Fine friends

I’ve just had the most lovely weekend away with friends :).

I worked Saturday morning where I was in a state of complete giddyness and excitement and told everyone I met (including complete strangers who had just come in to borrow books!) that I was off to London, leaving my children overnight for the second time ever.I imagine several of them phoned Social Services when they got home to report me as I’ve a feeling I probably neglected to tell them my husband would be there still looking after the children 😆 Yvonne made me bring all my stuff down and stash it under the desk and then she came back early from her lunch break and hustled me off early to ensure I caught my train with plenty of time :).

The train journey was lovely – I got sit and read my book, eat the sandwiches Ady had packed for me, exchange excited texts with some of the friends I was meeting updating each other on whereabouts and then eavesdrop shamelessly on a conversations between two permatanned footballers wife types bonding and making friends and arranging to meet up sitting a few seats away loudly discussing how they were such ‘good girls’ because they never took ‘class A drugs’ 😯 I think it was the volume of the conversation given it’s content that most surprised me.

Ali met me off the train and we went together to Picadilly Circus. We had several tube journeys over the weekend and all of them made me want to act in a very silly fashion as all my recent tube travelling has been in the company of small children and involved me constantly reminding them not to lick the window / make eye contact with the drunks / point and shriek at their reflection in the window and exclaim ‘look Mummy I have an identical twin outside the train!’ / to use the pole for holding on and helping them balance rather than a poledancing for the under tens prop. I did indulge this slightly by sticking my tongue out at my own reflection, doing a bit of precarious leaning from the bars and when Ali and I were the only two left on the tube after gushing public goodbyes when the others got off a stop earlier I called ‘goodbye’ to the strangers left on the train when we got off. I also enjoyed singing ‘Blue Army’ and yelling ‘Go Pomey!!!!’ at the blue scarf waving giddy with newly won FA cup joy Portsmouth supporters we encountered after the match on Saturday. But I might have done that anyway, I can’t claim to care less personally about football but I was very delighted for Ady :).

Anyway, half our party went to see a play and half of us sat around at Starbucks and waited for them. This was not without adventure mind you, two of us had a very exciting 20 minutes or so wandering round a shopping centre trying initially to find our way downstairs to the loos and then trying to find our way back upstairs to get out again having refused to pay £1 each to use the loos (‘I’m not paying a pound for a piss!’) except the shopping centre was all funny and split level with no stairs just escalators which appeared to move around the place and magically change from being up ones when we needed down ones to down ones when we needed up ones. We eventually escaped and went to Mcdonalds for a free wee (or a McWee) but that involved joining a long queue. I also had a minor coffee latte related drama where I thought I’d been sold the wrong drink, briefly considered drinking it even though I hated it and then Ady rang and told me not to be so bloody silly and to go and buy another one, which I did and then discovered what I had originally bought as well still on the side, which meant I must have swiped someone else’s latte. Oops!

The playgoers rejoined us and we did some wandering around, some of us went for bra fittings while others went off to Ben’s cookies, Lush and B never too busy to be beautiful. And one proper feminist went off to buy equipment to enable standing up urinating 😆 I was restrained but also purchased having been sent off by Ady and told to really properly enjoy myself so I got a gorgeous little box filled with lip paint (which I have had to hide from Tarly as she saw it and has been asking if she can have it ever since. Which I knew she would and was tempted to get her one but she would only empty the contents into a pot, fill it with leaves, sticks, glitter and rose water and create a potion and then probably keep ants in the pretty box – maybe when she’s a bit older :lol:), and a bar of lush shampoo which gave me leverage to get the last bit of ginger stuff in the shop half price from them :). We also went to the Crocs shop, a cheese shop where we tried bits of gorgeous cheese and Jay impressed me by knowing what it all was without looking just like she was on Masterchef :).

We took the tube to Canary Wharf where we were staying, got supplies in from Tesco and finally arrived at the appartment we’d booked. It was not a moment too soon, my feet were aching and it was way past wine o’clock :lol:. There were snacks, curry, copious volumes of alcohol, bra flashing, singing, laughing, proclamations of adoration, phonecalls home to say goodnight to left behind blokes and children and lots of other good for the heart and soul type stuff. :). I’m sure I remember someone saying it was about 4am before the last of us finally went to bed.

We had a nice lazy morning with lots of tea, juice, croissants, bacon (we set the smoke alarms off twice, oh how I pitied anyone in the apartments below or next to ours!), using the washer dryer, chatting and assorted groaning as a result of excesses from the night before. A walk back to the tube and we all got on the same train but got off at various different points so there was loads of kisses and goodbyes along the way until only Ali and I were left. There was a train to Brighton leaving shortly so we caught that together and had a nice journey home chatting with occassional bouts of feeling very queasy indeed. The train seemed to take forever to pull into Brighton doing this very slow swaying motion which I was convinced was going to end with me showing myself up spectacularly on the train infront of a busy carriage – I think we finally got off about a minute before it would have happened – phew!

Ali and I parted, me to go and sit on the train for Lancing that was already waiting at the platform. I sat very still, read my book and concentrated very hard on how close to home I was. Ady and the children collected me at the station, telling me it felt like days and days since they’d seen me the previous morning and updating me in loud and enthusiastic voices about all they’d been up to all at the same time :). Ady was wonderful and sent me to lie down for an hour to ‘recover from my travel sickness’ 😆 😆 – I had several visits each from both children and Ady brought me a cup of tea but it restored me sufficiently to get up and have the bath he’d run for me while he came and heard all about my wonderful weekend. Scarlett got in the bath with me (I think she’d missed me the most) and my parents arrived having been just passing. They stayed about an hour and then left so we could have our roast beef dinner that Ady had cooked.

Storytime then bed for Davies and Scarlett, followed not that much later by me (it was way before 11pm, very early for me :)).

Ady, Davies and Scarlett had a lovely weekend too – the children stayed up on Saturday night really late and went to bed when Ady did about midnight, and they had a sleepover in Davies’ room. There was xboxing, popcorn and pretty much anything else the children asked for I think. Sunday morning they’d been to a carboot sale and come back with various bits including a replacement butter dish for the one I’d smashed accidentally earlier in the week. Ady really enjoyed having some time to focus on the children, he’s been absent a lot this year both physically away lots and mentally bringing lots of work home so he got to switch off and be Daddy which was great for him and the children and the kids thrived on having him here and devoting himself to them so entirely. And as for me the novelty of such freedom hopping on and off trains, going in shops with things I’d have to constantly be nagging a child not to touch, no one making a single demand of me all weekend, spending real life time in the company of people I adore and feeling like I spent the whole weekend being ‘me’ instead of a grown up, nagging, ever alert version of me was just blissful – lovely to know I am still in there after all, I sometimes wonder after a bad day at home with the children, I reckon that’ll keep me going for a long time :).