Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

Today was a real treat, as I had front row, centre seat tickets to see Mamma Mia in Carré. And not just two of them, either, but also a third, so that Eloïse could enjoy it, too.

It was another freezing cold day, with snow falling for most of the morning. After lunch, we dropped Lucas at Mina’s house, as she had kindly offered to babysit him, and then biked through the snow to Carré for Eloïse’s first adult musical. She’d seen Nijntje Op Vakantie a couple of years ago, but this was theatre for grown-ups; the real thing!

She did very well, I must say. It’s a three hour show with only a short intermission, which is a long time for a four year old to have to sit still and not talk. She seemed enthralled, overwhelmed even, by the action taking place on the stage just a few centimetres in front of her nose. We really did have the best seats in the house and saw every aspect of the show in glorious detail.

We’d played the CD of the musical to her a few times in the days leading up to the show, and we’ll try to engrave in her mind the memory of the experience today with a few more plays in the days ahead. Eloïse says that her favourite songs today were Mamma Mia itself, Dancing Queen and Zo Ben Ik, Zo Ben Jij (better known as Knowing Me, Knowing You).

This was my fourth time to see Mamma Mia and, like the music of Abba itself, the show never loses its sheen through repetition. The song-writing genius of the Andersson and Ulvaeus partnership is an enduring cultural legacy, no matter how uncool it may be to confess such a belief.

It seems as if it were only yesterday that I was registering my daughter’s birth in a stuffy office somewhere in Sunnyvale, California (if I remember correctly).

How can it be, then, that I’ve already had to renew her passport?

I picked up new passports for Eloïse and myself today. The old ones have certainly seen a lot of action since they were granted back in 2005 by the embassy in Los Angeles, courtesy of the consulate in San Mateo (which has just moved to the altogether more sensible location of San Francisco).

She once again resembles the girl in the photo, the previous one having been taken in Los Altos, when she was just two weeks old. Border guards have been taking it on faith that she was the person pictured in the passport.

How time flies.

Eloïse has completed her first full week at primary school and enjoyed every minute of it. She has greeted the start of each new day with enthusiasm and excitement, which has proved quite contagious.

We’re all slowly getting used to the new 07:00 starts, but it’s still strange to find oneself falling asleep on the couch at midnight and having to go to bed. Nevertheless, we’ve already fallen into a default new routine.

The Sonos alarm wakes us with BBC Radio 6 at 07:00 (there are no good Dutch radio stations, unfortunately), at which point we all get up.

Sarah dresses the children while I go downstairs, prepare Eloïse’s breakfast and make coffee. Sarah then comes down with the children and makes Eloïse’s lunch.

At around 08:10, I get on the bakfiets and take both children with me to school. Sometimes Sarah goes with me, especially the first few days, but the general case will be that only one of us goes. The person who goes takes both children, in order to give the other parent a bit of a breather. It’s only half an hour before I’m back with Little Lu, but you have to take what you can get and every little helps.

At 12:50, I head out again, once again with Lukie in tow, to pick up our happy girl. She’s always smiling, happy to see me and full of tales of the morning’s events.

This morning, for example, saw Eloïse have her first eurhythmy lesson. She described it as praatdansen (talk-dancing), but I couldn’t get much more out of her than that.

At this stage, we couldn’t be happier with Eloïse’s progress at her new school. Not only does she really enjoy the lessons (if you can call them that) and the juf, she’s already made a good friend in Bracha, another new girl who started the same day as she. It can’t be long now before they’re inviting each other over after school.

And now it’s the weekend: no more 07:00 starts for two whole days!

Eloïse’s tertiary day at school saw an altogether more confident girl say her goodbyes at 08:30. She held our hand as we stood behind her chair and children continued to file into the classroom, but when we said we had to go and asked for kisses, she obliged and said goodbye without a struggle.

We waited outside the classroom until the door was closed, Eloïse remaining quietly content the whole time.

There were no last minute clutches and certainly no tears. We left behind a perhaps still slightly nervous child, but nevertheless a happy one, who is pleased to be at her new school and looking forward to the new experiences and adventures that will be coming her way in the weeks, months and years ahead.

As a parent, it’s hard to believe that she’ll theoretically remain at this school until she’s twelve. The previous phase, the peuterspeelzaal (play school), lasted only a year and a half and yet represents an entire era in her short life. This is it now, the real thing: (primary) school.

It’s good that the weekend is upon us. The week was long enough for Eloïse to warm to and gain confidence with her new environment, but not so long that it became fatiguing. This way, she was able to comfortably slide into place and now has two days to process all of the new impressions with which she has been bombarded. The fact that the Vrije School has children of this age attend for only half the day helps, too, of course, although I suspect that Eloïse would soon be happy to stay there all day.

Today, she’ll be making bread!

Speaking of fatiguing, this new seven o’clock lark is bollocks. Whilst I’ve finally found a use for the Sonos’s alarm function, it’s unpalatable to actually need it. Winding back my bedtime is proving hard, but by either an act of will or sheer exhaustion, it will eventually happen. It will have to.

Winters are going to be unpleasant. Biking in the dark in freezing temperatures: I can’t wait.

Eloïse had another successful day at school on Thursday. She said that she spoke to one of the other children, so she’s starting to come out of her shell now.

Friday should be quite easy now, I think, although I should be careful about totting up my domesticated fowl.

It was an excruciatingly hot and muggy day today. Rain broke the spell this evening and tomorrow should be cooler.