I tried a little experiment today. Yesterday, Child Two baked the most delicious scones, which seemed like the perfect moment to get out my homemade apricot and strawberry jams (yep, I should definitely get a day job). Naturally, both of my offspring preferred to slather the gorgeous scones with Waitrose’s raspberry jam instead. And not …
Did you see last week’s episode of political spoof The Thick of It? Rebecca Front’s character, now promoted to Opposition Leader, is haplessly trying to obey the advice of her spin doctor – so much more important than staying true to her election promises – and finds herself supporting the government’s radical cuts to schoolchildren’s …
The children are all deep into the new term now, and it’s as though the holidays never happened. I miss our long chats, lounging around the kitchen table, about life, the universe and everything. Although one conversation with my girls did disturb me deeply. I had known, of course, that teenage girls separate themselves out …
You know how some things become your own personal Holy Grail? The search for the perfect handbag/bra/man, which starts with high hopes and often ends in disappointment? Well, I’ve just had one of those moments. Ever since my teens, I have sought high and low for the right foundation. I know this makes me sound …
It’s hard to know how to pitch a family trip to an art gallery these days. When the girls were small, I’d steal the V & A’s once-controversial line, and promise, ‘an ace cafe, with a museum attached.’ When they were a bit older, I’d go heavy on the gift shop (particularly relevant at the …
So, it’s virtually the last gasp of the summer holidays, and to celebrate, I decided to plunder the depths of the lovely Tesco back-to-school box which arrived a while back. As well as some fantastically useful stuff, like white shirts, school skirts in a two-pack with elasticated waists and great white socks, there were two …
My girls don’t usually ask me to write about anything. Normally, they’re begging me not to mention them, their friends, the strange ways of teenagers …. anything, basically, which even touches vaguely on their lives is strictly off-limits. Until I bought them new brushes the other day. One of the awful things for divorced children …
Isn’t it odd that, in an age when we’ve all (well, 31m of us) read Fifty Shades of Grey, and now know about safe words, Rooms of Pain and all kinds of other kinky stuff that thankfully I’ve already forgotten, that no one will talk about the plain old menopause. Even though it’s going to …
A few little bits and bobs which have happened over the summer, none of which is big enough for a post of its own, but all of which made me chuckle: 1. A friend, replying to our wedding invitation, said, ‘Alice, I want to come to ALL your weddings!’ 2. A relative congratulated the dear …
Sponsored post All that lovely hotness yesterday, when London melted and languished and fanned itself on the hottest day of the year, reminded me of a lovely day out I had right at the beginning of the summer, courtesy of those darling folk at Special K. The reason it felt the same was because I …