Yesterday was one of those blustery Autumn days -- grey skies with the wind kicking up just enough to send a steady stream of ripples over the Thames . I took the girls to the playpark after school, and as they made their rounds and I sat absorbed checking my iPhone.
Thud!
I thought one of those teenage boys that you always see lurking at playparks after hours had thrown something.
But on the ground next to me was a perfectly polished brown conker, the colour of a Chesterfield sofa. I looked around and there were hundreds -- OK, that's an exaggeration, maybe 50 or so -- scattered under the the trio of towering chestnut trees that shaded the play area. The wind kicked up again and....
Thud! Thud!
Two new shiny gems fell at my feet, their green casings nearby. I couldn't resist the urge to pick one up --smooth and cool in my hand. In fact, we all couldn't resist, and we ended up with a Tesco bag full of them.
So what does one do with a whole bag of conkers? (I didn't grow up here -- suggestions please.)
So, it's just another Friday evening. I got the train home early, stopped by Tesco to pick up something for the school cake sale, popped a pizza in the oven for the girls' tea and spoke with Sarah Jessica Parker for a half hour!
BritMums were supposed to talk with Sarah Jessica last week, when she was here for the press junket for her new film, I Don't Know How She Does It. But I guess with her appearance on Jonathan Ross and trying Scotch Eggs and learning to correctly pronounce McVities, we got bumped. Our PR contact said she really wanted to speak with mums, and the interview would happen, but I had my doubts. Why would a celeb mum, who is rumoured to have a zillion nannies, want to speak to us everyday mums who are mucking our way through life?
Celeb or no celeb, what quickly became apparent is that women struggle with wanting to have it all. It is no different with Sarah Jessica. We chatted about all kinds of stuff: Making time for "dates" with our husbands, balancing work and kids, not wanting to be away from our little ones for too long, settling kids into preschool, babysitters, cheating on bake sales.
After a while I felt like I was just speaking to another working mum who was trying to do it all. Thankful that we have the opportunity. Slightly dizzy from being pulled in a million different directions. Loving every minute of it, even when we get it completely wrong.
You rock Sarah Jessica, for being a mum, for trying to have it all, for admitting you are not perfect and for taking the time to chat with five BritMums on the release day of your new film.
I wouldn't say I'm afraid of spiders. I just don't like sharing my bed with one. Or ten, which is about how many I've seen prancing around the house in the past 24 hours.
Last night I was curled up under the covers, just getting into my crisp new copy of Julie and Julia. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black object race across our cream coloured carpet, quickly disappearing under the chest of drawers.
Surely that's not a spider. It's too big. OMG, it IS a spider. A huge black one with a fat hairy body the size of a 10P coin. My mind sped along -- did it spend its childhood in my room? How long does it take for a spider to get to that size? Are there (gasp) more of them?! I could just see a family of chunky spiders in the closet, deciding if their nightly entertainment should be duvet crawling or ceiling acrobatics...
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