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Now King Harald V and Ratko Mladic are gone? Another part of my childhood gone. It's like 2016 all over again.
The parts of Hitchin that had turned to ponds were largely restored to dryness today. I returned to the tennis court and it wasn't even slippy. So I only had the excuse of a month off for my relatively poor play.
Catie was our with a friend (hello Kim) so I had to drag my reluctant and squabbling children out to the supermarket. My daughter was adamant that she wasn't coming and would be OK in the house alone. We are still just about at the point where parental authority ultimately works. I don't know how, but I managed to insist that she came with us. I don't imagine I will have that power for much longer. Then my only way to get her to do what I want is to offer her money or refuse to give her food.
The power of the parent rests on very shaky ground. Is it wrong that I am sort of looking forward to my children realising that. They are both brilliant people and I am keen to see them assert their individuality. There may come a point where that gets a bit much for me.
We went out for lunch and had a look round the book shop and it was all reasonably calm and fun. Hey look, I am looking forward to them going back to school so I can try and do some work and have some kind of life of my own, but I am cherishing the time we are getting together. After the cancer recovery and Edinburgh Fringe kept me away from them (at a time of family crisis) I want to be with them as much as possible. Partly because they will inevitably and correctly start to want to spend as little time as possible with me.
I let Phoebe stay in the car whilst Ernie and I did the shop. I am not sure why that was the preferable option for her (unless she'd snuck her phone out with her) but it was a compromise that gave us both a win.
And Ernie one too as he got to choose some sweets and some football stickers for himself. Like me at that age, he's more interested in the ephemera of football, rather than watching or playing it. He could hardly have been less interested in the World Cup, but now wants the stickers. It's partly to do with joining in with the kids at school but, like me, he is a collector and a completist. I loved football stickers and PG Tips cards as a kid, but wasn't that bothered about football or tea.
When I look at myself in old mirrors in stately homes and palaces, I wonder what it would be like if it had stored all the images it had seen and you could flick back through to see Louis XIV or whoever might have been there. Sometimes your kids are a time travelling mirror, giving you a fleeting image of your own past, though inevitably it’s usually a fairground mirror.
Blurgh. Just made myself sick.
