And.....relax

It's rather wonderful having children that are performers, actors, singers, dancers, musicians....but it does lead to a lot of performances at the end of each term.

In the last two weeks we've had music exams (three), school concerts (three), a Stagecoach performance, a LAMDA exam and two ballet exams. Not to mention the swimming gala, the Tudor assembly and inter-house netball. I'm knackered just from driving everyone around to all these things - and the kids are completely wiped out. Adrenaline keeps it going through the shows, but then there's an almight crash afterwards, and there have been a lot of tears. For the first time this year, we've experienced the crash-down plus girl-hormones. It was really quite horrible.

So tomorrow we bundle everything in the car and disappear to a big house in Somerset which will be replete with a full dozen female hormone-sets (middle aged hysterical mums, teenagers, tweenagers, a chocolate addict and a heartbroken Sicilian). We are taking a terrifying amount of alcohol. PJs and some fleeces. That should do us. I might not get dressed again until Friday.

For the first time in decades, I have packed already and gone to bed early. I almost felt nostalgic for the all-nighters I regularly used to pull. Ah, those were the days, back when we had so much work we couldn't finish it.

I have been running my company for fifteen years exactly today. I wasn't sure what to do to mark the occasion. There was a time when we'd have thrown a party, held a corporate event of some kind, treated our clients to a celebratory gift, travelled to Paris on the Eurostar to enjoy a slap-up lunch with the team. At the ten-year milestone, we took the whole summer off and spent it in France, while the team beavered away back at the ranch.

Now the recession has put paid to all that. We're not doing anything - and I haven't mentioned it to anyone. I'm too tired of the whole thing.