Northern girl living the Southern dream

All Grown Up

Being the middle child can apparently mean a lot of things. Being the middle of three girls is apparently even worse. "Middle Child Syndrome" has forever been cursed with the connotations that middle children feel neglected, isolated or misbehave for attention. I can honestly say I have never felt any of these things. In turn, I probably wouldn't class myself as the peacemaker, the greatest negotiator, nor least parent-dependent of my siblings.

A very old snap from the archives, the joys of being the middle child and good dentistry!

In fact I've always been incredibly fond of being the middle child. As the most sociable of my siblings, there was always someone to play with as young girls, or talk to as we grew up and as much as I loved being protected by my older sister, I loved being the protector too. But regardless of what part we play in the family, my sisters and I have always been incredibly close. So when Bethany had to come to London last minute for an interview, I was thrilled. She was still yet to visit my new place and she's grown up so much since I moved out almost eighteen months ago, I was thrilled to spend some time with her.

Bethany shows every typical trait of the youngest sibling. She has an unrivalled ability to get out of anything our parents ask her to do, she has a photographic memory that remembers everything that Emily or I got that she didn't from 1996 and precedes to leave the room when conversation turns to the Christening videos because she only features on hers once. When another child falls on her.

But having been snowed under with work, cue usual moans of how working anything more than 6 hours a day is unreasonable and anything that requires more than 400 words is creatively damaging, I was looking forward to a break.

As soon as Bethany arrived she handed me her things to carry (naturally) and requested a cocktail (it's a condition that runs in the family). So we headed to Sketch. It was still early so we were directed to the parlour and ordered our Bellini's amongst the afternoon tea-goers. While I was under strict instruction to help Bethany prepare for her interview the day after, we decided one more cocktail could only aid her creative abilities, so we headed over to Barrio Central. Again it's somewhere I blogged about before, but their upstairs bar has an array of cocktails and a piƱata, and who can resist either of those.



With tired eyes and growling stomachs we headed back to Notting Hill, picking up dinner and milkshakes on the way. The following day I headed off to work while B headed off to her interview on the other side of London. It was a very strange feeling sending her off to an interview. I've hardly been gone five minutes and she's preparing to follow suit and move out.

So I couldn't wait to hear all about it over drinks later that evening. We jumped in a car, a fabulous mercedes, and headed off for an evening of celebrations.


The dirty martini was our first stop with the porn star, french and dirty martinis all flowing, swiftly followed by bellini's, ice teas and singapore slings. We giggled our way through the menu before deciding it was probably time we ate.



And where better to take a non-native Londoner than the Burger and Lobster. I should probably have earned my own table by now. We finished off the evening with a bottle of white and a burger and lobster before tumbling back into our cab and heading to bed.



Bethany left the next morning and I wished she didn't have to go so soon. When you spend your whole life living with your siblings you get to learn everything about them that you grow to detest and I'd be lying if I said we didn't all have bad habits. But you also gain soul mates that know what you're thinking even before you do, who are programmed to stick by you no matter what and in my case, are unfalteringly good at making their way through cocktail menu's across the world. And that's worth every bad habit.


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