Greenwhich

It feels like a very long time ago, but in real calendar terms it's not.  It was May, the flowers were blossoming and the weather was pretty good.  And I was feeling pretty good because it was one of my favourite weekends of the year - the weekend I meet up with friends and we have some good old fashioned child free, guilt free, footloose and fancy free time!

This year we went to Greenwich, which I love and bought flooding back memories of when I was working in Narrow Street and would often spend time in Greenwich on the weekends, mostly mooching around the fabulous market. We stayed cheap and cheerful in a travel lodge, but it was a new build and so everything was shiny and new, and the staff were wonderful.  There was a slight hitch to the usual child free aspect to the weekend, and we ended up having baby Beth with us - this was never going to present any problems, and in fact went the other way and further added to the convivial atmosphere.  I love this gorgeous god child of mine and was I like a pig in the proverbial being able to cuddle and amuse her for 3 days.

We walked, we talked, we shopped.

We shopped, we walked, we talked.

We talked, we shopped, we walked.

We tried to help each other with problems, endlessly searching out that Eureka! moment.

Needing some time away from your family sounds selfish.  But it is not.  It allows you to rebuild your strength, reminds you of the independent, free thinking individual you once were, and in fact, still are.  That individual is the foundation of the wife and mother that we now are.  Without that individual we could not be the amazing, selfless, tireless, loving members of a family that we now are.