September 2008

Hello, I'm 40.

There. That's got that out of the way. It feels quite surreal, I must say. I mean, only old people are 40, not young ones like me. I don't remember ever signing up for this ripe old age, but hey-ho, here I am, four decades old and if there was one good thing about turning forty it was that lots of people kept telling me that I DON'T LOOK MY AGE, which was VERY NICE INDEED and didn't happen nearly as much when I was thirty nine! The other good thing about turning forty, was that it gave me an excuse to organise lots of lovely things to do by way of celebration.

I chickened out of having a massive party in the end and divided the celebrations up into a few small manageable parcels. I took some friends for dinner in the private room at the Roof Gardens in Kensington the Saturday before my birthday, then three days before my birthday Jascha took me to Petrus which was mind-blowingly fantastic. The food was remarkable and the service was breath-taking. Just before they brought out our desserts, they presented me with a platter with the words ‘Happy Birthday' painted on it chocolate sauce, a tiny white candle and two miniature squares of cake. ‘That was very organised of you,‘ I said to Jascha. ‘Did you tell them when you made the reservation?' He shook his head and smiled. ‘No,' he said, ‘I didn't tell them at all...'

On the night of my birthday I got some caterers in to lay on a lovely dinner party at my house for me and my family. They served us canapés and champagne in the garden and then we went upstairs for an amazing candlelit three course dinner served on white linen. After dinner they cleared everything away and left us with our liqueurs. Jascha had been sceptical about the appeal of paying to eat at home, but I think he was convinced by the end of the night. It was truly magical.

School finished the week after and I felt a bit silly and emotional about it. It felt like Amelie had only just started her reception year five minutes earlier, now suddenly it was all over. Gah! Sometimes I yearn for the days of the future when my girls are self-sufficient and independent and I can return to my old selfish ways, but mainly I just live in the here and now, both mourning and celebrating every little rite of passage. *Sniff* It's going TOO FAST! I was also very sad to say goodbye to Amelie's wonderful teachers who she was so incredibly fond of. The reception year is remarkable – they go in just about able to draw a smiley face and come out reading and writing.

Two days after school finished we headed off to Devon to spend a week with friends in rented cottages on a farm just outside Cullompton. We had one hot day and then the rain arrived. Meanwhile London was enjoying a heatwave – which broke the day we returned. But still, between the downfalls we managed to have a lot of fun. Amelie celebrated her fifth birthday while we were there and her uncle Seb and his lovely new wife Mabel drove down from Bristol where they live, to join the party. I made Amelie a cake – yes, a real cake, the first cake I have ever made for her, since she was born. I cheated by asking my fantastic friend and holiday housemate Sarah to help me bake it, but I was still very proud of it. I am not a natural baker. Pretty much anything I put in an oven ends up overcooked. But I have to say, this was a GOOD CAKE. And so, the precedent has been set. No more shop bought birthday cakes for my girls, oh no!

I spent the four weeks after we got back from Devon not writing, but reading. I am a category judge for a famous literary award (I have no idea whether or not I am supposed to be keeping top secret about it or not, so am taking the safe route) and was sent thirty eight books to read by the middle of September. Yes, THIRTY EIGHT books. Since I have been averaging about a book every two months since my first child was born, this was a gargantuan proposition. I soon realised that I would never be able to get through them in my spare time, mainly because, well, I don't actually have any, so I read during work hours. It felt very strange, like I was bunking off. Whenever Evie's childminder came into my room to ask me something I'd drop the book, guiltily, and pretend to be doing something on my computer. Reading during the day felt just plain WRONG. But I did it, the books are read and I think I know which ones I will put forward for the next stage of the judging. It has been an interesting experience, and of course, I still have to read the other judges' submissions, so it is not over yet, but it really has made me question so much about what makes a good book and how the best story is not necessarily the best book and that the best writing isn't necessarily the best story and how a great character can sometimes make up for a lack of both. The experience will definitely inform the writing of my latest book, the Ralph's Party sequel. I have learned a lot.

Towards the end of the summer holidays, I looked out of the window, I looked at my diary, I looked out of the window again and decided that yes, there was time for a few days in the sun before school started. It basically felt like Autumn started at the end of July and I couldn't face the thought of the slow descent into winter without one last quick blast of summer, so we spent five days in Mallorca in an all-inclusive family resort where it was 26 degrees by day and 23 degrees by night, where Margaritas and ice cold beers were served on tap, where Amelie had fun in the kid's club every morning and where we had nothing much else to do except splash in the pool and eat. Evie was exhausting, being at the peak of the developmental stage known as ‘perpetual motion'. I chased her constantly from breakfast to bedtime, but I hadn't expected hours on a sunlounger, I just wanted sunshine and no housework. Oh, and Margaritas at lunchtime...

Amelie, parrot, Cala Mesquida, Mallorca, August 2008	Amelie and Evie, Cala Mesquida, Mallorca , August 2008
Evie and her Funny Face, again, Mallorca, August 2008	Jash and his tribute to Evie's Funny Face, Mallorca , 2008
Amelie striking a pose in the early evening breeze, Mallorca , August 2008	Evie at lunch, Cala Mesquida, Mallorca , August 2008
Amelie suddenly appeared on the terrace one evening, dressed like this. I have no idea why. Cala Mesquida, Mallorca , August 2008	Evie on the terrace, Cala Mesquida, Mallorca , August 2008

We came home on Wednesday and then school started on Thursday and Amelie was NOT IMPRESSED. She is pining for her old teachers and keeps saying she wants to go back to reception. I don't blame her. I want her to go back to reception, too! She is in the same classroom but they have taken out all the lovely cosy reception things to make it look more like a formal classroom. Heartbreaking!

And that brings us up to now. I am getting on with the Ralph's Party sequel, which is more challenging than I'd thought – I really don't want to let anyone down, but on the other hand I don't just want to write the same book again. It's a fine balance to achieve. In November I have my final judging meeting for the Top Secret Book Awards, six hours locked in a room with the two other judges, thrashing it out until we can agree on a winner for our category. And then, well, it'll be Christmas and I'll be back here again with another update, though not sure what there'll be to update you on exactly; after the past few whirlwind months, it's all gone very quiet ... The girls are both on excellent form. Evie is, as I mentioned, now walking, and I don't just mean developmentally, I mean literally, walking, all day. She hates being in her pram, hates being in the car and detests being in a high chair. Unless she is on her feet, going somewhere, she is furious. She is also very, very loud. She has been training her lungs, deliberately, to produce the absolute maximum amount of noise. It is quite terrifying sometimes. She is also singing (she has two songs, the Doo-dah song, which goes “ doo-dah, doo-dah, alalala, doo-dah” and the Da-dee-dah song, which goes ‘da-de-dah, da-de-da-ah”, both works of pure genius). She also has her funny face, and her special dance and is getting very good at running errands. She is full of hugs and kisses and snuggles and strokes, but also a bit of a bully, and I have to watch her in playgrounds so that she doesn't just walk up to some unsuspecting toddler and smack them in the face. She is a little powerhouse of a baby, with enough personality to fill a few grown-ups, a great desire to entertain and a love of people, noise and activity. She leaves me breathless sometimes. Meanwhile, Amelie is still enjoying a stretch of excellent behaviour. Some people (including my husband) mentioned that I was a bit harsh about my first born in my last diary entry, and maybe I was, but Amelie would be the first to agree that she has two very different sides to her personality. Sometimes we ask her where ‘Nice' Amelie has gone and she smiles, slightly wickedly, and says ‘she's gone on holiday.' She likes to keep us on our toes! But right now she is adorable, suddenly so grown-up with a new mature understanding of the world and how it all slots together. I can see the ‘tweenager' inside her starting to emerge too, which is a bit scary. She loves watching In the Night Garden, but also wants to watch things like Hannah Montana. Oh, and she has told me she wants to change her name to Stacey ...

Right, that's me done. Except, ooh, one thing before I go: my fellow author, Lola Jaye, has put an interview with me up on her excellent website. Lola wrote to me aeons ago, just after Ralph's Party had been published, asking if I could read a couple of chapters of her novel, which I did (ah, the luxury of life before children!) I was very positive about what she sent me so I was delighted when a few years later my agent told me that she'd just taken her on. And now, finally, after a marathon slog, Lola's first novel has just been published. Take a look at her website if you're a would-be writer: it's very informative, inspiring and entertaining – if not a little cautionary too! And three cheers for Lola, for finally having her dream come true!

Love to all of you and see you in December, when I will have absolutely bugger-all to tell you,

Lisa xxxx

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Previous updates:

• June 2008
• March 2008
• December 2007
• September 2007
• June 2007
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• December 2006
• September 2006
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• December 2005
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• August 2003
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• September 2002
• Lisa's Big US Tour
• April 2002
• November 2001
• September 2001
• July 2001
• April 2001
• September 2000