50 days of River

Fifty days of River: Connection, isolation and everything in between.

family

  • It Was Never About the Costume

    Back to Reality First week back has gone OK. We all struggled with the mornings, too used to our 9am holiday wake-ups and late-night entertainment. Getting up and dressed in cloudy London is a sharp snap back to reality. River has upgraded his “NO NURSERY” to “I DON’T WANT TO GO TO NURSERY,” which we’re… Read more

  • holiday limits

    Poolside Battles A few tears today. It’s our last day and I’m ok with that. River has reached his holiday limit and, if I’m honest, I think we all have. We could probably do with seeing some different faces. After River point blank refusing to go anywhere near the pool all week, yesterday I put… Read more

  • Military Operation: Family Holiday

    Escaping January We escaped the cold and the rain and jetted off to the Canary Islands for half-term. The thought of finishing work only to spend a week planning activities, walking to them in the rain while Kike worked, just made me miserable. Why are we waiting for summer to go on holiday? I actually… Read more

  • I Lost Three Days

    I’ve lost nearly three days.I didn’t see it coming. My weekend was pretty average. I took Summer to her first swimming party where Kike and I got an hour to ourselves thanks to a very well-timed nap by River. It was mostly spent doing admin, but we managed a drink and some chips, which felt… Read more

  • January Is a Marathon (And Sometimes You Get a Map)

    January’s hard, isn’t it? The mornings all start the same. Knocking from River, followed by the inevitable:“MUMMY.” There’s no point setting an alarm. I lie there thinking it can’t possibly be morning, it’s pitch black, but of course it is. I check my phone. He’s right. Up I get. Dragging Summer out of bed feels… Read more

  • When One Email Tips the Balance

    It’s been an interesting 24 hours, the kind that sits heavy and needs to be written out. And since that’s the purpose of this blog, that’s what I’m going to do. Yesterday, I left work and walked to collect River as usual. I was in a pretty good mood, listening to music, half-scrolling emails. Then… Read more

  • Looking Back, Gently

    So it’s that time of year when we’re all encouraged, or forced to reflect on the last twelve months. Spotify Wrapped, Instagram reels, Facebook memories. All quietly reminding us what 2025 held, for better or worse. I asked my lot what they wanted to achieve in 2026. Kike said, “Make money.” (Always.)Summer said, “Eat more,”… Read more

  • Bye Bye, Holiday Home

    The last day was fairly muted. River had decided he wanted to go home and spent most of it saying “bye bye holiday.” We went to the playground where he fell off the zip wire, spectacularly. I felt awful for laughing once I realised he’d genuinely hurt his knee. There was a brief attempt at… Read more

  • Finding Our Rhythm (Eventually)

    This blog post feels muddled because it is muddled. It was written over a few days, in snatched moments, and honestly that mirrors how my head has felt. The hotel is huge, a maze of elevators, tunnels and dark pockets of fake volcanic rock. It’s built into a castle, which sounds magical, but mostly means… Read more

  • The Many Steps to Going on Holiday

    So, I know I said no extra admin this Christmas and I did mean it but obviously going on holiday does come with a slight drawback… actually getting there. And because Jet2 holidays only fly from airports that are nowhere near my house, this was always going to be an adventure. Step 1: Leaving the… Read more