Delilah & Audrey

Travelled to Nottingham today to see our good friends Stu and Suzy (or Stuzy as we affectionately call them). Suzy recently gave birth to Delilah who is roughly the same age as Audrey so we've already decided they will have to become best friends! As such, today was an important occasion - their inaugural meeting (see pic).

Had a shocker on the roads travelling down from Manchester though. As my business is based in Nottingham, I'm pretty used to the journey so had instructed my husband on the route we should take (A50, M6 for anyone that is interested - tried 'em all Snake Pass, M62/M1, this is the winner hands down!). He programmed the in-car Sat Nav and off we went. However he must have accidentally clicked 'no motorways' as we ended up taking a scenic route through Derbyshire getting caught up in football, farm and Alton Towers traffic en route. A journey that should take 2 hours tops, took almost twice as long!! I was not impressed.

This meant we hardly had any time with Stuzy and Delilah but the time we had was wonderful. They are such good friends and we've been through so much together over the years, it really was a fantastic afternoon - talking over one another, holding each others babies and never finishing any conversations we started.

Delilah is adorable with big blue eyes just like her Mum's. She's been poorly and was out of sorts today. Audrey, who is out of sorts most days, decided to pretend to be the perfect baby for once giving off a completely warped impression. Not sure our friends even believed us that she could be difficult as she hardly cried and even managed a five minute smiling and laughing finale at the end. Little show off! She was back to her normal, hollering self the minute we waved goodbye and got in the car, mind. Maybe she'll be an actress when she grows up!

Loved every minute of our meet; a life affirming afternoon and worth the almost 5 hour round trip with a crying baby and a hot car!

Before we left Nottingham, I popped into my office in The Lace Market to do a reccie (I haven't been in there since my maternity leave). I've decided to close it so it was sad to be in there with all its memories. Had a bit of a moment before rejoining my husband and baby in the car outside.

Seemed poignant really, my business used to be my passion (and 'baby'), but since Audrey was born, it has been replaced. As we drove out of Nottingham, it struck me that my new life was in this car and we were going home, back up North where we now belong....