If you’re a parent of school age kids, you’ve either spent
the day dropping pins from a great height and revelling in the echoes of
nothingness. Or you think you’ve gone deaf. YOU HAVEN’T.
I’ve had mixed emotions – sad that the summer is over, happy
and refreshed to be getting back into the swing of it. I was also overwhelmed at the sight
of the youngest member of the household heading for the classroom in her shiny shoes, excited and giggly among a
gaggle of girls. She was happy. I was heartbroken. It got a bit emotional. I had to be lead away.
September always feels like much more of a new beginning
than any other time of year. Certainly more so than the forced enthusiasm for New Year for real, with its rubbish timing after the Christmas
rush, at the lowest point of the festive crash, when all we all really need is
one more week to recoup and regroup. And even more so than spring, traditionally
the season of the big clean, when the lengthening and lightening of the days is
supposed to put us all in the mood for accessorising with marigolds and getting
busy with a squeegee.
No thanks. That’s
picnic weather and we’re going to the beach to blow away the only cobwebs that
matter. Gotta take it where you can get it now that summer hasn’t put in an appearance
for the last few years.
Even though we’re staring into the jaws of another harsh
winter, weatherwise and moneywise, September feels like a fresh start: buying new shoes to walk us through to next summer, growth spurts
permitting, while browsing bags and salivating over stationary – me more than the
kids. It’s literally a blank page. It smells great and anything’s possible.
Just like a blank screen. “Y u no blog?” I get asked a
lot. I do... it’s just that I do it for other people and businesses and at the
end of a hard day blogging for food, I haven’t had time to blog for fun. Now, inspired
by some great blogs and seething that the 14 year old who lives here has been doing it articulately and eloquently (bah!) without any major crises of confidence, that’s all about to change.
I’m going to be writing here about life and work, being a mum
and a working mum, about TV and advertising, design and funny stuff. Because we
do like to have a laugh when we can. It’s the best part of the day.
And it would be lovely to have your company along the way. Against
all the best blog advice, I’m not going to have a comments section (and I’ll
write a separate blog post to explain why!) so if there’s anything you’d really
like to say, you can search for me on Facebook as louroocopy, follow @lourootoo
on Twitter or go all retro and email me at lou@louroo.com
In the meantime, Mums and Dads, here’s to plenty and
prosperity over the next three terms, with an old Irish parenting proverb to
speed your way: May your children’s shoes remain unscuffed for at least a fortnight. While here's one I just made up: May the blog rise to meet you and the wind be always at your Bic.
Happy New Year!
