I have a good friend; a best friend, called Paula.
One of the smartest people I ever happened across, Paula and I have firstborn children the same age. I met her when she and her husband moved down from London with their one year old. I recall going for dinner at their house (our husbands knew each other well so we, the wives, were catching up). I remember being struck that every thing she owned was stylish; simple, classy. I was ever so slightly in awe. She had a serious scientific background; highly qualified, highly educated.
Time passed and we found that we had a whole lot in common. We were by each others' sides as more babies arrived (I one more, she two more). As two couples with young children, we holidayed together, frequented our kitchen tables, had countless impromptu meals; you know the kind where the babies slumber and get taken home at the end of the evening, in car seats, their baby-growed feet sticking out from blankets.
What I am to disorder, she is to order. What I am to florals, she is to plain. What I am to literature and books, she is to science and test tubes. We complement each other; she blonde, I brunette.
And so to now. Ten years later. In recent months and in amongst the little life epiphany that I have had, there was Paula. You see, as I start a fledgling business making beauty products...L'Apothecary...there is Paula: the scientist. The serendipity of it astounds me. What became abundantly clear to me as soon as I embarked on this business was that I needed a scientist. I needed a colleague who could surely and safely steer me through the myriad of legislation and regulation, but crucially one who 'got' me and the whole vision behind L'Apothecary.
And so we've decided to go after that vision together...let's see where it takes us :-)
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| ...photograph by my talented friend Natasha via here |
