On Tuesday I went with her to pick up her youngest two from primary school and we had to nip to the shops to get stuff for dinner. While driving there we saw the big two walking home from secondary school so stopped to pick them up. At the shops we decided that I would do some baking with the kids so they all picked a baking kit (and a few treats from Aunty Nat). I have to say that the Asda baking kits were bloody awful- we got the little two the dinosaur and unicorn biscuit kits but all you got to make them into unicorns or dinosaurs was a stencil on the inside of the box that you had to cut out! Not sure how little kids are supposed to use that as I bloody struggled. I feel a strongly worded email to Asda coming on! Here were our efforts…
On Wednesday after I had taken the little ones to school in my magic talking car (it was the sat nav giving me directions that they found magical!) Bestie and I drove to Cockfosters tube station and took the tube all the way to Earl’s Court where we changed and got the overground to Olympia for the Ideal Home Show (IHS). I love train/tube journey rides; you tend to be going somewhere good when you go somewhere on the train.
We’ve been going to the IHS or the Christmas IHS for years. We started when the kids were little and it was pretty much the one day a year we would have just the two of us, with no kids or husbands to annoy us. We used to always go on the day of late night opening because we never got around it otherwise but this year the show finished at 6pm every day. However, we needn’t have worried; the show was the smallest one we have ever been to. We got there about 11am and including a sit down for lunch and another for a coffee we were done by 3pm! To be fair though we’ve seen all the same stalls over the years so we don’t bother to watch the demos of the ‘amazing’ products they’re selling that they tell you will change your life! We’ve also become pretty adept at dodging the charity stalls that try to get to sign up to monthly donations and just saying no to stuff we don’t want to look at. Whereas in years past we felt too awkward to keep walking and would stand for ages listening to them tell us about the products, watch them do their from demonstrations and sometimes even buy something we didn’t want just because we felt bad walking away empty handed! All I ended buying were some 3 metre long phone charging cables for the kids and a Forest print for Hubby that I will put away for Fathers Day. If you have a footie fan in your house check out this website. The guy goes round football stadiums taking arty shots and makes collage prints of them. He’s done lower league teams too, not just the big premiership ones.
While we were there we saw a stall selling fried ice cream and we couldn’t resist having a try. It was a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, dipped in like a pancake batter and then you could choose either Oreo’s or Lotus Biscoff crumbs. It was deep fried, then had salted caramel sauce on the top before being finished off with edible gold glitter spray.
OMG! It was bloody amazing but it gave me awful belly ache afterwards!
Last week Hubby and I were supposed to go to London for the day. He had booked the day off work as I had managed to get priority tickets to watch QI be filmed at Television Centre so we were going to have a day going round the museums and art galleries. However that morning Big Fella was poorly and we felt we couldn’t leave him to go gallivanting round London so we never made it. The IHS was only a couple of tube stops away from the Victoria and Albert museum (V&A) so Bestie and I went there and had a wander round. It was lovely to be able to stand and read the information on the exhibits without kids moaning that it was boring! When we got home and the little kids were in bed we sat and watched the first episode of Dopesick on Disney+ with her other half and eldest child. I’d been going on about what an amazing series it was so pretty much forced them to watch it but I think they enjoyed it. I’ve watched the whole series and now I’ve got the book to read. I would highly recommend it if you’ve not seen it.
On Thursday I took the little ones to school again (I offered to take the big ones but they like to walk with their friends) then nipped to the shops to get balloons and a birthday cake for that evening. We were going out to celebrate one of the Coffee group mums 50th birthday. We all met through the NCT when we were pregnant or had just had our first kids almost 17 years ago and we’ve been firm friends ever since. When I lived down there these ladies were like family to me and our kids all grew up together. Even though I don’t get to see them as often now I live 120 miles away whoever we do get together it’s just like old times. I think we will be friends when we are all old and grandmas! Hopefully getting old will come before grandkids do! Not sure any of us are ready for that yet!
After I had managed to track down a gluten free birthday cake for the birthday girl I went and met up with some Mums of Big Girls old school friends. It’s exactly the same with these ladies too. We might go months without texting and years without seeing each other in the flesh but when we get together my God we can chat! We went to a local garden centre that we used to go to when the kids were little. They had animals, a miniature railway with a train you could ride and an amazing cafe so thought it would be ideal as one of my friends had her two year old granddaughter with her. But when we got there the animals were gone and the train wasn’t running. So after a coffee in the cafe we tried our best to amuse her with the animal garden ornaments and the posh sheds!
Before going back to Bestie’s to get ready for dinner I managed to squeeze in one more visit with another friend. We used to work at the local college together in the HR department and you know how you just click with some colleagues? Well that’s how it was. We get on so well and have kept in touch all these years. It was great to have a couple of hours with her catching up on what’s going on in her life and telling her all about Hubby and the kids.
For my friends birthday we went to her favourite local Turkish restaurant. Although one of the group didn’t make it it was so lovely to see the other 5 women. I had seen 2 of them at Bestie’s hen do a few weeks ago but one of them I hadn’t seen in years! We had so much fun and the waiters were very cheeky! I nibbled on a bit of halloumi and a few chips but then I saw they had rice pudding on the dessert menu. Rice pudding tends to be one of the few things that doesn’t upset my stomach so I ordered myself that. But I was so disappointed when it turned up cold. I’ve never been to Turkey so didn’t realise that was the way they did it there. I asked if they would heat it up in the microwave but the waiter refused point blank! We had so much fun we didn’t realise that we were the last ones left in the restaurant and that they were waiting for us to leave so they could go home.
The next morning I was absolutely exhausted but it was my last day so wanted to take the little ones to school for the last time. As soon as I got back from the school run though I was back in bed! I was supposed to go and see my friend in Harrow and then drive home from there but she’s having work done to house and having loads of problems so we decided that it wasn’t a good idea. So instead I went to see my friend whose birthday we had gone out for the night before. I hadn’t seen her and her husband properly in years do it was great to have a few hours, just the three of us, to put the world to rights.
It was with mixed feelings that I headed back home to Nottingham. I had lived in Cheshunt for 11 years and when we left to live in Nottingham it broke my heart. I felt that I didn’t really choose to move but that it was yet another part of my life that was being dictated to by my illness. For the first 2 years I couldn’t call Nottingham home and would say I was ‘going home’ when going to visit Cheshunt. But now I’ve been in Nottingham for almost 7 years and it’s definitely become home. So being back in Cheshunt properly for the first time in years felt strange. It was different but also the same. There were new housing developments, the shops I knew had closed or become something else and yet there were things that were exactly the same. I know that nothing stays the same and over time everything and everyone changes. But it felt like such a distant memory that we actually lived down there. I remember talking to Big Fella the other week and he said he couldn’t remember living in our old house and it broke my heart.
But I know I’m lucky. I’ve got amazing family and friends in Nottingham and then a whole other ‘family’ down south. Despite my ill health and the challenges that’s presented me my Cheshunt friends have always been there and never forgotten me. When I lived down there they rallied round me, Hubby and the kids and held us up during the hardest times. And even though I’m now miles away and not always able to see them very often they will often message and when we do get together it makes the times even more special.
It’s only 2 weeks until I will be back again for Bestie’s wedding and I’m looking forward to seeing those people that I didn’t get to see this week.
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