May/June 2014
Angelina Melwani and Mini-Me go
boho in ShoHo (- and Brick Lane... but that don't rhyme, innit.)
It's not unusual to
find me hopping up and down while teaching my Sing and Sign baby
signing classes (in Harrow, Bushey, Ricky and Stanmore) pretending to
be a rabbit or pretending to need the loo. But it is rare for me to
do so AFTER I have actually finished teaching for the morning and
while everyone is leaving the hall; and especially while grinning
like an idiot, punching the air, shedding a tear and making whooping
noises. Well. That would just seem rude.
On the one occasion
when this did happen however, there was a HUGH (sic – you'll get it
soon) reason for my vocal and physical display of joy. Prima Donna
of Positivity, one of my best mates in the whole world, had just
informed me via gadgetphone that her 11 year old son (I will call him
Futurestar) had won a part in the upcoming Peter Pan movie
with Hugh Jackman! It all started at school in the lunch queue for
chicken pasta, a non-vegetarian dish that Futurestar would not
normally eat but just fancied on the particular day when people
casting for the film happened to be walking around the school. There
followed auditions and screen tests. Prima Donna of Positivity
and I had both decided that the best thing to do was to put it to the
back of our minds and not obsess about red carpets and going on a
date with Hugh Jackman, when out of the blue she received the call.
It was Just Meant To Be.
Prima Donna of
Positivity and I decided to take Futurestar and Mini-Me
for a day out since we are both are the type to feel stifled if left
to stew too long in the suburbs. Our destination was the Geffrye
Museum and we hoped to catch Ceramic Painting, the free holiday
activity for 11 – 16 year olds which was to start at 2.30 and go on
for 2 hours (IF we turned up and queued from 1.30.) And no, in case
you are wondering, we had no intention of using those two hours to
wander the streets of ShoHo (Shoreditch/Hoxton) and locate a hip
hang-out where we could consume a daytime cocktail and honour our
inner lush. We would of course have come back after an hour and a
half to cheer as our high-achievers finished their pieces of art.
“Would” being the
operative word. Unfortunately, after half an hour of VERY fruity
language that Mini-Me had previously never heard exit these angelic
lips (-because she has never before seen me try to park someone
else's big black tank in a tight spot between two vehicles on a side
street near Canon's Park tube station-) it became apparent that the
children were not going to do any Ceramic Painting. Because it was
Not Meant To Be.
By the time we arrived
at the Geffrye Museum, all the places had been filled so we ate lunch
together and walked around looking at roomsets from various points of
time, Futurestar making very loud and repetitive electronic
noises with his mouth (a role in Star Trek surely beckons) and I
gaining understanding of the true nature of the difference between
having a son and a daughter. I spotted Edwardian chairs that I swear
I've seen starting at 15 quid recently on Ebay and items I
remembered from my childhood living room. Although perplexingly, the
70s roomset did not contain a feature-lamp depicting a semi-naked
statue having a shower in a gazebo.
After all that we were
not feeling enthusiastic about going home and fixing dinner so we
hopped on a bus to Brick Lane where we mooched around kooky shops,
looking at up-and-coming-designer dresses and vintage clothing.
Feeling the hipster-happeningness of Prima Donna of Positivity
permeating my pores by osmosis, I invested in two vintage Italian
handbags that will one day be bequeathed to Mini-Me. Unable to avoid
the subject of dinner, and consulting Tastecard we found Loco
Mojito where we stuffed Futurestar and Mini-Me's faces
with burrito and nachos at 50% off. What's more, Prima Donna of
Positivity and I got our cocktail after all. We took pictures of
the kids which were photobombed by a well-meaning guy having dinner
with his misses behind us.
Poorly planned but
perfectly executed; it was a wonderfully chilled day that was surely
Meant To Be.
More from the edge at
mynotesfromtheedge.blogspot.com. Twitter @appleina
Angelina runs Sing and
Sign award-winning baby signing classes in Harrow, Bushey and
Rickmansworth. www.singandsign.com.
