40

What a truly lovely time I've had turning 40.

A new fancy camera.

Copies of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark (illustrated by Tove Jansson).

Lunch at St John Restaurant with my two boys, mum, dad, brother and his gorgeous family.

Tomorrow, lunch at Pizza East with friends.

Yesterday, time with the little man and Deerylou, including the obligatory a trip to Maltby Street.

Happy Birthday Margaret

Today one of my oldest and dearest friends turns 40... just 5 months ahead of me.

Happy birthday Margaret, enjoy your day!






















Me and Margaret on my wedding day, 8 December 2007.

Weekend

A relatively restful weekend, mostly spent lunching and chatting. It was lovely to see the snowdrops at Columbia Road.

Happy Birthday Deerylou

Bright, early and chilly start today, to meet Deerylou for a birthday breakfast at Monmouth in Borough Market...

Happy birthday Dolly!

Istanbul

Just returned from 10 days in Istanbul. It was a long time to be away from home, working lots and lots of hours. The plus side of the trip was getting to see Molly, Julie, Makiko, Rita, Hilda and Arden who all work in other parts of the world.

I did manage one day of sight seeing and a little shopping...

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Grand Bazaar

Tiny Tim's

Today Mrs W and I spent a very pleasant afternoon in the city of Canterbury. We made the trip in order to take tea at Tiny Tim’s Tearoom. What a fabulous place. I had their Blue Lady tea, and among other delights, enjoyed the best Victoria sponge cake I’ve had in a long time…

A perfect start to the holiday weekend!

Weekend

I really enjoyed this weekend.  Lots of good food and time with friends, celebrating my birthday.

1, 2, 3, 4

Love this...

Surprise

During our visit with Ruby yesterday, I received a totally unexpected Christmas gift from our friends S&C... a complete set of 12 Bjørn Wiinblad for Nymølle calendar plaques!

I love Bjørn Wiinblad's illustrations, especially in this series which tells the story of a courting couple from when they meet in January (Kontact) through to December (Mirakel) when they have a baby.

I've wanted a set of these for a long time, and really can't believe that S&C were so kind as to get them for me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you boys xx

Baby Ruby

This afternoon it was our privilege to meet Ruby Read for the first time, still quite new at just a month old.

It was an absolute pleasure to sit and watch her feed and sleep, and even more of a treat to have a little cuddle before we came away.

Ibolya and Robert are clearly loving their new family life, and who can blame them... Ruby is absolutely gorgeous!

Honeymoon... Hong Kong

A year on from our wedding, P and I had an amazing time in Hong Kong and Japan for our honeymoon.

We spent 3 nights at the very lovely Lanson Place hotel in Hong Kong, enjoyed delicious food at the China Club, dim sum at City Hall Maxim's Palace, afternoon tea at agnès b. le pain grillé, had delicious coffee at Caffè Habitū, among other places.

Took the Star Ferry to Kowloon, walked through Hong Kong Park, wandered around the pretty Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware and burned insence at the beautiful Man Mo Temple.

Picked up some of one of my favourite home fragrances from Shanghai Tang, browsed the goods at GOD and treated myself to the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX38 camera... phew!

Big thanks to our friend Lisa for looking after us!