At the ballet
My mum invited the whole troupe to the ballet this weekend. It was a big adventure for the girls as they have never been to a London theatre. My mum is very punctual, indeed so punctual that she is usually several hours early for things. I, on the hand, am accustomed to arriving three minutes late on all occasions. In the week leading up to the ballet outing there were several testy exchanges about timing. She wanted to get there fairly early to allow for toilet stops, buying of a drink/programme, etc. In my experience this only allows time for things to go horribly wrong and for someone to end up crying or covered in goo. Nevertheless, we arrived at my mum's house even earlier than anticipated. She thought I was taking the mickey. I was.
The traffic wasn't bad and, for my partner at least, a man prone to nostalgia at all times, the journey to the theatre was the high point of the day. It allowed him to point out every bit of Islington he used to hang out in before he had children and his freewheeling days ended. Reckless Records. Ahhh. As we entered the theatre about 45 minutes early I started to wonder whatever had been in my sleep-deprived head when I said to my mum that the baby would love the ballet. Everyone else looked very well dressed. I searched the foyer for some other very small people. There was one girl of around two in a fancy frock. The baby had by this time got loose and spreadeagled himself across the wall with a huge grin on his face which said loudly "playtime". My partner announced that he would be more than happy to take the baby out if he got overenthusiastic. I could see him mentally imagining himself entering all the shoe shops in Islington with the baby in tow. My partner is not a big ballet fan. He challenged my mum to come with him to a Depeche Mode concert.
The girls, meanwhile, were having a ball. Daughter three had managed to snaffle some sweets, inspired by the sweet theme running through the ballet [The Nutcracker]. We went to look for our seats. I kept the baby hidden under one arm. I didn't want to meet anyone's eyes in case they too thought what on earth is this woman doing bringing a toddler to the ballet. The baby got very excited about the lighting and pointed up at it saying "ook, ook". He then proceeded to play hide and seek with the man behind us. As soon as the ballet started he was entranced. For around 10 minutes. Then he started squirming and wanting to join in. After several attempts to interest him in the audience, the lights, the musicians, etc, I gave up and handed him to my partner who exited swiftly to the foyer where he played climbing up and down the stairs for 20 minutes until the interval. I think I dozed off at some point in the middle of the ballet which made for a fairly short first half. This was not because the ballet was dull, just that I am exceedingly tired.
The second half was more colourful and I thought the baby would enjoy it. He fell asleep. My partner harrumphed about the depiction of the Spanish dancer [flamenco]. "Why are Spanish people always depicted as flamenco dancers in this country?" he complained. My mum tried to make some sort of artistic argument about the way Matthew Bourne had used flamenco to undermine the existing stereotypes about Spain. It fell on deaf ears. Daughter two has been invited to lead a Spanish assembly at school and her teacher asked her to wear a flamenco dress. "She is Catalan!" said my partner, very unimpressed. I suggested her teacher dress as a bull.
We thanked my mum for a lovely day out and arrived home early-ish. I considered briefly adopting this early thing as part of a future strategy. However, I was thwarted from day one when on Monday my partner's car broke down and I had to drop him at the station before the school run, meaning, inevitably, that we arrived the customary three minutes late.
View Mum on the Run's other Blog Entries
Post this entry to:
del.icio.us
|
Digg
|
Newsvine
|
Reddit
I am amazed. Did your mum actually invite the baby, or did it just never enter her head that you would bring him and so she felt there was no need to spell it out?
Anonymous | Report this comment
I can't quite remember. I think she offered to look after him and I think I said he would love the ballet because he LOVED the panto [although ballets and pantos are not quite the same thing, but I had not had much sleep at the time...]. Plus I knew my mum would love the ballet and I didn't want her to miss it. I think I envisaged it as a lovely family outing, which it was, and actually the baby was very good most of the time.
Mandy Garner | Report this comment