Empty without argument

Dig's off to the airport today, bound for Poland. There's no albatross available to take him, so we drive him there.

Unusually, when it's time to depart, everyone's in a calm temper so there's no need to make pointless threats about dropping off irritating people at the roundabout where they'll have to sit and wait until we pick them up later. I stick on an audio tape of Tintin which keeps everyone quiet. Then, since the journey goes without hindrance, I say when we've dropped daddy off we'll stop in the playground close by and look overhead to watch the planes fly by, wondering what's wrong with videoconferencing again before we drive back home without him.

When we get home we're bound for the front room where we'll have a long discussion about whether to watch the Lion King for the 134th time or whether it's Land Before Time. I think secretly everyone thinks they should have grown out of that. But it keeps getting put on and watched like we might hold a cuddly blankie or eat comfort food custard.

So all in all it's a relatively peaceful and quiet day in the Grit household. Perhaps we're all a bit subdued with Dig going away. And, as if by sympathy, the downstairs toilet flush stops working and the potato scooper goes missing.