Buck
I am within fifteen-feet of these mysterious, ancient, beasts.
Sonnet and I for a walk and must hold back Rusty from the deer. Eitan takes his 10+ exam for St Paul's and I think Sonnet and I more anxious than he is. Sonnet bolts awake, 11PM, to double-check the alarm. When I drop off the boy he is as cool as a cucumber, which is as it should be - so what? his attitude suggests. Eitan refuses to take a banana for a snack (the test four hours) until I threaten to tell the Head Master that he is diabetic and needs it for his blood sugar. He puts the banana in his jacket pocket. I don't help out by arriving at St Paul's in my w/e work jeans, hair uncombed - and look! there is the Head Master himself to greet us. The auditorium filled with yummie mummies in Armani Jeans filling their £1000 knee-high boots. Not feeling part of it.
But back to our stroll .. Sonnet and I once walked from Maida Vale to the V&A every day when I was between jobs before Trailhead Capital. It was an urban trek too from our leafy mansion block to the grungy Harrow Road, over the Paddington Canal and under the A40 fly-over then Bayswater and, heaven, Hyde Park and finally The Albert Memorial, built by Queen Victoria for her beloved husband Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. Unusually Albert faces away from the park so his view of Kensington and not the lovely fields he held so dear.
I pick up Eitan and he and pal Cyrus are buzzy. I am told the exam "Okay" while the reading comprehension and maths "hard". Eitan asked to choose one of three titles to write a story so he goes for "The Journey" and describes, in first person present, a six-year-old boy from a poor family left in England when his parents move to America. In the end the reader informed he is reading the boy's diary. A nice literary device, Sonnet says. About 120 kids sit the 10+ for ten spots.
Me, explaining why high taxes de-motivating: "Imagine if the government took 90p of every pound you earned?"
Eitan: "So?"
Me: "OK, so say you are a famous footballer making millions of pounds and the government takes 90% of it. Would you still be as motivated to play?"
Eitan: "Yes."
Me: "Well, Ok, but say it was your chores."
Eitan: "But you don't pay me anything to do my chores."
Me: "Let's say I paid you 20 pounds to sweep the backyard. "
Eitan: "That would be so cool!"
Me: "Yes but then you had to give 18 back."
Eitan: "I'd still have two pounds whereas before I was getting nothing. Are you really going to give me two-pounds if I sweep?"
Me:
Eitan: "Plus you owe me my allowance for the last four weeks. That's twenty pounds."
Me:
Eitan: "And you owe Madeleine's allowance too."
Me: "I'm glad we had this little conversation."
