Yesterday I sat in Toast Rack 🍞 and did some work, which was rather pleasant. The very kind waiters and waitresses brought me cups of Suki green ginseng tea 🍵 (very nice), a mocha ☕️and some kedgeree 🍜 for lunch - an odd choice for a lunch menu, actually an odd choice in general - but it tasted great.The best thing about my time spend in Toast Rack 🍞 was the other diners 👩👵👨👧. The older couple 👵👴 next to me (obviously locals, they ordered a bacon and egg 🍳 sandwich not on the menu) spent most of their time making rather astute observations, in low voices, about the other people consuming their coffees ☕️ and avocado on sour dough 🍞. I was particularly pleased when they referred to the 'yummy mummies'. (I promise I wasn't eavesdropping 🙉 on all your conversation, my ears happened to prick up at this phrase, it was lovely to meet you and thank you so much for looking after my things when I went to the loo 😊).The yummy mummies 👩👩 in question were discussing at length their daughters 👧👧, who are at an all girls 👭 boarding school - apparently it is tricky to buy a 'cool' bikini 👙for a 13 year old, someone hadn't been invited to someone else's party 💃❌ (youthful social disaster), and Holly only wants to take tennis 🎾 lessons so she can post cool photos 📷 on instagram 📱 (Go Holly, your instagram 📱photos will probably help more with your future possibility of ever becoming employed than being good at tennis will.... 😉).In the afternoon I went to visit Alex 👩 and Edouard 👶 which was a delight 😍. I was at school with Alex, and she is one of those people who is always dressed impeccably in incredibly good colour combinations (I am always a little jealous Alex 😊). She is also the first of my friends to have produced a mini version of herself (although Edouard really does look like his father). So we all had tea in Alex's beautiful flat, and it was slightly like stepping into a completely different, wonderful world.I have really never spent much time with small children 👫 at all, and don't know any well except Edouard (Edouard and I are now firm friends - we got to know each other over some nice Leibniz chocolate biscuits 🍫, we are both big fans.) I don't find babies 👶 cute (I find it irksome when people bring their newborns 👶 into the office 💻 for you to coo over them - they are completely useless bald creatures that cannot even hold their own heads up). But toddlers are more interesting, as at that stage they become less like puppies 🐶 and more like humans 👦 - they can walk on two legs, and are listening and responding all the time, and they are starting to make sounds that are almost words.It was really amazing to see Alex 👩 with Edouard 👶, and to see her as a Mother 🙎, which is so far from the stage most of my friends have got to in their lives (most of them can hardly keep track of their phone 📱, let alone a small child 👶..). It is exciting and impressive that she is looking after not just herself, but another human being that is completely dependent on her. And you can't just take it back if you decide it's not for you ....it puts things into perspective a little bit.As women we should probably all be giving birth in our early twenties, but most of us won't do that until we are at least 30. It just doesn't make sense - career 📚, house 🏡, husband 👦, car 🚗 - then baby 👶 by which time you are old and you will be even older by the time it is anywhere near grownup. (Don't worry Mummy, there's not something I'm not telling you - I need to learn to keep a pot plant alive before I would even consider getting a baby 🙊...)It was really lovely to see them both - Edouard has his own mini hoover to help his mother with the chores (training him well Alex 😉), and there was a nappy change situation, which made me think about all my parents friends who witnessed me as a mini person, a strange thought!Thank you for having me, both of you, and I am looking forward to coming back soon ☺️!I had a lovely cycle 🚴 home, the cherry blossom 🌸 is out, which seems ridiculous for this time of year, but has made me want to write something about flowers 🌸🌺 soon 😊.Alice xxx
