There’s a part of me hoping that one day, when the kids are older, I mean older like they have their partners and families, they’ll be coming to our -parents- house for a meal once a week. A Sunday lunch will be great. It’s my dream to make those lunches so delicious that they won’t be able to trade it to anything else:) Of course it’s our company that counts too but I’m sure they’ll get over it, unfortunately. We keep asking Ada to promise us that she’ll keep kissing and cuddling us even when she’s a teenager or older. -such harsh parenting- but I know this is the thing we’ll miss the most. She looks at us and says “Mummy, daddy I’ll still kiss and cuddle you when I’m older”… Apparently she won’t ever leave us either. I’m planning not to tell her how early I left my mother so she doesn’t get it into her head that it can be or should be done. I know there are years to go but I like dreaming. It’s really “dreaming” not “planning”…plans and me don’t co-operate very well. I remember a friend once told me that she wanted to be a cool grandma and pick her grand children up from school in a Porche. She told me a lot of things about children at the time but not much of it made sense back then.

So anyway, going back to what I wanted to say; a couple of months ago Bilgin and I have decided we’ll go out for a meal as a family on the first Sunday of each month taking turns to choose a place. I’m out a lot, it’s mainly for work and all. I take the kids out to some cafes but the four of us hardly go out together so that was the reason behind it. We had our second round last Sunday at the Kamel Restaurant in Albert Park. What a lovely little place, stunning flavours created with Middle Eastern and North African spices. It simply was delicious especially topped up with a choclate mousse. But was the wrong choice for a family of two small kids. Tiny little space you couldn’t turn around without bumping into another chair. Under normal circumstances, I would treasure these flavours through every bite but we were so focused on keeping the kids happy so we wouldn’t disturb the other patrons, the flavours just disappered. And honestly, the service was good and professional but lacked that extra human touch to make us comfortable.

So, what we’ve learnt for next time? -to choose a place that is spacious, the menu has some not so spicey food for kids, more kid friendly environment, choose lunch instead of dinner (this couldn’t have been done last week but for next time) and maybe hope that my mother would come back again one day so Bilgin and I have a romantic dinner by ourselves:). Until then though we’ll perfect the experience with the kids…