Three Beautiful Things

1. My goddaughter is now grown enough to move out. To bask in her parents' pride at the unfolding story over WhatsApp -- and to admire the way she has cleaned the stickers off her door before leaving. There's something to give parents hope (If you know you know!)  2. There's always something to surprise and delight at an open mic night -- and here comes a youthful folk duo, Drover: beards and bright eyes and big jumpers with original songs telling old, old stories. 3. When asked if I have something for the second half, all I have is 'this old thing, that duologue that you've heard before', but Peppy says it will do nicely. On a lark, I freshen it up by press-ganging a stray actor to sight read the other role, and I am pleased with my boldness, and his gameness. 

1. The small parcel is a mystery: I'd forgotten that I ordered a skein of silver thread. 2. I push on with a story that I'm finding difficult. It was supposed to be a ghost story for Halloween and it's set in a world I'm not familiar with. I got feedback from a technical expert, and it became clear that it needed to be re-worked from the ground up. So I started again, and it was no longer a ghost story. So now I don't have a ghost story for Halloween. But get me: I knew what to do with the advice; I'm still working at my story; and I'm fairly sure that in due course, it's going to be a piece of work I can be proud of. 3. The pub has changed hands, and dinner is a lot posher than we were expecting -- small portions of perfect, exciting food made and served with careful attention to detail. My parents tell the manager that they are here in the 1960s and forgot to pay the bill so the landlord called their parents a couple of days later. He seems slightly as...

In the 3BT world last week: Raymond suffers a coyote alarm .  Louisa explains why she doesn't want a second bathroom .  Plutarch admires the style of an elderly man crossing the road , and remembers when all this was snow .  Den suffers for her husband's art (but thinks it was worth it) .  Whitney hears Fitzroy's oldest member lift up his voice .  Leonora has a very mannerly farrier . 1. We have put away all the wedding cards, and now the room looks spare and clean. I'm keeping all the good wishes safe, though. I still like reading over them, so I'm keeping them with the other ephemera that reminds us of the day. 2. We show Nick's parents the wedding photos. They coo over them, marvelling at how good the photographer is, and at the pictures of themselves. 3. We go to The Ghurka Restaurant on Church Road. Towards the end of the meal, a song comes on that was playing everywhere when I went to Nepal in 2001. I chatter to Nick about prayer wheels made fr...

All you UK parents and grandparents, please consider signing this petition to keep sales reps out of post-natal wards where they hassle and distress new parents. Here are some details about the campaign on Mumsnet  and here's the petition . 1a. Alec climbs out of bed and walks off clutching a pillow that is the same size as his body. He says that it's hay for his horse. I find it later in the bathroom. 1. A cooling slice of perfectly ripe melon. 2. I tend not to deal with food that Alec rejects until the end of the day. This is why. At supper time he asked for the ho' chocola' he didn't finish at breakfast. 'It's cold chocolate milk now,' I told him as I handed him the cup. He drank it down in one. 'Thank you much, Mummy.' 3. I find myself explaining that a woman horse is indeed called a mare, but this is not the same as the 'mayor wife' who Alec saw at the fire station open day on Saturday. 'What a little girl horse?' ...

1. I go upstairs to put on my dress in a bedroom full of golden sunlight. The photographer is pleased - and I'm pleased, because we'd been told to expect heavy rain. 2. I don't even know what to say about Janey's cake - except that I cried when I saw it, because it was everything we'd described to her. 3. Walking down the aisle and seeing all my friends and family ranged on either side. 4. It's when the registrar presents us as Mr & Mrs Law, and that's when I start crying. 5. Pete said, 'During Nick's speech, Rachel was in pieces, Jeni was welling up, Tim was welling up and I had a problem with my contact lens.' Ed : Good luck to Clare and Nick! It was a very happy wedding, just the way they wanted it. They are off on honeymoon now but Clare has lined up some guest writers in the mean time, hope you enjoy. Further Ed: Clare has sent me some more BTs to post from honeymoon: 1. Looking into Nick's eyes as I said my vows, and feeling as if t...

1. I come down to the smell of rain and the smell of coffee. 2. My son is going away for a few days with my parents. His luggage includes his Madeline pan and some weighty reading matter. My parents both make the same assumption about his chunky hardback -- but it is just Game of Thrones . 3. This summer's sparrows fly low through the garden so close that I can feel the air displaced by their thrumming wing feathers.

If I happened to win £40,000  -- Paypal is calling it a year's salary, but I reckon I could make it stretch further than that, as it's way more than I could ever hope to earn in a year, even in my wildest dreams -- I would use it to stretch out my maternity leave for another year so I could hang out with Baby Badger and watch him or her discover this world full of beautiful things without worrying about paying the bills. Children grow up so quickly, and you only get one chance to enjoy each stage of their lives. If you think you could use £40,000, just use PayPal for some on-line shopping --  Find out more . Anyway -- with Baby Badger due any day now, and Christmas looming, there are still a few bits and pieces on my shopping lists, so I can think of lots of ways to enter this competition. From Boots : I could do with a  Grobag Night Light  for those small hour feeding sessions; and the hollow-eyed new parents who visited our NCT class had one thing ...

1. Waking up in a tent beside someone of whom I am quite fond. 2. My aunts, uncles, cousins and brother work together to clear up the house while my parents are taking Rosey to the station. When they return, the Mother looks around the house in wonder. 'This was going to be my work for the next few days.' 3. Squishing through mud wearing sandals; and stealing water from my father's waterfall by kicking a breach in the other side of the puddle. 4. Finally having time to pick apart my birthday picture to see who made which square. Thank you to my parents , Daena , He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named , Louise , Fenella (particularly), Jo , Giselle , Ian and Caroline , Katie (also particularly), Caroline from the writers circle , Joe in Vegas , Rosey , Andy R , Andry C , Jason (and Jessy) , Janey and Catri . I'll publish a picture very soon so you can see how well Fenella and Katie did.

1. From the train I catch sight of a hawthorn tree glowing red with berries alone in the middle of a misty field. Just that image, before Alec calls me back. 2. Rosey phones in her lunch break. It's strange to think of a person in the Antarctic having a lunch break; and it's strange to think of our voices going back and forth across that distance. She has seen more penguins, and says that later in the year, as the long night approaches, you get round-the-clock sunsets. 3. A shout outside the window interrupts my work. It's my parents and Alec off out for a walk. I send them back inside to get another blanket for him. It's not very cold, they tell me, and Alec is a hot little body. Of course I trust my parents totally where his care is concerned, but there is some pleasure to be had in bossing your own mother and father around.

1. Parents who are willing to give up a Christmas preparation day to help me move and who leave bottles of Champagne in the fridge. 2. Our man with a van freely offering Werthers Originals because they help with moving. 3. Oli once again cheering me up -- this time by arriving at the front door of the new flat with a pomegranet, a traditional Mediterranen housewarming gift.

Dear All, there are going to have to be a few changes round here for Creative Reasons. For a while now (ever since my internet provider changed the cut-off time for my free minutes from 8am to 7am and I decided the 3BTing first thing at work as Not On) I've been posting last thing at night. This has caused problems such as: staring at the screen trying to remember what I did yesterday pacing round the flat trying to remember what I did yesterday weeping and trying to remember what I did yesterday posting while drunk falling asleep at my desk trying to wash the dishes and myself, post and do yoga at the same time not posting till the next morning and doing 1-3, except that it's now the day before yesterday -- this normally leads to 4, which ultimately leads to 5 and then none of 6 get done at all. However, my internet people have restored my internet access between 7am and 8am, so I'm going to post first thing in the morning from now on. Please don't choke on your Kondit...

1. There's something rather hopeful about a city so full of bikes that parents and children cycle together at rush hour.  2. At the very back of this slow, near-empty train, someone is singing showtunes, taking requests and enjoying the unusual acoustics. 3. It's been a slow journey, but I pretty much walk on to a Tube train, and then on to a train heading towards home. I've had plenty of time to read, and plenty of time to think about everything I've seen and done today.

1. I visit the Tunbridge Wells Country Market -- I've been wanting to do this for a while, mainly because of Joe's recommendation . He says it's best to get there early, as the ladies with sharp elbows gather at the door. There is a cheery selection of small cakes and tiny packs of vegetables -- it caters for people living alone. 2. Joe's cherry red scarf. Quite apart from his scarf, it's good to catch up over a cup of tea. He passes on a job-hunting tip, which I have squirrelled away for future reference. 3. We discover that the swimming session has changed, and that we must wait half an hour. So we go up to the gallery and watch the swimming school. I really felt for the children in the far lane -- they were really struggling, and a length must have seemed a mile to them, but they kept at it, struggling on to the very end. The children in the middle lane were more confident; while the kids in the near lane were downright cocky -- waving to their parents and spinni...

1. A breakfast of mango cut into a hedgehog with raspberries and strawberries. I think it was Douglas Adams who said that the only dignified way to eat a mango was to take off all your clothes and stand in a washing-up bowl. But Katie manages to make it neat and easily edible. 2. Spending the day looking forward to seeing my siblings. 3. Arriving home and seeing how much time and effort my parents have put into my birthday party.

1a. In a charity shop I find a pocket microscope. I take it home in triumph and we gawp at a fragment of paper towel, a crumb of cereal, some leek cells ranged like stones in a wall and an ant with astonishing compound eyes and hairy legs. 1. The path through the woods is spickled and speckled with moving light and shadow. The only bright and definite thing is a red balloon on the back gate. 2. To have nothing to do but chat with other parents and watch our children playing. The birthday girl brings us stacking cups of tea and wooden biscuits, while our Alec drives around in a red car and warns everyone about roadworks. We take quick sips of our wine and put the glasses back on the window sill, out of anyone's reach. 3. "What time is it," I ask Nick as we are shepherding our drooping children home through the Grove. "Is it after five?" "It's nearly half past seven," he says patiently, squinting into the low evening sun.

1. I can hear a baby laughing and laughing at her parents bringing in their washing. 2. Commuters walking home in their shirt sleeves. 3. We stroll down to Trinity to watch Micmacs (and eat ice cream). It's a funny, dark little film about a man, aided by his freaky friends, getting revenge on the arms dealers that ruined his life.

1. I like checking my wordcount and seeing that I've passed the day's limit without realising. 2. It's a beautiful day, but we're going to a matinee at Trinity . It's Coco Avant Chanel with lovely, lovely Audrey Tatou. Part ingenue, part ruthless user, she tailors her way to fame and fortune, persauding rich men to give her the leg-up she needs in order to change the clothing world forever. 2. While we wait to go in to the film, we look at the exhibition, titled Hidden Voices . It's a set of photographs and interviews with the town's homeless people. The stories are sad: it's so easy to slip out of a way of life that I take for granted. Not being very good at maths so you can't budget. Being gay. Having a boyfriend that your parents hate. Being bullied by your housemates. Not getting on with your stepdad. Being offered a flat, but discovering that it's so far from your work, friends and family that it's unusable. But the stories are full of...

1. I catch my parents looking out of their kitchen window at Alec. My mother says: "Look at him out there playing with sticks on the lawn. It makes it all worth while." 2. To have a quick nosey into my mother's illustrated cookery notebook. I hope she learns to work the scanner soon so I can have some of her pages for my own notebook. 3. To pick the survivors out of a finished vase of flowers and put them in small bottles so we can enjoy them right up until the end. Now the large vase has gone there is more space on the table.

1. Seeing Millais' paintings in the flesh -- There some that were familiar from a Pre-Raphaelite craze that whirled through the sixth-form common room at school (The Bridesmaid, Christ in the House of his Parents, Ophelia). Others were old friends from my school history books (The Princes in the Tower, The Boyhood of Raleigh). Others seem to have squirmed into our culture and are as familiar as the BBC and Guardian (Bubbles) 2. We take a walk called ' Passport to Pimlico ' which weaves through wedding cake streets of white stucco houses and tantalises us with hints of views -- 'look down this street and see an Italianate water tower.' 'Look up here and see the Apollo theatre.' 'From here you can see three of Battersea Powerstations chimneys.' 3. Last week, when we planned this day out, I said I wanted to watch the film Passport to Pimlico and wondered idly where we could get hold a DVD. Then Nick discovers that it's on TV at a time that fits in...

Nick's mum is safe back home now -- thanks for the comments yesterday. 1. Sarah has left a strange little tree for me. It stands on a tripod of bloated roots like a mangrove, and has glossy green leaves. Nick's parents are horrified when I go to lift the pot -- Nick must carry it home for me, cradled against his chest. 2. We clear the last of the boxes out of the kitchen and turn the table round to its final position. 3. To grill lamb chops with garlic and rosemary tucked in between the meat and the fat. I really appreciate being able to grill without the smoke alarm going off. Also, to be able to buy a large pack of chops because I can freeze what we don't eat today.