I am having a very happy evening.
Another taxi driver has just come over and handed me a box of chocolates. This was because we lent a rear-view mirror to her son to practice driving, and he has just passed his test.
I was very pleased indeed to hear about the test passing, it is such a terrible trauma that it is an utter joy for everybody when it is over. Obviously there was no need at all for the chocolates, since I had forgotten all about the mirror in any case, so I was touched and very pleased indeed, what a generous thought.
I like chocolate. It helps me banish worries about the gym.
Also, to add to my general joy in life, we now have a drummer in the house.
We have a drummer and a full set of drums. What we do not have is any soundproofing, and I think that might be the next item on the To Do list, because I am not sure how much Lucy will like sharing a storey of the house with a small, but energetic percussion section.
We got up in the middle of the night this morning, because I had got to be at school to collect Oliver. They did not finish until twelve, but on most mornings we are still sitting in bed drinking coffee at that time, because of our dysfunctional employment arrangements, so today came as something of a shock.
It might have been a shock but it is small potatoes beside next week’s fast approaching trauma, I can tell you. Next Saturday night we will finish work at somewhere around four in the morning and then set off to drive the camper van over to Yorkshire for Oliver’s school sponsored walk, which kicks off at half past ten that morning. We have got to squeeze in as much sleep as we can, and then prise our eyes open and walk ten miles.
This sounds grim, and the longing-to-be-asleep bit will be, but it is not so bad, because Lucy is coming as well, and we will be walking across the lovely Yorkshire countryside together.
We did this once before, for school’s last sponsored walk, years ago when Oliver was a mere first former. He was tiny and enthusiastic, bouncing along to the best of his little ability, and we were tall, supportive grown ups, helping out with the occasional piggy-back.
He is huge now, and we are getting a bit decrepit for sponsored walks, so the tables are turned absolutely. Mark, especially, is worrying about his knees, which creak and grumble terribly, we will have to make sure we have got adequate supplies of drugs. I am looking forward to it very much indeed, it is just tiresome about the sleep.
It is great good fun to do. Last time we set off with a huge group of parents and associated dogs, and when we got back to school there were several extra dogs that had just joined in on the way. I don’t know what the headmaster did with them.
You are, of course, at liberty to sponsor us if you like. You don’t in the least have to, I loathe being asked for money, it makes me feel uncomfortable and guilty, not least because we have never got any. When we do have it there are usually so many things that I would like to spend it on that I do not much like feeling as though I ought to give it away in order to be a Decent Person. I do not mind in the least if you feel like this, but just in case you happen to have a spare fiver in your pocket that you were fed up of lugging around, the link is : https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/aysgarth-walk .
It is not to support school, but the RNIB. There is a blind boy in school, and he does brilliantly well, playing rugby and doing everything that all of the other rascals do. The point of the walk is to raise money so that more blind children can live a properly full life, just like all the rest of us.
That will be next week. This week we do not have to worry about sleeplessness and exercise, because we have just got our boy at home, and it is lovely.
Of course it was his first experience of his new drum kit. He has been having lessons at school, but this was the first time that he has had a drum kit of his very own, in his own room.
There is not much room left around the drum kit. It is massive. You can just about get in and out around one corner, and into his bathroom around the other corner, but of course this does not matter in the least. He is no longer a little boy who needs floor space to scatter Lego or create miniature battles or deploy his fire engine. He is a teenager. He reads books and plays on his computer and now he will be playing the drums.
He has been playing on them, on and off, ever since. He played us some of the rhythms that he had learned at school, and did a few drum rolls, which we applauded heartily. I think that we were every bit as excited as he is, because it is brilliant to hear it. He played us the drum beat from We Will Rock You, and we were as pleased as it is possible for parents to be.
Lucy is home tomorrow, and we were as pleased as possible with her as well. She is going to Manchester first, for an induction meeting for her summer job, and then coming home to go to the cinema with Oliver. They are going to see a film about superheroes. This makes me very relieved that they are grown up and I do not have to escort them to watch such dreadful noisy shenanigans any more. She has booked herself parking in Manchester and sent me an email to see if I needed anything from Asda whilst she is passing.
I do not think that I could ask for any more of my life. I have got chocolates and live music in my house and thoughtful children and what is more, the weather forecast is looking very promising for the weekend.
Life is, as Oliver said when he got home, very good indeed.
