40+4

Today we decided to have a London Sunday as if I wasn’t pregnant. First thing, we hopped on a bus and made our way to the Columbia Flower Market in Hoxton, where we sat in the garden of a gallery and drank coffee and ate pastries, before wandering around the market itself and pottering in the shops. We shared a Croque Monsieur and enjoyed the sunshine, although we left the market itself without buying any flowers. I have to say I was actually a little disappointed by the repetitive nature of the stalls and the lack of interesting or quality flowers.

We then walked down to Shoreditch, stopping to look in one or two shops and to listen to beat boxing jams before heading to Spitalfields. We bought Marto some trousers and shoes and looked in some vintage shops, where I finally found a lovely battered brown leather cross body bag to use when I have a pram to push. We ended the day with a glass of wine, some bread, smoked mackerel and pickled chicory for lunch in St John Bread and Wine.

It was so nice to spend the day together, in the sunshine, simply wandering around and chatting, stopping for coffees every now and then, with a detour to a swanky hotel to use their facilities (a top tip of you are pregnant – if you smile sweetly at the concierge, they usually let you use their loos which are always clean and often empty). We chatted through my fears of not going into labour naturally, decided on names for Pip, talked about our dreams and what we were going to cook for supper.

And then, suddenly the heavens opened and we headed home, to snug down on the sofa and catch up on yesterday’s Match of the Day and other such TV.