Sunday

School holidays started on Friday, and wee wan's second best friend has asked her swimming on Tuesday. Luckily it's not my call, for kiddos will be in their dad's care that day. The little friend is sweet if simple, and hooked on Disney, but her mum is a worse drinker than I and has made some bad decisions in the past. One was to take wee wan over to Fife without telling me and arrive back very late, and the worst was to put the girls into a bath together 'because they were wet' and take photos. In this day and age, that's either a dumb or paedophilic act, and most parents would be sensitive to the overtones except she.

We were planning to go to the Botanics today, but skies were leaden. Big wan, after being tasked with washing some dishes, declined to come out with fuddy duddies like me and his sis. Instead, wee wan and I went to the Royal Museum to see the 'Connect' science exhibition (interactive), the Millenium clock striking and play with the exotic fishies in their ponds. I even splashed out on taking us into the Islamic art exhibition (a loan from the Hermitage museum), but at this point the wee wan's incipient cold took hold and she needed to get home to be nursed. £5 down the drain for me, but our 10 min visit was tantalising. Some quite beautiful artefacts showing the cultural overlays in different Islamic traditions. The comment book, in which wee wan insisted on making an appreciative entry, included some intriguingly written in Arabic.

When we got home, big wan had not done the dishes because 'he'd been out' and was intending to exit to meet another set of friends. Uncharacteristically, I grounded him until he contributed to some household duties, since I was still to shop and cook for the evening. He then strung out 15 mins of work to 2 hours by having frequent breaks. So be it. However, he embarrassed me the day before by offering to buy for me a book I want (Orhan Pamuk's 'Snow') but cannot afford. Kind, generous and terminally lazy. I wonder where he gets it from.