Even though I’m getting lots of shut-eye these days thanks to a baby who started sleeping through the night a couple of weeks ago, for some reason I am probably more exhausted than ever. So forgive the irregular updates of late, I’m just too tired to try to put the words together. And my shoulders are tenser than ever thanks to the extra weight that I’m carrying up top these days. Sorry, is that TMI? Anway, it makes it uncomfortable to type. I could really do with a massage….(@drmrnin are you reading this??)

Anywho, we just had a rather nice fun weekend, made all the more funner by the fact that The Good Doctor was originally supposed to be working the whole time but thanks to a machine breaking down, he couldn’t run his samples after all. Boo for him, but yay for me. And what a fun weekend we had! Over the last couple of months we’ve become highly acquainted with the nearby Big Box Stores but haven’t really paid much attention to the little town that we live just next to… until now, that is. And what a cutesy place! The downtown is really quaint, complete with a town green and this weekend it was playing host to the annual wine, beer and jazz festival. So we went there and had fun. Oh, and the night before was the grand opening of the new tasting room at one of our local wineries. It happens to be owned by the daughter of the lady next door which shows just what a small-world place we live in. So all in all it was a rather nice weekend.

When I was in my pre-preg days,
I weighed a few pounds less,
I needn’t hold my tummy in
to wear a belted dress.

But now that I’ve been pregnant,
I’ve set my body free;
There’s the comfort of elastic
Where once my waist would be.

Inventor of those high-heeled shoes
My feet have not forgiven;
I have to wear a nine now,
But used to wear a seven.

And how about those pantyhose-
They’re sized by weight, you see,
So how come when I put them on
The crotch is at my knee?

modified from a poem by Maya Angelou

Blink. Blink. Pause. Blink. These few verses are entering the dangerous realm of getting too close to home. My fear has always been that one thing will lead to another and if I’m not careful I’ll end up cutting my hair short and wearing Mom Jeans. Eeeeuw. A couple of weeks ago I started getting back into yoga. So the classes may only be 45 minutes instead of twice that, and I spend half my downward dogs with only one hand on the floor (the other hand acting as a binky-prop), and I can never fully zen out into each position as I’m constantly smiling and making funny faces at my little yogi-in-the-making, but already I feel like I’m reaping the benefits. For starters, look at me starting to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes again, fanfares of trumpets please!

Now the search is on to find someone to do my hair. Just a trim, mind. A trim, that’s all.

Something tells me I won’t get much done this morning after all.  Ho well. Thank goodness I put the laundry  in to clean on when I did. As for me, looks like I’m just going to have to be smelly and unwashed…

Guess what, guess what, GUESS WHAT??!! I think I have found me one of the best, best, BEST things EVER! I’ve only gone and found myself a local tearoom *great big, fat squee*. After weeks of anticipation and planning my birthday treat the great day came and we headed into the city for tea and scones at the Crown and Crumpet and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Given that anything ‘English’ (especially things like afternoon tea) is a bit of a novelty over here, there is a bit of a risk of it being overdone – I only have to mention the words ‘chintz’ and ‘doily’ and you get the picture, and then to make it even more over-the-top add to that all the lace, net curtains, the obligatory grandfather clock against the wall and the fake red telephone box in the corner and it’s cringe, cringe and Cringe Even More. But the Crown and Crumpet was EXCEEDINGLY different… pretty and modern and fresh and a complete EXPLOSION of Cath Kidston, everywhere. A perfect blend of tea and kitsch, if you ask me. Not contrived at all, and run by a bona fide Englishman which made it even more special. It actually reminded me very much of a place we went to on our trip to the Lake District last year, which says a lot as it could very well pass as a tearoom back home in the Motherland, easily. The Doc and I had the Afternoon Tea For Two- hot buttered crumpets, finger sandwiches, tea and scones and jam, and some little cakes too. Marvellous. We will definitely go back. Well, it is our local tearoom after all.

PS Oliver liked it too. They even let us have his stroller next to our table.

With Oliver in a deep milk coma, Chesterfield asleep on my bed and The Doc planted on the couch in the family room in front of an epic movie, there’s time (at last) for me to pour a glass of red wine, grab a copy of Us Weekly, and sooth my blemished, weary complexion. It’s been a long, tiring week, thank goodness it’s Friday.

Is that a word? Probably not. But back to the point- LOOK WHAT WE DID! Of course, that’s a ‘we’ in the Royal Sense as it’s all the work of The Good Doctor really. Isn’t he clever? It’s nice to think that if every grocery store in the whole wide world stopped selling food, we would still be able to eat. I like that xx