Halloween Pt 2

So....we do like to be beside the seaside I'll admit, but we picked a corker this time!!! Actually, I like the beach rain or shine, or in this case stormy!!!

I joined the family in Herne Bay, taking Nahid and Rudy to show them the delights of the Kent coast - the rain started to pour the moment they parked and opened their car door! Nahid was steadfast in her Westwood boots to the end, whereas my wellies which I keep in the boot of the car came very much into play....

We decided to go straight to Wheeler's in Whitstable, probably my favourite restaurant. Duke and Joe had picked our guests some beautiful items from a clearance the week before and bless Rudy, he kept his lurid green belt on ALL WEEKEND! Understandably Nahid found her nylon number harder to work into her look....

So...back to Wheeler's....which only has four tables and a similar vibe to Maison Bertaux...except that it's fish. We started with some native Whitstable oysters which were delicious. The best part is when they've just slipped down and you can taste the sea. We all had amazing eats...blackened cod, lobster ravioli....and the PUDDINGS (bread and butter with a caramelised top and toffee ice-cream!!!)...but the Haddock 3-way (really!) was definitely the highlight!

Incroyable!!!!

It was dark when we got back and decided it was fireworks time! Just an intimate display for the six of us (with Nanny Van and Grandad Ray looking on from indoors)...Nathaniel and Rudy did the honours, jamming the fireworks into the pebble beach and then running to join us on the sea wall where Nahid and I obliged with ecstatic "Oooooooo's!" and the boys bounced around like crazy people!

We laughed so much and were blown hither and thither in the stormy rain but it was wonderful!


We were hoping to get a walk to Reculver Castle in on Saturday morning but the weather was EVEN WORSE!!! So we sat by the open fire for a bit and decided to brave the storm and head for Broadstairs which is probably the most beautiful town on the Kent coast with sandy beaches and cllifftop ice-cream parlours! So, as inappropriate with the storm whipping as it could be, we decided to rendez-vous with my friend Laurence and her kids in Morelli's which is my favourite...(for instance, they have a "Leonardo da Vinci" which has a dish in the shape of a palette, with different coloured ice-cream daubs around it!).

The "boys" (Rudy, Duke and Joe!) ran hell-for-leather along the stormy beach, loving the drama of the crashing waves, while I kept Nahid and her boots company on the beachside path....then we met Lo and her beautiful brood and chose our ice-cream cones....

Nahid revealed her cunning snood under the cornet light fixture and proved to be the most sensibly dressed after all!

Rudy carried on the 3 way tradition of the weekend with a Toblerone, Jaffa Cake, Raspberry Yogurt combo....

It was so great to see Laurence, she looked so beautiful, the seaside agrees with her!


Can't wait to go back! Soon!

Madame xx

A Perfect End....

The boys went back to school yesterday. Duke came home with a blue card - not a good thing - and a "well done" sticker on his sweatshirt - to counterbalance the blue card perhaps. Joe was covered in yogurt and pronounced himself ill this morning. So none of us is particularly thrilled with the beginning of term.....

The last full day I spent with the boys was Monday. I was predicting a day full of name-tag stitching and gathering of school bits, but then Superduck called on Sunday night with a request for a band of singing children that he could film for his Sigur Ros projections project. A bit of phoning around and we spent a sunny afternoon on Clapham Common with seven lip-synching under 11's! It was fun. We went to the Italian ice cream parlour once everyone had given their all and then the kids had a bit of a climb all over the bandstand.....

Lovely, unexpected day out...and if the Super 8 turns out as planned we'll all be going to see their little faces behind the band in November at Alexander Palace.

The holiday ended quite beautifully actually. I drove down to Herne Bay for the last weekend where the boys were already, and while London suffered drizzle, we basked in Kent's micro-climate.


Between going to Gosport and Herne Bay, the boys probably spent about a week in London tops this summer, I'm really pleased, they look brown and healthy, had space to run around, messed around in the sea, on the sea....they seem to have grown about two inches, both schooldays I put Duke's uniform trousers on and they're whipping around his ankles! Even though we didn't go abroad or anything I feel rested after the summer for the first time since they were born!

Still, wish we could squeeze a couple more weeks of summer out....I'm not mentally ready for this jumper....

Madame xxx

Cruising in Kent

I've had a few days of sunshine, seaside, house clearances, fishcakes, go-carts with a difference, carnivals, rain, skinny-dipping and fireworks.... back at the computer again with grey clouds outside and still in my nighty at 2pm! I've been up since 9am but I can't seem to find the will to get dressed - where oh where is the sun???? Alex just called and said she may pop by later thank goodness....a reason to drag my carcass to the shower and get some clothes on! I think it's the novelty of being here on my own and no work until tomorrow.....yes that's what it is.....the novelty of squalor!

Funniest moments of the weekend were burning up and down the seafront on mobility scooters! Bugger go-carts!

Duke was actually a pretty careful driver....

Joe on the other hand was a danger to all, he drove over toes and into the other scooter several times...

Jonjo came to stay for a few days and we had a fantastic night skinny dipping in the rain....




....and I may have caught a little chill, which also accounts for the attire today.....that's right, I'm ill and it's the novelty.....

Strangest moment was the Herne Bay Carnival such as it was. Unfortunately for the participants it rained for almost the entirety of the spectacle. There are very few photos due to the fact that the rain was sheeting down much of the time but the grimacing faces of the young girls twirling their batons in the face of the elements will stay with me for a long time......
We all stood in our wet-weather gear clutching bags of pennies to throw on (NOT at!) the floats representing various theatre groups and beauty salons from the town....and THIS:

Now, this enormous lady is the mascot of Herne Bay, and you can just about see how enormous this papier macher figurine is....it was like The Whicker Man in a dress! I wonder if she'd disintegrated by the end....
The kids loved it of course and couldn't have cared less what the weather was doing as long as they had a balloon to hold and a bag of pennies....

How wonderfully British we were gritting our teeth in the cold, I love this country!!!

Madame xxx

I'm into ESCAPE!

Yes, it's definately the way forward! Spur-of-the-moment, jump in the car, never mind about spare knickers and off to the sun and sea! I didn't think we'd be going anywhere this weekend and had a lot of chores planned (oh joy), but Nathaniel was doing the Canterbury, Whitstable, Sandwich bootfair trawl and promised to go to Wheeler's for crabcakes if we'd come for lunch. I didn't believe him when he said it was blazing hot in Herne Bay but sure enough six miles outside the sun was RAGING! Now, Nathaniel has only cooked for me properly twice or maybe three times ever so I was shocked and thrilled to see this spead in the back garden on our arrival:

Wheeler's is like the fish version of Maison Bertaux and is in Whitstable. They have three tiny dining tables out the back where you can bring your own booze (I recommend champagne if you're going to have oysters - so decadent! Even a half bottle from the Threshers across the road) You can get takeaway from the front bar....OMG, the best crabcakes, dressed crabs, oysters, fish flans, cockles.....all brought in at the dock around the corner so SUPERfresh!!! It's slightly ramshackle with faded pink paint on the outside and is our favourite treat when we're there.

To walk off our fantastic lunch I went with the boys on a walk to Reculver castle with Nanny Van and Grandad Ray...Nathaniel went to bed, the combination of up at 5am and preparing potatoes and egg mayonaise took its toll! It was soooo beautiful, we walked alongside the most luminous rape field....

Looked over the cliff and vowed to search for crabs next time....

Watched about thirty mods tearing it up (until one broke down) past the mobile homes....and realised they were mostly over fifty - even better!

Then decided, sod it, we'd stay overnight so we could go and visit Charlie the horse and the little ponies and put the chickens away for the night....

Hugo can hypnotize the chickens by stroking their beaks-it's amazing!-and Duke was fascinated so had a go....

And did pretty well, in fact he and the little grey chicken ended up best mates!

There's woods all around the field so we had a little wander and found some English Bluebells, I was watching a programme on tv the other day and apparantly the Spanish Bluebells (which are paler, less luminescent and sort of open) are taking over, I was very excited to find a thoroughbred!

You'll notice I was still rocking the A.P.C. even with wellies, although I've got an enormous mosquito bite to show for it!


But the CUTEST sighting of the whole day was this little baby hedgehog that's been living in the field!!!! LOOK AT ITS FACE!!!!! Who knew they were so pretty??!!!!

No one messes with hedgehogs...only man, squashing them by the thousand I guess.

Then we went to give Nanny Lee's grave a bit of a tidy....she was the boy's great grandma and we always used to stay with her when we went to Herne Bay, the boys adored her....in fact Duke wanted to go in and find her, but we convinced him she'd prefer it if we just did a bit of weeding...


And Nanny Van even had clean knickers - still in the packet if you please! - for me!

Escape......escape.....and come back to London and love it all the more!!!

Madame x

Just in case...

...yesterday was the sum total of summer, we decided to escape to the coast yesterday and I'm so glad we did..

The sea was so clear...and so cold!...I went in for a paddle and my feet were ACHING so I was super-impressed when the boys all went in...

It was amazing to spend most of the day barefoot and feel the sun on the old bones, plus a bit of trampolining and nutty amusement rides for the boys:

Joe was torn at times between Nanny Van's Nintendo and the sea,

but mostly it was just wonderful to be outdoors all day. Ironically all the rape fields are in full neon bloom and I think I've developed a hayfever or something to that particular crop because I was sneezing all day and my eyes swelled up quite dramatically, as we drove back into the pollution of London my inflamation and sneezing stopped! Still it was worth it to have a mini-holiday....


Madame x