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08.04 – 08.10

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Life

On Monday we took a bus into the old town. It was most probably our own fault for playing the ice cream trump card far too soon, but Ηη went rapidly from ‘this is the best day ever’ to being an insufferable pain in the bum and the rest of the morning was a bit of a write-off. We resolved not to do much else in the way of trips for fear of a repeat performance.

I was fairly confident I was getting the regulation holiday cold by Monday lunchtime. And so it transpired. I was strangely pleased to have a tangible illness on which to blame my lethargy and general malaise and had a vain hope that when it shifted I’d be completely fixed (haha no). Σσ followed suit, and Αα got a bit pukey (although that was possibly because she refused to listen to the instruction, ‘don’t drink the pool, or the sea’). Then just when we thought we were on the mend we all got another cold. Maybe this will be the one that fixes me once and for all…

We spent most days alternating between building sandcastles, eating ice cream, and sitting in the shallow end of the pool closely guarding kids who were adamant they can swim but demonstrably very much couldn’t. Meals were almost exclusively pizza for the kids, and bread, feta and tomatoes for me and Σσ. I gave my full backing to how unadventurous it all was.

Last week Ηη had insisted Σσ buy him the same dress with love hearts on that she was buying for Αα. He seems to enjoy wearing it a lot, but there are definitely some situations where he gets worried about it – I think it’s mostly if he thinks me and Σσ aren’t going to be around. I’m glad our presence makes him feel like he can wear what he wants but it’s interesting (and more than a little bit sad) that he maybe understands or at least intuits on some level that society in the main doesn’t particularly accept boys in dresses.

I felt rough on the flight home, like my head was going to explode with a migraine – something I’ve not experienced for a decade or more. So Σσ (who was also not feeling particularly great) had to do the lion’s share of the parenting (including catching Ηη’s puke and cleaning up his now traditional Chania airport pants-shitting). I got the distinct impression she perhaps understandably couldn’t have given even half a shit about my condition. We made it home without major incident but maybe resolved to go somewhere less far away next time.

We went to Eli’s party on Saturday morning. I resented having to go to a random square in Kings Cross where they’d decided to hold it (since they live between the same two perfectly serviceable parks that we do) but I had to concede it was pleasant.

Being on holiday (with almost zero phone/internet time save for writing this) has redoubled our determination to be less stressed at home but we’re not sure how we get there. It’s probably not remotely possible until we know Aila and Johnny are ok. I could certainly do more childcare, because the only stress at my work is largely self-inflicted (cf. being a bit thick). And going to try really hard to stay off this pointless stupid phone.

Reading

• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico – short

Running

• Thursday More Crete