Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Joy pockets from London

What a weekend -I feel completely refreshed and reinvigorated - two days of making and meeting friends at the Light on Parenting conference, eating food I love, walking the streets of London and visiting all my favourite places from when I lived there, selling JUNO and my book - the best job in the world! listening to heroes speak and restoring my resolve to do better as a parent. This deserves a joy pockets all to itself!

Going to a conference as author, columnist and editor. Knowing I was leaving a husband and three children in a home I owned. I felt like a proper grown up!
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Hearing a child crying and knowing I'm not responsible.
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Flying. I will never get over the miracle of airplanes.
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Ditto the Tube! Underground trains are the stuff of science fiction - and we get to ride them!!
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The energy of the big city.
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Walking at adult speed - truly revolutionary!!
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Walking the fresh streets of London at 7 am on a Sunday.
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Shaking my heroes by the hand. 
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Thinking my thoughts, uninterrupted! (According to one of the speakers, Margot Sunderland, a pre-schooler has a need every 20 seconds!)
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Feeling like ME again!
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An i-pad stocked up with exciting e books to read on the journey.
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Sharing a weekend with so many other visionaries, dreamers, researches, game-changers and open hearted people - for the second weekend in a row.
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 Chicken tikka and onion bhaji sandwich at 10 am!
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Meeting Saffia, our head editor from JUNO, and feeling like we've known each other all our lives.
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Not sticking out for my accent - being mistaken for a Brit in Britland, land of my vowels.
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The anticipation of a night's uninterrupted sleep.
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The British Museum - receptacle of much of humanity's creativity and culture.
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Sushi.
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A memorial plaque on a park bench: "he never tired of London", nor do I!

4 comments:

  1. Sushi droooooooool

    And walking at London pace... I used to be a demon speed walker when I lived there. I walked everywhere. I could walk from my place in Bermondsey to Leicester Square in half an hour! Oh how I miss walking to get places. Here it is all strolling at child's pace or walking round in circles!
    Enjoy, you deserve it Lucy after all your hard work to get here xx

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  2. It was great to meet you too!

    Agree so much about the walking - I loved the walk to and from my cousin's house, soaking up "the energy of the big city".

    Like you, I felt totally reinvigorated by the weekend.

    Saffia

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  3. love the "not being responsible!" and the "walking at adults pace!" its nice to be "you" for a weekend. I did it last week, drove to London (well nearly) to see a film premiere that a friend was involved in, took in some ancient places on the way there and on the way back, stayed away overnight, and came home again. It's taken a week to recover from the driving, but hey it was worth it for a few moments of "ME"

    These adventures are fabulous!

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  4. and the parenting thing, I have decided to stop and slow down, take things at my pace, not anyone elses, unless I choose to run with them!

    oh and the inspirational teachers of 2012? this is going to sound so arse creeping, but you're one of them xx thank you xx

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