Madeleine is tasked with photographing Barnebie, pictured, which is then handed to the next kid and the next. Here we are, with Sonnet, in Chinatown last night as Eitan with his class for an overnight in the assembly hall - pity Head Teacher Mrs England who joins every year to make it a special, bonding event. I am told the children usually sleep by midnight and I can only imagine. So Madeleine is most excellent company. She makes a concoction of salt, pepper, Sprite, Soy Sauce and anything else she can put into her cantor stirring it up with chopsticks. When she has had enough (or I tell her: stop it!) she coyly asks: "can I put it on another table? Nobody will notice." We talk about the usual stuff on a kid's mind and for Madeleine it remains Tom Boy. No girlfriends, no frilly dresses and of course sports (Friday-Night-Fives sees the Badgers lose 9-nil while Madeleine notes that "three shots almost made it" presumably from her side). From dinner we go to the cinema to catch movietoon Coraline in 3D whose PG rating probably a tad too much, and Madeleine comforts Sonnet who covers her eyes during the scary bits. Ar, ar. Afterwards walking through the West End at late hours is like visiting another city. I've not done this in ages and here it all is: boys drinking and dodging traffic on Shaftsbury Avenue, girls wearing as much as they can without wearing anything. Wild animals. We receive a few suspicious looks from revellers curious to see a seven-year old at this hour. Madeleine falls sound asleep in the car and I carry her upstairs to bed. She awakes to give me a hug then rolls over and out. A Mastercard moment.
After Action Report: Eitan's teacher, Mrs. X, informs us that the first School Sleep-over feet-patter at 4:30AM and many of the kids up by 5AM. The boys enter a scratch game of football which pretty much ends any idea of anything more than five hours of shut eye. After the pick-up, I rush Eitan to a football tournament where the KPR win two, draw one and lose two. Unfortunately Eitan in the goalbox for the final game and allows two goals - I know tears are coming well before the whistle. From the tournament to Joe's house to watch Manchester United seal the Premiership with a tie against Arsenal. I take the gang to Sheen Common for more .. football. It. Never. Ends.
