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We got our daughter back!
I picked Phoebe up from the railway station this afternoon and her and her classmates were glowing with the excitement of their week of adventure and being reunited with their families. Some kids were more demonstrative with their affection than others. Of course Phoebe was very cool about it all, but allowed me to give her a hug and kiss her on the head.
She wasn't hugely forthcoming with what she'd been up to, but had clearly had a fun time and maybe even missed us. Touchingly and surprisingly she'd bought presents on the trip, buying a little tree made of tiny jewels for me and Catie and then more surprisingly a sword made of cloth for Ernie.
She would have you believe that her little brother is the bane of her life, but she had chosen a perfect gift for him. He loves "sword"-fighting with a variety of dangerous items (to be fair never as dangerous as an actual sword); plastic cricket stumps, bits of tree etc. So to give him a soft sword that he can pretty safely attack anything he wants was a genius move.
She regretted it pretty much as soon as she'd given it to him, of course, as he excitedly swung it around in her direction, but I was still proud of her for thinking of her sibling like this, as well as getting something for us, to let us know that she'd missed us, even if she'd never tell us with words.
Buying souvenirs for others is part of the experience though. I remember when I went to Switzerland with the school when I was maybe 10 or 11, I was also keen to get something for my family. I bought them one of those little plastic weather house things, with a man and woman in two doors, which was supposed to indicate what the weather would be like based on changes in humidity. It did not work. I think I got it mainly because I wanted it, but it was exciting to be grown up enough to be spending my own money on presents and it was super important to let my mum and dad know that I had (again secretly) missed them a little bit.
Actually haven’t seen that out in mum and dad’s house for quite some time. They must have put it away with all their treasures for safe-keeping.
It was a non-stop day, with Catie off at 6.45am for another book event, so I'd had to get Ernie ready for school, walk the dog with him, get him to school, dash off to play a competitive game of tennis (for second morning in a row), followed by a play rehearsal, followed by rushing to walk the dog and have lunch before picking up Phoebe, then picking up Ernie, getting them dinner and taking Phoebe to football practice.
My shoulder was strained from the tennis and hurting and my legs were heavy from the exercise and I don't know if that's because I am unfit or because I am old and just have to accept that this is how it is now. I got through it all OK though and got the kids to bed, though I might actually have gone to sleep before Phoebe.
I am doing a stand-up gig (of hopefully mainly new material) on 7th June at the Roman Theatre in St Albans. Also appearing my favourite comedian Catie Wilkins.
