The battle of who could care less - In the name of Thiago - Day 131

Well perhaps that is a slightly misleading blog title and more than just a tad motivated by shoehorning 1990s song titles on here but it was a sufficiently fair reflection of how I felt shortly before 2 this afternoon even if I did get back on an even keel later on.

The battle I’m referring to was surprisingly not between my Dad and I, nope this was a horrendous mismatch between myself and a far too smart (for her own good and certainly mine), 11-year-old girl. On reflection, I never stood a chance.  

Elisa’s days start with the notional concept of waking up at 8.30. I said to her this morning that she needed to get in to some sort of functioning routine and without hesitation she responded that she already had one. It involves hitting the snooze button, followed by the off button and more blissful sleep. Outstanding response I thought.

On the days that Elisa does get up after an awful lot of ‘encouragement’, this image is often the second stage of the great act that she often insists on indulging in. It is quite hard to get much more out of her than, ‘I’m tired’ and then it’s down to me on how I want to play things out. She is sure to let me know in her inimitable fashion that I’ll need to have all my powers of perseverance to emerge victorious.

This is a challenge on a non-working day but when I’ve got plenty to be getting on with, well you probably get the picture. Today she eventually woke from her slumbers at midday, giving her a half hour’s grace before her cello lesson which she grudgingly logged into remotely through my phone.

Then after a fairly paltry lunch for both of us, I explained that I had a video call with my work colleagues I had to join. I got her set up for her afternoon’s work and wandered back to my make do work space. And then halfway through, she walks up and gives me a hug. What outrageous behaviour I thought as this simply never happens in our normal lives. And now everyone I work with probably thinks she’s a little angel. Oh, the irony!

The picture above is of a maths worksheets that Elisa finished off yesterday or at least nearly finished off. As you can see from the answer given to question 7 she is nothing if not disarmingly honest. I had to laugh, which I suppose is half the problem.

I am going to do a 12-14 mile walk on Saturday as I need to get back into the swing of things as regrettably the training for this 300 mile walk in the autumn isn’t going to do itself. I’ll be doing this alone of course and hope to get cracking fairly early so I still get some time with my girls later in the day. Then on Sunday I’m going to play tennis with my Brazilian friend Leo.

Before then though it’s yoga time and this means breaking out my mum’s birthday present, a full on fucking mat this. Christ it even comes in a bag. This is getting serious now!

Have a very pleasant evening all of you, I hear that the weather will be warming up again soon, which means I must keep to a promise and get Elisa’s tent up in the garden tomorrow. In the meantime do keep the donations flowing, or at least dribbling in. Fundraising in the current climate, Corporal Tom aside, is far from easy!