So my Wednesday went, as per the plan, right?  Wrong.  First of all on Tuesday night we didn’t sleep. OK, we did, but for the better part of the night we stayed up because my elder daughter was having a toothache. By morning our eyes were heavy with sleep and the poor little girl had consumed a third a bottle-full Calpol.  So first thing in the morning: take daughter to see dentist. This is a change of plan as today is the a day I had taken off work, to attend a conference.

I wake up earlier than usual and go to my little daughter’s bed. She is still sleeping so I slip into her bed next to her. Today, for the first time ever, she is going to school alone…without her sister. I want her to be prepared. So at 6:00 AM, I wake her up and explain that her sister is not going to school today. She listens carefully and then asks, “Mummy, you want me to go to school until school closes?” I explain that it is only for today that she is going without her sister but from tomorrow, they will go together as usual…until school closes! Suddenly she remembers something. Papa had promised her new shoes. She gets out of her bed and goes and reminds him that she wants her shoes! Daddy assures her that she will have them this evening. He repeats this promise later as he carries her to the school van.

Where I live, there is only one dentist serving the whole township. He is a monopolist and acts like one. Why else would you indicate your opening hours as 8:00 O’clock and by 8:30, you are yet to open your doors?! As I sit there impatiently, I am very aware of the grand breakfast I am missing out on getting angry.  But for my daughter’s company, I’d have got angrier. For some reason, teeth don’t ache during the day so she is her usual chatty self.

At 9:00 O’clock, instead of signing in for the conference at Sankara, I am watching in horror as my daughter has her problematic tooth plucked out. It’s her first visit to the dentist, and it is not pretty.

Only doctors have the right to scold you, their patient, whenever they feel like they need to. This one is no exception. Apparently I haven’t taught my daughter how to brush her teeth properly 🙁  So you say, good doctor, but I try. In fact I supervise them as they brush before they sleep. But you don’t talk back at doctors, you just nod and submissively say, yes doctor.

I drop a hysterical girl at home and head for the conference. Thank God dad is home today. She’s gonna need some calming down. I arrive at around 10:00AM, halfway through the first presentation. Awesome place this is, as I had seen in the website. Clearly I haven’t been to Westlands in a while. The fairly new Sankara Hotel, is near Sarit Center.

After a break, we have the second presentation. It is not as yawn-inducing as the first one but I wish this particular speaker didn’t sound like he is trying to force a twang. All in all, the message is passed : that there is a new software solution that we should feel bad about not having, in our organizations! At the end there is a ruffle. Some five lucky ones, win i-pods.

Lunch is great but can you label your foods Sankara?!  And unless you tell me that your target clientele is Indian, who needs all that chilli?! And how is it possible, that there are no bathrooms on the first floor?  Over lunch I call home and am told Bunny is doing fine. Dad reminds me to pick Kajune the new pair of shoes.

After the event, I head to the City in the Sun.

Remember I didn’t have a plan for the afternoon? Well, I eventually got a plan: to shop for  my nephew’s Birthday present and buy other things on impulse, in the process. Now, I have never shopped for a boy’s outfit before. The male shopping assistants in the ‘boys clothes’ section are not of much help either. Or maybe they are not in the mood of helping out a fussy shopper this hot afternoon. Finally, after a relentless search, I settle for a yellowish greenish t-shirt-short combination. However, I am not sure if this size is OK. One shop assistant assures me that…you guessed it….that size is perfect!

Due to traffic, I do not make it home before my daughter gets home from school, but I manage to get that pair of school shoes on my way home. When I get home, it is her, who sees me through the window before I even knock.”Papa! Mummy has brought my shoes!” And she immediately wears them. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted to sleep in them today. My other daughter is so much better. You wouldn’t know she is the one who had been crying so bitterly this morning.

I show hubby the Birthday outfit and ask him “Do you think this is too small for Alvin?”

“That’s just the right size for Alvin.”, he says.

I smile and say “You wouldn’t know, you have never bought clothes for a four year old boy. ”

He knows better than to argue with a woman so he rests his case.

I let the girls fall asleep in my bed today. In fact if they had their way, they would sleep on mummy and daddy’s bed everyday. Well, most. There are days when they declare themselves big girls and on such days they would rather their own bed. Before they sleep, I read them a story from the ‘Children Bible Stories’ I had bought earlier in the day. Kajune is bragging that mummy slept in her bed last night.

It has  been an interesting day.

My Thursday was like Monday. Once, I almost asked a colleague how their weekend was. There was a lot to do and everything seemed urgent.  So Thursday passed in a daze. The highlight of the day was going to visit my neighbor who has a new born baby. In the evening I get a report that the Birthday outfit is too small!

Moral of the story? Never accept shopping advice from a man! So over the weekend I shall go back to the store and have the outfit exchanged.

Tomorrow is Open Day, at my daughters’ school. That should occupy most of my day. And what is this I hear about the Migingo Cup that is happening this weekend? I hear they want to find out, between Kenya and Uganda, who owns Migingo. Well, we’ll see.

PS: You know, why I love blogging? You get away with starting sentences with ‘But’ and other stuff that would have made your grammar teacher skin you alive . 🙂