Bulls Eye!

Aaron didn’t manage to stay dry last night again. That’s one night dry, two nights not. What I am going to do tonight is set my alarm for 4.00 am, and take him for a wee then, which should let him go through until he wakes up at 6.30. If that works, I will gradually set my alarm for later and later, stretching the length of time his bladder can contain itself! Feels like being back at the 8-week stage of getting a baby to sleep through…

Today was HOT! Although we had some good rain this morning, the skies cleared and it was as hot as a non-rain day. We had to specially water the yesterday-today-tomorrow in the front, despite the watering this morning, because it was looking wilted. Thankfully it has revived. Vacuumed the whole house which must have taken almost an hour and was hot and bothered by the time I had finished. Popped out to town with only Aaron, bought a new hat for Caleb (far too big, but it’s a nice peak cap bearing an embroidered design of the St Helena wire-bird on the front). That was £4.35, quite reasonable for a souvenir! Also bought three cute little picture frames with wooden painted animals set in them in orange, yellow and white. I have yet to find a home for them because Nick thought the original location won’t work, but there are plenty of bare walls still.

I am now going to describe today’s cooking experience, which started shortly after 4 pm. I had taken the bullseyes out the freezer to get them used. Nick told me after reading my blog that he had in fact NOT deheaded them, so I put them in the pan as they were, heads and all. Fortunately no tails, otherwise they wouldn’t have fitted. Well, fish eyes do some interesting things when they are in direct contact with a hot frying pan. First they go a bit runny, then if you happen to put your fork in the wrong place, you can actually extract some of this gel, which leaves a trail behind it. After prolonged contact with said hot surface, they eventually glaze over with a cataractic effect, completely white. So now I have these blind fish staring blankly in my direction, their mouths closed in an angry scowl and fins and wings coming off all the time. You are probably feeling as uncomfortable as I was. After about half an hour I decided that they were ready to come off, and then I had to take the flesh off. While they were cooling, their eyes cooled too, and runny, white fish eyes tend to coagulate into blobby white bits where once they were black. Now try eating the flesh that you have just taken off these disgusting carcasses. Could you eat it? Neither could I, so it has gone into the fridge and I’ll deal with it tomorrow – probably make fish cakes. Aaron liked it though; he kept helping himself to the pile of white flakes on the plate and was sorely vexed that supper turned out to be fried rice and not fish and chips.

Aaron likes to make his hair “different” – anything is fine so long as it’s not lying flat. He will stand under the drips outside and get it a bit wet in front, then run his hand through it until he feels it’s different enough. Caleb also likes his to stand up, and wants it to be curly. Neither boy likes my hair to hang in my eyes, it seems to bother them. Nick and I were trying to decide who should put the boys down, as he has been playing banjo and I’ve been typing…eventually Caleb said, “Guys, don’t worry, I’ll put Aaron down.”