Things I have missed

Baking scones, sponges, cupcakes, my lovely chicken, leek & apple pie, and that scrummy pudding with oranges and passion fruit, even a nice simple apple crumble. How I've missed you all.

Stock Chicken, vegetable, even a bit of beef sometimes. One of the many joys of being home with a small child was that you could do these kind of domestic chores that need a small amount of actual effort but a large amount of hanging around at home. Ditto, bread making, marinading, long slow braising...

My dishwasher Whose life was measured out in teaspoons? I don't remember but mine has recently been measured by the washing of them.

Composting Why everybody who lives at ground level don't do it is quite beyond me. Our bins have (unsurprisingly) stunk of rotten food unless emptied once or twice a day. I used to only have to empty the kitchen bin once or twice a month. Which leads to...

Recycling OK, so maybe washing out the yoghurt pots isn't the best fun ever but each and every piece of plastic, paper and cardboard I've had to trash due to complete lack of recycling facilities in this block has been another tiny twinge of guilt. And all those disposable nappies clogging up the landfill when I've got a perfectly good set of washable terry cloth ones in storage. We'll have to plant a good few trees this summer to ease my conscience.

Living at ground level I had heretofore not understood the profound luxury of getting from car to front door to fridge with a a couple of bags of groceries and a toddler and not needing a sit down afterwards. Rosie has now started huffing and puffing in sympathy when I get to the top of the stairs, which is cute but shaming.

Our old sofa OK, it wasn't the greatest piece of furniture ever and most of the cushions had been replaced more than once but it was a darn sight more comfortable than the one in the flat. We have mostly sat on the floor for the last few months (which has probably done our posture no end of good, so, maybe 'yay!' after all?)

Falling asleep to Radio 4 Our lovely Squeezebox had a 'sleep' function so you could switch on the radio (or music, or a podcast) and it would turn off after x minutes. Needless to say, this is in storage so I've had to fall asleep either (a) fitfully or (b) wearing glasses and with a book tented on chest/fallen on the floor/lost under the quilt. They still play 'Sailing By' every night, don't they?

A clear complexion Stress has played havoc with my (meagre) looks. The woman in the mirror is a good 5 years older than the one that started this foolish project.

Peace and quiet We used to live under the flight path into Heathrow airport. I think I preferred the planes to the neighbour's dreadful music (why is it always R&B that people want to play at top volume? It's as though they're saying "I HAVE NO TASTE! I HAVE NO TASTE! I HAVE NO TASTE! BUT I HAVE A BIG SUB WOOFER!!!!"

But all these things will be ours...

In less than a week!