12Oct07 - Them & They

Dawn dropped Joshua off this morning at school for his first ever school trip to Cumbria where he will be caving, canoeing, abseiling and other exciting activities. He will be away all weekend and it will be strange not having him around but I am sure he will enjoy every minute. Dawn had most of the day on her own with Lucy and took her into town this afternoon for a spot of shopping. After wandering around town Dawn decided to feed Lucy in the Asda cafe. She was unfortunate to experience a couple of uncomfortable mainstream moments. It is a given now that whenever you feed Lucy in public that you become a side show attraction but every so often the spectators just can't help themselves. Dawn picked up on an elderly couple who could not keep their eyes off Lucy but she ignored it because it happens all the time. Dawn copes with this much better than I do. However without any warning the couple appeared at the side of her with sympathetic looks on their faces. You could not have made up what they said. With smiles on their faces they said looking at Lucy, "Oooh they are lovely, we do like them". What a classic!! I had to laugh because it could be a line from any alternative comedy sketch and I am pretty sure the couple had no idea how offensive "they" were being. They probably thought they were being nice. Its funny that we were only talking about people using the words "them" and "they" last week with one of Dawn's friends. She recently had a similar situation while out and about with someone who mentioned that "You see more of "them" about these days don't you?". Another classic line straight out of the comedy writers script book. It is actually quite funny when you think what people say without thinking about what they are saying. It is hilarious swapping stories like this between ourselves but never so funny hearing it first hand. I wish I had made a note of all the quotes because they would make a funny blog. Any way the next thing that happened was a young mother with an 8 week old baby walked into the cafe and chose to sit opposite Dawn on the same table even though there was plenty of room elsewhere. She proceeded to feed the baby who took his bottle easily with minimum effort. Dawn on the other hand was doing battle with Lucy, getting covered in second hand food particles and struggling to hold on to Lucy because she was pushing back and arching. It is times like these that the reality of the situation smacks you in the face. The next thing the mother is on the phone but suddenly breaks off the conversation saying that the baby has been sick everywhere. Of course Dawn had a quick look only to see the mother wiping around the babies mouth and the only sick to be seen is a tiny patch on the mother's shirt about the size of a 50p coin. What a tradgedy!! I know that Lucy never had the monopoly on vomitting but not very long ago I can remember sitting in a crowd of people watching a show at Legoland with sick running down my shirt, inside my shorts, pools of sick in the creases of my clothes and Joshua handing me wet wipes to scoop it up. Sitting in the Asda cafe forced to share feeding where such a big drama to a normal mother highlights how drastically different life actually is.

On the way home Dawn and Lucy called at her friend Sam's house to drop something off and ended up staying for chat. Lucy played with Bethany and Eloise but soon got tired and fell asleep where she sat.
We all arrived home about the same time. Dawn had bought everything to make a roast lamb dinner. It is rare that Dawn cooks but when she does she does it in style.