Marks & Spencer leaves the continent

Image via AD

I know, I know. It is old news that M&S is leaving The Hague. We heard they were closing down about a year ago but then it didn't happen and I kept secretly hoping their departure would be postponed forever.

Marks & Spencer opened in The Hague at the beginning of 2014, around the same time that our daughter Yu was born. I remember my parents coming back from the center on those first postpartum days  with tubs of their lemon curd yoghurt. I didn't know it would become such an important place for us, one of our safe places in the city. They had the loveliest café, full of light, a view to the city, and a giant Escher painting. They served the nicest tea, cakes and of course scones with jam and clotted cream. Whenever we went for lunch there we always had their Tikka Masala chicken, with bread and mango chutney. Not only that but they had the most perfect -and private- changing room together with a giant breastfeeding seat.

Photo by Niki from Life in The Hague

I have memories of so many coffee dates with friends there: Yu and one of her best friends M. learning to crawl and then racing down the ramp that led to the tables by the windows. Getting lunch with my mom just a couple of months ago, heavily pregnant and dead tired from walking the city, having smoothies with a friend that has now moved to Scotland. Searching the aisles for their Empress Grey tea (often out of stock), so loved by many. Buying jelly fruits, chocolate and even an amazing penguin-party-at-the-igloo cake for Christmas.

Last Wednesday I was walking the center and I saw they were having a clearance sale. As in, everything should go, and then they leave. It was so sad to enter the building, find the 2nd floor was already empty and most of the stuff was gone. No baby clothing left (aside from a pack of 5 bodies and some summer hats), not one sad box of tea (all tea! gone!), just some random things around. I asked a manager if they were really doing that bad, but he said the decision was made to close down all European Marks & Spencer shops, not just the Dutch ones.

It feels so sad. I know I am not alone in the feeling. I know it's just a shop, but it feels a part of our early days is going.  Are there places in your city that make you feel like home and bring you back to happy times?

The morning coffee

Or how I am becoming my mother.

For as long as I can remember my mom would wake up and drink her cup of coffee before she even had breakfast, before anything happened. She would often say she could not function without it and would request nobody talk to her until she had it.

Now I understand. I have loved coffee for quite a long time, started drinking it regularly during my years at university, then stopped because it made me nervous, shaky, borderline psychotic, then came to see the ritual as a moment of calm, to be enjoyed with friends while talking. I almost completely stopped when we were struggling with infertility, then started again when Yu was born. I drank so many delicious lattes while going through the city during our long stroller walks. Most recently, when I was doing the working-mom run every morning I would reward myself with a proper Italian coffee at the train station on the days when I was able to quickly get it before running-running-running to get to the train and to the office on time.

 Now that I am staying at home again and being ever-so-tired all the time I look forward to my coffee every morning. I don't want to say I need it but it really does wake me up and I enjoy every single sip. For it to happen I (or the loving husband) need to wake up very early, normally after the baby's first feeding, so that I can drink it before the get-ready-to-go-make-breakfast-pack lunch-dress-the-toddler-brush-teeth-here-are-your-shoes-put-on-your-jacket dance takes place.

We recently got a milk foamer and it has been the best kitchen gadget addition since... the KitchenAid probably.  We use it everyday, for the toddler's loved babyccinos as well, who now also drinks her "coffee" a cereal-based caffeine free alternative called Bambu.

Do you have any morning rituals? Any favorite gadgets? What can't you live without?