Mama

Last weekend my brothers (from New York and Boston) and I flew to Holland for a weekend of celebrations for my mother (Annemarie) turning 80 years old. My mother has lived in London for the past 47 years but was born and raised in Rotterdam before she moved to Amsterdam, the US and then London. She wanted to celebrate her birthday with old school friends, her cousins and her nephews and nieces who mostly all live in Holland. It was a fantastic weekend. On the first evening, we had a dinner with my mum and step father and my siblings and our families. The next day we were joined by my cousins for a historic tram tour through Rotterdam followed by a visit to the house my mother was born and raised in (thanks to the very kind current home owners). In the evening, the extended family and friends (some from my mum’s primary school days) joined us for another dinner followed by dancing. Mama, congratulations!!. As I said in my speech, you go above and beyond for everybody – family, friends, neighbours, and strangers. We are so lucky to have you as our mum xx​

Hijack Tv Series

It was a mistake to start watching Apple TV’s new series “Hijack” at 9pm on a Friday evening. It’s completely addictive, like the first couple of series were of “24” many years ago. It’s about the hijacking of a plane flying from Dubai to London. Many great actors feature in it such as Idris Elba, Archie Panjabi (one of my favourite actresses), Ben Miles, Max Beesley and more. Reluctantly we went to sleep after episode 5 and watched the final two the next day. Loved this series, highly recommend it. Just don’t do what we did and instead start watching it earlier in the evening.​

Cleaners

For the past 13 months we have been living in a different house while our house underwent an extensive renovation following a flash flood. Before we moved back in, the insurance company hired a cleaning company to do a deep clean. Geoff at OrganisedCleaning.co.uk was the person who coordinated everything. Every room, cupboard, window was covered by a thick layer of dust and dirt and the change the cleaning company made in two days was for us unbelievable. They got onto ladders to clean the tops of wardrobes and light fittings, opened cupboards and cleaned everything inside. The house was sparkly clean (unfortunately not anymore since we’ve moved back in). I think I’m going to be calling Geoff every couple of years to ask their team to do a deep clean of our home. I highly recommend them if you’re considering a deep clean. ​

Oppenheimer

Have you seen the Oppenheimer film yet? We watched it, with our kids, at the Everyman cinema which we all love. As we had only just moved back into our house, it’s been a bit chaotic and I haven’t found my hearing aids yet, so I couldn’t hear everything but what a fantastic film! It’s long (3 hours or so) but so worth the time. I’m going to watch the film again when it is available with subtitles, so I capture everything. A superb film, with all the mixed emotions that come along with it.​

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