Out and about

One of the many reasons I love living in London is the endless opportunities to do things. Yet I am always taking this forgranted and forgetting to blog about them. So to recap on some recent activities...

Mr Planet and I have celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by dining out on fantastic Polish food at the restaurant and vodka bar Baltic in Southwark.

We've collected bark, twigs and leaves and chased pigeons in Russell Square, taken Little Planet out for burgers and fries at Byron near Holborn and shopped (in Marylebone) for bedding and photo frames at The White Company, children's books at Daunts and steaks at The Ginger Pig.

We've gorged on ice creams (green tea, orange, chocolate) at Lick in Soho.

I've been to the cinema to watch the fun and quirky Young Adult.

Over the next few weekends and months, we've booked or plan to see... Complicite's production of The Master and Margarita at the Barbican, Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach at the Barbican, English National Ballet's My First Sleeping Beauty at the Peacock Theatre with Little Planet, David Hockney at the Royal Academy and Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern.

And with the weather picking up, there are the Royal Parks and, closer to home, the Heath to romp around in again. Winter has been spent shrugging one cold or tummy bug after the other off so I am looking forward to Spring.

Days like these

The re-writing continues, slowly but surely.

This picture frame allows me to rotate Little Planet's artwork.

Little Planet made a combined Valentine's Day and 5th Wedding Anniversary card for us.

I got this cute little knitting counter free in a magazine.

My mother bought this cushion cover in Assam, India.

A light snack.

Little Planet's breakfast plate.

My first cable scarf; my first ever attempt at cable stitch.

I finished sewing these linen tablemats yesterday.

Little Planet is so into her princesses these days that they marry each other, have children together (only daughters), and men are strictly not allowed to enter their world.

Weekend chilling

This weekend, we visited Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park...

And ate an Argentinian lunch at Garufa in Highbury, North London...

But the rest of the weekend was spent at home. Painting...

Jumping on the bed whilst the sheets were in the wash...

Going to Mass...

Eating Paul A. Young artisan chocolates...

Reading...

Knitting...

Preparing to sew a patchwork cushion for Little Planet's bed...

Putting up Christmas decorations...

Finishing the second draft of my novel. Hurrah!

Snapshots

This weekend, we visited a lot of art galleries, including Irrational Marks: Bacon Rembrandt at Ordovas / The King, The Island, The Train, The House, The Ship (Paul McCarthy) at Hauser & Wirth / Forsaken (Marlene Dumas) at Frith Street / Jeff Wall at White Cube, Mason's Yard. But it was Robert Motherwell's Works on Paper at Bernard Jacobson that blew us away completely.

Gallery hopping makes for very tired feet!

We queued round the block to get into Meat Liquor in Marylebone, but the burgers and fries were so good that the wait was certainly worth it.

Little Planet attended a very pink 4th birthday party...

...That had a very pink birthday cake.

And this weekend, Little Planet finally moved from her cot to her very own pink bed, which she absolutely loves.

Tweet tweet

Since I am tweeting far more than I am blogging, I thought I'd compile some of my tweets since easter. Please read from the bottom up :-)

• Still following Paul McKenna's eating principles. Feels like second nature now. Combined with the running, I feel really trim & fit.
  
  
• 2 chapters left to write and draft 2 of my novel will be written. Will have to a draft 3 though...
  
  
• Still doing my Couch to 5k runs three times a week but have had to repeat a few weeks as I find this running lark a bit tough.
  
  
• Lil P is having a Halloween party with her childminders this afternoon. From 7pm bedtime my lights will be off & I'll be ignoring the bell!
  
  
• I was (am) so lazy & NEVER wanted kids as I liked my life but Mr P persuaded me & am so happy he did! It's an adventure
  
  
• I am thankful for the time change and am looking forward to running in daylight again tomorrow (I am an early morning runner)...
  
  
• Clocks went back in the early hours of this morning but we still got a lie in and had to WAKE Little Planet up. Hurrah!
  
  
• Little Planet dressed all day today in her Halloween witch's dress & hat, running around like a crazy loon with her magic wand.
  
  
• Kali puja yesterday, pheasant & pumpkin pie for dinner tonight, slow cook venison stew on hob for dinner tomorrow, preschool starts again.
  
  
• I am naturally lazy so follow the "benign neglect" school of parenting. Little Planet seems fine inspite of it :-)
  
  
• Besides, you're not with your kid all day long - they go to school, sleep loads (hopefully). You DO get time for you.
  
  
• Yes, kids a lot of work but LIFE is a lot of work and that makes it so much more rewarding. Think about the longterm.
  
  
• I love fireworks but not when they keep 3 year olds, recovering from colds and still coughing, awake when they want to be sleeping.
  
  
• finished A Village Affair by Joanna Trollope amzn.to/s3Serk #Kindle
  
  
• I've actually stopped watching it (Downton) as I've lost interest in the plot. Sunday night is now just Curb Your Enthusiasm :-)
  
  
• finished The Photograph by Penelope Lively amzn.to/mXO0hc #Kindle
  
  
• We're back from NYC. Will post photos soon.
  
  
• finished The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt amzn.to/etWgfG #Kindle
  
  
• Today we're off to check out diners, galleries and boutiques in Williamsburg. But first, brunch at Freeman's. The weather is glorious!
  
  
• Saw the great Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy in Blackthorn last night in a fab indie cinema on the Lower East Side. A great Western for 2011.
  
  
• Great NYC eating: strawberry milk & bagel bombs @ Momofoku Milk Bar, pizzas @ Keste, burgers & sausages @ DBGB, coffee/cake @ Ground Support
  
  
• Little Planet happy w. Grandma back in London but I am missing her like crazy. I admit I shed tears leaving her at nursery before flight.
  
  
• Lots of shopping in NYC - DKNY, JCrew, Barney's; biscuits & gravy at Peels in the East Village; De Kooning retro at MOMA.
  
  
• Momofoku Noodle Bar (NYC) in two words: Delicious, NOISY! I'm getting old.
  
  
• Off to NYC. Back next week.
  
  
• We have such great weekends. Love having Mr Planet home so we can enjoy life as a family. Must blog about our weekends again but time lacks.
  
  
• Lovely day today: Morning in Hyde Park, lunch at Rowley Leigh's very child-friendly & elegant Le Cafe Anglais, book shopping in Piccadilly.
  
  
• Countdown to our trip to NYC next week begins. Yippee!
  
  
• finished An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel. superb story of growing up in 60s england. amzn.to/rtxra5 #Kindle
  
  
• Lovely day today: Yang Fudong films at Parasol Unit, beef/bone marrow & pork/apple sliders at Spuntino, home for fun in paddling pool.
  
  
• Will stick to Anne Rice I think. Silly me for reading a teen book and thinking I might enjoy it. Oh, wait, Judy Bloom was awesome...
  
  
• Only a third of the way through the teen novel Twilight but really, it's quite poorly written isn't it. Still not understanding the hype...
  
  
• Struck down by food poisoning AGAIN! This time Mr Planet too. Will give eating out a wide berth for a while...
  
  
• finished Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. intense and detailed account of a family tragedy. amzn.to/m0wCS3 #Kindle
  
  
• There is something strangely meditative about ironing name tags to tiny pairs of socks.
  
  
• I've been ironing name tags to socks. I used to be so fun. (Actually, I really enjoyed it, ironing, listening to music loudly!)
  
  
• Really loved Great House - so beautifully written. Only issue I had with it is that all the characters had the same "voice".
  
  
• finished Great House by Nicole Krauss amzn.to/qI0b2D #Kindle
  
  
• Been ill for a week with food poisoning and a cold. Feel better now but am so glad I don't have to go into an office: I feel a bit skanky.
  
  
• ......And Twilight for when Little P is careening around me and reading concentration is not required.
  
  
• Currently reading 2 books: Nicole Krauss' Great House for the hours I can read without interruption (usually after Little P's bedtime)......
  
  
• As the "I Don't Know How She Does It" film is released SJP is annoying the hell out of me. Yes she's a mother but she has HELP & LOTS of it!
  
  
• At last, a reason to watch TV on a Sunday eve: Curb Your Enthusiasm & Downton Abbey return. Hurrah!
  
  
• finished Black Album, The by Hanif Kureishi amzn.to/rdYDNF #Kindle
  
  
• Week three of Couch to 5k completed. Still finding it hard though.
  
  
• It's time to apply for a September 2012 primary school place for Little Planet. Currently surrounded by OFSTED reports and SATS results.
  
  
• This little program (Mac & Win) forces me to turn off the Internet for a specified amount of time, forcing me to work: macfreedom.com
  
  
• 1st run of week 3 of Couch to 5K completed. Phew! It was hard. Can't believe I'm supposed to be running non-stop for 25 mins in 7 weeks?!?
  
  
• finished The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs by Christina Hopkinson amzn.to/gL2vGF #Kindle
  
  
• finished The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood amzn.to/pgtMJJ #Kindle
  
  
• I am spending so much time reading novels on my Kindle that I'm no longer surfing the net so much. Result!
  
  
• Da Polpo do delicious Nutella pizzettas. Also this weekend, a trip to the Childhood Museum in Bethnal Green.
  
  
• We had a pizza weekend. Saturday lunch at Da Polpo in Covent Garden and Sunday lunch at Pizza East in Shoreditch (the best pizza ever, IMO).
  
  
• I managed an afternoon nap today too, albeit with Little Planet bouncing around on the bed singing. The things mothers get used to!
  
  
• Holiday Monday spent at Hampstead Heath fun fair (candy floss!) then long lunch at Burgh House (showing Little Planet where we got married).
  
  
• Sunday morning in fabulous Clissold Park. Now a lazy afternoon at home: Little Planet playing, Mr P gardening before it rains & I'm reading.
  
  
• Mr Planet transforms the humble pork chop with buttery mashed potatoes & cabbage stir fried with onions & juniper berries. Comfort food.
  
  
• Lovely Saturday spent in Hyde Park & the very Zen Serpentine Pavilion with beautiful flowers. Survived the freakish downpour under a tree.
  
  
• Have bought a Kindle. Arrives Tue. Have already downloaded Siri Hustvedt's latest & Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album to my iPad Kindle app.
  
  
• Week 2, run 1 of couch to 5k done! Yipppeeee!
  
  
• Final week 1 run of Couch to 5k completed this morning. Hurrah! Week 2 commences Saturday.
  
  
• Finished 2nd (W1R2) Couch to 5k run today in the pouring rain. Feeling terrific!
  
  
• Actually, Little Planet's 3 and the "Whys?" have already started. At least she keeps me on my toes and my brain ticking over.
  
  
• Maybe I need to start tuning out occasionally... We want our kids to be bright & enquiring but we also want them to quiet down!
  
  
• Bliss, she's totally absorbed in playing. Peace at last... for now...
  
  
• Argh, why can't 3 year olds come with a mute button?
  
  
• Week 1, run 1 of Couch to 5k completed. Feels good!
  
  
• ... enjoy some art (Richard Long, Chapman Brothers). Blog post coming. Also bought beef & bone marrow burgers from Ginger Pig. Yum!
  
  
• And Mr Planet & I had Friday off to shop (DKNY, UNIQLO), eat (Nordic Bakery, So Sushi), buy books (Anita Desai, Julian Barnes) &...
  
  
• Great morning @ V&A Museum of Childhood, delicious pizzas @ Pizza East in Shoreditch then stroll through & play in Finsbury Park (the park).
  
  
• My new exercise regime: Couch to 5K - Live Well - NHS Choices - nhs.uk/LiveWell/c25k/…
  
  
• All appears calm here. Loads of locals protecting the streets it seems & most businesses open as usual.
  
  
• Police all over here too, but hoping it's precautionary rather than expecting trouble.
  
  
• Every time I hear a police helicopter over the house I think Shit! We're not in the thick of it but we're close so we could be #londonriots
  
  
• So first #londonriots and now #birminghamriots? Crazy.
  
  
• Walking barefoot in wet grass after dark. A most blissful meditation.
  
  
• I am Little Planet's PA. So far I have arranged her first playdate & booked her ballet & gym classes for next term. She needs her own diary.
  
  
• Early birthday present from Mr Planet: an iPad 2. Bliss! Though I'm spending more time downloading apps for Little Planet than for me.
  
  
• Recent outings - Southbank and Portobello Road Market. Photos soon.
  
  
• ... drink and eat out in the garden!
  
  
• I've prayed all day for rain because I'm not good with the heat, but Mr Planet has bought home beers & is making tonkatsu & I want to...
  
  
• Animation exhibition at Barbican (disappointing), pizza, Carter's Steam Fair at Clissold Park, lots of gardening. Lovely weekend & weather.
  
  
• ...I distracted her with a story about a giant dollshouse where Mr Moon lived in the attic and soon she was trotting nicely beside me. Phew!
  
  
• ... she had a little tantrum at the beginning and I thought "Uh oh, it's wet and she's on the wet pavement refusing to move!" But
  
  
• Weather like this makes me wish we still used a buggy. Fortunately she managed to huddle under the umbrella next to me and run along... but
  
  
• Mr Planet is making pasta ribbons with chicken livers for dinner tonight. Can't wait!: bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/p…
  
  
• Since Lil Planet turned 3, we've ditched the buggy altogether. She's walking absolutely everywhere now & building up her stamina. So proud!
  
  
• And excellent shops on the Blackstock Road - so much better than I remembered it. We found a Scandi '70s armchair there for our living room.
  
  
• The new & improved Clissold Park is really great - can't wait for all the improvements to be 100% completed.
  
  
• We're now thinking of introducing Little Planet to sushi. Perhaps at one of those conveyor belt places first.
  
  
• A three-parks-weekend this w/e: Finsbury Park, Clissold Park & Highbury Fields, plus delicious Mexican food at Mercado Cantina in Stokey.
  
  
• A weekend at home doing nothing and everything but most of all chilling. Taking walks, baking, cooking, gardening, playing, reading. Bliss.
  
  
• Got my hair done @ Aveda tday. It's no longer cascading down my back but barely skimming the top of my shoulders. Looks stylish but... gulp.
  
  
• Lovely day: boat on Thames to Greenwich, pizza for lunch, Maritime Museum where Little Planet made paper pirate ship, dinner chicken & figs.
  
  
• Attended a sublime Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore songs) concert today. Voice like honey. I'm in love.
  
  
• This "eating when only genuinely and physically hungry" makes food taste even better than before. Loving intuitive eating & am still losing.
  
  
• Sunday: Church (very good for training Little P to sit still-ish for 45 mins and try-not-to-talking) then Islington (Highbury end) shopping.
  
  
• Dinner was tuna steak, very lightly grilled, with wasabi mayo, watercress rocket salad w. orange zest made by Mr Planet.
  
  
• Grt wknd: sci-fi @BritLibrary, sliders @Spuntino, Phil-Lorca diCorcia @SpruthMagers, shopping @APC,Albam,Fenwick,RLauren,OliverSpencer,Folk
  
  
• Little Planet particularly loved the samosas, aloo chaat, uthappam and sag & paneer dosa at Ravi Shankar. She loves spicy food. Hurrah!
  
  
• Natural History & Science Museums then Hyde Park yesterday; Church, London Zoo then lunch at Ravi Shankar on Drummond St today. Lovely days.
  
  
• Ok, am getting all gushy but for a woman who once didn't care whether she had children or not, I sure am so so happy Little P is in my life.
  
  
• Then both Mr Planet & Little Planet crashed into sleep at 7.15pm - all that fresh air & chocolate! I'm left alone to surf the Net in peace.
  
  
• Fab Easter, made so special by having Little Planet :-) Church, brunch, Easter egg hunt, gardening, roast lamb & chickpea mash & asparagus.

Happy Halloween

Daily routine

Now that 3 year old Little Planet has started preschool (5 mornings a week), I have a new daily weekday routine that I thought I'd record here. She still goes to her childminder but now only two afternoons a week so that I have two full days for writing.

Monday:
7am - Wake up Little Planet, get her ready and give her breakfast whilst we read together.
7.30am - I go out for a run (30 minutes); return, shower, eat breakfast; Mr Planet goes to work.
9am - Drop Little Planet off at preschool (2min walk away).
9.15am - Return home, sit at desk with coffee, write, stare out of window, write some more.
12pm - Pick Little Planet up and walk her to the childminder where she will have lunch, play, then have dinner.
12.30pm - Return home, have lunch, write, drift, write, do a few chores, look at time and in a panic write some more.
5.30pm - Collect Little Planet.
6pm - Return home, play with Little Planet, tidy up together.
7pm - Stories, milk and bedtime for Little Planet.
7.30pm - Make dinner and read, write some more, watch TV, surf Internet, knit, potter until Mr Planet comes home (anytime after 8.30pm) then eat dinner.
10.30pm - Bedtime (I like my sleep).

Tuesday:
As Monday except no running.

Wednesday:
Morning routine as Monday (including running).
12pm - Pick up Little Planet from preschool, bring her home, have lunch together then play.
2pm - Take Little Planet to her gym class.
3pm - Back home and playing including painting and/or phonics and/or numbers and/or computer and/or baking plus I try and fit in some chores.
5pm - Little Planet's dinner then a bit of TV then playtime.
7pm - Little Planet's bedtime routine then my evening as Monday.

Thursday:
Same day as Wednesday but no morning run, and instead of gym class Little Planet has a sports class in the afternoon.

Friday:
Same day as Wednesday (including my morning run) then the afternoon is completely free for Little Planet and me. Her Dida (my Mum) will usually pop round for the afternoon to play with Little Planet, or we'll go to the library and/or the park.

Weekends:
Out and about as a family!

Checking in and out

Just checking in to say I'm still here and we're all fine but have just been busy enjoying life. All my writing energy is focused on finishing the book and the rest of the time is spent enjoying family life: cooking, eating out (eg Wahaca in Covent Garden), galleries, museums, parks, the garden, family, friends. The usual really.

I'm also helping Little Planet learn to read her letters and simple words. She's only just turned 3 but she was expressing interest in reading so I thought Why not? I was reading by the time I was 4 so as she is showing interest I should help her. I'm using a system called Progressive Phonics which has free downloadable resources; I'm also using a phonics app called Pocket Phonics on the iPad which she really loves. We're really lucky because her childminders are supporting us in this and are reinforcing the phonics when she's with them during the week. The key thing is keeping it fun for her and not making it something she has to do. That's why the app is particularly good as she sees it as a game.

Anyway, hope you are all enjoying the summer. More soon.

The passing of time

When this photo was taken, Little Planet was barely 30 minutes old, born after an emergency c-section but looking very well despite it all. Yesterday, we took her to her preschool induction, barely 3 years old. She'll start officially there this September. Next September, 2012, she'll start primary school, barely 4 years old. She's been in our lives just three years and I simply cannot imagine my life without her now.

Absolutely, the deepest, most intense love I've ever experienced.

Please excuse this most indulgent and sentimental post...

Random shots...

... from recent weeks. Building storage shelves for our understair cupboard:

Driving the double decker bus at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden:

New shelves for Little Planet's toys in one corner of our living room:

An afternoon of Rabindranath Tagore songs at the Tagore Centre, North London:

Homemade pizzas and a mozzarella and tomato salad for dinner one evening:

Homemade pistachio biscuits with ice cream and strawberries for dessert:

Little Planet made a pirate ship (with a little help from her dad) at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich:

Little Planet helped Mr Planet make oat biscuits on a very wet Sunday:

Plotting out the final few chapters of my novel:

We've enjoyed a few meals out:

We've enjoyed a few rounds of croquet in the garden:

A warm Ottolenghi salad of butter beans, feta cheese, sumac, garlic and parsley for lunch:

A boat trip down the River Thames. Little Planet pretended to steer: