Half-Term 2019

Daughter: Ok, 1) Yes, I’m going to Uni in September. Ask no questions and you won’t be disappointed by the absence of answers. Information will be given on a strictly need to know basis. 2) The mice are back, I can hear them in the skirting board so we need a cat as in now. Do not get another cat that looks like a grown man. Do not bring a clinically depressed, emotionally unstable or comatose creature into this house. I’ll need to be able to train the thing to hold a weapon and no, Battersea animal shelter cannot email the cat to you nor will it be able to read a map and make its own way here so you’ll need to be proactive. 3) I’d like a cup of hot chocolate for dinner please…

Me: Hot chocolate isn’t food…

Daughter: It is…if I eat it…with a fork…

 

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Last Day in Malaga

She’ll be making her way home from Uni as I watch the sun fade over Torre del Mar…I check in via email since she’s SIM card – free and has been for a long long while…(a daughter’s creatively cruel, utterly absurd and potent act of rebellion)…

I try in vain to keep things short and sugar-free … 

Me: Hope everything’s fine @home & Uni. Did you say sweets &hot chocolate from Spain? 😊xxX
Daughter: And clothes. No need for kisses. Stop that.
Me: X X x x x x x x xX x x x x x x
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UCAS 2019

Me: So what are your thoughts regarding university?

Daughter: Don’t have any..

Me: What?

Daughter: Thoughts..

Me: I’m serious. LCC – UAL?

Daughter: What is that? Some kind of cryptic fucking morse code?

Me: Stop being silly. Where would you like to study?

Daughter: Beijing

 

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OK

A parcel from Amazon addressed to her…So quickly it happens, the transition from child to adult, an assertion of one’s right to privacy… 

Me: Anything exciting?

Daughter: Ammunition

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Wet Wet Wet

She’s off to meet a friend in heavy autumn rain…I offer her shelter from the storm….

Daughter: I have dark circles under my eyes. Do I look like the kind of person who would use an umbrella with love-hearts on it?

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An Unexpected Incident

Daughter: Something happened today

Could be a mother-daughter moment. She has my full attention…

Daughter: My heart stopped then started again on the no.59 bus. Then my leg rotated 360 degrees without my knowing until someone told me I was walking backwards and forwards at the same time.

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