Sussex columnist: My busy week at Sompting Pumpkins, Flour Pot Bakery, Bird & Blend Potions lock-in, Dome Cinema and more

Yes, it means I spend a lot of the time running from planned events to get-togethers to appointments and more like a headless chicken, but it feels like I’m making the most of life.

My husband, on the other hand, is quite the ‘home bod’ and loves nothing better than time spent in the house, watching movies with the children and just generally chilling out.

But which is the better way to be, as it’s up for constant debate in my house?!

Maybe it’s because I work from home, and my husband works outside of the house. I want to get out of my ‘work space’ on my days off, but he loves to enjoy our house after spending 50-plus hours away from it.

It works fine on the days off I have in the week. I fill them with meeting friends, running errands, going for runs, etc., with the odd swoosh of a duster in between. But when the weekend comes, I have to be careful not to plan too much, to make sure my hubby and the children have a bit of time to sit like zombies on the sofa and ‘zone out’ in front of the TV.

Last week, I reckon I got the balance pretty spot on, and met the needs of everyone in the family – what a mum win!

I was at Sompting Pumpkins for work on Wednesday to film a video before it opened to the public on Saturday. To say I was windswept after an hour in the most blustery field in the world would be an understatement, but it certainly gave me my dose of fresh air for the day.

On Thursday, I met a friend to go for a walk and try out the newest branch of Flour Pot Bakery on Worthing seafront. Paul Hollywood himself would be proud of the lamination on the delicious pain au chocolate I had – we spent a lovely hour sitting outside in the sunshine and I think it’s another fab addition to Worthing’s pavement café culture scene.

After taking both children to swimming lessons after school where they have lessons one after each other thanks to the timetabling not quite lining up (double the time for mum to sit and baste like a Christmas turkey), I dashed home and headed off to a Hallowe’en event for adults in Brighton with my sister. The potions lock-in opened up a whole new world of tea to us, and was a great option for spooky night out without the kids. Who knew you could make a tea cocktail featuring spicy rum?!

Friday saw me meeting a mum friend for coffee, mopping my floors, popping out for a meze platter at The Fat Greek for lunch, then heading over to Hove for a playdate with some mum friends and kids over there.

Anybody else find group get togethers a bit chaotic?! I’m not entirely sure if there was a point where all five of us mums were sat down at the same time, such was the need for us to take children to the toilet, refresh their plates with snacks, get them drinks, find them new games to play on an endless loop. But if the excited squealing was anything to go by, all nine children had a great time! And don’t worry, the mums will have their time this weekend, when we meet for a birthday gathering on our own at The Ivy Asia (stand by for a report next week!).

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Saturday saw me taking my daughter to a party, and some down time. Sunday was filled with a visit from my brother, a walk on the seafront, ice creams from the kiosk at the end of the pier, a look around the fab art in the Two Faced Twins gallery and a coffee stop in Boston Tea Party.

After work on Monday, another friend and I took advantage of the great price of cinema tickets in our town (£4.10 including booking fee on a Monday!), and saw Harry Styles’ latest offering Don’t Worry Darling.

It was good, if not a bit weird, but maybe the most exciting thing was seeing trailers for Empire of Light and My Policeman, both of which filmed scenes in Worthing.

So, a great week, with time for rest and play. Happy mum, happy dad, and happy kids. It doesn’t get much better than that, right?!