6756/19676
We took the kids to Wagamamas for an early lunch and after all this time just being able to do this felt like magic. We've all been in prison and now we've on day release and the world seems a beautiful place (as long as you ignore all the bad stuff). The countryside looked so lush that the greenness almost seemed sarcastic. We went back to the funfair in Harpenden because Phoebe was keen to return and Ernie was sad he'd missed out.
I attempted to win a big unicorn for my daughter by knocking down some tin cans. The lady at the stall had been honest enough to tell my daughter that she wouldn't be able to do it herself, but when I stepped up she seemed equally dubious, like she didn't want my two pounds. Perhaps she felt bad about seeing a father lose his hero status in front of his children. I had a go anyway and managed to totally miss the cans with my first two shots, even though I was only about a metre away. But the balls were soft and the cans were hard and though I knocked some over with the third ball, none of them left the stand (and they all had to be right off their shelf to win the prize). The stall holder had been right. But I appreciated her initial honesty so much that I was happy that she had two pounds from me and I'd lost the last vestige of respect that my kids had for me. Even my wife looked at me with the mote fallen from her eyes, instantly regretting her foolishness about being taken in by me for the last 13 years. "I don't understand how you missed," she said. "You were so close."
We've had a good run. I'll just quietly move on and no one need ever mention me again.
I took the kids on the crazy house, which produced more tears than laughter. And that was just from me! I was 28 years old. And after a really fun turn on the bubble bumper cars we sat in the sun and ate ice cream (I resisted the treat, but ate most of my son's uneaten one as I was taking it to the bin). After that we sat and watched three overs of a village cricket match. It was all rather idyllic and the afternoon was so pleasant that it almost made us consider moving to Harpenden, even though we remembered how awful every single person who lives there is - it's where God puts all the most selfish posh people in the world as a kind of purgatory. It does have a nice feeling of being half village and half town though. Oh no, are we the kind of idiot who is imprisoned here by God's Holy Will?
We have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to family days out, but this was a very good start.
