Carpe diem with kids

My first day of annual leave! Ah, the thrill of that, it's finally here! No, I have not spent the morning making to do lists or planning what I've got to do (although they're in my head but I keep ignoring them). Didn't even go for a run, although I was planning to. Instead, I joined Emma on her dance class, then sorted out Legos with Ariana and Dan. I need to focus on not setting expectations for the next week. In my head, lists are building up, plans, tasks, increasing my awareness of all the shit piling up over the last 2 months, all that needs done. If I get any of that done, fine! If not, fine! Now that I've written it, it's like a pact with myself. The main thing we need to catch up on is spending more quality time and playing with the girls. There's been a bit of planning on that side, and a camping night in the garden is in the cards, some Star Wars folded flyers, star gazing, and other 'whatever makes them happy' activities. Yesterday ...

Today would have been the wedding party of our dear friends, somewhere near Lecce in South Italy, and were all so excited about it. My heart goes out to them, I know it' not easy for now,  but we'll party even harder next year. Since we can't make it this year, I decided to make up for each missed holiday by remembering past holidays, looking at pictures and videos, sort of reliving beautiful memories. What a beautiful country Italy is, so many gorgeous places, so much culture, the food, the wines, the joyful people, it can never disapoint. Our first visit to Italy was sort of by accident. In 2006 was attending my first international scientific conference in Rijeka, Croatia, with a colleague I was working with and our partners. We stayed in a villa in Opatija, and while we loved exploring the surroundings and the Istra Peninsula is absolutely gorgeous (so many Venetian influences), I couldn't help throwing the idea of taking a little detour on our way back home and ...

It's one of those days when I just feel nothing's working. Last night had to look into an urgent situation for work and turned my mood upside down. I needed to go out, vent, cycle, run, anything, but then had to put the girls to bed, they're not sleeping if I'm not there. Even Ariana, she needs to know I'm in the next room. Oh, that ombylical cord, guess it was never cut!!! I wonder how miserable I'll be once they finally decide cut it! This morning I woke up thinking I need to clean up the rest of the mess at work on what was supposedly a day off, and felt just annoyed. Then the postman rang the bell and left on our doorstep a box of Fitzbillies Chelsea buns, sent by my employer. And a note, to say thank you for the work done over the last weeks. Timing could never have been better. Again, it's the little things in life, the ups and the downs, the pink and the grey, the clouds and the sunshine, that make us feel alive.  https://www.mommaaddict.com/...

Nearly 7 weeks into this isolation and (at times) I am getting fed up with it, as I am sure most of us are. But don't think the end is near, so we just have to deal with it. While some of us are happily working from home and loving it, their productivity rising to the sky (crazy people, eh?), others are really missing face to face comunication and struggling with all this exclusively remote work.Video calls are generally ok (apart from that very important meeting with a new client when I was supposed to lead the meeting and make a good impression, but my bloody Zoom crashed) but still feel strange and just won't do for me. It is hard, I feel tired, annoyed to not be able to control things, missing people, spending too much time on social media to distract my brain. Today I was witnessing from my kitchen a situation where an older lady fell on the road near the pavement, must have been the heat, and people were trying to help her but keeping the freaking (note how I am tryin...

Interestingly I started writing this a week ago then, don’t know, things got a bit too busy, and lost the momentum, but getting back into it today on Earth day. Spring is just amazing, and we really miss being out and about and enjoying nature at its best - flowers, birds, butterflies, a day by the beach, whatever. I even miss the craziness before leaving the house for a fun family day, getting everything and everyone ready, where by the time we get in the car to leave I am all sweaty and pissed off, and then I need to go back because we forgot something. Fun family day indeed. Surely that only happens to us! 😂 Funniest and most annoying thing I saw on Facebook recently was the ‘Bluebell trail run’ event being postponed. How on Earth do you postpone an event involving seasonal flowers?!  ‘You can never hold back spriiing.‘ Ok, now Tom Waits is stuck in my head again. Couple of years ago in April we visited our friends in Holland and I got to check Keukenhof, the tulip park,...

Four weeks and an eternity since we've been working from home, and 3 weeks since the children stopped going to school and nursery. Has it been a challenge to juggle everything and keep everyone happy? Absolutely! Have we managed? Just! Is it getting easier? Not really, no! So looking forward to get back to normal, although I'm pretty sure life will not return to exactly what it was before this. I have wondered how we will cope, but, luckily, few weeks back, Boris has spoken: we're allowed to go out for daily exercise! Oh joy!!! I have never seen so many people out walking, running, cycling. If this goes on for much longer, I think many of us will be in better shape than ever. Sure, I might not get back my pre-kids waistline, only a time turner can do that, but might finally get rid of any extra weight. I am doing so much exercise lately, compared to what I used to do up to a year ago (which was close to nothing). Over the last few months I joined all sort of fun challenge...

Cancelled ! - I have started to really dread this word. Too many things in a short amount of time having been cancelled. I keep trying to remind myself that in the big picture of what’s going on in the world these are ridiculous problems, small and insignificant, but they do matter too. So last week we were supposed to fly to Budapest, spend a couple of days there, then drive to Timisoara in Romania. Celebrate Dan’s Mum’s birthday, have some drinks with friends, spend Easter in my beloved village where I grew up, the girls spending time with their cousins, have a session with our photographer who’s been taking the most amazing photos of the girls for many years. And as much as I was really looking forward to all this, I was equally happy about the time we were planning to spend in Budapest. Because after some very succesful holidays with the girls I felt that we can finally get back to travelling more and passing on to the girls our passion of exploring new places and revisiting some...