Sarah's Blog

A freelance journalist from Sydney, Sarah lives in South East London with her husband Dave and two children, Phoenix and Cassian. She likes raspberries, stars, lilies, butterflies, Blondie, Jack Bauer and the smell of coriander and garlic when it hits the pan.

She loves motherhood and sings a mean nursery rhyme but can’t help but wish that wearing Louboutins to soft play wasn’t considered bad form. Her favourite online stores are NetAPorter.com, Waterstones.com, SpaceNK.co.uk, & Plumo.com.

The Rain in Spain...

Published on Tuesday 4th November 2008

“Bored of London, bored of life.” Oh, how I grind my teeth when people (usually earnest arty types with vaguely ludicrous dress sense) throw that one my way. How about “Bored of London, bored of crowds, bored of traffic, bored of lousy weather”?

Granted, much of the time I enjoy London almost as much as I did when I first arrived ten years ago, but every so often, an ennui descends upon me and it’s time to hotfoot it somewhere else.

And why not? Part of the appeal of London, for me, a girl from Sydney, has always been its proximity to the rest of Europe – the idea of going to Paris for just a few days, or even a day, is still as glamorous to me now as it was when I was 25.

Admittedly, I didn’t have two children then – but even now, with a few small adjustments, short trips are still totally doable. So when the four of us took off to Barcelona last week, we eschewed hotel accommodation in favour of a self-contained apartment: a search of Holiday Lettings put us in touch with Habitat Apartments, who manage a fabulous selection of properties throughout the city.

Having a kitchen meant that Phoenix and Cassian could be fed and bathed as normal; we then bundled them into their buggies and took to the streets until they fell asleep. With the two of them slumbering peacefully by our sides, we were able to take some ‘us’ time to wine and dine, and enjoy Barcelona’s culture of evenings that start late without disrupting their routine (I have nothing against breaking the children’s routine; it’s getting them back into it that’s the killer).

And as well as doing wonders for my mood, the warm weather had another advantage: I got a few more wears out of my snakeskin sandals and sassy red ballet pumps.

Cassian may not remember much about the trip in years to come but it seems to have made an impression on Phoenix: she keeps asking to see photos of “when we went on holiday in Pain” which certainly conjures up some interesting images. She also quickly got the hang of saying “hola” and “gracias” – not bad for a 2-year-old! – but then, this is when children are probably at their most sponge-like, so we may as well capitalize on her new skills.

Grant and Cutler have a fantastic selection of foreign language storybooks which are available online but for those, I think I’ll make the journey into town. After all, their store is just down the road from Liberty. Bored of London is one thing, but bored of Liberty?! That’ll be the day.

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