Windermere has become a suburb of the Arctic.
Temperatures have plummeted excitingly, and Mark has spent much of the day engaged in log-related activities. After this he buzzed off to the farm. This was something of a relief, because the dogs had become bored with being in the house, and are far less nuisance when they are belting around the farm with the pack of farm dogs, barking savagely at anybody who thinks they might go for a walk on the nearby footpath.
I said goodbye to them all without the smallest twinge of sadness, and got on with my own day things. This started off by the usual beginning-of-term occupation of parcelling up things that children believe they should have taken back to school but didn’t, and which they want dispatching off to them without delay.
In Oliver’s case this was some Warhammer figures. Being a mostly male environment it is perfectly possible to find adults in his school who like doing all sorts of astonishing things, like playing corridor cricket, building things with meccano, shooting guns and playing Warhammer. I do not do any of these activities, although I imagine Mark would happily go and live there and join in with everything. Anyway, not only do they play Warhammer, but they go off and have a Warhammer day out later on in this term. This is only during the winter terms. In the summer they go mountain biking instead.
Lucy wanted a larger towel. The school, which presumably has laundry considerations, requests that girls are not sent to school with bath sheets. This request is ignored by the fifth year, when a standard sized bath towel is not quite large enough to wrap comfortably around a standard sized girl to enable her to run shrieking down the corridor with her friends flicking one another with wet hair and generally settling down for the night.
We are now broke once again. The postage cost nine quid, and then Lucy emailed me to tell me that her laptop charger had stopped working, so she had bought another and charged it to my account. In addition to this it is Number Two Daughter’s birthday.
Both Numbers One and Two Daughters have the misfortune to be born in January when I am absolutely and completely flat broke every year. There is less than a year’s age difference between them, and there is a bit in the middle of January, starting today, when they are both the same age for about three weeks. This year they are both twenty nine.
I have not sent Number Two Daughter a birthday card, although this probably doesn’t matter as I did send her a Christmas card in early December. This hasn’t yet reached her because all roads around her part of Canada, which is prophetically named Big White, are full of snow. Instead I put some cash in her bank, because due to the miracles of the cyber world, you can give your children money no matter where they are or what the weather is doing.
It is nice to think that I have had Numbers One and Two Daughters for twenty nine years, we have had some adventures together. We are all grown up now, which is splendid, they are lots older than I was when they were born. I think the most fun I have had in my life has been with the children, and still is, they have grown up to become splendid company.
One of her friends shared a picture of her on Facebook which I have reproduced here, because it is a splendid birthday likeness. It was taken during the summer last year, and I think captures the essence of her soul.
It has been an exciting twenty nine years.
