Day: September 30, 2006

I spent my first night away from Lola last week when I flew to Rotterdam with some of the other techy guys from work to do a couple of days training. It was really good – we got good stuff out of the training, and we went out for slap-up nosh and a (good) few beers (having Jeremy’s birthday as the perfect excuse).

We flew out in a Fokker 50 (one of VLM’s) from City airport; it’s a great little plane and it was quite something taking off over docklands, then following the Thames downstream till we flew off the coast.

I did miss Lola — especially around bathtime and in the morning. Isa texted on the second day to say Lola was laughing and, in fact, had laughed so much it had given her hiccups. That was the second time I’d missed her laughing. Earlier tonight was the third — she laughed after I’d gone to fill her bath. Bah, it’s so unfair.

Being something which Lola says occasionally and we say a lot. Along with ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, lu-lu-lu-lu-lu, and their ilk.

We’ve just returned from visiting my parents in Watchet, Somerset. It was the first time I’d seen their new house, which they moved into just a week before Lola was born, and it was the first time my dad had seen Lola. And it was a succession of firsts, of course, for Cesarina (aka Angela, aka La Nonna Cicina).

We had a fantastic time. Lola travelled really well and didn’t fuss in the taxi or in the train — and she absolutely loved sitting in her baby-seat riding shotgun with Dad in the camper. We went out a lot in the camper, with Dad picking picturesque bits of the locality to visit, a trip before lunch, then another after. We went to Minehead, walked up a quantock, visited one of the stations on the West Somerset Railway, strolled around Watchet harbour… All that, and we held a reception for Lola on Sunday afternoon. By which I mean Dad had told all the local relatives and friends that they were welcome to come round and see Lola on Sunday between 3 and 5, and Mum made scones and cakes and laid on tea. St John and Christine, Felicity and John, Liz and Juan were all in attendance. Liz bought Lola a fabulous red elephant, which can be seen hanging from her ankle in the pic below, and some lovely pink pyjamas.

Mum and Dad’s new house is great. I thought it might be odd and a little sad (evoking memories of a family home which no longer exists) but, in fact, it felt like home; partly because it was filled with all of their stuff, partly because it’s a very comfortable and sociable space, and mostly because Mum and Dad live there ;-)  I hope we get to spend a lot of time there with Lola, walking the Quantocks, pootling around on the railway, and playing on the beaches.