Thought process:
1. I'm bored.
2. My blog is boring.
3. I wonder how much attention anyone pays?
4. I like polarbears.
5. Hey! PolarBEARS is similar to PolarOIDS.
6. That's cool.
(the answer to #3 is anywhere between 2 weeks and 3 months.)
On our last day in London we went to Kew Gardens. Notice how none of my pictures are of plants. (The plants there are very nice though.) Instead we enjoyed what we knew would be our last lazy day together as a family for Quite Some Time. We walked and we talked, we carried Ammie who was Very Unhappy. We spotted planes (not hard, they fly 8 inches over your head every 3 bloody minutes), we admired eucalyptus and grass, fishes and crabs, we rolled and we lay and we delighted in a lack of dog poo and cigarette butts. We ate left over anniversary cake from Konditor and Cook, we rolled our eyes at the old people who were extraordinarily mean. We smelled the roses and chased the peacocks, climbed spiralling staircases and looked down on a jungley world.
Earlier this month we went to London. It started off with photographing a wedding which morphed into a holiday, and then it went.... wrong.
So one morning when we got up and we wanted to go home and the options were either to pack or to not pack and I was supposed to be working and Nye hadn't slept for a week I said 'fuck it, let's go to the seaside. If we still want to go home when we get back, then we'll pack.' And so that's what we did.
It helped. We stayed. For a little longer at least.
We're going away again today, for a wedding and to visit my family. When we get back we're home for three weeks and then we're going to France. People ask whether you can still travel with babies and it would seem that yes, yes you can. Whether you should is a different matter altogether.
"It's frightening at times to think that you are shaping someone's life and who they will become. Often I hear Ruby using one of my expressions, or doing an unfortunate dance move that she learned from me and I'm reminded that she is a sponge, taking it all in, and each moment big or small molds who she is."
It's true, it's some scary stuff.
*photograph of Jeanne Williams, by Kelly Stuart. via The Glow.
(Do you know The Glow? Where rich, beautiful and occasionally vapid mothers are photographed and interviewed with their small, beautiful and sometimes scared-looking children in their huge, perfect, immaculately styled homes? It's simultaneously wonderful and terrible.
If only. Those fuckers want blood.
We're still dreaming of a New York wedding that will actually work out. We've had two amazing enquiries recently but neither of them were meant to be. The thing is, since we had all the babies work needs to pay. Work also needs to give us a little warning. I'm prone to forgetting this but luckily I have a Very Sensible husband who reminds me of these things when I'm all 'let's do it for free!' 'let's go to New York next week!'. Not to mention; 'Norway's not that expensive, right?'
Whilst I'm asking the universe for things wedding related: I would like a Caribbean wedding please. And a Sikh wedding too. With a little warning. And a photography budget bigger than 'none, but we have very nice friends, you will love our wedding.'
It doesn't hurt to ask.
*chalkboard by Dana Tanamachi, via Happiness Is.
