The Boy Wonder had got himself up onto the base of this sculpted tree with no real difficulty, but apparently getting down again required grandparental assistance. Sometimes I think he just wants to make sure we’re not slacking.
Despite being ordered around quite a bit, we had the best imaginable day with B – he was full of mischief and giggles, but when I hit a post-viral trough towards the end of the afternoon and had to go and sit quietly on the sofa, he came and gave me lots of hugs and snotty kisses, which cheered me up no end. In the fortnight since we saw him last he’s acquired several new words, and now tends to chatter and sing to himself while he’s not interacting with the grown-ups, which is charming. He still tries to get squirrels to come to him in the park by offering them various tree fruits, and either chittering at them or calling -“Nu’!! Ninner!!” – but when that fails he’s perfectly happy simply to run after them yelling “YAY!!”, and chase them up trees.
Memo to self: start the respect for wildlife lessons asap.
Re yesterday’s chaos in Government: The PM survived until lunch time, then, after a meeting with the Chair of the 1922 Committee of back-bench MPs, resigned. The ’22 spent much of the rest of the day trying to stitch up the contest to replace her so that both Boris Johnson and the wider Party membership are excluded from having any part in it. I keep finding myself mentally misquoting Oscar Wilde – “You’d need a heart of stone not to laugh” – and then remembering that however sardonic my natural demeanour might be, our stricken country is governed by this coalition of clowns, and millions of people are currently terrified at the thought of what may lie ahead. Whether we deserve better is arguable, but we unquestionably need it.
