Oranges

Went out today to Liverpool with my parents. Oddly enough, it was Pedar's idea, and I don't know why he suggested it. Anyway...

I did buy a few things - notably two metres of elastic thread, some beads and some badges. Also got some stuff for disc0nnect's parcel, though I'm still not entirely sure what I want to put in it.

Also got a(nother) pair of jeans, classic indigo denim ones, and a book, The State of the Art.

It never stops, of course. Got to go out again in around fifteen minutes - babysitting again. Yeah, I love children.

Rebecca

Another night spent attempting to earn money. Not that I do this job for the money, actually. I would do it if they didn't pay me. It's not as if I do any actual work as the children are so well-behaved. Pedar tried to convince Helen she pays me too much. She told him to shut up in milder terms. I have earned a tenner for tonight. I was going to do history, but in the end I didn't, as foolishly, I took The State of the Art with me. It's a Culture novella, and I loved it so much I read it twice tonight. It's all about a General Contact Unit called Arbitrary - a generally loony ship which collects snowflakes, is an incorrigible matchmaker, and replaces modules with red Volvo cars - in orbit around Earth in 1977. The ensuing madness kept me extremely amused for about a hundred and fifty pages, twice.

It wasn't as easy tonight as it was the other night, though. At about eleven, Rebecca woke up. She screeched at the top of her voice - "I want my mummy!" and she was loud. She was so loud I heard her through the baby monitor, and the baby monitor wasn't in her room. So I went upstairs expecting the worst, and upon opening her door found her on the other side of it, a small figure in pink. She screeched some more, thoroughly scaring me, but I asked her very quietly where the light switch was and did she want a glass of water. She's very self-reliant - she flicked on the light herself, and fished out a plastic beaker of water from behind her pillow. Having drunk that, she sat on her bed and I sat beside her, and she sniffled and said, "I want my mummy," at intervals. I tried to persuade her, telling her her mummy would be back soon, and as though I were dealing with an adult, I showed her my watch. This turned out to be a good idea, because my watch is an altered Fossil with huge magnified digital seconds on an analogue dial, and she found it utterly fascinating and watched it for a while. And then, with no prompt from me, she snuggled down in bed and attempted to go back to sleep. I tucked her in, told her I'd be downstairs, told her I'd turn the light off for her, and removed myself, feeling somewhat redundant. She didn't need me at all. And that may be the reason I found her so adorable. I hate kids, I know. But she was so goddamn cute...

Helen got back about fifteen minutes later, and assured me that Rebecca was never awake at all during this episode. Apparently she can do this, wake up and scream and go to the loo, all whilst staying asleep. I was convinced. She (Helen, that is) had a good time at a wedding reception. There had been a band... at this point her husband, whose name I can never remember, stopped her. "It wasn't a band. It was the groom and four of his friends, singing."

And on that note they gave me a lift home. My parents were watching the end of a Hindi film, while flicking back and forth between the US Masters at the Augusta National. God's in his heaven, all's right with the world.