Happy Valentines Day/Anniversary/Chinese New Year

Busy day today celebrating a triple whammy, Valentines Day, 8th Wedding Anniversary and its Chinese New Year - the year of the Tiger. But today I won't be stuffing my face full of my mum's great home cooked traditional Chinese food. Instead I will be home alone attending to 3 under 3 whilst D has to go to work. Boo hoo that means I will have to do all the cooking  here. Curly Haired Beauty will have a million and one things offered to her but she will probably only eat a fromage frais or a rice cake. Thing 1 and Thing 2 will have to make do with something by Ella's Kitchen. I will probably scrounge something not too out of date from the fridge.

Whatever we end up eating it won't be as good as the meal D and I had yesterday at High Road House in Chiswick. I had lined up 3 babysitters to look after each tot, no mean feat but thank goodness for relatives.Thing 2 went to my brother - he picked the easier twin to care for, Thing 1 was with my mum as he is still teething and grizzly and CHB went to D's 17 year old niece to be a princess for the day. With all that set - it was a novelty going out sans enfant and being able to eat a meal undisturbed by wailing infants.

Everything on the menu looked great. I went for scallops on a bed of potato puree with sapphire, followed by organic trout with fennel and almonds. Dessert was Cherry and dark chocolate trifle. D had Whitebait, then a massive Rib eye steak with chips and managed to squeeze in a Spotted Dick pudding. All accompanied by Mumm Rose champagne - so I got a little pink cheeked. The service was pretty swift and although the whole place was rammed, it was a lovely atmosphere inside.

Now I have this tradition that I dig out my wedding dress and wear it every year - cuts out having to think 'what shall I wear'. Its a very simple bias cut white Ghost slip dress -  and it has certainly stood the test of time. 8 years on, the design has not dated and its so very easy to adapt the dress - without looking a bit Miss Haversham. As it was a freezing winters day, I wore an Ivory satin quilted cropped jacket also by Ghost , my Warehouse bargain black leather studded belt and black ankle boots. A brown crochet shawl by Toast was layered over the top and my vintage full length brown fur coat. This was an after thought and I'm glad I brought it as it did snow a bit in the early afternoon.

I don't think I will ever tire of this dress, it is one of my most treasured possessions and I hope to pass it onto the Curly Haired Beauty in the future. Its a bonus that its also machine washable at 40 degrees and takes up no space in a drawer.