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Taking tram, train and taxi I was home just after 1pm and my wife and baby arrived back from their own jaunt to East Anglia just a few minutes later. What a delight to see their smiling faces. This job is so much more worthwhile when you have people to come home to. Phoebe is having a crack at singing now (and dancing when there is music on) and I had a lot of fun having a rap battle with her. Admittedly the lyrics weren’t quite up to it, “la la la” with the occasional “da da da”, though later she’s make herself laugh by unprompted and unexpectedly working out how to make a hissing sound. This is a really fun time where she’s learning new skills every day and finds the discovery delightful. I fear I will miss a milestone or two when I am out on the road, but the reunions make the parting almost worthwhile.
We went for a walk up to Hyde Park and the pond that I once contemplated pushing my wife into. Now I considered throwing in my baby, though I had to accept that on a cold day like this that that would almost certainly kill her and I wasn’t sure that that would make the joke fly. My wife said she’d kill me if I did it, but I told her I would run away before she could and just leave them behind forever. It would have been a great joke, but sometimes you have to consider the consequences.
Phoebe loved seeing the swans. I was more impressed with a little duck that kept disappearing beneath the water and not emerging for about ten seconds. I don’t know if it found any food, but that was a fun way for it to spend a blustery day. And watching the world go by and singing and hissing at my daughter was a lot of fun for me. We stopped at some swings and Phoebe, unlike her father, has no fear and loved being pushed up as high as I dared (to very high as I have too much fear). We stopped for some sushi and then walked the last mile or so home in the darkness of the early winter evening. Phoebe has a hair clip, but she thinks it’s just a game where we put it in her hair and she takes it out. To be fair, it is quite a good game. Occasionally she forgets it in there for a while. Occasionally I put it in my hair to show her how it’s done. Occasionally I forget it’s in there for a while, which could have hilarious sitcom consequences if I only had a job where that sort of thing mattered or a boss that I needed to impress. Mind you I wouldn’t want to work for anyone who didn’t think a 48 year old man with a baby’s bow in his hair wasn’t entirely adorable. And I never will. This is why I love working for myself.
Oh and we walked past Norman Lamont in the park, his eyebrows now white, but still instantly recognisable and badger-like. Quite tiny and the second member of Thatcher's cabinet that I have encountered in two months. The Normans are doing the best out of the rapidly depleting number, with Tebbit still going as well. It was odd to see Lamont walking alone in the park and weirdly symbolic of his relative powerlessness. I have had the opportunity to murder three prominent conservatives in the last year and haven't killed a single one of them (directly). I must be growing up.
