Back in Godzone - not necessarily a good thing

She gave birth to a daughter/
Within a year a walker/
She looked just like her mother/
If there could be another

We’ve been back from the Mother Country for a week and we are all well and truly back in the swing of things. In Beth’s case this is a good thing; after a few nights of being all over the place and making us pat her bottom for ages at about 4am, the best way to get her back to sleep, she is now sleeping through the night again. What with the end of the football season coming up (Barcelona? Pants, I've heard.), soon I’ll have no reason to roam around the house in the small hours at all.

For me, I’m sadly back in the swing work-wise. It’s not that work is particularly painful, it’s just that I’d far rather be mooching about Islington or Southwark or Bristol. Or even Brentwood. M is a lot more sanguine about it. Maybe the imminent visit of Frances, Simon and Maya will palliate my more extreme homesickness pangs.

So, some trip highlights:

1) Spending more time than has hitherto been possible with beautiful baby Beth. I really felt even closer to her by the end of the trip than ever before.
2) Seeing family and friends, obviously, and meeting a few new arrivals – Maya, Alex and Alfie.
3) My last visit to Highbury. I fluked a ticket to the WBA match (cheers David) which was nominated as “Dennis Bergkamp Day”. The man himself came on as a sub to set up one and score the next in a 3-1 win. Either somebody was writing or script or, far more likely, Arsene Knows.
4) Beth learning to climb the stairs.
5) The London Marathon was an event that it is entirely impossible to be cynical about; life-affirming, joyously communal and awe-inspiring. And as for Collette - 4'02" - chuffing brilliant! 6) Aimlessly strolling around London and finding some fantastic wee places that I’d never heard of, let alone been to. May I recommend Mount Street Gardens in Mayfair?
7) On the flight home a bassinette/TV monitor debacle resulted in me holding the detached screen in my hands, meekly approaching the flight attendant and whimpering “I’m very, very sorry.”
8) Beth haring around Hong Kong airport like a baby possessed, seemingly determined to meet every Chinese woman in, well, China.

And some of bummers:

1) All too short, of course.
2) We didn't quite get around to seeing everybody we wanted to, in particular DP and Scottie. Next time.
3) Too many goodbyes.
Plans are now afoot to try and get us all back over sometime next year.
btw, we have a heap of great photos but at the moment our computer isn't recognising our camera. Anyone know why this might be?

Moo you bloody choir!

xx