What I loved about our trip home...

* The lovely BA staff who made Boy Wonder a bed when he didn't fit into the cot...

* Having a hug and a tear with Jane at the airport

* Enjoying my first proper curry since March courtesy of The Viceroy in Bourne End

* Buying toiletries in Boots

* Girly pizza lunch with Sira

* Sharing Holly's birthday and the excitement of being 9

* Watching Boy Wonder sit with the 'big children' for the birthday tea

* Eating Yum Yums with Joanna and Sara

* Finally getting to cuddle two beautiful new babies and their yummy mummy's

* Sara handing me a Pink French Fancy cake

* Jane's homemade chocolate brownies

* Going out in public on a Friday night!!!

* Dinner with Sam and John

* Hot Chocolate with marshmallows

* Getting through a large amount of Cathedral Cheddar over lunch with Alex, Holly and Boy Wonder

* Arriving at Hogfest and seeing Sara, Pete, Tom, Ben and Sam D already there, having chosen

the best shady spot

* Catching up with the lovely Rachel

* Getting a beautiful wedding invite from Shelli and Matt, even though they know we won't be

able to make it :-(

* Joe's Daisy Duke's and Pete's six pack

* Joe's singing and being proud of her all over again

* Katy Bell turning up as a surprise guest

* Sam and John looking after Boy Wonder so Paul and I could go to a 10 year Wedding Blessing

* Paul and Al laughing like schoolboys when singing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'

* Seeing faces from the Towers that I never thought I's see again

* Watching 'Celebrity Four Weddings' with Jane and thinking Pete from Big Brother is strangely attractive

* Having a clear run to m and d's

* Sunny BBQ at the Flying Fish

* Family outing to Eastbourne and finding the Monsoon Sale starts tomorrow

* Finding the new Peter James and Lynda La Plante books at Sussex Bookstore

* Liver, bacon and onion gravy cooked by Dad

* Catching up with with Corrie

* Going to 'just one shop' with mum and returning three hours later

* Dragging Daniel around Brighton in the hope of finding a dress (and failing)

* All my friends who responded to my facebook plea to solve the dress problem

* Sam - who will be my personal shopper when I can pay her

* Finding the dresses that I liked were half price in the Joules sale so I bought both

* Being in the same country as Sara when she got her good news

* Getting to Blackburn in just over three hours

* Nibbles and wine with Ed and Becky

* A very English picnic in the rain with the family Walmsley

* Angie winding up Phil

* Arriving back at J and A's with BBQ prep in full swing

* Watching Alex making his special marinade

* Realising Jane has made Banofee Pie for pudding

* Running my fingers through Dom's curls

* Leigh turning up in his pilot uniform just for me (I think)

* Watching Dan finally succumb to holding baby Sophia

* Harrassing Dom until he started playing the guitar

* Dom's look of surprise when Julie started singing, 'Wow, you really can sing!'

* Dom refusing to sing any Elton John (boo) but redeeming himself with 'American Pie'

* Holly not noticing when Jane fast forwarded 'Mamma Mia' so she could stay up late and watch the end...

* Extra long cuddles with Sophia

* Hot chocolate with Liv and not discussing New York for an hour

* Meeting Sam for lunch and finding out she'd printed out a whole load of photos for me

* Moules and frites

* Seeing how much Jack has grown

* Jane's roast dinner

* Watching 'Britain's Next Top Model' and thinking they must have been struggling for girls this year

* Finding out that Alex has a 'sm-eyes' game

* Dating in the Dark - genius

* Having a better night's sleep Monday night than Sunday

* The BA check in man changing our seats so we were all together

* Boy Wonder being a total star on the plane

* Arriving back at Poplar Street and it feeling like we were home

Not long now....

I saw this dentist when I was in the city on Thursday morning and it amused me. I hate the dentist and even I would be persuaded to visit that one. I met the NY posse in a lovely park and we let the boys run wild. Elaine went to get cup cakes and drinks and came back with them all in lovely bags which made them all the more satisfying. We saw both sides of NY taxi drivers too. Elaine's driver was a miserable git who begrudgingly moved some of his boxes to fit her buggy in the boot, then couldn't do it and wanted Elaine and her son to get out. She stayed put and the buggy fitted in. The taxi driver that Katie and I had couldn't have been more helpful and helped us with the buggies without us even asking.

I went into town on Thursday instead of Wednesday as I have been busy watching the tennis this week. It actually worked out well as our air conditioners had broken and our landlord's brother, Brian, came to fix them. It turned out that they hadn't actually broken at all but in our English ignorance hadn't actually been using them properly. These are big units which fit into your window frame and it seems we were quite lucky they hadn't fallen out as they should have be screwed in to the window frame. Brian and I then went down in the basement as he wanted to explain how he had organised the laundry area. 'Do you wear stockings?' he asked. My first thought was, 'Ooh that's random' and my second was, 'That's a bit forward.' But it turns out he was talking about me covering the end of the washing machine hose with some tights to catch all of the fluff. Paul has grand plans to create a den down in the basement but this is definitely on the 'to do' list. I still can't come up the basement stairs without speeding up as I get to the top and my heartbeart quickening.

My Wimbledon experience ended yesterday with a bit of a deflated note. I hadn't realised that the channel I was watching wasn't actually showing the Andy Murray game live. They had shown the first game live so I just assumed that the second one would be and I didn't pay any attention to the clock on the scoreboard. During the second set, I got an email from Paul's mum which finished off by saying that Andy Murray was two sets down. I just assumed she was mistaken. I was then talking with Sara on Skype and Sara made a comment about Andy Murray losing and I said I thought he might get the second set. Then I went online and saw an article about the lovely David Beckham supporting Andy Murray still wasn't enough to help him win. That's a bit premature, I thought. Then I did actually look at the sports page and realised that the match had actually finished and hour and a half earlier. Made watching the third set a bit of an anti-climax really.

We finally got our pool passes sorted and spent the morning at the Garden City Community Pool. The toddler pool was full of happy toddlers playing, apart from Boy Wonder who stubbed his big toe after being there 30 minutes and wasn't a happy bunny at all. I can imagine that we will spend most of weekends there for the rest of the 'pool season' so Paul can top up his tan. Boy Wonder and I will go there during the week too (purely for BW's benefit, of course) I think it will also be a good place to meet other people as I got chatting with the woman who is organising the local playgroups that we'll be going to. I have finally made contact about joining the 'Welcoming Club of Garden City' so watch this space for details of 'movie nights' and how I hijack their 'Book Club'.

Am really looking forward to our whirlwind visit to the UK. Now is the time to let me know if you have any urges for Hershey bars, Reece's pieces or Smucker's Hot Fudge sauce!