1. Children won't always take direction.
Spent this afternoon looking after three-year-old Ollie. He is one of four very sweet boys, all under eleven, who I regularly babysit. Last week (visions of myself as Maria Von Trapp) I tried to teach him and five-year-old James a song in the bath before bed. Unfortunately, they decided it would be more fun to soak me in bath water instead.
Today, my hopes of encouraging a little music appreciation were raised as Ollie’s mum had bought Disney’s Fantasia for us to watch. I desperately tried pointing out the instruments and asking if he liked the music… but about halfway through the Nutcracker Suite, Ollie declared “I think I don’t want to watch this anymore”. Von Trapp dream fail no. 2.
After the third viewing of replacement-DVD Cars 2, I thought perhaps we could play a game. Ollie choose Kids Articulate, which turned out to be more like 252-card-pick-up. Things were then going quite well until, of course, Mum came back with the three other kids. Ollie went hyper, hugged me head first in the crotch, left a spit mark, stepped away, pointed at it and shouted: “You did a wee!!!” Queue gasp from all four kids and embarrassed mother trying to say I had probably just spilled something…!
Think I'll stay clear of the Von Trapp dream for another decade…
2. Listen to the old and wise.
Maternal Grandma has arrived for the weekend, and with her, Royal Wedding fever. There’s Union Jacks over the fireplace, we spent the evening watching Tom Bradley’s Wills and Kate interview and laughing through Mum and Dad’s old wedding pics...
Grandma quote of the day: “I’m sure William’s the nicer of the two, but somehow Harry’s got more sex appeal! I know which one of the two I’d go for if I was your age!!!” Queue song: Yvonne Fair’s gutsy Motown hit It Should Have Been Me.
3. Catch The Vaudevillains at Charing Cross Theatre, London, before 14th May.
This production certainly fulfilled Les Enfants Terribles Theatre Company's aim to create “original, innovative and exciting theatre”. The mission allows them to incorporate the advanced skills and talent of company members, such as Rachel Dawson’s cello playing (which I remember from school!) She even managed to play in character; the middle triplet of the Siamese sisters joined at the hip! Oliver Lansley not only wrote the words to this entertaining whodunit, but also performed engagingly as The Compere. Another favourite of ours was the schizophrenic Ventriloquist played by Anthony Spargo. Amidst the current arts funding cuts, it's so important to support these fantastic professional companies.
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