Give a boy a tractor

Master x enjoying the sunshine at his cousins’ house on Sunday. After a lovely roast lunch with grandparents and Uncle P, he busied himself in the garden. Homme joined the boys in the movie room to watch his beloved Dockers cement their spot in the top 2.

Happy day for all.

What Price Service?

This morning we rose early to find our miss i dressed, fed and cleaned, ready for her Year 6 three day camp. We got ourselves organised and had her packed on the bus at school at 7.30am. Oh the excitement from 70 odd girls! Half an hour later we waved like crazy and I threw in some sign language for her to decipher and she was gone.

Miss e, master x and I headed into the school grounds for her violin lesson. Miss e had some medical appointments and was not going to school so I decided we needed a treat – breakfast at one of our favourite restaurants in Cottesloe.

Upon arrival I sensed this wasn’t going to be as fun as I had anticipated. I tried to settle master x into one of the generic ikea highchairs all restaurants seem to have adopted. Big problen I have noticed though is that all restaurants remove the tray in front, and more importantly, the bloody straps to secure the little wrigglers in! So this means you have to pull the highchair right up to the table for your toddler to reach any food. And of course then they can reach ALL food, hot drinks, tablecloths and the like. When they tire of that game, they simply stand up in their chair and scream to be let down to try out their new walking legs.

I finally got a waitperson’s attention and asked kindly if she had a chair with the required safety belt. “No we remove them as they get too dirty.” Righto.

“Well then could you take our order so I can distract him with food, while being headlocked on my lap?”

“Sure, I will be back shortly.”

Yeah sure you will. Half an hour later and tensions rising she returns and I spit out our breakfast order. In retalliation, my chai latte comes back promptly, yet lukewarm.

Miss e, our foodie, revels in her bacon, roasted tomato, poached eggs and avocado while I try and convince master x to try my birscher muesli. By now he has had more than enough and to settle him I resort to breastfeeding him to sleep. Silence from him brings instant calm and I manouvre him on my lap to read the front page of the paper and eat cold cereal over his head.

Our waitperson never shows up again to offer more drinks, or provide me with the opportunity to request our bill so that I may pay by visa while sitting at our table (still holding sleeping 14 month old). This restaurant is open for dinner,  so I know this is an option.

With well planned teamwork from miss e, we make our way up to the cash register with eftpos card in one hand and toddler in both. It takes a few minutes for the checkout guy to remove himself from the conversation he is having with the barista to serve me. By now I am very annoyed and once my card is swiped, I punch in my pin (after asking him to bring it closer to me so I can reach with sleeping toddler!)

He finishes the transaction and gives me my card and receipt. I drop them in my handbag which miss e is carrying and we stagger past the workmen repaving the footpath located between the restaurant and our car.

Upon returning home, I manage to get master x to transfer to his cot, still sleeping, and I locate my eftpos card from the depths of my handbag to return it to my purse. As I retrieve the receipt I notice in bold type along the bottom:

DECLINED SEE CARD ISSUER

Justice? Still deciding whether I will drive back to pay the $33 breakfast bill (now that I have attended to my online banking).

How is your day?