45 minutes here and there


Today was La Serpiente’s first day back at school after her bout of food poisoning. The haze has cleared, so instead of having to put her in a taxi I stuck her on my shoulders and carried her down to the bus stop, and then had to juggle two year old, two year old’s backpack, my gym bag and my bus pass as I clambered on.

Several people took pity on me and offered their seats, but I assumed that getting La Serpiente down and then picking her up would be more trouble than that was worth, but then another parent from our school offered a seat next to her daughter, Aoi. So then I put La Serpiente down and the two little girls chattered and took turns at pointing out the window, while I made vague conversation.

When we got off the bus, Aoi ran off with her mother whereas La Serpiente demanded to be carried everywhere. Once we’d crossed the road by the bakery and begun to make out way down the back alley to the school, La Serpiente relented and hopped down. Then she and Aoi joined hands and walked together all the way to school, while I followed with Aoi’s mother and marvelled at the cuteness. La Serpiente was so happy that when we got to the door of the school, she rushed inside without saying goodbye, whereas every other time I’ve dropped her off she’s clung to me and howled that she wants her mother. So I guess that’s an improvement.

After that, anything for the rest of the day would be a letdown. I took the bus back to the centre of town and spent three hours staring at spreadsheets before going to my weekly spin class and dripping sweat all over the floor for 45 minutes. Then back for more spreadsheet action. I really begin to wish that I was two years old again, so there would be more novelty to my life. Or at least I’d get to wear a fun school uniform.

Well, I suppose I can still do that, I’d just get people looking funny at me.

This evening, I read La Serpiente her bedtime stories, and then spent half an hour trying to get her to sleep, and then gave up and had my wife take over, and then, when I realised I hadn’t heard from either of them for 45 minutes, went back to find that they were both asleep. Then I had to lever my wife off the floor and get her out the room, before returning to my Thursday night of watching poor quality television on the internet and languidly playing with my fake farm. This is my life, and it’s ending 45 minutes at a time, apparently.


Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.