Yesterday was One Of Those Days. Came back from the school run to find the puppies had escaped from the kitchen, tearing through the bins on their way out before moving on to Youngest Girl’s cuddly toy stash. Opened the front door to utter carnage, like a horror version of The Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Stuffing everywhere. …
So, I’ve had a nightmare this half term. The washing machine broke. Honestly, it was terrifying. Piles of washing everywhere. On top of that, there’s Saturday’s Trickle Treat (as Youngest Girl calls it) outing to think about. Our kids usually bring home enough sweets to open a shop, thanks to us being one of only …
Went to watch Middle Boy and Youngest Girl in their Harvest Festival show earlier today. And it really was a show, including a song called ‘Rock & Roll Harvest’. My favourite Neil Young song is Harvest Moon, but this came pretty close as harvest-themed songs go. Funnily enough, one of the first posts I ever …
You’ve got to love a chorus that goes Ba De Ya. Earth Wind & Fire sang about dancing in September when, according to them, there never was a cloudy day. A little wide of the mark given the past week but a great song nonetheless. Anyway, September in this house is all about early mornings …
Me & my sister at Camp Bestival. It might be pissing down with rain now but here’s proof that we did have blue skies this summer. Gone in a flash, though. Well, it might have seemed ENDLESS sometime in the middle but we’re now less than a week away before they go back to school. …
This is me, at the Knackered Mother’s Wine Club tasting at Camp Bestival last Saturday. We had a brilliant crowd, including a gorgeous lady who’d got married that day at Camp Bestival’s inflatable church (not making this up) and another on her hen night. There was a performance by the brilliant Scummy Mummies, Ellie & …
Eileen Hardy (by Lord Snowdon) Earlier this week, I went for dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Now, I’m not a huge cricket fan (remember my Andrew Strauss story?) but you don’t say no to dinner at Lord’s along with a bunch of cricketing legends during The Ashes. I was there as …
In the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to do wine tastings at festivals all over the place. And one of the highlights was at Camp Bestival last year, a pop-up tasting for fifty fellow knackered mothers and wine lovers. So I’m really happy to have been asked back again this year as part …
We’ve just returned from a few days staying with old mates in Scotland and joining us on our long journey home were a couple of new additions to our household. Meet Yankee & Zulu, our eight week old cocker spaniel puppies. Half term just got a whole lot more hectic, in a good way. Like …
‘Where’s your wee wine gone?’ asked Eldest Boy earlier today. He was referring to the wine I’ve just made. As a wine buyer I spent much of my time in cold cellars tasting wine samples from tanks but until now, I’d never made my own wine from start to finish. Granted, the grapes came in …
I know it’s what’s on the inside that counts but when it comes to wine labels, I’m a sucker for a good looking label. Whether it’s wine, a book or something in Anthropologie (make that anything in Anthropologie), liking the look of something is what makes me pick it up in the first place. And …
I love a good handbag. And given that most of the armful I own are old vintage, I especially love the ones built to last. No mean feat when it’s not uncommon to have a bottle of wine stashed inside (for work purposes, obviously) along with the usual wallet/keys/sunglasses combo and any number of squashed …
Laughter is the best medicine, or so they say. Clearly they forgot wine, carbs and Codeine but I know what they were getting at. Anyway, one of the biggest successes of the Easter holidays so far has been the comedy workshop that Middle Boy went to last week. Run by my old friend Laura, she’s …
Last weekend, the sun came out. And so did the rosé. There is something about pink wine that hints at summer better than any other wine – and it definitely shines in the sun. This is me, on Easter Monday, at a restaurant on the Isle of Wight called The Hut. If you are ever …
So, this is a really big picture of me. It’s in the latest Waitrose Kitchen magazine and is the first of my monthly wine course features. I’m sitting on my kitchen table (I don’t usually do that) with a glass of wine in my hand (that one more so). I have been dying to tell …
L-R: Hugh, Michel Roux Jr (chair) & Jancis Last night, a friend and I went to a brilliant event in London that brought together two of the world’s best wine writers, Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson. If you only ever buy one wine book in your life (once you’ve bought mine, of course *best smile*), make …
I’m supposed to be in the cinema as I type this, watching Fifty Shades of Grey with friends (I live in the sticks, it took a while to get here). But I just didn’t have the energy: too tired. Oh, the irony! In my defence, I was out last night – Book Club – and …
Last Friday, I went to the Bath Literary Festival and my session was at 7.30pm. Turned out so was Kazuo Ishiguro’s, in the room next door. He might have won the Booker Prize but I had free wine (very kindly donated by wine merchant Averys of Bristol – thank you, Mimi). And afterwards, as I …
Last week, when everyone went Fifty Shades of mad about a certain film, I tweeted that my abiding memory of the book was the wine descriptions. Specifically, how delicious they sounded (there was definitely a cool, crisp Chablis at some point; and I think there was a Sancerre and a Pouilly Fume too, always perfectly …
This week, I’ve been mostly fuelled by tea and chocolate brownies. One day I will have a tin of ready-made healthy snacks to tuck into. That, and a pre-made tiffin box of quinoa salad on hand for lunch on-the-go. Just not this week. But today, with deadlines met, I dropped in to see my mum …
Every year, on or around the 25th January, we do Burns Night. I’m married to a sort-of-Scot (my father-in-law was born and brought up in Edinburgh; the Husband’s more of a Hampshire Highlander) so Burns is big in his family. One year, my sister-in-law and I took on the cooking with the help of Pippa …
Follow your dreams and never give up, goes the saying (and Cara D on Instagram). So I’m going to do exactly that and not give up wine in January. Obviously I will be drinking less owing to the mince pie & madeira madness of last month but otherwise I hope to be sipping something delicious …
On a shoot last week, hat at jaunty angle. This last week has been a blur of school music concerts, nativity plays (the cowboy theme totally worked, by the way), panic baking and just-about-making work deadlines. The children are so ready for the end of term and so excited about Christmas. Me too, not least …
You can’t buy happiness but you can buy wine and that’s kind of the same thing, or so the saying goes. But I’m not drinking wine this week: combination of a late night on Saturday (old friend’s wedding, too many cocktails) and the fact that I’ve now got a cold. Normally, I’d go with the …
Pre-wine tasting egg & baconbreakfast (not incl. wine) I’ve spent the last couple of days at The Oval, but I’m not there for the cricket. (I once asked Andrew Strauss if he was following The Ashes, not realising he was the England captain at the time but that’s another story). As ever, I’m there for …
Every year, when the temperature drops, I do the jumper swap. Away go the 286 breton-stripped tops that I own (I’ve been buying them since 1988; never got the memo about horizontal stripes and big boobs). Out come the chunky knits and in them I stay until at least March. Except, when I sorted through …
Hooray for half term. Sort of. As we crawl towards it, I’m half-excited, half-panicking. Excited about not having to set the alarm quite so early. Panicking about fitting in some work. The children are most excited about Halloween, obviously. Which has turned into a monster (pun intended). They usually come back from Trick or Treating …
I’ve tried a lot of wine today, even by my standards. Over 250 in fact, at various supermarket wine tastings. And even though I can face nothing but a cup of hot chocolate now, I’m looking forward to sharing details on the best of them including an amazing French pair that’ll make brilliant party wines …
Guess where I went last week? No, not to market. But neither did I stay at home. Rather, I had a night away in a hotel called The Pig – on the beach. It’s in Studland Bay and I was asked to join a party for dinner and then stay the night. In a bed, …
I was going to settle down to write this hours ago. But then I started reading other blogs, some SO bloody brilliant, I couldn’t stop reading them. Like this post from Reluctant Launderer, in which she makes bread and drinks cocktails. Or this one from Claire at Crumbs (warning, it’s sad but there is cake). …
The last time we picked a winner on the blog, my mother wasn’t available to do the honours. She was on her way to the cinema ‘2 c When I wake up’. Not only does she text like a teen, she has a brilliant way of slightly re-wording things (she was actually seeing Before I …
An old friend said this morning as we passed at the school gates: “Isn’t it someone’s special day tomorrow?” I must have looked blank. “It’s your birthday, isn’t it?” Yes! I said. It is! Except I’d completely forgotten. This never used to happen. In my Twenties, the build up involved wish lists (no necessities, luxury …
So, I was at The London Studios earlier this week for the start of the final series of The Alan Titchmarsh Show (I’m back on as the booze hound on his Friday show) when a man walked into the Make Up room. He looked really familiar but I just couldn’t place him. ‘You know who …
Tomorrow morning, things might just get a bit stress-y round here. After six weeks of not having to say shout ‘I’M LEAVING IN FIVE MINUTES AND IF YOU’RE NOT IN THE CAR YOU’RE WALKING TO SCHOOL’, we’re back to the old routine. Alarm clocks, rushed breakfasts and the obligatory last minute missing shoe searches (sometimes …
Our holiday shoes. This time last week, we were on holiday. Highlights include: 1. Going barefoot, wearing nothing but a swimming costume and kaftan until the sun dipped. 2. Having to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the lady in the village shop in an effort to check it was indeed caster sugar, rather than salt, that …
“Blimey, are they still at school?” remarked my husband as Eldest Boy scooted past in his school uniform. That was yesterday and yes, they were still at school. Today, happily, they are not. Instead, the weeks stretch ahead and – especially with this glorious weather – there’s much to look forward to. We’re off to …
A bucket. Of chips. I love a list. But I don’t have a bucket list. So I thought I’d write one for this summer. Not the usual climb-a-mountain-run-a-marathon kind of list though. Rather, a wine bucket list: 10 wines I aim to find and buy and drink over the summer. Here it is: 1. Alpine …
Sequins, check. I’m off to Vegas. For work. For four days. I know, I’m extremely lucky. I’ll have time to sit by a pool, do a spot of shopping, have grown up dinners and see a show (not Britney though, I checked). But the thing I am most looking forward to? A lie-in. After last week’s …
Last year’s hair. Next Tuesday I’m going to the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards, where the Knackered Mother’s Wine Club book is shortlisted in the Drinks Book category. Last year, this blog won the Online Drinks Writer award; I’m still getting over that one. I daren’t believe the book will do the double. …
Last weekend, Youngest Girl was 5 years old. She had a little party at home with her friends from school, involving a game of Pass the Parcel, Musical Statues and an early Easter Egg Hunt in the garden. I decorated the house with bunting and the cake with a tub of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge …
In the song, it’s a dirty story of a dirty man. And it took him years to write. Mine took six months of Saturdays and it’s all about wine. Much more useful, IMHO. Described as ‘useful, interesting and very funny’ by Victoria Moore (I especially like funny). And India Knight said it doesn’t just simplify …
OK, this isn’t mine. It’s Nigella’s. So, volunteering to make the school’s monthly birthday cake was a good idea at the time. But last night as I took the 5-egg cake out of the oven approaching midnight? Not so much. And this morning, as I iced the cake before school, Eldest Boy suggested that I …
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