Childhood

Spent the morning filling the diary for January 2013.

Then February and March.

I claim we don't have a timetable. Obviously we do. The events I just pencilled in - workshops, tours, theatres and social meets - must fit around the fixtures of sub-aqua club, mapping workshops, Latin lessons, art lessons, Woodcraft Folk, astronomy club, wildlife watch, 10-13 youth group, the new bodger group, the monthly coppicing club, our reading group, the seasonal science lectures, and my once-a-week film studies night.

I proudly display my efforts to Tiger and say how brilliant it will be to see Twelfth Night with Propeller, visit the Royal Academy, and see Ice Age art.

Interrupted from her computer screen where she is shooting an armadillo out of a cannon to hit a banana tree, Tiger looks at me with her indifferent, unfocused gaze. Then she curls one lip, shrugs her shoulders and turns back to do what's important for the moment: increase her score from 1,300 to 1,500 by knocking out the toucan.

They take it all for granted, kids. Unaware of how others move the world to help them out, make their path easier, support them through life. While it all happens for them by magic, they can be totally unaware, uncaring and ungrateful.

Man, I wish I were aged 12 again.