Gah! It’s nearly time for my half term idyll to come to an end. It’s only by the grace of God – or an inset day – that I am able to bring you this, from my dressing gown, at the shocking hour of 10.30. I have no idea how I’m going to manage waking …
Well, here we are in week two of the half term and I have descended into full teenage behaviour patterns, getting up at 12, slopping around in my dressing gown, and complaining when asked to do anything. Meanwhile, Child One is revising night and day for her dreaded GCSEs and Child Two is getting on …
My girls have TWO WEEKS OFF for half term, believe it or not, so the struggle to stop them sinking into teenage apathy is epic. Yesterday, as part of the good fight, we went off to Covent Garden to test out pizzeria Fire and Stone’s new children’s menu, designed with fellow parent blogger My Daddy …
Had a meeting of my real life book club (not to be confused with my lovely online blog book club) at home last night. Little Bingo was the star of the show, and a perfect host, moving graciously from lap to lap and sharing out his favours with a wisdom and discretion which was astonishing …
Went to see a great play the other day, Pitmen Painters, at the tiny little Duchess Theatre hiding behind the skirts of Covent Garden, just off the Strand. I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of this group of painters before, who all came from the same colliery and took up art almost on …
This weekend, with rumour and accusation swirling around one of our most senior politicians, I’ve been thinking about the differences between our approach to public life and the French way. In France, very strict privacy and libel laws would not allow papers to make free, as they have over the past couple of days, with …
I’m enjoying the Tesco Real Food Cook-Off show on Channel 5, shown on Tuesdays at 7.30pm – not least because lovely Tesco have asked me to try out some of the recipes at home. Somewhere, somehow, they may have got the idea that I am not the world’s most patient – or talented – chef …
One of my favourite ideas in the Harry Potter series was the pensieve, where you could syphon off thoughts and leave them swirling mysteriously in a rather beautiful stone bowl. In the novels, these were memories of significant events which helped Harry lurch on towards the final battle with his nemesis when the plot had …
I’m not sure what I think about the Amanda Knox affair. She didn’t come over well in the lead-up to the original trial, and all the ‘Foxy Knoxy’ stuff certainly blackened her name. Then, when she started dressing like a nun in the witness box, she seemed shamelessly manipulative. The trouble is that we still …
I’ve always been a hopeless romantic. As a child, in all my favourite stories, the princess glided away to a happy ending with her prince. In my teens, I graduated to Jilly Cooper’s jolly super romances. At university, I discovered the guilty pleasures of Mills and Boon as a way to take the mind off …