Cocktails with a view

As the sun set London was bathed in a beautiful ethereal glow.

Whilst the location was delightful the best bit for me, as always, was spending quality time with my husband.

Time with your partner is crucial to your well being. Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about existing in the same room with the TV blaring away in the background whilst you both scroll on your phones. I’m talking about a time when you are both fully present with nothing else on your mind, when you have the mental space to chat and enjoy each other’s company.

When you are a parent, it is so easy to forget how the journey to parenthood began. We fall into the trap of letting our child and their needs take priority over everything else. We forget that it was the relationship with our partner that made us want to have babies in the first place.

As we sat and sipped our cocktails the surroundings began to dissipate (not from the cocktails!) until all I could see was him. I felt that warm fuzzy feeling growing steadily inside me as all of the reasons I love spending time with him came rushing to the forefront of my mind.

We chatted happily about nothing in particular, definitely nothing deep and meaningful, just enjoying being together and laughing lots as we always do. What struck me most, was that we could have been anywhere in the world. The surroundings weren’t important. Connection was the only necessary component.

This is your reminder to spend quality time with your partner. Especially if they are driving you nuts or you can’t remember what on earth you liked about them in the first place. Carve out some time to enjoy each other’s company. You don’t even have to go out if childcare is too much of a barrier. Just put the kids to bed and sit and have a chat in the garden. No devices. No expectations other than to just be.

There is no faster way to suck all of the enjoyment out of your alone time than by over thinking and over planning. You don’t need a spotless house, a fancy dinner, a figure hugging dress, a full face of makeup etc. All of these things contribute to you being too exhausted and wound up to be present and enjoy yourself.

Going out to fancy places is lovely now and again but they aren’t a key ingredient to you connecting with your partner. Don’t let that be the barrier to you spending time together.

As a side note, what really interested me last night was the connections or rather lack of, with the other people in the bar. Most people took a picture or two of the view as it’s not often that you have such a breathtaking bird’s eye view of London. The rest of the time people were deep in conversations, giving each other their undivided attention.

There were a few people who were obsessively taking photos. They spent their whole time posing, checking their pictures and moaning about the results, trying different settings, filters and angles. It would have been quite funny (one girl made her boyfriend basically lay on the

ground to get the perfect shot) if it wasn’t so sad. Yes, they probably did capture the perfect picture which I have no doubt will be plastered all across their socials with captions about how they had the best time ever etc. What they won’t tell you is that they didn’t actually enjoy themselves. They ruined the opportunity to spend time together choosing instead to spend it snapping at each other. Pun intended!

Just remember not everything you see on social media is real! Don’t let your imagined image of how to spend the perfect evening together steal the opportunity to actually have a perfect evening together.