Tuesday 27th of July 1999
On Sunday we went to Alexandra Palace with Emma for a picnic, and two of her friends were there. We got there at around 3:30 in the afternoon, and about an hour later it started raining! So we went for a drink outside the palace’s pub (by the time we got there the rain had stopped), enjoying the view of London. You dutifully knocked over my 1/2 pint of cider, which I had only had a sip of, and my leg and your dad’s were soaking wet!
On the previous Friday, my friend Angela came over (she’d been in Australia, travelling for a year) and we went out for a couple of hours, while R. looked after you. We bumped into Richard, outside the Tappit, in Holloway Road, chatted with him for a while. We’ve known him since the first year, and I had a disastrous fling for about 6 months with him, also in the first year. We came back home at around 10 (Angela and I), and bought a few drinks on the way over. We had an Indian for dinner, and you woke up, so we brought you to the room upstairs to play for a while. Next thing I know, Tony came back home and joined us and then Francis and his girlfriend Mary… We had a mini party until about 2 in the morning. You were loving it and being very friendly, but I finally managed to make you sleep at 1… I think you are going to be a party animal, just like your parents used to be before you were born!!!
On Sunday morning I had a flash of an idea (which I had before but never did anything about it because everything I suggest your father always thinks it’s too much hassle). I thought we should sleep upstairs and have the computers, tv, stereo down here in the big bedroom. The way it was R.’s computer was upstairs, mine was down here together with the telly, stereo and bed. So, whenever you slept at night the telly would be on, we’d have to tiptoe around you and using the computer was a nightmare! As we went out on Sunday afternoon I could not start my master plan. But I had a chat with R. and he said that we could do it at some point (which in his dictionary means NEVER).
So, on Monday, after he went to work, I started moving things around. When he got home at lunchtime, the bookshelf from upstairs was down here, and the cot was in the middle of the room. He then helped me take your cot upstairs. In the afternoon, R. went back to work, and I moved the wardrobe to a corner of the room and put the telly on the bookshelf with the stereo on top. It looked better already. When R. got home he got into the spirit and started moving everything around. After about 3 hours we had moved everything. So last night we put you to sleep upstairs and relaxed down here. It was sooo nice! When you woke up I just went upstairs and breastfed you and then came down again. As I am very scared that you might fall off the bed (you did once and even though the bed is only about 20 cm high it’s still not a nice experience) and tied one of your legs to the bed base. Ray, jokingly but also seriously, said the NSPCC would do me for that, but having you fall off the bed is much more cruel I think?! You didn’t seem to mind and I was checking on you every 15 minutes to make sure you hadn’t woken up and wasn’t upset, even though I can hear you from here! Anyway, tonight you are sleeping on your Rolls Royce and that has straps so you are safer.
You are lovelier everyday and babbling more and more. I think you’ll talk non-stop once you master the skill. Some baby was on the news today, he was 3 months old and his parents were feeding him liquidized grown up food (potatoes and god knows what) as a cheaper alternative to baby food. As a result the poor little thing died of salt poisoning! No one told the couple (or they didn’t read enough) that babies cannot cope with salt (but I never knew it could kill babies!), plus I though babies should start on solids only after 4 months and this baby was 3 months old only! So I don’t know whether to feel sorry for the parents or to think they were stupid for not knowing enough (you don’t need money to know these things as the hospital gives free guides to the basics of looking after a baby). How crazy!
Tomorrow is Angela’s birthday and I might go out for a meal with her and Amy and Reuben and some other people. She’s only 22 years old! We are meant to go to Cornwall for the eclipse on the 11th and camp on Sean’s dad’s land. But Francis said that to go on the day before means spending about 15 hours travelling (as about 4 million people will be going down to watch and there is only one road to get in the place). So they are planning on going on the Sunday night, travelling all night and getting there on Monday morning, that way the journey will only take 6 hours. We are in a bit of a predicament. If we go on Sunday that means camping and living rough until Wednesday, and leaving on that day will also be a nightmare. I’m not feeling too sure about camping with you for that long especially when it comes to getting hot water for your food and what if it rains? And we wouldn’t be able to wash you properly. Maybe we can stay at Bab’s mum’s house (still to be sorted) and in that case it should be much easier and then we might go. But then R. has a job interview tomorrow and if he gets the job he might have to work those days, so there’s another obstacle. So for now we’re just hanging on to see what happens. Hopefully R.’s job won’t start until after that week, we will be able to stay in the house, and the world won’t end during the eclipse! What a great year, end of millennium, it’s all happening, it’s all going mad! And we’re in the middle of it all. Night night for now.