Paul Davidson
Weeknotes 037: And now we’re two.
After all that prep, we had ourselves a second birthday bonanza!
The pushing back of “Freedom Day”1 meant we were restricted to grandparents in the garden. This ended up with a last minute shuffle from Sunday to Saturday to catch the weather. Not that anyone has plans to change at the moment.
Despite late morning nerves, The Chef’s cake turned out beautifully. Piglet coped admirably with the excitement and kept herself to two mini-meltdowns when she got overwhelmed by presents and the four grandparents going full belt in two languages.
Having it on the Saturday allowed us a quiet Sunday to recover. I set up the tree swing Piglet’s auntie bought. With uncut grass and birdsong, the video of her first go is positively idyllic. It was the one gift I wanted to make sure she got. Not having a tree growing up, I never had a tree swing.
At work my annual performance review went as it oft does, with vague praise for my results and a reminder for me to say no to extraneous work. Plus ça change. I rewarded myself by finishing Korra over lunch. Soooo good.
It was good to get it out of the way, because the football is back in earnest. The Euros are an excellent excuse to do nothing in the evening but wallow in the festival atmosphere. It does have me worried in the Annie Dillard sense that I’m spending too many days doing nothing. I don’t want my life to amount to nothing. It may be time to add a monthly task back into the rota. The abrasion of jobs to do is worth it at the end of the year when you can reminisce on jobs done.
Winter is our usual time for reflecting on the passing of time, but Piglet breaks that rhythm. The Chef put her hair in bunches and she immediately looked old enough to fly the nest. She’s moved up to the next room in nursery too. A cracking first half-day before she was sent home with a temperature.
When she does move out she can treat her room-mates to mashup songs. She’s got a perfectly segueing rendition of Twinkle Twinkle / A-B-C / Baa baa black sheep that doesn’t miss a beat.
She can show off Franny the Flamingo too. A present from Lǎolao and Lǎoyé when they visited Washington Wetlands Centre. There are a surprisingly large number of places to see flamingos in the North of England.
Exam nerves are visible on the horizon, prompting an even bigger Duolingo binge. The Chef is getting a nervous tic from the constant ding of the congratulations bell. Binging after every answer really is too much Duo.
God they’re abhorent, aren’t they?↩︎