10 Comments

"A rope swing, a ghetto blaster, a Violent Femmes cassette and a packet of Silk Cut" is how I want my summer to look and I'm 41

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My 15 year old asked me the other day if I missed him being small (he’s 6’4 now). I told him I missed when picking him up and giving him a cuddle made everything better. But that his wit and filthy sense of humour mostly made up for it. But it’s (cliche alert) so FAST. Hope feeling lost is fading Sophie, it’s a joy to read your words tonight. x

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“The important thing is sometimes just to keep on keeping on.” I needed this today! Thank you so much for all you write and for your amazing blend of depth and meaning with humour. Your writing is the absolute best.

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I know this isn't the place for these but don't know how else to show you... 😍😍😍 https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/67295726/

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remember these getting lost somewhere familiar moments. must be a thing with changing teenage brains. took me a year walking around in Paris in my early twenties when things (maps) started to make sense and everything came together. Since then I am able to navigate everywhere. no phone required. Orientation is a sense one needs to develop, it's not a given, I think. In parallel with a sense of being in charge of one's own life, being safe even in difficult situations. You are so brave, doing great as a mum in this, if I am allowed to say. It took me very long to let my girls go. It is so very hard to not give them one's own fears and anxieties.

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I love Primrose Hill. It contains some of my favourite memories of parenting Smols and it's so very beautiful, like a place from a fairy tale or a backdrop to 101 Dalmatians.

My husband and I go there most days so we can lower the tone and get some fresh air.

I adore everything about it except the food prices. I remember going into Lemonia, seeing half a potato priced at £6 and nearly having a cardiac event.

My kids are 16 and 13 and I am surplus to requirements which I feel bittersweet about.

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"lost an empire and not yet found a role" - what a wonderful quote. Sums it up for me pretty well right now.

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Have you ever seen Smashing Time? Big denouement in the revolving restaurant in BT Tower - Michael York gets pinned to the wall when it goes out of control. Two girls from the north try to make it in swinging London. Such a weird film.

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Thank you Sophie for these wonderful words. As a young girl about town in the late nineties living in a tower block close to Regent’s Park I’d look up and squint and head towards the blue light of the tower and only then be able to navigate the streets whilst closer.

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So glad you re back. Love the idea of you cycling toward the Minster in York..what a North Star that is. 💕

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