Bananas in Pyjamas

Today I followed Natalie on her nannying job. We went by the school at two thirty to pick up B1 and B2. We arrived right on time.

Stepping out into the stairwell

After we picked them up, we walked to Starbucks and ordered one chocolate frappuccino for B1, two chai frappucinos with whipped cream for myself and Natalie, and a packet of stroop waffles for B2.

Whilst Natalie went to check on B2, who had run off to sit with his friends, B1 and I had a conversation about mechanical pencils and how they are properly called propelling pencils here in Scotland. I also told him that I had gone sailing in the West Indies, where my captain had given me the pirate pants I was wearing. At that point in time, Natalie had returned and was able to confirm my story, adding that she was there too and that together we had been left behind by our absent-minded captain, with only some oars and a pontoon. 

At this, B1 exclaimed, "What kind of captain is that?"

I glanced over at Natalie. "He wasn't the brightest bulb in the box." 

The captain eventually returned to pick us up, when he remembered his valued crewmen; but by that time we had already rowed for quite a bit, alone on the open ocean.

A completely true story, of course.

 B1 enjoys a chocolate frappuccino

We got on the bus for home, and it reminded me very much of Singapore. I had flashes of my own time in school, sitting on the 65 bus to Bukit Merah, dressed in my school uniform, hot and disheveled after a long day of games of tag and sundry, more bookish things.

 B1 and B2 bored on the bus

We arrived at the McLeods, and before we settled down to do a bit of drawing, I showed B1 and B2 a short clip of my sister and I battling it out with lightsabers. My friend Matt had animated it years ago, on my family's trip to Australia, and it ended with my brutal slaying of my sister with a red double-sided lightsaber (a la Darth Maul). Unbeknownst to me, B2 pulled Natalie aside after this and told her, very seriously, "Sanna broke one of the ten commandments."
Natalie: "What commandment did she break?"
B2: "She killed someone."

After a dinner of curry, rice, and naan, Natalie, Mr. McLeod, and I enjoyed a cup of tea, whilst discussing the finer points of music.  I noticed Natalie's watch, and she told me that it had belonged to her grandfather. She wears it to remember him. I have my grandfather's painting box, still arrayed with his old tubes of oil paint. I wonder how I will one day be remembered.