hello.
It's been over a year. I'm sorry.
I know. Slack.
People have been waiting for a comeback. But I have been waiting for Take That to regroup, for Girls Aloud to make their first appearance in 3 years, for the contestants of Strictly to get a bit more settled, for Tom Ellis to be in a show other than Miranda and for a rainy day with no other commitments in which to start writing again.

So, here I am. All mothery and a bit more ruined. Another wrinkle by the eye and some more bottles to recycle.

My my my.
So much has happened in so many months.

I have moved house!
(And so have my children and my husband. In fact, we all moved together. To the same house, even.)

We no longer live in The City.
We are now officially Country Mice. Which is nice. (I feel a poem coming on...- maybe for another day.)

It all happened shortly after my last posting in November 2011. Our house had been on the market, and was then under offer. And it was around November that our offer on a house in a small village in Hampshire was accepted. And then suddenly it was a whirlwind of estate agents, solicitors, stomach acid, confusion, arguments, driving, speculation, pizza's, hair-pulling, disbelief and finally: removal men... (Stork removals. Which I liked. Good name. Nice men).
And then by April we were fully out of London-town. Having had an endless month of goodbyes, which got more and more painful as the 'official leaving date' drew nearer, we arrived in Hampshire at my parents house wild-eyed and discombobulated. What have we done? Why have we left? Where will I be able to buy a latte from?

I was vaguely thinking I'd start a whole new blog to represent my whole new life down here. But actually, you know, I can't be bothered, and frankly, its not as if the move has somehow stopped me being a mother, or stopped me glugging through bottles of wine, so if it's ok with you, I'm sticking with mothersruin and I'm sticking with all the crap that came with it. It just comes from a greener (visually, rather than environmentally) place with less sirens.

"Oh, you will so miss the fresh coriander and turkish bread. You won't be able to buy that in your homogenous hampshire village" the affectionate parting words of one friend...
"So! When will you get your dog?" were the welcoming words of a friendly neighbour.

I would just like to say a few words about us moving from London.
Us moving from London is not a reflection that London is a 'bad' place to live. It is not a slight on life up there.
I spent, god, what, nearly 15 years living in London. I love London. Love it. We, my husband and children and I, have not been thinking what a shit-hole tarmac-laden unfriendly overloaded overrated place London is. On the contrary. London is amazing. It has people from all over the world living there. It has public transport. It has galleries and theatres and sushi-canteens. You can buy a slice of baklava and get your car MOT'd on the same street. I would never say I am leaving London because it is not a good place to be. London is a buzzing wonder place.
We left London for a change and to have a go at another way of living. A way of living which I grew up with - country life. We wake up in the morning and look out onto a church and a hill. I walk Mol & Liz to school wearing wellies and waterproof trousers (since we arrived in Hampshire it hasn't stopped raining) - such an embarrassing mother. I spend the first hour of the day (if I'm not working) walking up steep hills and surveying a view that reaches 50miles. I can see the sea. I light a fire each day in my woodburner.
I miss not having a Turkish bakery round the corner. But I love having a hill with cows eating grass, on my doorstep. 
See, it's just different. Change is good. Different experiences are good. And we are all still getting used to not having the London things (mainly our friends) and still getting used to some of the Village things (tractors, a river running down the side of the house, knowing absolutely everyone).
Embrace the change!
More to come - village life to be explored and reflected upon in due course...

I just wanted to say hello, and hopefully people will start reading this again.
(Although it is an utter waste of time, people seem quite willing to waste time. In the same way that people are willing to leave their dogs poo in the little poo bags on the pavement rather than in the poo-bin.)