The other Friday we went for a nice dinner with friends, I ordered the wine. Earlier in the week I had ordered lunch and coffee at a coffee shop for two of us too. I'm not a usual drinks orderer my sister regularly laughs at how funny it was when her, me and our auntie went to a bar, none of us knew what to do! There is a risk that Chris might think I've turned over a new leaf! Sadly not, these were just my Occupational Therapy tasks for week! I was more worried I was going to call the wine the rude name by mistake that my sister calls it when rather drunk rather then remembering it (it's Picpoul de Pinet in case you are wondering)!
We went to a Japanese place, which was amazing and was one of the first restaurants we went to with Louis, so it was a special restaurant for us. When the food arrived I suddenly realised I can't use chopsticks anymore. Luckily our friends knew what had happened and as one of them kindly pointed out loads of people can't use chopsticks anyway. Firstly, I'm not loads of people that's not how I was brought up and I quickly got over my cultural incompetence and just told myself you can relearn. It can be seen as an odd goal to set your self, but it is important to me. I'm determined to get back to as close to me that I can do, I know things have changed and there is so much I can't as much I wish I could change but this does not apply to using food utensils. I have relearnt to use a knife and fork so its time to switch up cultures and head east. Interestingly I have had sushi for lunch after shopping at Waitrose and there was an improvement, Chris will be pleased with my need for a chopstick friendly diet (his favourite is sushi)!
I have relearnt to use a knife and fork so its time to switch up cultures and head east.
Other sensible/normal things I managed to achieve include a yoga class at David Lloyd which was luckily really quiet and the instructor was so welcoming that I was made to feel that I was able to do what I can. I am able to go up and down the stairs easily and a very kind lady commented how much she liked my handbag as we passed each other at the bottom of the stairs. My husband laughed as this cheered me up, not only the yoga had gone well but I'm well know for my Mulberry handbag collection and I'm always up for receiving a comment on my latest purchase. I was probably the only new mum with a newly bought Mulberry backpack in hospital when I had Louis. Mulberry is one of my indulgences that continues to live on along with diffusers and electric diffusers from Neom and the White Company which have my go to scents and candles.
I also went food shopping with Chris and surprise surprise I still don't like food shopping! We had gone at a rather quiet time and it took me a while to get use to background noise but I got into my groove and was happy scan things as they made it into the trolly. Interestingly Chris prefers online shopping too, it must be a post pandemic thing and that suits me fine!
Quick wins: hoovering the downstairs of our house, going to a garden centre and actually helping Chris with some planting!
In the coming weeks we're going to be stepping up our charity campaigns as we look to make the world safer for our children, watch this space.
Speak soon, Rachael x
For more information about our campaigns regarding the road safety of infants and neurological rehabilitation please visit our website www.louisthorold.com.