Riley is Marc with a "C"

Marc Riley just emailed me to say that he is Marc with a "C" not "K". So, sorry Marc, apologies. I don't know what got into me.

Went to O's school to watch the P2's Chinese New Year performance this morning. As is usually the case with these shows, which are put on with the sole purpose to entertain parents and grandparents, teachers hate having to do them. Above all they hate the parents whom they have to work so hard to entertain. How do I know? Ha. You can tell by the look in their eyes. Yeah, that look.

The hall was about the size of a walnut and it had to hold 150 kids AND their parents and helpers and grannys and toddler siblings. How should I put it ... the atmosphere was ... oppressive ... The little girl in front of us turned to her dad and said "daddy, you hair is smelly".

Every other parent had either a digital video or otherwise camera. One guy in a fur collared leather jacket two rows ahead of us had a tripod. In our near proximity at least five fur coats have been spotted. One of the teachers had to circulate the hall telling parents to pleeeease could you sit down? Five minutes into the show it turned to PLEEEEEASE SIT DOWN! NOW!! Either she was having hot flushes or she was ready to kill someone. For a split second she resembled that tigress I saw on Wildlife on Two and my heart skipped a beat. She looked like the type who believes in capital punishment and I don't mean just talking about it know what I mean. B and I, of course, kept our mouths shut and our cheeks glued to the seat.

We didn't really see O at all. He was right in the front row, but all I could see was the head of the dad whose hair is smelly. O was wearing a dragon's mask and had no lines to say nor actions to do anyway so it's not as if we were really missing anything. The performance consisted of groups of kids telling us all about the Chinese birth signs, like pigs make good lawyers, rats make good scientists, and so on.... then some poetry recital... then a "fan dance" which was really peculiar because no one seemed to have noticed it had started by the time it ended.

Luckily it all ended in 40 minutes so we sneaked out as soon as we said well-done! it was great! to our son and maneuverd our way through the jungle of BMW X5s, Mercedes S500s, Porsche 9xxs and Range Rovers that have jammed packed outside the school gate.

Anyhow, I'll end this entry with a couple of quotes from my sons:

I thought I was going to vomit when I saw all those people out there!
(O, post-gig interview)

It's not Chinese New Year, it's the year of the big fat chicken!
(J, rambling)