he had things that needed doing in preparation for that. The girls had homework, I had editing, so we all pootled away at our various tasks…

Freddy and Beulah popped round in the afternoon with a belated birthday present — a lovely pair of silver earrings. In all the excitement of Rosh Hashanah dinner, she completely forgot to give it to me.

After they left, I made Jamaican patties and a cabbage salad for dinner. Made two different fillings — curried beef, and a veggie squash and corn one. Both were excellent. Should have doubled the amount of pastry — I have enough filling left for another eight patties.