"I USUALLY wake up on a Sunday morning beside my boyfriend Miguel, as I try to prise his cat away from annoying my head. I live in the city centre but for the past year have been coming out to Miguel's rather fancy 'pied a terre' in Killiney which is lovely . . . it's like going on holidays and a complete break from my weekday life of writing, launches and deadlines.

Miguel works long hours too, so we really relish our Sundays together.

My weekends of clubbing and socialising are a thing of the past, so Saturday nights are usually spent having dinner or vegging in front of a DVD with a bottle of wine.

We'll make the most of our Sunday lie-in though, and rise at a leisurely pace, usually around eleven when I'll make my award-winning American pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

Then, after a bit of down time and regardless of the weather, we always go for a very long walk. We have a regular route at this stage which takes in Killiney beach and the Vico Road before we break in Dalkey for coffee or juice and a light lunch. Nosh is a current favourite place, the big floorto-ceiling windows allowing plenty of opportunity for people watching and gossiping. This is our big chance to catch up, so time seems to whizz by without our noticing . . . another advantage of being away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I don't like having to head into town over the weekend if I can possibly avoid it but sometimes, if we're close to deadline, I might have to venture in to the office. It's easier for me to do this in the winter, because we spent the entire of last summer on Killiney beach soaking up the sun. It was like having our very own waterside stretch . . . very Malibu! In more recent times, and while Miguel might lose himself in some gardening, I will get together with Orla Howard, my writing partner with whom I've been working on a musical. We're now at that frightening stage where we're going to have to unleash it on to the world soon. . .

We start to get sociable by evening time on Sundays and will always cook a big dinner together. Miguel thinks he's the better cook, claiming I only work from packets, but he's wrong. We love entertaining on Sunday nights, not big productions but it's nice to have a couple of friends over to try to prolong the weekend until as late as possible.

I'm slow at getting to bed at the best of times, but with lie-ins and the chilled out vibe of the previous couple of days, I am loath to fall asleep before about 2am on Sundays. I don't dread going back to work . . . unless it's a Monday when I have to do page plans, or if there's a particularly stressy week ahead.

Otherwise, I'm dozing off, thinking of ideas for the magazine and things that need to be donef but most of all, I'm willing the cat to sleep on Miguel's side of the bed."