Severine-on-Thames!

There are not many friends I would leave my two boys for, especially not overnight.

But having lodged with us as a Language Assistant five years ago and seen who we really are and how we live and been so damned easy to love, Severine has a special place in my heart and in the heart of my little family. There are 16 years between us and a full foot in height but these things matter not.

We both love languages, we love to bake, we love Brit Pop and we love Harry Potter.

In fact I often refer to Sev as Dobby the House Elf to my Harry Potter!

Sev and I were watching the opening scenes of Harry Potter in the cinema when I broke the news that I was expecting a baby. She had only known me a month and had been coming in from work to find me sleeping on the sofa because I was unable to stay awake. Heaven knows what she thought of this constantly dozing woman!!

She lived with us all through my pregnancy and through the first few weeks of Frank's life.

She then came back to live with us again after a three year period in Paris doing her masters in translation. She has taken Frank's diabetes on board and has seen first hand what we do every day to keep him well.

Then she goes and gets a great job on Henley-on-Thames and moves away, daring to get a life of her own.

All I could do was follow.

Two nights in Henley was in order.

The weather was great.

Henley-on-Thames is just so pretty.

And as this was my favourite book as a child I loved seeing the river so close to where it was set. We did a ten mile walk along the river.

We went into town for coffee and cake at Maison Blanc, which was tres posh and very Henley.

And did rather a lot of this...

Pimms, knitting, cheese and olives.

It doesn't get much better than that.