Autumn is On The Way In!
Well, I’ve spent this week finishing off my book titled ‘How To Age Well’ which will be out at next month and already fretting over things I just didn’t have room, I knew this would happen so scribbling them down to drip feed to you over the weeks.
My Greek holiday is already fading into the distance the chill of the night has arrived and yes, even though flip flops not put away they sit in the hall in favor of warmer footwear. However, what hasn’t left me is my holiday ‘Breakfast Buffet Shock’ as I stood agog watching seemingly normal families act like scavengers as if they’d not eaten for a week and weren’t sure where their next meal was coming from and where did table manners go? How difficult is it to sit properly at a table hold a knife and fork correctly and eat? Thinking back to my childhood and probably yours we’d have been in such trouble if we hadn’t adhered to those basic rules. I’ve been quoted many times saying, “You do your children no favors bringing them up useless” buy this I mean teaching them how to make a bed, wash clothes, cook, understand personal hygrine, take part in basic household chores, you’re not being draconian it’s just the real world will be a shock if you don’t prepare them for it and God forbid if something happened to you and they had to pull their weight. I cheekily told the girls when they were little that if they didn’t have good table manners, they’d never get a boyfriend because no one would ever want to take them out for a nice meal. We laugh about it now, but I turned it into a dressing up game we’d pretend to be at a restaurant taking turns at being waitress or diner. We also played the visitor game which involved extracting themselves from the television going to the door saying hello, can I take your coat and would you like a drink. The older ones would handle tea while Claudia at 6 prided herself with mixing a fine Gin and Tonic using her 4 little fingers as a measure, all served on a tray with napkin and nuts. I think this went well? Claudia, now 25, still mixes my favorite tipple and one of these days I must let on its actually 3 fingers! Reasons I know it Autumn, Summer clothes have gone away in favor of a few warmer ones, the spiders have arrived for their winter holidays and this weekend we turned a few radiators and I’ve actually got excited at the thought of a little more warming food coming out of the kitchen.
Love Antea x
Article orginally from MyWeekly!