Normalisation Begins

So the Slimms they have departed.

I can't remember what we did on Sunday... it may have involved Anne buying some shoes for Eloise, an activity from which I excused myself; then a quiet afternoon tending our aching bones, which weren't actually aching too badly.

Nicole had a day with the Slimms while I was at college and Eloise at Nursery and they spent it around the house, sleeping, would you believe. Shocking.

On Tuesday, after music, we did the Airport Run and dropped them off there after the obligatory cup of coffee, a parting at which emotions didn't run as high as they might have done potentially. Still it was sad, in a way, to see them go; they were good house guests.

Then the process of normalisation began as we returned to a very quiet house, and fell asleep.

I went into the city to do an assignment, which was to photograph the changing light as the sun set behind me and I looked at the city. When I left Eloise was still asleep.

I started at 4.30 and around 4.35 a splash in the river caught me by surprise. It sounded somewhat like a stone and when I turned around Will - one of my fellow students - was waving at me from the spot he'd chosen about fifty feet above me.

We had a shouted conversation in which I berated myself for choosing to shoot from the boardwalk, which wobbled every time someone jogged or cycled by.

But I was vindicated when Will was ejected by a security guard,

I finished when darkness was complete and returned home about 7 o'clock to find that Eloise had slept until 5 and wasn't even remotely tired.

In fact it took until 10 o'clock to get her to go to sleep.