Goodbye Office, Hello Little Dippers – Weeknotes 4

(Late notes from the week before last)

I keep thinking I’m not getting through any of the stuff I want to get done, but one of the jobs that has come up is the renovation of the office into a family room, and it’s progressing nicely. Chris Aldridge, the carpenter, has done a fine job. He’s built us a superb DVD-CD-VHS shelf unit with a great futuristic desk with lovely curves which, as well as looking good, should be a bit headbutt-forgiving for when Arlo gets a bit bigger. I’m very pleased with it, and even Fi doesn’t hate it, which is a big relief. And Chris has built a piano keyboard tray for me, so it’s always there for when I want to make music. I need to spend an afternoon swapping music software from my iMac to my Macbook Pro, and then my home studio is ready to be used.
Out from the office go three bookcases, 3 CD racks and my leather-top desk, furniture we’ve had for a good few years. And in their place will go Arlo’s activity mat and flip-top school desk from Allyson’s school. We plan to strip out the fireplace and gain a few inches of space, and above it we’re going to put a flatscreen telly, and once that’s done, we’ll get a new carpet, which will be luxury, (I love carpet). The playroom window is nice and big, and it’s wonderful to be able to see it properly. It’s going to be a lovely room when it’s done.

Monday was the first Little Dippers, which was held in a former carpet warehouse in Tooting Bec. I was the only bloke there, which was intimidating, but it did mean I got a changing room all to myself. (By ‘me’ I mean ‘we’ obviously). Everyone was lovely, and Arlo seemed to enjoy it, except when we poured water over his head. He didn’t care for that. The idea of Little Dippers is to get them used to water, to feel comfortable and confident in water, and even if they can’t swim, then to get them to understand that should they ever be in open water without supervision, if they lie back and relax, they will bob to the surface and survive.

Friday, Mike and I bobbed to Peckham Rye to pick up a drawing Lyndon Hayes had done of Arlo. (If you want a drawing of your baby done, he’s your man. Reasonable rates). We spent about three hours in the pub with Arlo only playing up a bit (he’d had his jabs that morning, so it was forgivable). I had three delicious pints of Murphys.