Pool Party Shenanigans
You know how you head into the weekend sometimes, and you have plans to do so many things – things for yourself – time to yourself. And then the weekend arrives, and all those ideas get blown away by a gust of wind. Yeah. That.
I spent the majority of today taking my youngest daughter to a pool party. This required a bus ride, a walk, a train ride, and a further walk. In both directions. I suppose the saving grace of the day was that I hid in a pub for three hours while Miss 13 was at the pool party, and purposely switched off from everybody and everything.
The pub was decidedly strange – perhaps half a mile out of town, and gargantuan. I found a table with an umbrella in the back garden, and lost myself in my book rather more easily than I thought I might. I also bought a burger and some fries from the “Barbecue Shack” within the garden, and somehow made two pints of cider vanish.
Returning to the party, there was the awkward meet-up with fellow parents to get through. I had the feeling that some of them had stayed throughout the party – making conversation with each other. By the time I arrived, all pretences at being affable and charming had gone – they were standing in different corners of the garden next to the pool in silence. It was very, very odd.
I suppose it doesn’t help that I will talk to anybody about anything – so I breezed in, and struck up conversation with people even if they didn’t necessarily want it. Kind of an optimistic idiot.
After extracating Miss 13 from the pool in the party-host’s back garden (which took some time, and finally a raised voice), we walked back to the railway station, and I listened intently as a week’s worth of teenage drama was downloaded in my general direction. I pretended to listen, and said encouraging things from time to time.
We bought food for everybody on the way home – my other half is still at a music festival with her brother this evening – and chilled out together, watching movies, eating rubbish, and doing nothing for the rest of the evening. We started watchin “Akira”, until it became obvious that Miss 13 might have nightmares as a result.
Oh – I let my middle daughter play Halo tonight – the X-Box game. I picked up a copy of it from a bargain bin on the way home this evening. You have never seen anybody so excited in your entire life. I just hope she doesn’t wake up screaming about aliens invading now.