Most of Monday was spent panicking. I had to pick up Samantha from school - Samantha is Emma's cousin's daughter. I'd met her a few times but wasn't absolutely sure if I would recognise in a school yard full of 8 year olds.
So there I was, hanging around outside a primary school, trying my best not to look like some shady kiddy-fiddler and waiting for a copper to come along to quiz me
Lawman - could you tell me what you're doing here sir?
Me - errr, yeah - I'm waiting for Samantha
Lawman - and who might Samantha be?
Me - she's my girlfriends, cousins daughter.
Lawman - how old is she?
Me - dunno.
Lawman - What is her surname?
Me - dunno
Lawman - what does she look like?
Me - ermmmm, brown hair, big brown eyes ummm that's about it.
Lawman - come with me please you sick deviant.
Fortunately the copper didn't turn up, and fortunately the other adults waiting didn't form some sort of a militia and skewer me on pitch forks and stuff.
The bell went and kids came streaming from every direction. There were hundreds of the little insects and I knew I was knackered. Fortunately a little girl appeared beside me and piped up "Hello Darren". I must admit she looked a bit like I remembered her, she seemed to know my name and I was in the right school. She'll do! So I put her in the car and started to drive away - still not 100% that this was the girly in question. However after a few moments she asked where Emma was so I decided I had collected the correct child.
Emma came home at around 4.30 and the three of us set off for the Trafford Centre to watch "Shrek" after grabbing some food from McDonalds.
The film was excellent and a trailer was also shown for "Monsters Inc" which will probably be another time when we 'borrow' Samantha to go to the cinema.
Samantha was used to going to bed at 6pm - so when we got her home at about 8pm she was a little tired. We put her to bed and with it being a strange house it took her hours to go to sleep. Poor lamb.
Since I'm still an unemployed bum I was given the task of dropping Samantha off at school the next morning, and since I was up and about I made Emma's sandwiches. After Emma set off I had to brush Samantha's hair and put them into bunches for her before taking her to school. When I dropped her off the playground was deserted which makes me think that perhaps I got her there a little early.
Nothing more to report for Tuesday - lazy day in front of the TV/computer/telephone/book. I managed to finish Gervase Phinn's novel "Over Hill and Dale"
On the Wednesday it was glorious sunshine in Manchester - since this is somewhat of a rarity I seized the opportunity with both hands and went to Dunham Massey park. There I baked in the sun for three hours during which time I hardly saw another soul. I decided to go home at about 3pm as I thought I might burn. Two days later I was still red and burnt. Emma got home late as she had parents evening.
On the Thursday there was nothing going on - the phone hadn't rung "jobwise" for a few days and I was feeling quite down. So I decided to make good use of my time and drink some wine that Jaz had left behind at the weekend. So I drank and watched a couple of movies and then went back to bed at about 3pm. Emma was at the first performance of Gregorys Girl that her school was putting on - so she didn't get home until 9pm.
On Friday evening I would be at Emma's school watching the school production of "Gregorys Girl". It seemed silly for us both to drive there and back in seperate cars so I dropped her off in the morning and then went over to my Mothers house for the day. I pretty much just cabbaged for the day watching the piles of shite that are produced for On-Digital - or Sky, or whatever it is she has.
I arrived to pick up Emma a little after half past three and we went to the most fantastic pub in Oldham. It's called the "Three Crowns" and the food they serve is de-fucking-licious. For starters we had Tiger prawns, chicken, pine nuts and beansprouts wrapped in a tortilla, and pork with sun-dried tomatos wrapped in parma ham. The main courses were a coconut curry and a pasta dish with a side order of onion rings and bahjias with the curry.
The thing that amazed me is that everything was hand made. Usually when you get a side of onion rings you just know they've been poured from a packet into a deep fryer - not these ones! The food was ace...really really good..superb...marvellous. I was impressed. We ate masses and then went back to the school to watch the show.
I ended up sat next to two of Emma's year 10 girls. Sian and Kirsty who seemed nice girls but never shut up!
The performance wasn't exactly comparable to the West End but for a bunch of school kids it was very good. Thoroughly enjoyed myself, and what's more - stayed remarkable sober for a Friday night.
