I took Oscar to work today. He’s so grown up he put a novel in his bag, packed his phone charger, a spare jumper etc – just like an adult would do. The moments when I see my boys growing up never cease to amaze me. It always comes in leaps – never gradually like I’d have expected. He was coming with me as its half term and Ma was coming to my work too to pick up a new bike to replace her old one. She bought a new one in April saying it would “see her out” (!!!) and it was nicked at Christmas. Whoever nicked it left their crappy bike in its stead, which she proceeded to cycle to the Xmas dinner she was going to, before cycling on to the Police Station to report it. Anyway, she was very glad to get a new one.
I thought we’d take advantage of the situation and get the three of us together for a photo. You may have noticed that there have been none of all three generations together on the blog before now. We have plenty of photos the three of us are in, but there are loads of other family members in all of them, so I thoughts it would be good to get just we three.
Looking at Oscar on the train with his novel, but regularly checking his (my old) iPhone, made me think of the story Ma often tells of the first time she saw a television. I think she was about 10 and she sat down with her back to it looking at the opposite wall. She had assumed it was like a projector and would put its picture on the other side of the room. How extraordinary is that? In our world of so, so many screens its hard to imagine that my modern, tech-savvy, socially-connected mum didn’t even understand the concept of the first screen she saw – a decade into her life.
I also got a lovely “good luck” email today from Andy at Baraka Community (one of the charities we are raising funds for), he commented that his mother is in her 70s and his daughter is 15 months, so the chances of him ever doing a three generation climb are pretty slim. It made me realise just how fortunate I am to have this moment in time when it’s possible for the generation above me, and the one below me, to have “fighting fit and up for a challenge” in common, despite the massive differences in their pasts. Lucky me!