Monday: The library is closed
Sep. 26th, 2006 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheWe managed to get up on Monday morning, though Rob was late because I was hurt and needed time to get upright and full of painkillers and so on. He went to work and I sat around unable to think how to cope. Only one thing was essential - returning the almost unwatched Balamory video to the library. So I got all three of us dressed and clean-bottomed and we walked to the library. It's something like half a mile, so that's not a trivial endeavour with a buggy the size of a Hummer and a two-year-old with the turning circle of one.
The library only opens from 2 pm on a Monday. I couldn't check this before leaving the house, of course, because we had no connectivity over the weekend for dreary reasons. So I mollified Linnea by promising her that we'd get the bus into town and go to the big library, which we did. First we went to the shopping centre, where we found a bookshop, a cafe where no-one had any idea what was in any of the food, and a Spud-U-Like. We had tuna and tato, therefore, and then walked past the machines that do things - ride-on helicopter, Barney the bloody Dinosaur, a car I recognise from telly, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Linnea wanted a go, and I knew I had one fifty pence piece left in my purse (and a twopence, and a penny) so I said she could as soon as I'd changed Emer.
Into the changing room, change Emer, feed both, give Linnea her 50p and head out to the machines. She wanted to go in the helicopter, so up she hopped and I said "Did you put the money in?"
"Oh yes!" she said, and put it in.
Nothing.
I leaned over to see what was wrong. The helicopter, it turns out, is the only toy on the row that needs a pound to work, and it doesn't offer change. I pushed the coin return button. Nothing. No change means no coin return either.
Linnea took it very well - I explained I had no more money but I would get some later and she could go on the Thomas in Mothercare. So she played for a while on the other toys, occasionally telling me that they don't go, and we headed off to the library via a couple of banks to find an ATM that would give me money.
At the library I used the self-service machine to return Rob's books, Linnea's books, and my own books. That was simple enough. Then I read Linnea a few stories and we took a book each out - Linnea left the library under prtest and with bribery - and we went to Mothercare, where the Thomas the Tank Engine ride appeared not to work. The plug socket had been turned off, at the wall. That was easily fixed, and then she was content.
We went home after that, on the bus, and had a few arguments because Linnea was hot and tired and I was tired and achey. But we got here. Linnea settled in front of the dreaded telly again, and I found that connectivity had returned, so I sat in front of a computer with Emer at the breast and read and read and read.
And found that John M. Ford is dead. Didn't know him. I know someone who loved him, and I am deeply saddened by her loss.
In the evening I did budget things, read more Ford tributes, sorted Linnea's outgrown clothes by size, found more nappy wraps for Emer, and spent some time hugging Rob.
The library only opens from 2 pm on a Monday. I couldn't check this before leaving the house, of course, because we had no connectivity over the weekend for dreary reasons. So I mollified Linnea by promising her that we'd get the bus into town and go to the big library, which we did. First we went to the shopping centre, where we found a bookshop, a cafe where no-one had any idea what was in any of the food, and a Spud-U-Like. We had tuna and tato, therefore, and then walked past the machines that do things - ride-on helicopter, Barney the bloody Dinosaur, a car I recognise from telly, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Linnea wanted a go, and I knew I had one fifty pence piece left in my purse (and a twopence, and a penny) so I said she could as soon as I'd changed Emer.
Into the changing room, change Emer, feed both, give Linnea her 50p and head out to the machines. She wanted to go in the helicopter, so up she hopped and I said "Did you put the money in?"
"Oh yes!" she said, and put it in.
Nothing.
I leaned over to see what was wrong. The helicopter, it turns out, is the only toy on the row that needs a pound to work, and it doesn't offer change. I pushed the coin return button. Nothing. No change means no coin return either.
Linnea took it very well - I explained I had no more money but I would get some later and she could go on the Thomas in Mothercare. So she played for a while on the other toys, occasionally telling me that they don't go, and we headed off to the library via a couple of banks to find an ATM that would give me money.
At the library I used the self-service machine to return Rob's books, Linnea's books, and my own books. That was simple enough. Then I read Linnea a few stories and we took a book each out - Linnea left the library under prtest and with bribery - and we went to Mothercare, where the Thomas the Tank Engine ride appeared not to work. The plug socket had been turned off, at the wall. That was easily fixed, and then she was content.
We went home after that, on the bus, and had a few arguments because Linnea was hot and tired and I was tired and achey. But we got here. Linnea settled in front of the dreaded telly again, and I found that connectivity had returned, so I sat in front of a computer with Emer at the breast and read and read and read.
And found that John M. Ford is dead. Didn't know him. I know someone who loved him, and I am deeply saddened by her loss.
In the evening I did budget things, read more Ford tributes, sorted Linnea's outgrown clothes by size, found more nappy wraps for Emer, and spent some time hugging Rob.