GlobeToddles

'Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the house Two toddlers were thundering... ... and so we went out to meet my lovely friend Lisa and her five-year-old son Niko. I first met Lisa when we were both students at UCSD (University of California, San Diego), and I've since seen her in England and in New York - isn't it excellent when friendships can span the globe? We had pancakes, then a play in a park, and it was a splendidly Californian way to spend Christmas Eve. It was particularly nice to have young company for our two as they don't really get much chance to socialise with other children - despite me looking for playgroups in every place we've stayed, our little ones tend to be too young for more formal classes (not to mention they're often full up or you have to commit for a full term), or too old for many of the baby groups run by the libraries. Sometimes we're lucky when we visit parks and there are some 2- or 3-year-olds there, but mostly...

When I was 11, 20 seemed really  old. After the mysterious teenage years that were still to befall me, 20 was the age it all ended and people became proper adults, right? Now that I'm 3 x 11 plus the number you first thought of then take off a few for good measure, 20 seems very different. You see (some of you may know this but some of you won't): my 20-year-old self came to San Diego and lived here for a year as an exchange student. I therefore have a lot of affection for San Diego, and have come back to visit several times since then, but never for as long as this current trip. So it's only now that I'm truly realising how little  I really got to know San Diego at all as that 20-year-old Scot who spent her teenage exodus in southern California. Of course, much of this city I'm seeing afresh this time round because my focus these days is on how to occupy two toddlers in between wiping the clods of dirt from the back garden off their faces and prising the iPad f...