My notebook and stamped postcards by Linda Fennigbauer, gifted to me by my partner in laughter anna dora

‘wake up in the morning feeling like p-diddy’. my new trousers go so well with my very old shoes

i meet ayesha at 11:30 in the hotel drawing room. it’s always good to see her. i try to make sure that the people i see in london help raise my feel-good level

sisters!

we later met tareq for lunch in belgravia. selfie me, selfie z

tareq and me at a gastro-pub that starts with p (that’s all i remember)

we watched a play, ‘the woman in black’, at the fortune theater and then shoe shopping in covent garden

back in the hotel tea room, chamomile yet again with my cousin fatooma

i pour tea. i feel like i must explain why i have my rain coat on at all times. it was so hot and i hadn’t packed anything other than comfy turtlenecks. so on this day i wore my pj top and this jacket over it all day

at last that night, dinner with naz and the girls. we had a bit of a crazy night with taxis going to wrong locations, getting a late train back to our hotel-in heels (both me and z)-and poor z suffering a terrible headache. but it was good to see naz and finally meet dagher’s fiancee jelena. here i am with rania whose sartorial style is the zaniest i know

me, jelena and nazira

sprinkle away. on the train to surrey, early in the morning

here again. this place emanates romance *sigh*

later i take the girls to nearby dorking for some groceries and ‘window shopping’. these sophie-the-giraffes remind me of baby khaldoun

i love this

back home it’s michelle and the giant cucumber

we go outside for a walk before dark. i love this place so much

i find a gnome. what shall we call him?

the garden’s in bloom. the last time i was here, this garden was covered in frost

the girls play outside

this toy is a flapping macaw

we wind down by painting in the kitchen

michelle’s sketchbook

christina prefers to draw on loose leaf paper

outside the airhop trampoline park. every town should have one of these. bouncing is the best!

a spontaneous decision to visit the chessington world of adventures

one last roller coaster ride for good measure. 90-minute wait but well worth it!

this is how close jennifer aniston was to my face on the flight