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Catie was working all day - What? Even Jesus took Easter Saturday off - so I had to keep the kids occupied on my own. Or so I thought.
We went back to the village where the kids used to go to school to take part in an Easter trail. There was face painting and bonnet making and lambs and a tiny horse and I thought this might kill two or three hours, but the kids were done in under an hour. At one point on the trail I challenged myself to run up the very steep grass bank that led up from the football pitch. I got about halfway and then ground to a halt. I had to go on all fours but couldn't get up and going down would more than likely involve falling and rolling. There was a time when some comics got stuck on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and had to call out the emergency services, which was a little embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as needing a helicopter to get my up a grass bank that I should never have attempted to climb. Is this how I die? Falling down a grassy bank that I've unnecessarily climbed during an Easter word search?
Phoebe came to my rescue and reached out her hand. Surely I'd pull her to her doom, but no she was strong enough to get me up the last few paces. Which was more embarrassing than calling the fire brigade and symbolic of the shifting of power in our relationship. Or I need to get back to the gym.
Luckily (for me) Ernie's best friend Freddie was there and invited Ernie on a play date. I managed to palm off one of the two kids on to someone else until 5pm. Now if I could just find someone to take the other one I could have a day of being a bachelor again, with all that that entailed: playing Civilisation II for 12 hours and crying with loneliness.
Luckily for me none of Phoebe's friends were around and we got to have a daddy/daughter day. Most of the work of parenting a ten year old and a seven year old is dealing with the arguments and fights, so one kid is easy street.
Much as I missed the unique energy that Ernie brings to the world, it was cool to have one on one time. I still haven't shaken off the lurgy I've been suffering with for the last fortnight, but I still threw myself into everything, like a 57 year old man trying to run up a much too steep incline and humiliating himself in front of the other dads.
We took the dog for a walk and then went for pizza (I had a salad- and half of Phoebe's pizza, damn) and then returned to the park to play cricket, which Phoebe has suddenly got obsessed with. She's pretty good, but playing one on one meant that when I was bowling there was a lot of running to do to. Maybe I don't need the gym. Wait, no, maybe I do. I was knackered.
