Today I did not leave the house

One of the nice things about being in Florence is it’s such a walkable city. But today was an absolute hect of a day, and I didn’t end up leaving the house at all. It was raining, which made that a technically acceptable choice, but I always feel a bit trapped and thwarted when I don’t get out into the fresh air at all.

Also I prefer to let Laser Fraser get some outdoor vista and grass time every day, so she doesn’t end up myopic and dirt-averse. According to my friend who’s a Knowing Things Guy (I think the technical term is paediatric specialist, but I’m not going to boost his ego with correct terminology), short sightedness increases the less time a kid spends outdoors. (Also you’re meant to make them gnaw tough things so their skulls grow and support their eyeballs to be the right shape? There’s data! I can’t really interpret it because I’m not a doctor! The abstract of the paper seems like it makes sense sort of! The upshot is I’m going to feed my baby stale bread and feel good about it!)

Things I needed to do:

• Physio appointment at 7am
• News Quiz Writers Meeting at 10am
• Tea With Alice Salon
• News Quiz Writing
• Gargle Writing
• Gargle Recording
• Some Phone Calls

Things that would have been handy in pursuit of those aims.

• The babysitter I’d booked
• Enough sleep
• A chilled out baby what wasn’t in the middle of what they call a Cognitive Leap, and I call “suddenly the crankiest little tyrant” or “who stole my nice baby and replaced it with this adventurous and adorable person with the shortest fuse I’ve ever met”
• Gargle cohosts that were neither Vomiting nor Drunk (not the same cohost). The vomiting was a migraine. I think the drunk could have been funny, but in combination with the vomiting, meant that we ended up putting the recording off to tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s been a long day. The salon was a lovely reprieve from maximum juggling and heavy brain work. Tomorrow I’ll go for a long walk somewhere and make my baby practice her thousand yard stare. Even if it’s raining.

(She doesn’t know you’re meant to hide from the rain, so I quite enjoy a rain walk with her strapped onto my front like a little Krang. She also doesn’t know that snails don’t say wom wom wom because that’s what they say in all her books when I read them, and this is a gift slash time release joke that I’m planting in her childhood that will bear fruit much later down the line).

Xx

A

I’ll be running a Writers Meeting on Sunday at 1pm London Time (or your local equivalent.) I will send through the link for ALL LEVELS soon.