Saturday Night/Sunday Morning

Ouch.

Yes, Saturday was a bit of a lively one (well, in terms of the fact I'm a mild mannered Mummy who doesn't go out for half the week anymore).

It was my school reunion on Saturday, the second one of this year, and to be fair it was mainly an excuse for ten of us from last time (all parents funnily enough!) to go out for a night sans partners and kids.

I started from Maidenhead at 11.45am, and after successfully managing to share a cab from Paddington to Victoria (thus saving me a fiver), I got to my home town and former stomping ground Gillingham in Kent.

The first thing I saw on leaving the station?

Hundreds of Policemen!
I had made the mistake of organising a meet up on Football day. And as it was we were playing Swindon FC whose "fans and supporters" (and I think I can use that term loosely) had organised a few things of their own-fights all over the place.

I was absolutely wetting myself laughing! I even took my mobile out, phoned him indoors and shouted (over the din) " Honey, I'm home".

I think you can assume, those of you who've never experienced Gillingham on match day that the opening credits of Shameless may be loosely based on the said Saturday fixture shenanigans of my childhood.

So off I went to my friend Gemma's house (which used to be my house until we upped sticks to Maidenhead), careful to avoid being battered and gingerly stepping over football casualties from both teams.

I got there in one piece, and as I hadn't seen Gemma for two years, we proceeded to chat the pants off each other catching up. We went to get some chips (£1.40! Up here its more like £3.50!) and I had a little vodka to get the evening underway.

We chatted that much that by 7pm, we hadn't even got dressed, and were meant to meet the others at 7.30. So we ran round the house like mad things, and got to The Star by 8 instead. Fashionably late!

We all sat in the gardens of the pub as it was such a lovely evening, and again, much chat ensued. Drinks were definitely flowing, and there was much laughter about the antics of our children.

(Is it just me or do parents all try to out do each other with "my child's so annoying/evil/naughty..." well we all do anyway).

Next stop was another bar, about five minutes down the road which promised a disco. It was so loud I couldn't hear a word anyone was saying, so most of the time we were outside. One great thing was I bumped into a very good friend I had lost touch with, and now have her number again.

Last stop was a nightclub, but by this time I was flagging-I had on quite big wedged sandals, and what with my broken toe and the weight of the bloody things, by 1.30am I could hardly move one foot in front the other.

It was a great night, but come half six in the morning I was woken by Gemmas littleuns arguing over the telly. Ouch.

By 8.30, I had gone to get my train-all the tubes on the District and Circle lines had been cancelled due to engineering work, so owing to it not being so busy earlier in the day, I jumped on the train and got to London. I even managed to get not one but two tubes without getting lost, all by myself (last time I got a tube on my own I ended up lost for nearly an hour, and have had an aversion to them since. Ed laughs at me because, growing up in South East London he used to jump on and off tubes all the time).

I was home to Maidenhead by 10.30, and after a bit of breakfast and massive hugs from Chrissy, I tried to have a quiet day.

Sadly, children seem to have hangover alerts so proceeded to be horrors all day. I was meant to go to my new neighbour's barbecue, but it started at 8 and by then I was finished for the day.

So all in all, I do love having nights away from the kids, but I now understand that when Ed goes out he often doesn't come home until the evening when he knows the kids are in bed asleep and he can have a coffee in peace!