Guest star

With the youngest having a friend round to play this evening, I needed to be on my game and preparations needed to be made.

President Teddy’s latest endeavour would see a guest star featuring, so I made sure that the memory cards on the camcorder and Go-pro knock-off (“no-pro”?) were clear and that both were fully charged and ready for action.

A busy day was made even busier with the cancellation of their after-school cricket club due to the inclement weather, so an extra hour’s work had to be squeezed in, but hey it would give the girls more time to shoot their film.

On collection from school, I could see that Matilda had seen me and through the slightly open window could hear her excitedly shout “it’s my daddy!” Shortly thereafter, she came bounding out with her friend in tow and very sweetly they walked the short distance back to our home, hand in hand.

The prep I had done for the filming resulted in a disproportionately low amount of time of camera use, before the project was abandoned altogether and they shifted their attention to colouring, giggling, doing some clay stuff, teaching Alexa to say that “Daddy is a poo-poo head”, before everything dissolved into an all out Nerf gun war and Matty almost wetting herself laughing at having shot me in the privates.

It was my own fault. Ever the consummate insurance professional, I focussed on risk management and in a bid to ensure that our visitor was returned to her parents with both eyes functioning, I had urged them all to “aim low”. Sod’s law, that The Youngest should choose that particular moment to start listening to me.

It was all worth it though when just before bedtime, she threw her tired arms around my shoulders and thanked me for having her friend round.