I think people sometimes assume when you tell them you live in London that you probably don’t have much access to green space. Well, we live 10 minutes from Waterloo and Victoria, but close to the most fabulous green spaces.

In fact, on a Sunday morning, when all you can hear is the sound of  church bells, cricket matches and ducks, you could almost imagine you were in the country.

*This is my entry for The Gallery - the theme this week is ‘Morning’.

It’s been a while since a TV ad made me cry – the last one was I think the Thomson Holidays one about time. I thought last Christmas’s John Lewis ad was shamelessly manipulative.

But this one from Volkswagen really moves me – I guess because it’s a reminder of how quickly our children grow up. Have a watch and let me know what you think. It is, in my opinion, quite brilliant *sniffs*.

You know I’m a big fan of  Twitter and I think in the three years I’ve been on it the most important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s best to try and avoid public spats if you possibly can. If someone insults you, or is aggressive to you, just block them, move on and don’t give them a second thought.

And one of the best things about Twitter is the instant engagement it gives you with high profile tweeps – for example, this morning I tweeted a response to a tweet Nigella Lawson and she instantly DM’d me.  Twitter is a great leveller, although it can give people a false sense of security.

Yesterday a tweep called Alice Vincent tweeted Giles Coren with what can only be described as an inflammatory tweet. ‘Columnists basing their opinions around their children. So yawn. Your column today is one step up from a mumsnet blogpost, @gilescoren.’

Now, leaving aside the fact that this tweet was insulting to mumsnet bloggers (!), what’s beyond me is why Alice chose to @ Giles Coren. She could have expressed her opinion about his column without @ing him. The fact she chose to do so ensured her tweet would be seen by him. You could argue, in fact, that she was hoping he would see her tweet, and respond.

There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism of course, but telling someone something they’ve written is ‘so yawn’ isn’t constructive. It’s rude. And telling him she deemed his column  ‘one step up from a mumsnet blogpost’, was clearly meant to be a huge insult (and how insulting to those of us who are mumsnet bloggers).

What happened next was entirely predictable, because the column was to do with Giles Coren’s experience as a parent. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he took great umbrage at what Alice had tweeted to him. Anyone who follows Giles Coren knows he does not mince words – he can be very offensive. But if you don’t like the way he tweets, I would argue, then the solution is to unfollow.

Giles tweeted Alice that she was a ‘barren old hag.’

This is of course offensive on several levels – mentioning a woman’s fertility, as though if she’s unable to reproduce she’s not worthy of an opinion; saying she’s old – well, that’s just ageist (as it turned out, she’s 23, so he revised the insult to ‘young’.) And that she’s a ‘hag’ – well that’s just rude.

But is it really misogynistic, or just very inane insults being bandied about?

I would argue that if you @ someone with a reputation for being  outspoken in a deliberately provocative tweet you are in fact fully aware of what you’re letting yourself in for. If you look at Giles Coren’s timeline, it’s littered with insults.

Now the spat has descended into accusations of bullying and trolling, and it’s all really very ugly. And all because when Alice made her comments about Giles’s column, she chose to @ him.

But you pays your money and you takes your choice, surely?

I’d be interested to hear your views. As long as you don’t call me a barren old hag

I was doing some tidying up in the spare room yesterday and I found this picture which my son drew of me at primary school. His teacher had all the pictures laminated so it’s kept its colours and it still makes me smile when I look at it. In my son’s eyes, I clearly had a big face/body *cough*, big eyes, a VERY BIG MOUTH and very long arms (presumably for huggles).

I dread to think how he’d draw me now.

Well obviously preferably with him *cough* but I’m SO in love with Don Draper’s apartment on Mad Men. The Knoll sofa, the Eames chair, the balcony, the fabulous colours (SO into orange) and just that wonderfully retro style.

*sigh*

‘The night Max wore his wolf suit.’ I can’t tell you how many times Man of the House and I read those words to No 1 Son when he was little. Where The Wild Things Are was his absolute favourite book at bedtime (until he was old enough to tell us he wanted to read by himself). Of course, I didn’t read it as well as Daddy, who made the most fantastic monster noises for those pages where there were no words (when the wild rumpus had started). He and No 1 Son would sit there making growly sounds at each other and it was just wonderful to listen to.

Imagine our delight then when we visited San Francisco and discovered there was a WHOLE PLAYGROUND and GIFT SHOP dedicated to Where The Wild Things Are. Sadly it’s long gone but the memories of playing there will stay with No 1 Son forever, as will Maurice Sendak’s wonderful book.

RIP Maurice Sendak, you gave the world an incredible gift.

Excuse the Sally Field moment (although here I am as Kate Winslet – ish), but I’m beyond thrilled that The Mum Blog has made it to the finals of the Brit Mums Brilliance in Blogging Awards. I’m not a natural own-trumpet-blower, but I just can’t stay quiet about this one.

Yes having been shortlisted in the Go! (travel) and Outstanding! categories I’ve made it to the finals of the Go! category.

I cannot tell you how much this means to me. Travelling with No 1 Son has been such an important part of my experience as a mum, and I love travel writing and blogging. I’m not expecting to win at all – I’m practising my Pleased For The Winner face right now – but to know that some of you like my travel blogging enough to vote for me in these prestigious awards, the Oscars of the parent blogging world, means SO much to me. It’s also a fantastic endorsement of this blog, which I started just over a year ago. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you!

(Leaves before making a Gwynnie-style spectacle of herself).

I’m very lucky to have been on some truly extraordinary trips, from backpacking with friends across the US after uni to flying upper class to places like Hong Kong and Washington DC. I’ve scuba dived among ruins in Turkey, swum with turtles in Hawaii and kissed dolphins in Antigua and Florida. But wherever you go, and however you get there, it’s the experiences and the people you’re with that make these journeys so memorable.

The biggest trip I’ve made, in every sense, was the time I flew on my own to join No 1 Son and his dad in New Zealand. They had been there for a fortnight before I was able to join them and I cannot tell you how much I wanted that plane to get there quickly – flying 24 hours on your own when all you can think about is how much you want a huggle from your only child is just awful. When I spotted my little boy at Auckland airport we ran into each other’s arms and didn’t let go.

And Man of the House was so proud to show me his homeland. We saw waterfalls and geysers, bathed in hot springs at Rotorua,  flew in a helicopter over the Craters of the Moon and Huka Falls, went boating on Lake Taupo, discovered the many Maori myths and legends, spent time with the rellies, played on the glorious beaches (particularly Papamoa) and had the most incredible time, and all the more special because we were discovering my boy’s Kiwi heritage. (Afterwards we flew to Sydney and our plane was struck by lightning on the way, but that’s another story.)

So this is the Greatest Journey Meme. I want to hear about your most memorable, incredible journey so far – not just because of where you went, but because of the whole emotional experience. To set the ball rolling I’m tagging English Mum, Mum’s Gone To, Mummy’s Travels, Jenography and Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy. Ladies, I can’t wait to hear about your fantastic voyages – don’t forget to link back to this post and tag other bloggers to share their amazing journeys.

One of the things you’re advised to do when you’re trying to write novels is to read lots of other books, and so I have been reading and re reading a lot of favourite novels recently. Not the classics – though I love Jane Austen and F Scott Fitzgerald of course – but the books which are more in line with the kind of novel I’m trying to write.

There are three books in particular which I think are so beautifully written I wish I’d written them. The words flow so naturally, so effortlessly, and the characterisation is quite brilliant. Two of them have been made into films with varying degrees of success – One Day was DISASTROUS as a movie but so perfect on the page, while I enjoyed I Don’t Know How She Does It enormously. And of course no one writes quite like Marian Keyes (who is now following me on Twitter – *swoon* – I strongly urge you to follow her if you don’t already, her tweets are like mini-novels in themselves).

 Which books do you wish you’d written, and why?

I was chatting to a first time mum-to-be the other night and I found myself having to do the verbal equivalent of Sitting On Hands so I didn’t scare her with too many stories about birth, pelvic floors and the horror of trying to go to the loo when you have stitches.

My biggest advice for an expectant mum is to leave your dignity at the door of the labour ward – frankly, any indiscretions will soon be forgotten *cough*. Oh and don’t forget to do those pelvic floors *cough cough*.

But what advice would you give to a first time mum to be? I’d love to know.