Friday heaven

I work four days a week. Friday is a special day. It's the extra day I get to grab some time with my kids; additional to the weekend, it feels in some ways like a little luxury, and I never but NEVER use it to go to the supermarket or do the housework. The best Fridays are the ones where I bundle everyone into the car and take them on an 'outing'. Like yesterday, when we pootled down to Hove to spend the day with good, old friends Adrian (Caxtonia), and Candida and Corinne of Myriad Editions.
The weather really is unseasonably warm, and as I am reluctant to add 'green guilt' to my already guilt-ridden existence, I decided to enjoy it wholeheartedly. There really is nothing better than taking kids to the seaside. We wandered through leafy Hove and had sandwiches in a cheap caf on the seafront. We finished up scoffing cake and drinking takeaway coffees on the beach while Nath collected stones and chucked them about, squared up to some scary looking dogs who were nosing about on the beach, and generally did what boys do at the seaside, quite literally 'happy as a sandboy'. Ava meanwhile kicked merrily on her mat. This idyllic scene was somewhat disturbed when both of them decided to deposit enormous poos in their respective nappies, but order was soon returned after a bit of a battle involving nappies, sand, very wriggly children and the sea breeze.
We drove home in the sunshine listening to Faithless at TOP volume on the CD player. The kids dropped off almost immediately despite the racket. Covered in grime, with the remains of cake and goodness knows what else smeared all over their faces, they looked like angels made in a Friday heaven.