Day 211 or “The Day Stormy Wants to Visit Saturn”
Stormy gets herself out of bed early. One of her closest friends, who lives one floor down, is joining us for breakfast and she wants to be ready. She drags her little red table to the dining area so that, “we don’t have to sit with the big people”. I remember hating the children’s table when I was younger.
As we’re slowly running down all our consumables in preparation for the move back to Australia, Stormy and I pop downstairs to borrow a cup of flour. I feel like a cliche. Stormy decides to stay and play with her friend. She says that she’ll walk back up herself. I love this level of independence. After 15 minutes Stormy and her friend arrive. His parents arrive 15 minutes after that.
After breakfast we all wander downstairs to the pool for a swim. This is when the day really begins. From the pool to the play-gym and back home — it’s an intense day.
There is a huge gender discrepancy in the duties of a parent. And I see it everywhere. I’ve always been the sort of dad to take Stormy to playgrounds and parks. So I’m often used to being the only guy there. But now that I go almost every time the other parents are starting to notice. “Where’s your wife” starts to take on an confused tone.
By late afternoon, I can barely hold it together. I put on a movie and take a nap on the sofa. Stormy takes the opportunity to sit on my stomach and watch the movie. It’s surprisingly comforting.
After dinner, we take Chewie out for a walk. Stormy puts her hand in mine as we walk along. It is the sweetest feeling in the world. She points out the two “Earths” that we can see in the Singapore sky. I’m impressed at her knowledge. I pull out my star map and I point out which one is Saturn and which is a star. She looks at some photo’s of Saturn. “Have you been there Daddy” she asks me. “I wish, no-one has”, I respond. “I want to go there with you” she tells me. I give her a massive hug. “Maybe you can…”
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