An unsuccessful experiment (and archives part 3)

A funny day, full of minor changes and surprises.
I'd planned a short walk with a friend this morning, but had a poor night's sleep and opted to rest instead, given that I needed to be on the ball to pick Eben up for his swimming lesson after school.

Then there was a succession of messages that took me right back to what it was like juggling working hours and the ups and downs of childcare, back when Jack and Ruth were small. Ruth phoned to ask if I could pick up another girl from school, Tara, along with Eben; her parents and big sister all have Covid.  The plan was that Eben and I would drop her off near her house, where her big sister would meet her. Here, technology was really useful: Ruth asked Tara's mum to text me a photo, so that I'd know who to look for.

This all worked out fine; Eben helped me to spot Tara, Tara herself was unfazed by it all and we met up with her sister Sophia for the handover.

All good, and off we went to the pool to have a snack and get organised for the lesson. Usually I spend the lesson with one eye on Eben's progress,  while sharing a bit of a chat with Boom (yes, that's his name), the Dad of Eben's friend Eddie, who goes to the same lesson. This time I caught the faint sound of my phone, buried in my bag, the ringtone nearly drowned out by all the echoing noise in the pool. Josh this time: would I be able to pick Luca up from nursery, after the lesson? A hay delivery to the farm was delayed, and he wasn't going to get to nursery in time.  Ruth goes to a teacher training course every Weds, so she couldn't do  it.

This meant quite a speedy quick-change act after the lesson, so that Eben and I could make it to nursery by 5 p.m. It's not far, but Sheffield traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels and moves slowly at rush hour.
This all worked out too. Eben was really helpful, and  Luca had had a good afternoon nap at nursery, so he  was really cheery. Back in the car, back through the traffic to Ruth and Josh's house.  Ruth was home by then.

In the midst of all this, I'd decided that making it back home for the 6 p.m. online Greek lesson just wasn't going to work. Better to recognise that, and not get too worked up; the tutor always posts good follow-up notes and it's not too hard to catch up.

So I had another dabble in the box of old film negatives this evening. This effort, though, has not worked as well as the previous one. The image is really soft; I think I messed up the focus while copying the negative. So it's a work in progress; I'll return to it in a few days' time and try to do better. It's here as a little prompt to me, to do that. It's an image from a visit to the Mirpur region in Pakistan, in the winter of 1980-81.  I was particularly interested in taking photos of people working, and most of these were in rural settings, reflecting the subsistence agriculture that prevailed at the time. More about that project another time, perhaps if/when I manage to produce a better copy of the photo... Meanwhile, the softness of the image does remind me of how very long ago that visit was: in another life, really.