Easter Sunday: the mice are asleep but my son’s not
Time: 00.00-02.30
Son: Easter Sunday. Been teaching Dad to play ‘Animal Crossing’. It’s flattering. I know he wants to demonstrate he’s interested in my life, but quickly he becomes far too needy: wants to visit my island, water my orchard, chat to me all the time. When I get my own home will he behave the same way?
02.35
Me: Exhilarated. I have my own island in ‘Animal Crossing’ (‘a peaceful paradise of your own making’) I love collecting seeds and doing DIY! Getting on fabulously with son, who is a patient tutor. Can’t wait for tomorrow so we can have another session together.
Parewnts need clear boundaries too
02.45
Son: Discuss my ‘dad dilemma’ with Friendship Group. Many report similar cases. Parents insisting on ‘doing things together’, faking interest in stuff we like. ‘F’ says dad’s behaviour is a type of cultural appropriation, like the Elgin marbles. Warns me if Dad is allowed to carry on he’ll want to join my WhatsApp and Snapchat groups, effectively invading every part of my life, like Japanese knot weed. We agree it is important parents are given clear boundaries or they will take the mickey. Resolve to be cruel to be kind, tonight.
06.00
Mother: Easter Sunday. Panic: haven’t bought grandson an Easter egg or flowers for daughter in law. Must get to shops. Perhaps church service, too.
08.30
Me: Mother heading out the door. She’s forgotten (again) that going out is dangerous, possibly deadly. I better stop her.
09.30
Mother: Government says I can’t go out. At least that’s what my son says but half of what tells me is unintelligible, the other half unintelligent. Says I will be arrested if I go shopping? But daughter in law says he’s right so come back inside. Daughter in law has bought me an Easter egg to give grandson. Wonderful woman. Son says I can go to church online but I have never heard such nonsense, even from him.
All I can think about is ‘Animal Crossing’
10.00
Me: Wife asks me if I have heard of Middle-Class Bingo. Tell her I’ve been playing it all my life. Feeling bruised by last night’s bottle of wine and intense initiation into ‘Animal Crossing’. Slip upstairs for a quick snooze, as wife heads off for a run. As I drift off, I wonder if I will ever go on the tube again?
12.30
Son: Accidentally wake up. Rearrange duvet and go back to sleep.
14.30
Mother: ‘Death on the Nile’ is on. Met David Niven several times. Utterly charming man. Wrote a brilliant memoir, whose name escapes me.
15.00
Me: Wake up and wonder if son wants to play ‘Animal Crossing’. Decide not to wake him up as he is only young once.
15.05
Wife: Sour dough bread in a Dutch Oven. New recipe. Very excited. Play Handel’s ‘Messiah’ while making the dough. Can hear ‘Death on the Nile’ from the sitting room. Turn up the volume on the Messiah. Battle of the bands?
My wife thinks I’m like Fester
15.30
Wife: ‘V’ brings coffee around for a chat in the front garden. Husband lurks around the conversation like Fester from the Addams Family and manhandles the red Japanese maple whose feathery leaves are blossoming. When he brings out the hedge clippers, I ask him to go and get dressed. ‘V’ very patient.
16.55
Wife: Slobbery is getting me down. Tonight we are going to dress up for dinner and eat outside. Clarify with husband that this means trousers, shoes and a shirt. There’s enough time for him to go iron something, if he wants to.
17.05
Mother: ‘Death on the Nile’ is as dated as I am. As ironing is banned because it’s a holy day, I retire to bedroom before tonight’s dinner sur l’herbe.
17.15
Wife: Mow lawn.
17.45
Wife: Clean and varnish garden table.
18.15
Wife: Zoom with daughter.
18.45
Wife: Shower. Is it wrong to drink a G&T while dressing for dinner or just another banal box ticked in Middle Class Bingo?
19.15
Son: I have laid the table in the garden. This means carrying: 4 plates, 12 items of cutlery items, 4 wine glasses, 4 water glasses, a salt cellar, a pepper grinder, 4 condiment bottles (some unpleasantly sticky), 4 napkins, 4 chair cushions, a bottle of red and white wine and a jug of water. This is quite a lot of exercise (300ft there and back?). I realise we are all in this together but I am sure dad will pretend he has done his bit tonight just by grilling three steaks. We need to collect more data about who is actually doing what to ensure the pain is shared equitably. How?
I want to watch ‘Apocalypse Now’
20.30
Me: I propose we watch ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ after dinner because it is the greatest film ever and secondly my son is studying ‘Heart of Darkness’ for his A Level (and this movie is based on it). Son says he’s already got his English A Level and doesn’t believe it can be as good as ‘Bridesmaids’. Mother doesn’t want to be reminded of the apocalypse on Easter Sunday but and wife is game on, as long as she can do her crocheting while it’s on. Watching Apocalypse Now while crocheting feels disrespectful, like knitting at the guillotine. But I’m happy her vote gives me a working majority over the TV remote.
21.30
Wife: Thoroughly depressed. I cocked up my knitting: too many G&Ts? The movie is equally grim.
23.45
Me: ‘Apocalypse Now: Final Cut’ enormously uplifting film. This version has a sex scene with Martin Sheen, which I have never seen before! Only £3.99 on Amazon TV! Is it relevant to lock down? Absolutely. As Kurtz says we must look horror in the face. Isn’t that what we’re doing with Covid-19. Head upstairs to play ‘Animal Crossing’ with son.
00.00
Son: Dad’s outside my bedroom wittering on about the face of horror? If he asks to play ‘Animal Crossing’ am I strong enough to say no? Must I set boundaries?
The Moon’s a Balloon I think it’s called and she’s quite right, it’s a very good book. A kind of magic trick really because there’s very little if any struggle that I recall, just pages and pages of charm. You are quite wrong about the final cut of Apocalypse now; it is the worst of the cuts. That sex scene is hardly worth the extra hour now that you can see any kind of porn not to mention virtual sex on almost every Netflix series. The previous final cut, I think, was better with the French Plantation section but much less of it. I am not allowed to return to Animal Crossing which makes me sad because back in the day, my children enjoyed having me invade their lives and I sold so many coelacanths to the museum they should have named a wing after me. And my house was quite nice. And BTW this is my new favorite installment of this blog. If you haven’t read Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad, you should.
The Moons an effing balloon. You genius! Lots of naughtiness with Errol Flynn I think