Half Term Week

Those three words either fill you with a sense of dread and impending doom or excitement, depending probably on how old your children are and whether or not you have the week off with them.

I try and take two half term weeks off, I was determined right from Nathalie's first day at school that I wouldn't be one of those Dad's who only noticed his child's growing up through the family photo album. As she's got older though half term has meant less time with Mum and Dad and more time with friends, but I guess that's always been the way. Next week for instance she's got shopping trips lined up on two days and skiing on another, so that leaves the weekend and two days for doing family stuff.

The last half term, back in the spring, we went shopping one day and came back with nothing, apart from full stomachs after a lunch in an Italian Restaurant, as one of my clients said to me a lot of Dad's would take that everytime. The day's of trips to Longleat or Paultons Park are behind us now I think but the New Forest and the beach are free and if it rains there's always the cinema or we could just stay in and 'bond' - which will probably mean she's upstairs listening to CD's and I'm on the computer or in the garden.

I think I've mentioned that we've got into reading too each other recently, I thought that it might be a good idea to let her experience some of the classics, so we started with Heart of Darkness. It's not a long book but some of the passages of dialogue and exposition are quite long, I was interested to see whether she'd enjoy it and understand it. Fortunately she has, the funny thing though is that she hasn't mentioned the fact that Conrad uses the 'n' word in describing the natives of the Congo - I'm not sure what to make of that. Next up is 'Three Men In A Boat' when I told this to a well read Art graduate I know, she said she'd never heard of it - one man's classic is another's blank expression.

As Peter Gabriel once wrote "Time goes by, it's the time of your lives," and the speed at which girls grow up compared to boys is staggering. I went shopping into town with her one Saturday afternoon and became very aware of how many men were looking at her, not boys, but men - she looks older than 12 as regulars have noticed in her photographs - but still not sixteen or over. Whatever we do we'll have a great time and by a week or Monday I'll be ready for work again - physically refreshed and fiscally worse off.