School night

With the baby being sick yet again, I did what any good parent would do, and left her with TheBloke (TM) whilst I went away for the night to see old school chums.

We've been friends since the early 1990s, and I think we've done OK. We are doctors, solicitors, accountants, project managers, and people who do vaguely officey professional things that are difficult to describe. We drank champagne. We ate nibbles. We talked about old school memories, teachers, friends. We laughed (a little bit) about some of the Annabelles we were at school with. And because we are all grown-ups now, we talked about mortgages, children (we have six and a half of the little midgets between us), interest rates... and it turned out we had three National Trust memberships within the group.

Photo courtesy of Hazel, whose camera adds chins, pounds and grey hairs

Times have changed. It's been over 20 years since we first met, and I suppose it would be a big fat lie to say that we haven't aged or changed in any way. But something weird happens when you get back together with people you've known for ages - you just don't see them as any different than they were when they were wearing school uniform (and probably laughing about Annabelles, whose catchphrase, "Are you talking about me?" would - for once - actually have held true this weekend).

We all stayed overnight. I think the main reason TheBloke (TM) was keen for me to go - despite the vomity baby - was the fact that he still believes girls' sleepovers mean that we all wear satin nighties, have pillow fights that turn (naturally) into lesbian orgies. He wanted me to take photos.

Don't tell TheBloke (TM) but this didn't actually happen, and my Primark pyjamas stayed firmly on all night. Sorry.

The next morning commenced with bacon sandwiches and a cup of tea. Pretty much a perfect weekend. And much better than TheBloke (TM)'s, which mostly involved washing vomit off various surfaces.

So yes, a perfect weekend. Until I got the stupid baby's vomiting virus (again) and spent all of last night with my head down the toilet.