Play, play, play

The working week had been a hectic one, spent in three different cities in three days - Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt. The trip had been for business and was quite successful though draining and so it was nice to lie in bed on Friday morning until Little Planet woke up bang on 7am (usually on a work day we all have to be out of bed at 6.30am). Usually I leave for work at 7.30am, but today M and I dropped Little P off at the childminders together at 8.30am then walked into work together through Russell Square.

Work was tiring, but when I collected Little Planet at the end of my day (5.45pm), I had an hour with her in the garden before her 7pm bedtime. It was bliss. M came home around 8pm and we ate beef ragu and pappardelle in front of the TV - a rare event now that the weather is so good that we usually eat outside in the garden at night.

Saturday began at 7am again. Breakfast was flat peaches and Turkish cheese in the garden. Then the three of us headed into town. We picked up coffee, apple juice and cake in Carluccio's near Russell Square then spent a leisurely few hours in Coram's Fields. We spread out a picnic blanket, we read the papers, we let Little P climb all over us, we pushed her on the swings, we took her to see the goats, we sat in the sandpit with her and we fed her some of our cake.

We walked back through Russell Square to show her the fountains, but by the time we made it past the British Museum, she had fallen asleep in her buggy - zonked out on all the fresh air. We stocked up on provisions in Covent Garden and Soho: Monmouth coffee, bread from Paul, tofu, ponzu and umeboshi paste from Arigato, and sweets (cinnamon balls, clove sweets, Love Hearts, Dip Dabs and Sherbet Fountain) from Mrs Kibble's Olde Sweet Shoppe. On the Tube, pretty Little Planet enjoyed the attention from her fellow travellers!

Back at home, we lunched on some cured meats I'd brought back from Madrid and then spent the entire afternoon lazing around and playing with Little Planet in the garden. M made some chicken and tomato ragu for Little Planet's dinner. We bathed her then M gave her her bedtime milk and put her to bed. After this, he made yakitori and mixed salad dressed in a sesame paste for our dinner, which we ate in the garden. When the air got cool, we went inside and watched Kiyoshi Kurosowa's hypnotic Tokyo Sonata about the slow implosion of a family when the father loses his job and loses face.

Sunday morning began with both plain and chocolate croissants then a play for Little Planet in our local park where she enjoyed the sandpit, the swings and, particularly, the dancing fountains. We went shopping for more provisions plus geraniums, then ate the cured meats plus Manchego cheese from Madrid. My mum popped by so the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Little Planet in the garden while M worked upstairs. When he finished work, he made cauliflower and broccoli cheese for Little Planet's dinner, then bathed her, gave her her milk and put her to bed. In the midst of all this, we managed to do three loads of laundry and clean the house (we are super quick at cleaning. Life is too short!).

My mum left and now it's 8pm and M and I are both in the study: M is ironing his work shirts while I blog and then I will iron my blouses for work. We will eat filet mignon with salad in the garden and try not to think too much about work tomorrow.

I wish the weekends could be three days long.