Started organising paperwork for the UK tax return, took Katie and X, (a school friend of Katie’s) for muffins at a cafe and then to Blackheath Beach (http://www.conservatoire.org.uk/…/The-OnBlackheath-Beach-Op…) for a sand sculpting workshop. On the way home, I stopped to collect the linocut prints which were too wet to bring home yesterday. I was gathering them up carefully and beginning to test whether they were completely dry when X’s repeated attempts to grab them with her straight-from-the-sand-pit mucky hands prompted me to decide that they would be safer going straight in a bag. Unfortunately they were still just tacky enough to all stick together (and some now have added sand) – very sad.
On the way home X suddenly pinched my bottom, startling me so much that I came very close to dislocating my knee. I find X extremely difficult to have around at the best of times, and Katie picks up all kinds of undesirable habits from her, but she is Katie’s closest friend, so I guess I’m stuck with her unless fortune smiles on me and the family moves away. On the other hand, I might ignore convention and stop ‘returning’ playdates. I organised today’s outing in order to fulfil my obligations without actually having X at our place (because on previous visits she has teased Dash mercilessly) but I think from now on I will just let playdates happen at X’s house!