Playing Tourist in Madrid

So we thought it was time the children saw a little bit of Spanish culture rather than just the beaches and restaurants so we spent a couple of days in Madrid. WOW what a cool city - I loved it - so full of energy!

We stayed in a really cool hotel right in the centre of the city so everything was within walking distance ( and it had underground parking so we left the car full of suitcases !) and boy did we walk. We walked EVERYWHERE - my fave place was the Museo Del Prado - admittedly the kids had had enough after 2 hours of looking at paintings but it was a welcome break to sunbathing and eating!

                   We did manage a quick trip into a huge ZARA store just to pacify the teenager!

Cocktails and shopping .....Hello London!

It feels so good to be home!

if the car hadn't broken down it would have been a brilliant few days - as it was I drove from Norfolk up to London for my Pilates Class ( 930am Friday!!) which meant leaving home before 630am - pretty tough for me as mornings really are not my forte.  However it was so worth it - getting back on the Reformer was just FAB .  If you haven't tried Reformer Pilates I really urge you to have a go - you can almost feel your body lengthening and strengthening with each exercise!

So Pilates session over I changed jumped into the car ( in the rain I might add!) ready to head over to Notting Hill to meet a friend for coffee before the rest of my appointments.... DISASTER car didn't start and the long and the short of it was I was S T U C K in the car until 530pm - Not sure we will be continuing with our AA Membership - especially s it was just a catalogue of disaster from the roadsied technician arriving and taking a hammer to the engine to the tow truck pulling up with a broken clutch cable! It has taken a week to have the car fixed - daughter thinks we now own the hire car!!!

Luckyily I was staying the night with a darling friend who had lots of our mutual friends for supper and lots of wine.

AND I got to wear my new Harrods sale purchase.....
LOVE MIU MIU!

Hello Summer Hello Europe I am looking forward to the next 8 weeks!

its been a long summer...

I've been having SUCH a fabulous summer with my darling babies! Today was a great day so here's some photos to share.!

We are lucky enough to have a house on the North Norfolk coast ( not in one of the posh villages as a friend kindly remarked recently!) but we love our house and we love that the kids can cycle to the sea and eat ice creams every day!

Today was all about being on the water - we took our boat; Mabel, a Tideway - a 14 foot wood and fibreglass beautiful boat with sails and a motor, out to Scolt Head Island - unfortunately for us we left the harbour just as a sail race was about to start so DH had to navigate through tens of Laser Sailing Dinghies and Twinkle Twelves waiting to start! We zigzagged through them with the motor on low...

Boy was desperate to helm BUT the trip out this morning was too stressful!!!

Once we'd anchored off the beach of the island ( it seemed rather busy today so we decided not to go ashore but to fire up our FAB gas cooker on the boat) out came the frying pan for fried egg baps and bacon - DELICIOUS - I love a late morning tide, you don't have to get up too early but still have an excuse to eat breakfast on the water

DH is very much the master on the boat and that includes cooking!

The crazy children were swimming ( and shivering!) and drinking tea!

 I didn't actually remove my jumper ( purchase from ASOS earlier in the summer now out of stock!) all morning as it was a little breezy out on the water

Daughter decided to check EXACTLY what the parents were drinking especially as one was in control of Mabel!

It really was a few fab hours in the sunshine and breeze on the water - perfect Bank Holiday

and then I spent the afternoon in the garden in the sun reading and watching Boy climb the trees - Happy days!

Hope your Summer has been full of loveliness too - more posts to follow once the babies go back to school and I return to Riyadh - 9 days left!