Party, party, party!

It's been a whirlwind weekend spent in Sussex for Maddie's 40th birthday party. Hot on the heels of our holiday, our ability to pack the necessities totally deserted us and we forgot all James' bottles and his travel cot. Poor little mite ended up sleeping on a duvet on the floor surrounded by a collection of cushions, suitcases and shelving units to 'box him in'. Fortunately by the end of yesterday he was so exhausted he was asleep in seconds. As ever, the same could not be said for his elder brother...

The party was great fun with Eddie, Sue, Jim, Kirsten and I setting up camp in the kitchen and nattering away while the wine flowed. Alas it didn't flow in my direction as I'd drawn the short straw and ended up as chauffeur for the evening. I don't really mind, a hangover with the boys is hell on earth, but then again it's quite hard to get into the party mood when everyone around you is getting progressively more giggly and you're knocking back pints of water.

This morning the drinkers soothed their aching heads over a superb brunch; poached eggs, sausages, bacon, mushies and tomatoes on slices of hot buttered toast and then got dragged off one by one to play football with William in the garden. We headed for home at lunchtime via Waitrose to pick up the essentials for a roast chicken supper; chicken for starters.

Am now a wrinkled husk of my former self after regrouping in the bath with all The Times colour supps for 2 hours. I needed it. James has been feverish and fractious all day, dribbling like a goon as he continues to teethe and a temperature of 39 degrees. After numerous abortive attempts to get William to go to bed I eventually threatened to throw Rabbit out of his bedroom window after being slapped in the face. Twice. Next time I'll sellotable that infernal bunny to the road and hope a passing tractor squishes its furry little body into oblivion.

(Just re-reading that last bit...I might be overreacting somewhat...)

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