• Waking up in the attic room at my parent’s house in Bridport, Dorset. After our completion date was postponed, we decided to escape for the weekend and try to forget about the fact we should have been settling into our new home.
• Snuggling under the duvet with Jesse.
• Sipping tea and chatting to my Mum in the kitchen.
• Watching Jesse excitedly make his way through a large bowl of chocolate cereal. Such a treat!
• Eating pop tarts for breakfast. Also a treat.
• Luxuriating in my parent’s superb power shower.
• Slipping on my favourite red dress and a pair of sandals.
• Wandering around the market.
• Exercising restraint. I saw a million things I could have bought for the new house, but I’m determined to wait until we’ve lived in the space for a while before filling it with vintage treasure.
• Heading home for an indoor picnic lunch.
• Smiling at Jesse’s newfound passion for the humble pork pie.
• Eating too much smoked salmon.
• Helping my Mum clean up.
• Walking along the river to the park in the sunshine.
• Pausing to feed apples to a friendly horse and watch brown cows chew grass.
• Making our way through an orchard before crossing the river to the playground.
• Encouraging Izzy to master the monkey bars and watching Jesse on the climbing frame.
• Arriving back at the house ready for a cup of tea and a snooze.
• Greeting my step-brother and his two children who had travelled from London and spent most of the day stuck in traffic.
• Marvelling at the way kids can pick up where they left off despite months between meetings.
• Putting Jesse to bed.
• Eating ‘Patrick’s Pasta’. Patrick was a friend of my Bonus Dad who passed on a delicious recipe for fussili with garlic, tomatoes and feta cheese. I adore it and look forward to eating it whenever we visit my parents.
• Persuading the older children to retire to bed.
• Drinking wine and talking late into the night.
• Waking up slowly with multiple cups of tea.
• Readying ourselves for a long walk to the coast.
• Wishing it wasn’t quite so windy.
• Making our way to West Bay for a walk along the Jurassic Pier.
• Eating fish and chips for lunch.
• Laughing at Jesse’s unconventional tactic for keeping the wind off. He was quite happy beneath his coat while he waited for the food to arrive.
• Watching the children roll around in the shingle on the beach.
• Finding a sunny spot in the rope park while the children played.
• Heading back to the house along a beautiful country path that overflowed with blackberries, damsons and sloes. It was a foragers dream.
• Collapsing on the sofa for a snooze.
• Drinking tea.
• Sitting through a performance by the youngest children. I remember always wanting to put on plays when I was 8 years old too.
• Inhaling the scent of my Mum’s garlic roast chicken as it cooked.
• Eating too much.
• Sitting outside in the last of the day’s sun, drinking red wine and completing the Telegraph’s bank holiday ‘Superquiz’.
• Moving inside when it grew too chilly.
• Laughing a lot.
• Collapsing into bed.
• Waking up with a small hangover.
• Eating toast and drinking tea.
• Packing up and saying goodbye.
• Surviving the two hour bus journey back to Exeter.
• Admiring the stunning coastal views along the way.
• Arriving home to a letter regarding Izzy’s school place in Bristol. It wasn’t the news we were hoping for.
• Trying not to panic.
• Having a wee cry.
• Distracting myself with chores while the children played and watched DVDs.
• Grilling halloumi and preparing a butterbean and sweet potato stew for supper.
• Bathing the children.
• Reading bedtime stories.
• Chatting to Izzy about Anne Frank’s Diary after she finished reading the last page.
• Resolving to read it again myself.
• Craving an early night.
• Wondering what this week has in store for us. Could we be living in a new city by next Sunday? I hope so…

Love Audrey xxx