One Tidy Corner

The day was going so well, messy corners tidied, shelves being made, and then, around lunchtime, we realised Rio was missing, and still is at gone nine - he's never been out of the backyard before, and would be terrified. We've been round and round the neighbourhood calling, posted on the street chat, and put up missing posters everywhere, not a sign... the worst, Ju says, is not knowing whether to be upset yet or not. And then a succession of other minor problems...

Finished If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, by Jon McGregor last night. Not like any book I've read before; it's not really a story, more of a poem to seeing the remarkable in what we would normally class as ordinary, the daily lives of a northern English street very much like the one we´re staying in right now. Here is a widowed father with burnt hands talking to his young daughter:

“He says my daughter, and all the love he has is wrapped up in the tone of his voice when he says those two words, he says my daughter you must always look with both of your eyes and listen with both of your ears. He says this is a very big world and there are many many things you could miss if you are not careful. There are remarkable things all the time, right in front of us, but our eyes have like the clouds over the sun and our lives are paler and poorer if we do not see them for what they are. 
If nobody speaks of remarkable things, how can they be called remarkable?”

(By the way, in case it worries you, all through the book there is a build up to an event at the very end - which isn't as tragic as you fear.)

Gratefuls:
- the opportunity Blip gives us to speak of remarkable things
- not having to go pick up Deb and Sam's tent
- friends willing to help us sort the fact that we have no water in our tank in Mourão, hopefully just that the electricity has tripped

(Really hoping my Gratefuls tomorrow include Rio finding his way home!)