beloved bel

A few weeks ago, I went on a girly weekend getaway to Gloucester - just Izzy and mummy.  One of my really good friends Gabby moved from London to a little village in Gloucestershire more than 2 years ago, and we have not met up even before the pandemic started.  Finally when the lockdown eased off, I suggested bringing Izzy with me to visit her and her little girl Bella.  It would be a "fun, girly weekend!" I said enthusiastically. Because we live in the outskirts of London, to get to Paddington train station itself to catch the train to Gloucester was quite a journey in itself.  I kept checking the train timetable from our place to Paddington, and contemplated asking K to drive us to a tube station instead.  When the day arrived, I had the entire route and train timings etched in my head.  We were to pick Izzy up from school at 330pm first.  "Let's aim to be in front of the parents queue at the gate" I told K.  Then K would drive us and drop us off at the train

We had 2-3 weeks of a summer spell recently and for one of the weekends, we brought Izzy and Gabriel to the beach!  Thanks to Cocomelon, these days Izzy will ask me if we were going to the beach, or going camping, or building a campfire.  Finally we could tell her that we were going to the beach! Just arrived and all smiles Eating nuggets and chips On a deckchair "The beach, the beach, the beach yeah... " sang Izzy To get to a beach, we would have to drive to the far eastern coast in Kent which is about 1.5-2h away, or down south to Brighton which we know is a pebbly beach.  Out of nowhere, K suggested driving across the river Thames, into Essex and then eastwards towards Southend-on-sea.  This place looks like fun, with an Adventure Island theme park, and the beach looks sandy instead of pebbly.  We debated for a while -Kent or Essex - and finally we thought we should explore somewhere which we have not been before, so off to Southend we went.  Which on hindsight, was a wond

Just because we couldn't get enough of the cherry blossoms at Greenwich Park, we arranged with some friends to have a picnic at the park, when it was permissible to do so.  We met these friends back in the day when Isabelle was attending the baby sing and sign class and we three mums got on so well that we continued with baby ballet, and kept in touch all throughout lockdown.  To think of it, we have not met one another for a year! Two years ago when we were here, we did a mini photoshoot of the girls with the cherry blossoms.  It is so nice that we are now back again, with each girl having a younger sibling and our little tribe has doubled!  Becky invited her friend to join us and she brought along her two boys so the boy:girl ratio is more balanced out. The sun came a shining and we were relieved to see the girls playing with one another almost immediately.  We had to do the cherry blossom shots again and it was so fun.  Passers by stopped in their tracks and even took photos of