Ice-cream giggles
I was taking Sonia, my 7 years old grand daughter to a book signing, in a little book shop, somewhere in London. Her favourite poet, Michael Rosen was in the shop for an hour, chatting, signing books. Sonia was ever so excited, Michael Rosen is her favourite poet!
So we walked to the bus stop but no bus came for ages. While we were waiting Sonia told me about these poems she so loves and she showed me the book she took with her for signing. You know, she knows by heart some of those poems in the book and she recited one for me right there, right then! Seeing that no bus shows we decided to walk, it was a beautiful sunny day but we were in a bit of a hurry by now, we didn’t want to miss the man!
We walked about half the way when luckily a bus caught up with us and we hopped on, to arrive just in time at the shop. The man himself was sitting in the shop, surrounded by chatty children, signing away. Our turn came; Sonia had a lovely, if somewhat timid, chat with a very friendly Mr Rosen, then they did together an impressive impromptu recital of ‘Don’t do that’, we had the obligatory photo shot, had her precious book signed, had a new book bought to be savored later, at bed time. It was a lovely moment, we both felt happy, pleased about the whole experience. It was time to head back home.
I suggested we walk instead of taking the bus. It was half past four, children were waking home from school, the sun was shining, pigeons were cooing, what a lovely afternoon! I got us some ice cream from the nearby small shop and we continued to walk quietly munching away at our ice-creams, working strategically to avoid drips and ice-cream smudges on our clothes. Me, more successfully than Sonia!
I glanced at her and couldn’t stop giggling: the sheer concentration and delight on her face! Her delighted face was covered in chocolate ice-cream! As I was giggling out loud, the beauty of this moment hit me. The two of us walking slowly home, no worry in the world, united by poetry, the afternoon sunshine, ice-cream and our giggles! Love you Sonia, Thank you for this moment 🙂
