Life's 'moments'

My sister, Julie and I are 'moments' freaks.....there is nothing we wouldn't do for a moment. They have carried us through some truly traumatic times and made us howl with laughter in the middle of the street...what are 'moments' ? well they are those unmissable times that you just hapen across that smack you right between the eyes and brighten your day. Usually they are ( I will admit) at the expense of someone else but not, I hope, malicious.

I had a moment yesterday and although infinitely better when shared with a loved one the splendid thing about them is they usually tell quite well. My Isaac isn't a talker, he actuallycan seem as if he is having a lovely chat with me but ifI'm brutally honest I have to guess most of it and interpret the rest from signing and mummy intuition. Yesterday, however, my Isaac spoke as clear as a bell, every syllable understood without so much as a furrowed brow on my part.
It looked as though there could possibly be a glimmer of sunshine yesterday ( turned out to be a false alarm ) and here in England if there is the remotest of chances that a ray of heavenly sunshine and warmth might come our way we are giddy with excitement and strip off in order to catch said ray and turn a golden brown. My Isaac and I were walking to nursery behind a man who had believed as I had that the sun was going to get it's hat on and hip hip hip hooray had donned a rather nifty pair of shorts and sandals ( don't get too excited he did,of course, we are in England, keep his socks on) Shame then that although the shorts were a bit nifty his body wasn't ( oh I know, pot calling etc but I didn't wear tight shorts did I?) I am often forced to try and imagne how things must look to a little person as I am almost totally convinced that they look very different to us, Isaac took a long hard look, not a choice really as his head was about level with the tight shorted bottom and hairy thighs " Hey MUM! BIG LEGS ( capitol letters so you understand that he was, of course, shouting) Hmmmmmm BIG BIG BUM!" there, that's a moment, can't buy them, can't order them or make them happen...they just come along and slap your cheeks and you have to grasp every joyous moment from them or the next one might pass you by!
you don't always need words for a moment.....Last week my Isaac ( I'm really getting my money's worth out of this boy lately) saw a sweet dog tied to the school gate, fluffy sort of cute white dog that he appeared to like a lot. He looked up at the owner obviouslyto see if she was worthy of such a great pet and lo and behold he saw that the OWNER had fluffy white hair too...proving to my 3 year old that owners do indeed look like their animals in many instances.....Oh what joy....he stood, he stared, he pointed and he YELLED "HEY MUM!" then he pointed to the dog, pointed back at the owner and he laughed, and laughed and he laughed, the most delicious, rich belly laugh and the boy wasn't going to budge an inch until he was absolutely sure that I had appreciated this moment. Marvellous. I told myself that the owner didn't know what he was getting at and I think I managed to impress on Isaac that I understood his humour whist whisking him away as fast as was humanly possible.
Many moments need words and as well as the words they need a local accent...some things just NEED that certain twang to really give the maximum you'll never get a better moment than one grasped in Devon or Cornwall. Julie and I were in a lovely pub in Plymouth once and were feeling a bit grand truth be told, lunch time with no kids and enjoying a plougmans lunch and a cool glass of pop. The best thing for us is to sit back and just watch and listen and then try to imagine who people are and what they are all about. How glorious when a young couple came in and stood right in front of us looking around deciding exactly where they should sit.....awwwww isn't it sweet to see youngsters in love? How about those who are out on what could be a first date...these were a bit 'new' still smiley and polite ( " oh I don't mind lover, where would YOU like to sit") He, being so masterful said he would get the drinks and she could find a seat for them and he'd find her......"what would you like?" ( see? new to this relationship...otherwise he would either have known or said "whaddaya want?) he was considerably taller than she and her head was level with his chest as she looked up and said " Oh larger and lime please" Now I can understand maybe spelling Lager incorrectly perhaps but surely she hasn't ever heard anyone call it LARGER?! Well that was Julie and me done for....we had no option but to get up and run....we fell out of the pub door spattering in our attempts not to hoot in front of the dear girl as she was trying so hard to impress her tall and handsome new boyfriend.
Some moments are just priceless in that it takes nothing more than a quick glimpse of something and your day is instantly cheered, I will hold with me forever the moment I glanced at a man's tattooed arm outside the school gates about 8 years ago, hard looking bloke if ever I've seen one and I only glanced at his arm because my friend Jane was doing that 'eye dance' you know, where you look at something and then keep looking away and back at it whilst very discreetly nodding your head at it in order to make someone else look at what you have just seen,well she did that at his forearm which of course made me glance at it and ....well.....it said......" I 'heart' EVLIS " there, does it get any better than that? Not a word said but a moment embedded in my mind for eternity.

Other moments are memorable for their ability to render you totally and utterly speechless with embarrassment, of course these are the very ones you get most out of after the fact, they tell beautifully for years, Sophie has been the most generous of my children for these moments. Her most memorable involve gas men for some reason, when she was 3 a gas man came for the sole purpose of removing a coin meter from under our stairs..weird little cubby hole in the front room and a bugger to get at. He did a stirling job though and although he had to bend almost double and have his bottom sticking out into the front room he was very english and uttered not a single complaint -- he would have been quite within his rights to complain because it seemed every time he tried to reach in just far enough to undo the bolt, his bottom came a bit further out and horror of horrors his trousers came down...builders' bum extraordinaire, I almost wished I'd had a bike to park in it....I knew though, as her mother, that a sight such as this would be way too impossible to ignore for Sophie so I kept her very busy in the kitchen with me. That was the plan anyway, I realised perhaps 12 seconds too late that she had snuck out....with the speed of lightening I flew out of the kitchen, down the hallway and into the front room just as she got behind the poor unsuspecting gas man, head in cupboard, arse in full view in the front room......."HA!!!!! LOOK AT THAT" she said' just as she shoved her pointed index finger into the crack of his bottom! I knowI heard a thump as his head hit the top of the cupboard but I didn't see if he was OK because I was back in the kitchen with Sophie squeezed so tightly in my arms and I had to shove a handful of her sweater in my mouth because there was no way I would have been able to stifle the guffaws any other way...he shot past the kitchen door not seconds later mumbling " all finished my love" and I swear it was a good twenty minutes before I caught my breath.