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Lady of the manor

Where is my little baby going - only a few days and Abi will be 11 - eek! This weekend Izzy had a party to go to at a friend who's parents are the caretakers of an amazing local estate which has all kinds of treasures to explore. They went ice skating first followed by an afternoon in the 'arcade' - a full size video game arcade with table hockey, zorbs and table football - before tea in the 'small hall' which is in fact an enormous and beautiful garden room with a table that seats 40...

This party understandably needed to last quite a while given all that it entailed and so Abi cooked up a treat for her as well. On Saturday morning we dropped Glenn and George at the station for the rugby train, Izzy at Amber's for the party and then Abi and I set off on a day out for just the two of us.  Due to Abi being away more than Izzy for riding, its less frequent that I have time with just Abi so it was great to know we had the whole day ahead. She had it all mapped out - I was allowed a trip to the glass shop in Reading, before we went into town proper for her to have lunch in Pret (her all time favourite meal out is a Pret macaroni cheese with kale) and then onto Lush to browse the bath bombs. Goodness knows where this has come from but our little mud monster has a secret passion for all things luxurious in the bath department! She has spent the last few days online looking at the selections and begging me to take her so this was obviously a perfect opportunity.

But first, glass. I had been avoiding buying any glass for a while in anticipation of using some of this new free time (what free time I ask?!?!) and so I had in my head a ling list of stuff I wanted. It didn't disappoint and I managed to buy all that and much more. Abi was brilliant - taking stuff up to the counter, chatting with the lady in the shop and generally encouraging me far more than I needed.  Leaving after over an hour with half the shop in the boot we took what little money I had left in my bank account to town. First it was a lunch stop and then into the paradise that she has been waiting. It was heaving in there and initially I thought it would be too much but she wandered around. picking all the soaps and bath bombs up, smelling them and making the most of the many assistants prepared to show her what each did. After much deliberation (almost worse than Amanda used to be in a sweet shop!), she made her selection and we managed to escape. Not before she'd managed to also get some things in the diary for Izzy and also for their stocking "perfect from Santa Mummy!". we headed back to pick up Izzy with the time having literally flown by - so nice to have time like that where she still wants to be with me - long may it continue. We came home and within minutes they were both in the bath, surrounded by fizzing multi coloured water, giggling happily together.

Today has been a whirlwind of riding, walking and drinking tea it seems. Glenn was out on his new off road motorbike so I took the kids to the stables and then we came back and I'm managed to squeeze a run in on the treadmill before we set off for a walk around the estate that Izzy had been playing in yesterday. Walking around a beautiful private estate like that was just lovely - we stopped to admire the oak lined avenue, the woodland walk, the lavender fields and the various streams and artworks. Abi fell in love with the 4 miniature Shetlands (managing to offer up her services on a weekly basis to look after and groom them!) before the kids set off on the golf buggies to play in the tree houses (more than one obviously) and we came back through the maze and spring flower meadows for a cup of tea. I could get used to the land if not the lifestyle!

Tomorrow is a work day and I've very quickly got used to that not being the case. I have 2 weeks now where its a Friday off rather than a Monday and I'm wonder why it took me so many years to realise this it works so much better to have the beginning of the week rather than the end off. Oh well, at least I've got there in the end.


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