Back home hurrah

Well, an eventful weekend really. Two shows in Hannover, then train via Cologne and Brussels to Lille for an audition there, which it must be said, didn't seem to be going my way really. I will eat my feet if I get offered a job on the strength of that particular audition, for reasons which I will be kind and discreet about, but the conditions weren't ideal on the day. I bumped into a colleague on the train from Cologne to Brussels, who was also doing the same audition on Monday. It makes you feel part of a community, somehow, when things like that happen.
I had time to do a lot of reading (read two books, one by Lionel Scriver which just about destroyed me, and which I would say to any parent, read with caution, and the other by Haddon, which had me in stitches and was a great antidote to the Scriver.) I did a lot of soul searching about the job and children, as I hate leaving them so much and it just happens that I feel that I'm leaving them rather a lot at the moment. Of course, they came with me to Berlin for the month and they have a good stable home life with Daddy around and with their nanny, but I still hate it. Effie is just getting to an age where she is more aware, and I feel I'm letting her down when I'm not there. I also don't particularly enjoy leaving spouse. Still, that's the nature of the beast. Hopefully next year we'll get a better balance. If we sort out a nanny share I might be able to be a little more choosy about how much I go away. Jack is walking, just about, or tottering. He still says banana, but that's really his only word. We think he tried to say Elephant the other day, but I think he decided it was too ambitious. Effie is doing very well with her potty training.
We're off the grandparents today, and then I'm off to Spain for the weekend for a concert in Santiago de Compostela. Gorgeous. Spouse is teaching at Eton this week and then AT LAST!!! HOLIDAY TIME in our lovely house in Wales. Can't wait.