It's the Famous Five in 'Five Go Eating Again'...


The actress playing Timmy the dog was slightly distracted by a cat to our left, and failed to look at the camera. I won't be casting her in the sequel.

Anyhoo, just because we're living amongst toddler-induced carnage, and sitting on a sofa covered in baby food, vomit and burn marks, doesn't mean that we can't have friends around for Sunday lunch. So yesterday we invited Stefan and Andrew to tread the tea stained carpet and join us for a home cooked meal of the finest Lasagne Verde. Thank God they do four-person servings at Cook.

Admittedly, as I walked back from the Cook shop on Saturday afternoon through a torrential downpour, and felt the rain slowly soaking through my coat and into my shirt, I did wonder if it might not have just been easier to make the lasagne myself. But as I said to Amelie, who was tucked up safe and warm in her cosytoes underneath a plastic rain cover, it might take us a good forty-five minutes to trudge home along the seafront through the darkness of a late November monsoon, but if the lasagne's as cold as I am, it definitely won't defrost.

Fortunately it turned out to be worth it. Amelie and I might have both developed coughs, and I'm still not sure my coat's completely dry, but that was a damn fine lasagne verde. I just wish it had taken the four of us longer than two minutes to eat it all.

Obviously the main reason for having Stefan and Andrew over here as often as possible is because they always bring us gifts. And yesterday was no exception. We're now the proud owners of a red poinsettia and a wheat-filled elephant...


The elephant's microwaveable and scented with lavender, so it should simultaneously send Amelie to sleep and save on our heating bills. Obviously when I say it's microwaveable, I don't mean the whole elephant. That would be ridiculous. You actually just remove the wheat-filled bag from inside, and heat that. To be honest, I probably should have read the instructions before trying it out, but I don't think Amelie was too disturbed by the sight of her cuddly toy being cooked in the oven.

Anyhoo, we spent an enjoyable afternoon discussing the latest developments in the worlds of pharmacy, retinal screening and sexual health, whilst wishing Amelie could talk so that she could explain to us how her toy train works. We also gave Stefan and Andrew a sneak preview of Amelie's Christmas costume. There hasn't been so much secrecy surrounding an outfit since Lady Diana got married. I was tempted to get them to sign some kind of confidentiality agreement before I got it out of the wardrobe. But the good news is they both liked it. Or maybe they were just being polite. Either way, if you think she looked cute last year, you ain't seen nothing yet.