This morning, at 06:30, my slumber was disturbed by, what I thought, was some sort of machine beeping. A little like a car alarm mixed with a reversing lorry type noise. It wasn’t ‘next door’ loud but it was persistent enough to be annoying. It stopped at 7am but then, after a short pause, started again.
It was coming from the monkey houses across the creek. As I sat drinking my coffee, I wondered if it was some sort of mass primate breakout. Could I expect the sudden appearance of hordes of screaming monkeys to come flying through the gum trees.
My other thought was of monkeys driving graders – Mirinda said she thought the idea of a big ape behind the wheel of a heavy goods vehicle, big fat cigar in it’s mouth was irresistible – but that didn’t seem likely.
Apparently, Claire was a bit of a stickler for quiet during tea parties, doing the rounds of the neighbourhood to ensure that everyone would be silent when her visitors arrived. I wondered what she’d have done about reversing graders driven by monkeys.
There were a few reminders of Claire today as we headed north to Toukley to indulge in a Chinese feast with Dianne, Steve and Judy. And when I say ‘feast’ it certainly was more food than the six of us could manage. The Canton Restaurant must be used to doggy bags because, having paid the bill, they delivered a load of plastic takeaway boxes to the table for the other half of the meal.
The food was very good, the company interesting. Steve, I thought, looked a lot like John Prine shortly before his death a few years ago. Dianne looked exactly like she always had and Judy I’d never met before so had no idea what she’d look like. She’s Aunt Vera’s (who used to haunt Sidney) granddaughter and, therefore, Claire and Dianne’s cousin.
After lunch, we headed over to Rebecca’s place (Rebecca is Dianne and Steve’s daughter and, therefore, Mirinda and Fi’s cousin) for afternoon tea. Almost all the family were there (one son was off enjoying himself elsewhere) as well as a sex mad male budgie called Lulu and two dogs, one of whom was very excited.
Then Adam & Tamara arrived with their two young boys and the house took on the appearance of a major train network. Rebecca, understanding how kids work, had prepared the main sitting room with the biggest box of trains and bits of tracks which, from the comparative tidiness of a plastic box, was set adrift throughout a number of rooms.
Adam (Rebecca’s brother therefore, also Mirinda and Fi’s cousin) sat and we talked about his trip to Europe a number of years ago. Before the advent of children. Tamara is a history teacher and she really wanted to see Rome and Pompeii and various other magical places before being lumbered with offspring.
They also spent four days in Paris. They both loved Paris.
They also spent Christmas day in Florence, seeing the David and the Uffizi. We had a lot to talk about. So much so that we were soon joined by Rebecca’s husband Robert, her son Sam and Steve forming a sort of secret men’s enclave where we discussed all manner of things. Though we had to stop discussing secret men’s business when Fi decided to join us.
Actually, it would be fair to say I did most of the talking. Mirinda reckons I’ve taken over from Bob as the family storyteller. I take that as a major compliment.
Major compliments were also due to Hope (Rebecca & Robert’s daughter) for her skill with pencil and paper. We all admired her amazing banana, apple and flower. She’s very talented for a 12, almost 13 year old.
Her real life custard tarts were also a big hit. Rebecca’s oven has no door at the moment so they had to be set rather than baked. Still, they were unanimously delicious.
Eventually it was time to head back down the coast so we jumped into the car and set off. On the way back to Dural, we were discussing how kids sitting around in classrooms, being told to stop fidgeting all the time is not the best way to learn.
Humans, it seems, are not evolved to sit on chairs. We have only recently adapted to walking on two legs. Well, in an evolutionary sense. Before we became ‘civilised’, which, of course, is just another social construct, we would sit around the camp fire meaning we could move and adjust our posture as required. So, kids sitting and fidgeting is perfectly understandable and, if anything, the chairs should go and the fidgeting should be encouraged.
As we discussed this, Fi said that when she was at school she was often told to sit still and get sewing. I’ve yet to see any examples of her sewing, but she does get up and down a lot.
Anyway, that brings me back to the idea of a monkey sitting in the cabin of a big digger, smoking a big fat cigar. I don’t think the monkey would sit still for very long.
The mystery of the beeping sound turned out to be easily solved. Apparently, it’s a bird that makes a sound exactly like a mechanical beep. And it goes on and on and on.
I felt a bit sad that it wasn’t a mass primate breakout.
