I then had to rush off to the Royal College of Art for a MapMaking rehearsal. Hackney and Kensington are not, what would you say? Local? So GSMD was kind enough to hire me a taxi to cart my bass and me. I love riding in taxis. I really do. My driver was a man from Guinea Bissou and we had a good talk about what a nice area Stoke Newington was and what it is like to live in a foreign country and how there are a lot of different Portuguese accents out there. We managed to get stuck near by Buckingham Palace because of the changing of the guard. I really want to watch that at some point now. I mean, now that I've got stuck behind it. (Side note: I got stuck near Buckingham Palace in my Taxi. I live in London. How totally awesome is my life?)
I managed to get into the RCA right in time for everyone to break for lunch. So instead of standing around I took that opportunity to go visit my tykes. Want to know why? Because they're super cute. Also? Because today was International Day!
International day is both awesome and a nightmare. All the parents bring buckets and buckets of food from their respective countries (America was representing with some brownies) and the kids show up in their native costume. The tykes get super wound up, are roped off so that the parents can't actually get to them, and then melt down. It looks like a total hassle. Albeit an exciting hassle.
I eventually managed to push my way through the crush of parents and slip into the roped off tykes area where one of the reception teachers got her class to start chanting "Miss Casey, Miss Casey" which I totally dug.
A. was wearing a pink princess dress.
"Where are you from, sweetie? Princessland?"
"Yes, I am the Queen of Princessland! Kiss my ring."
Indeed.
Green class nursery was melting down by the time I got there and since I was there I was asked if I could help corral the tykes past the swarm of parents and back in to the building. I ended up with five of the squirrely ones including both N and J (remember them? From the Old McDonald special instrumental lesson?) J kept wandering into the barbecue enclosure but I managed to get all of them into the classroom without losing a child. Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.
In order to keep entertained I applauded hopping on one foot efforts. Also jumping *so high* in to the air. These kids have mad skills. Eventually I decided that reading them a book would be a good idea, so J went and picked one out. Darling child that he is, he ended up with a barnyard animal version of "The Wheels on the Bus" which was brilliant because it meant that I could sing the book to them.
We all sat on the floor in a big pig pile and when the rest of the class finally arrived (they thought they had lost J and were looking for him) I had a crowd of tykes making oinking sounds and singing along. I felt like when Mommy's co-worker came over when Laine and I were babies and we were all freshly cleaned and quiet and there was a homemade apple pie baking: one of those confluence of perfectnesses (that totally IS a word) that makes you look especially good.
So yeah. MapMaking was fine, whatever. The important thing here is that I saw a number of children that, for some reason, had giant yarn balls on their heads. What country could that be for?
Green class nursery was melting down by the time I got there and since I was there I was asked if I could help corral the tykes past the swarm of parents and back in to the building. I ended up with five of the squirrely ones including both N and J (remember them? From the Old McDonald special instrumental lesson?) J kept wandering into the barbecue enclosure but I managed to get all of them into the classroom without losing a child. Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.
In order to keep entertained I applauded hopping on one foot efforts. Also jumping *so high* in to the air. These kids have mad skills. Eventually I decided that reading them a book would be a good idea, so J went and picked one out. Darling child that he is, he ended up with a barnyard animal version of "The Wheels on the Bus" which was brilliant because it meant that I could sing the book to them.
We all sat on the floor in a big pig pile and when the rest of the class finally arrived (they thought they had lost J and were looking for him) I had a crowd of tykes making oinking sounds and singing along. I felt like when Mommy's co-worker came over when Laine and I were babies and we were all freshly cleaned and quiet and there was a homemade apple pie baking: one of those confluence of perfectnesses (that totally IS a word) that makes you look especially good.
So yeah. MapMaking was fine, whatever. The important thing here is that I saw a number of children that, for some reason, had giant yarn balls on their heads. What country could that be for?
1 comment:
How quickly were you able to stop laughing at the Queen of Princessland?
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