Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

I'm happy to report we've had a far less emotional week, albeit an incredibly hectic weekend so I hardly feel we've paused to take breathe before its back to work / school. We dashed down to Somerset this weekend, with Glenn going to a Top Table on Friday, me heading off to see my old Bristol team for lunch on Saturday - complete with the Next Gen of Big 4 staffers - followed by dinner with George, Deb, Richie and Chloe on Saturday night and then back this morning to pick up the dogs, race round to Zsara's to admire her new kitchen and then collapse in a heap! Seeing everyone from work was fab - they've all done so well and had come in from all corners of the country (and in one case the US) to be together. We also had Charlie (9 months) and Tom (12 weeks) to play with, and try not to get broody over... Dinner was a bit emotional with Deb having not been well, but she's in great spirit and between this and other stories of the trials and tribulations that ...

Phew, back to work after a slightly emotional weekend with the kids. I don't know whether this is back to school blues or the next stage to look forward to but this weekend was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster. Back to school has gone well - both girls are loving their new classes and, interestingly, settling in to new friendship groups. The school mixes up the form groups each year and although they are with girls they seemed to be best friends with last year, both have said their 'best' friend is now turning out to be someone else. Plenty of time for that to change I'm sure. So the emotions started on Saturday at Newbury Show. Abi was bored within 2 mins of walking around the trade tents and just wanted to go home, whereas Izzy just wanted to go and see Sharron and help her out on the vodka stand (possibly slightly inappropriate for an 8 year old?). I just wanted to mooch around the tents and look at all the country-style stuff I clearly don't need but real...

Back to school and back to normal, phew! Funnily enough it's like they've never left - they ran into school, worked out where they should be and that was it - gone. Izzy didn't even say goodbye. I guess I should be pleased - I'm certainly not worried that they aren't clinging to our legs, crying their eyes out. They spent half the week cooking up a sleepover at Mia's on Friday night, what's new?! When push came to shove and I was heading home from Claire's Abi had a wobble and decided actually she was too tired to stay. So Izzy and Mia (who's in Abi's year but doesn't seem to matter) headed off giggling to the bath together and Abi headed home with us. Good job we hadn't managed to get a table booked at our local for dinner then. Abi was shattered after the week so went to bed early and we got up together on a very rainy Saturday morning to walk the dogs. By the time we got back Glenn had left for his track day and so with nothing els...

Quick blog before back to work preparation starts - ho hum. I'm not dreading it, it's only been a week, but on the other hand I'm not looking forward to the 5.15am alarm call - its dark now at that time! Today we've been living up to our new mantra of catching up with old friends when we have the chance. Instead of doing the Newbury Triathlon as originally planned (in reality both of us had gone off the idea not due to lack of training but lack of enthusiasm for the admin of getting the kids babysat etc.) we went to Fareham and had a lovely lunch with Tom, Rachel, Beth and Oscar and admired their newly renovated house. I love a good house renovation - who doesn't? We surprised them by being super-early (unfashionably so - oops) which meant we got back in good time for Glenn to see the Moto GP and me to walk the dogs then head into the garden to tackle to worst of the brambles. These are either providing plenty of free blackberries or threatening to take ov...

So the summer holidays are drawing to a close and when we look back it seems to have flown by again. I've just dropped Izzy off at Aran's party and her old school mates look so grown up - you hardly notice it when you see them week to week but my goodness its obvious from month to month. This week I've been off work and we have had such a lovely time. It seems to have been really busy - but my current mind-set is to take every opportunity to catch up with people as we just don't know what's around the corner.  This is stating the obvious but 2 weeks ago we said goodbye to 2 old friends - somewhat more distant than in the past but still both fondly remembered. The most emotional for me was to attend the funeral of my university friend Karen. It was a huge shock for me - Karen was my age with 2 young daughters and I remember her as someone so full of life. We had known she had been unwell for a long time with MS but it was cancer that got her in the end - crept ...