28 March 2009

Nick took Emily out in the morning to play, while I stayed at home to do some cleaning. Erna is away in the Phillipines for a few weeks and it makes me realise how lucky I am to have her to keep a lid on it. With hard flooring the dust builds up incredibly quickly, Emily's attempts at food art don't help, and I'm sure the ironing pile has a life of its own as it keeps multipling.

Though it was hard to fit in into Emily's routine, we had an invite to Soraya's 1st birthday party from 12-2. I woke her from her nap early and unceremoniously bundled her into the buggy, then hotfooted it to the venue, KSpace, arriving half an hour late. There were a dozen or so other babies with their parents. I hadn't encouraged Nick to come as I know he is not a great one for these kid's bashes, but most of the dads were there. No doubt he was sorry to have missed out on wearing a pink bunny hat like the other fathers! It was a lovely party, which must surely have cost a fair bit. Hadar and Simon were there to lead activities and there was plenty of food and drink. Emily showed a great liking for falafels and smoked salmon and spinach rolls, not to mention the fresh fruit and cream sponge cake. In essence it was an extended KSpace class with added refreshments. We went down to the gym and sang lots of familiar songs and played with the toys Emily knows well, so she was quite confident.


The gift bag and balloon Emily received kept her amused after we left, as we went on to Yoyogi park to hook up with Nick and attend a hanami (cherry blossom viewing) party held by one of his Japanese friends from Durham. Alighting at Harajuku station we found it even busier than usual with hordes of tourists and Japanese all pushing along the narrow corridors. The sunshine had also tempted out more freakily-dressed youths than usual, hanging out at their usual haunt on the bridge between the station and the path to Yoyogi park entrance. In the park, we found that lots of Japanese were braving the cold air to revel on mats beneath the pretty cherry trees that have suddenly put forth blossom this week.

There was much drinking going on, and itinerant minstrels aplenty. Nick's mate Eri and her friends had retired indoors as it was too cold for them, so we spent quite a while trying to meet up with them. They were good enough to come out to a little park for a quick chat; her boyfriend brought along some cans of booze and we stood for a while as Emily explored the nearby flowerbeds and sandpit.