Late night showdown in the biscuit aisle


At ten this evening I realised we were out of milk and La Serpiente was going to have conniptions at breakfast if she didn’t get any cow juice. So I schlepped down to the supermarket. Never before in my life did I truly appreciate the majesty that is the twenty-four hour supermarket. Such things existed when I was a student, back in England, but they would shut at ten pm on Saturday night to give the shelves time to sleep, or some such. The supermarket here really is 24-7

There’s some things that aren’t available late at night. There are no bananas, for a start. I assume this is because the late night customers don’t care for potassium rich fruit and want something less healthy. If it’s that magic time between ten and ten thirty, then there will be no bananas but it will still be early enough to buy Strong Beer For Strong Men. Which is ironic, as bananas are meant to assist recovery from a hangover.

I got the milk (dairy is there all day every day) then went to the biscuits aisle, where I met a boy who looked slightly younger than La Serpiente Aquatica Negra, carrying a packet of biscuits slightly longer than his torso. I hate to be judgmental about other people’s parenting decisions, but I don’t understand why it’s a good idea to bring a very small child to a supermarket late at night. I tried to not look judgmental. He smiled at me, and wandered away, biscuits in hand, with what I assume was his father.

But perhaps I’m bring too hasty, and he was just jet lagged.

I walked home, sans biscuits, and heard small children screaming on the playground. At 10:45 in the p.m. Really, shouldn’t they be in bed by now?

La Serpiente was in bed. She’d woken up at 10, an all-time record for her, but had gone down again in less than five minutes. I hope this isn’t a sign of a foreshortened sleep cycle. Last night she woke every three hours, and I was a busted flush this morning. I hope. I really hope. Isn’t that the definition of doing the same thing and expecting different results?


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