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A hectic day
I am probably very unfit. I like to kid myself that running up and down the stairs a lot replaces any need for other activity, but yesterday was like some sort of circuit training. I had to go to London for meetings and going to London is not as easy as it used to be when I lived in London. It involves a short drive, a long walk down a hill and a long tube ride, all of which I probably mistakenly thought would take about an hour and a half. In fact, it takes two hours. And more still when there is a broken rail at Holborn, as, inevitably, there was. I arrived running and half an hour late. I had one meeting then walked to the next one and had to leave by 1.30 for the school run. Ordinarily, I would have got a friend or my mum to pick them up, but my mum is away and the friend I had in mind was unexpectedly working. So, I left the meeting somewhat disoriented because I had been talking too much when we went in to remember which side of the road we were on vis a vis the nearest tube. I couldn’t decide which was right so took an alternative trajectory. The road seemed to go on for ages. I arrived finally at Tottenham Court Road, but miles from the tube. I discovered that clogs are not the best footwear for running down road. The thing is I have no time [or money] to buy any shoes. There were a lot of people doing surveys and trying to waylay pedestrians. Even though I must have looked like a woman possessed [my whole body said “get out of my way. I must get to my children”], they still approached me.
I jumped on the first tube and took half the journey to recover. The clogs had rubbed my feet so when I got out the other end, I could barely walk, but I had a 15-minute journey uphill. I hadn’t had anything to eat and was desperate for the toilet, but I got to the school just in time. On to nursery and then to ballet and I finally grabbed a sandwich before bonkers daughter scabbed her knee and rebel daughter fizzed the entire contents of her Lucosade all over the floor.
Ballet was minutely timed as I had to get home for 4.30 to do an interview. I plied the girls with a dvd and some popcorn and locked myself in the garden. Just at the precise moment I dialled the number a plane flew overhead. I managed to get the interview done with bonkers and big girl daughter knocking on the window furiously and then we headed for the library. After making the dinner, I cooked some brownies [it’s big girl daughter’s birthday today and she needs to bring cakes to nursery. I feel very guilty taking her to nursery, but rebel daughter has a hospital appointment and I am sure she will have more fun with her friends]. Later in the night I caught up on work – writing up an interview I had drafted on the tube [I never waste a nano-second] and organised an arts and crafts birthday card making session for bonkers and rebel daughters. My feet are still throbbing. Maybe there is such a thing as packing too much into a day…
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