Oh what heaven and joy

Oh what heaven and joy. Last Sunday morning my husband took the children to a party in Richmond Park for a few hours. Precious free time to have a long bath, write a blog post, make a fish pie and go to my club.  No not to dance in the dark recesses of a hip basement. This particular club is set in 27 acres in leafy, suburban Acton and is a twenty- minute walk from my house.  The Park Club has large outdoor and indoor swimming pools, acres of tennis and every class you could think of. 

During the credit crunch journalists have been urging people to give up expensive club memberships and go jogging, power walking and star jumping in the park, but this doesn’t work if you have children. You have to take them to the park and watch them jump, run, climb  etc. while you hang around on the side-lines feeling frankly bored.

My son will only go to the park if he can play football, which is definitely not my thing. I got very upset and depressed last summer when I took the children paddling in our local concrete pool in Ravenscourt park. I had forgotten my daughters’ bathing suit so she ran in naked. A few minutes later a park policeman came over and urged me to dress her at once as he had just arrested a man for hiding behind a tree and doing what men behind trees do. It was horrifying.

This is what makes the membership at a place like the Park Club so worth it. You won’t meet shady men behind trees and you won’t step in do poo.Your children can run in and play in the acres of land, while you sip coffee on the terrace. Or you take them swimming, or put them in the sports clubs during the holidays and just sit back knowing they are safe. I have just returned from a belly dancing class, more difficult than it sounds, particularly as I was the only beginner and all the other girls had gone out and bought special jingly belts - but more fun than a normal exercise class.

My novel the Seven Year Itch came out on Thursday.  I am having a book launch next week, so the actual day it came out, I expected a kind of fanfare, but nothing much happened. However towards the end of the day the publishers, Penguin, sent a huge box of white flowers and then my husband quickly rushed out and bought some orange and yellow ones.  Suddenly it felt like my birthday all over again.

Kate Morris lives in West London with two children, Jude 7 and Belle 4 and her husband, Luke, a photographer. She has published one novel and her second, The Seven Year Itch, is just relased. She is currently just starting work on a third novel. Kate also blogs at the Easy Living and is know as "The City Wife".