Family Affairs and other matters

It has come to my attention that if you find yourself lucky enough to be shortlisted for a blog award you really ought to make the effort to justify why you are on the shortlist in amongst some far more worthy candidates.

I am up for a TRAVEL award.  Which suggests that I travel.  Which at the moment, I don’t or rather I can’t.  Being a single parent makes it difficult to get away – especially when your children are working towards some very important exams.

SO.

In the meantime, my brother came up with a suggestion for an interesting post – to ask you to share your experiences here so that when I can finally get away I will have a lovely long list of places to visit.  I don’t want it to be complicated though.  At this stage I’d rather have something that is subjective and personal.

So I’m starting with coffee.  Because coffee is a favourite drink all over the world and whether you are drinking it whilst sitting in a piazza or lying on a beach or on a ski slope or camping, or trekking in Chiang Mai (like my son) many of us have specific memories of where we were and why it was so good.  It doesn’t have to be the most expensive, or even the most delicious – it just has to be the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had or your favourite Barista…..for whatever reason:-

I’m going to cheat and start off with two.

A cappuccino at The Wolseley bought for me by my daughter last year for Mother’s Day:-

and then a cappuccino at the Pembroke Lodge cafe in Richmond Park with my girlfriends:-

Obviously you don’t have to include a photo of the actual coffee or even the place but it would be great if you did. Love to hear about your favourite coffee please….

So far we have:

The Wolseley – London
Pembroke Lodge – Richmond Park
Loco Cafe – Melbourne
Istanbul
Beirut
Zaza Cafe – Toronto
The Tantivy – Dulverton
Eleanor’s Byre – Embleton
Louvre – Paris (cheating? Hot chocolate…but still – Paris needed a mention)
Restinga Beach Bar – Alvor, Portugal

Here is one my friend from Melbourne emailed in from Loco, Elsternwick, Melbourne – literally a work of art:-

It has become a very rare event for me to enter a Post Office. I don’t suppose my children even know where our local one is. That is quite sad. I went last week. Had a lovely time. Bumped into a friend and we had a long chat…and then another one…and then a friend walked [...]

Anton Burge’s new play “Bette and Joan” had it’s first night at the Richmond Theatre last night. What a lovely couple of parts for two of our well known, slightly older shall we say actresses. Brilliant performances by Anita Dobson as Joan Crawford and Greta Scacchi as Bette Davis that they are clearly having fun [...]

Happy Easter Sunday. I am home alone. My firstborn son is trekking somewhere in Thailand, haven’t spoken to him for days. My daughter is holed up with my mother miles away – revising. A short reprieve for her was an Easter egg hunt my mother put on for her but she sent me a text [...]

Five years ago today, I started my blog. FIVE YEARS!! Bloody hell. I have inadvertently become a dinosaur of the blogging world. A toothless old doyenne who still doesn’t really know what an RSS feed is or why you’re supposed to add links. But that’s not the point. That is not why I blog. So [...]

My friend in Australia has sent me this photo in answer to my blog post yesterday about what to wear this summer. She looks amazing. I would definitely not be able to pull that look off. Tomato sauce on trousers. Mud on shoes. Can’t afford bag. Glasses would make my children laugh their heads off. [...]

WHAT are we supposed to be wearing this summer? Pastel jackets says my friend. Short jeans? Do these work on old legs? Floral skirts? Where from? Fluro seems to be a bit of a theme – is that right? HELP. Need to read magazines or something. WHAT? Bumped into my friend in the street yesterday. [...]