Saturday 16th February

Saturday 16^th February

An especially salubrious day…

First of all, it is Michael Sasser’s birthday – my last-born child, and only son.  I am so very proud of him… He has changed so much from the timid little blossom, frightened of the screaming clouds of the fireworks display.  He has battled his way through life thus far, having large amounts of fun but also confronting large obstacles.  School was almost totally irrelevant to him – he lived for Recess and Lunch, at which he excelled… But…he is now a staunch advocate of education, and says that when he has children he will tell them that…school is important!  As far as he was concerned however, he lived, as he has since told me, in a world of strong imagination, where the teachers were dim shadowy creatures on the outskirts of his imaginings.  I won’t go into his life story but I can now reveal, I think, that he will be going to – well maybe I shouldn’t say yet; the Defence forces are very secretive - in early April… He is THRILLED at the prospect – me, not so much…but Michael is 32 and in charge of his own destiny.

And secondly – it is Eva Kate Thomas’s birthday.  You couldn’t hope for a more delightful mermaid fairy princess of a five year old.  I am so very proud of her as well; she is kind, loving, funny and clever and it is a joy to spend time with her.  She absolutely loves school – the teachers, the environment, the other children, and, especially, the possibility of wearing school uniform and following RULES five days per fortnight!  Oh the bliss!

India #87

Pete and I had a cunning plan for the rest of our last IndianDay day.  We would go back to the Club around three and spent some refreshing few hours in the swimming pool before retreating to a cool place to drink Kingfisher.  We arrived back at the correct time, both looking like Mr Tomatohead, after a very long hot trip in a taxi with a driver who was in a very bad mood and who spoke no English at all.  But…the best laid plans… The pool was CLOSED from 3-6.  Oh dear and oh no… Never mind; we discovered that the pool showers were unlocked so we slipped silently through and spent some happy minutes getting clean and relatively refreshed.  I don’t know what the men’s shower was like, but the women’s was very cramped, with the shower directly above the toilet.  I managed, with much delicate manoeuvre around the tiny space, to wash my hair and have a fairly satisfactory shower while balancing my bag as far out of reach of the water as possible.  NOT as nice as a long cool swim but never mind!

         

Once we were clean and restored to a more normal facial colour (pink instead of bright red) Pete and I were able to settle at a little bar in the middle of the club to drink a few very welcome bottles of Kingfisher.  Mary had already told us that the children at the Club were quite different to other children we had met and observed in India.  (Well except for the bratty children Pete and I saw in Jaipur at the Chokkidani Resort.)  She had been a bit shocked to find that middle class children in India are often whingey-whiney, demanding, rude. 

         

While I was waiting for Pete at the bar, I idly observed an attractive young mother with her two boys, about 6 and 8 years old.  She was saying, in long-suffering tones laced with sarcasm, “Do you two have any idea how SICK I AM OF THE BOTH OF YOU?”  They sensibly ignored this and said, in horribly whiney voices, “We want chocolate!  We want coca-cola!”  She gave in and bought them everything, rolling her eyes in defeat.  I wasn’t very impressed, and thought, well what an unpleasant young woman you are, you probably never have more than two minutes alone with your children and now you are with them at the Club without nannies it is all too much to bear.  But ofcourse I was being too judgemental.  A few minutes later she came and sat on a stool near me, and started talking to me in a very friendly, charming way.  She spoke perfect English, and had lived in Sydney and in New York.  And yes her boys were a bit painful and were giving her a hard time, but she was coping as best she could.