Bright Star

There's a daycare place here for the kids of employees called bright stars or far horizons or something like that. We thought that Jack could do with some socialising (as all his attempts in the park have so far been rebuffed) and that S and I could do with some time together. So we booked Jack in for an afternoon. We had already checked out the centre and it looked great. The room Jack would be in had lots of good stuff to play with and some days they strip the babies down to nappies and let them go wild with paint. S thought that sounded great and I think he'd like to do it too (except without the nappy).
So we dropped Jack off about 1pm but were there for awhile filling in forms (favourite food, name of dog etc) and helping him settle in. They seemed surprised that he wanted to hop up on 2 chairs stacked on top of each other and on top of the table (it was very low) while another little girl had her lunch. They said, "Oh is he a bit of a climber?" but they didn't really look delighted. But he seemed pretty happy and so we decided to go to lunch.
We walked to the village and went to a restaurant that served 'Mediterranean' cuisine. After we sat down the waitress gave the table the old spray and wipe treatment and we thought that didn't bode well. Nothing like the aroma of cleaning fluids to get you hungry, but lunch was good. We had hummus, tzatziki, an eggplant dip and marinated broad beans with hot pita bread and also some char grilled lamb and salad. And we had wine. And we ate at a leisurely pace, not bolting food down so we could wheel our cranky munchkin home to bed. It was lovely, garlicky and relaxing. We decided to forgo the dessert menu and got an ice cream to take to the park instead. Today was really lovely weather. Not hot, but there wasn't the cold wind that's been blowing for the last week.
We picked Jack up just after 5. He was outside in the playground. They had huge tubs with veggies growing and apparently he had been helping with the watering. He'd also been giving the slides a workout.
We walked towards him but got no response. I was expecting a hug or a big smile. Maybe he hadn't seen us? So I walked up to him to give him a hug and say hello and I got a "talk to the hand cause the face ain't listening" wave of the hand and he turned away. oh dear. It appeared we were in trouble. So he continued to play and we watched on and got a report on how he'd gone. Quite well but had a teary when he realised we'd left. His little eyes were still a bit red. After a while I was permitted to hold his hand while he slid down the slide but I was not forgiven.
We headed back to the manor for dinner. On the menu tonight was fish & chips with mushy peas. We thought it was worth having a look. It made me think about a book I've just read (A year in the Merde) where an english guy, who is either brave or foolish, tries to introduce his french co-workers to the delights of british cuisine. he gives them steak and kidney pudding, baked potatoes filled with baked beans, carrot cake, stilton and fish and chips. A french guy asks why the english cook their fish in a biscuit and that's all I could think of when we saw tonight's dinner.I won't even describe the peas. We headed back out the door into the village and got a picnic for the park and everyone was happy.Well nearly everyone.