Oh I do like to be beside the sea!

I took a little 48 hour holiday from my life this weekend and returned to the kind of life I used to have before I had children.  My friend Kate and I cheerfully waved goodbye to a husband and two children a piece, and, with more than a touch of the look of Thelma and Louise, jumped into my car and headed to Hastings.  We were ridiculously over-excited from the off.  If we told each other once, we told each other ten times, that sitting in an hour-long traffic jam on the M25 was actually a real treat as we had no time constraints and, more importantly, no kids whinging in the back.

We had a fabulous weekend staying with the lovely Tina and Al.  When you've all known each other for over 20 years (holymotherofgod) then it doesn't matter if you haven't seen each other for a while as you quite quickly slip back into chatting the same old shite you always have.  Nothing was too much trouble for our hosts; Tina baked us cupcakes while we had an afternoon nap and Al got a bottle of Veuve out of the cupboard and started chilling it as "we might as well drink it when someone who really loves champagne is here".  When I, (very infrequently, please don't get any ideas), have people to stay with us, I would be more likely to nap myself while my guests entertained each other and I would without doubt hide the decent champagne so that I didn't have to share it!

Did I miss my kids?  No, not really.  I revelled in staying up late (yeah, like totes past midnight and everything), getting up late, never looking at my watch or knowing or caring what the time was, eating when I was hungry and gluttonously when I wasn't, being irresponsible, lazy and selfish.  I wound down into this delightful creature within seconds of getting in the car on Friday but it took me a good few hours to rev up again into being "Mummy" today.

Stu was relaxed when I returned, the kids were happy and fed (if a little glazed with a weekend's worth of sugar rush) and the house wasn't a shit-tip.  Nice one.  Will I be a better mother this week because I've had a weekend's worth of me time to recharge my batteries?  No, probably not if I'm honest.  The weekend's glow will fade too quickly.  That won't stop me from doing it again though.