Monday 7th -Wednesday 9th May 2007
A non-photo-prompted post!
Tim's flown to Seoul (South Korea) on business. Rhiannon always plays up when he's away, so I'm not looking forward to the next couple of days. Mind you she plays up while he's at home too; it's just 100 times worse when he's away.
Luckily she's got a school trip to Shinagawa Aquarium planned for the Monday as well as Aikido after school so hopefully she will be exhausted enough to go to bed early. She is hugely fascinated by any kind of aquatic creature so this trip was a massive success. She got to walk through a glass tunnel under "the sea". But the highlight of her visit was the set of touching tanks. Her favourite creature was a large starfish that she held which entwined its legs around her hand. She believes it was hugging her, bless her! She also stroked a sea cucumber which "felt soooo soft and velvety, just like Nana's coat"!
Nana's coat is now affectionately referred to as the sea cucumber coat. It's OK, she understands and laughs. One day I'll write a book about my Dad and his ever changing menagerie. It's hard to explain our outlook unless you personally know me and my upbringing.
Anyway, I was wrong about her being tired and wanting an early night. She's the sort of kid that get more hyper the more tired she is, so Monday evening was fraught, to say the least.
But once she'd finally finished tantrumming, in bed and staying there, I finally had control of the TV remote.
Recently we got some sort of special box and satellite dish with a package of TV programs. After an hour, I finally worked out roughly how to use it. Most of the channels are "greyed out" which means I can't view them. These are all the ones with decent films on. Not fair to be shown what I can't watch. Other English language options include a few American stations showing things I don't recognise and Animal Planet, National Geographic and The History Channel. The History Channel is only in Japanese, showing Japanese history. I eventually watched an old episode of Sex and the City. It makes nice change from Tim's usual choice of programmes entitled temptingly as "How to Build a Submarine" or "100 Most Deadly Plane Crashes". With the amount of flying he does, you'd think the latter type of viewing would be off the list, wouldn't you?
On Wednesday, I agreed to help escort Rhiannon's class on another trip. This time they were walking from school to a local sushi bar in Omotesando as part of their Japanese lesson. Even though there are only about 16 kids in her class, they seem to triple in number once outside the classroom. Ugh. Walking with a group of 5 year olds… Rhiannon objected jealously to me talking to any other child and threw a complete wobbly when another kid held my hand…"That's MY Mummy, not yours. Let her GO!"
Somehow, we got them to their destination safely and retired for a much needed coffee before the return shenanigans. Rhiannon loved taking food from the conveyor belt but didn't eat a thing.
Then I made the day worse by having a playdate here. The invitee was a right little madam and it was bloody hard work with two strong characters trying to get one up on each other all afternoon and evening.
I was very glad when the madam's father came to collect her, albeit over an hour later than we'd agreed.
Finally Tim returned home! With presents! (OK, he's not quite THAT thoughtful and romantic - I told him he had to bring presents) We got Korean chopstick sets which are made of metal rather than wood. Very beautiful.
A stressful couple of days. But at least I got to see some girly TV for a change. And a present :-)
