a faded poster for Cinderella, hanging from a closed restaurant’s window.

Long week, plenty of things happening around here.

  • πŸ‘©β€πŸ« We had a meeting with tinyMovieStar’s kindergarten teacher. Annual report on the table. I feel my heart explode with love when I read these reports! We know she is awesome, but seeing it all on paper, written by someone who’s not a family member, is just the best feeling ever. Next year she’s moving up to another class, and she’s already planning how to still be able to meet with this year’s teacher. The teacher, super cool, gets her really well and, when figuring out which teacher she’d have next year, and what little friends would move with her to that class, made all the right choices, according to us. Very well played!

  • πŸ–οΈ A little after that meeting, we picked up the little one, and drove to the beach. It’s so close that’s hard not to do it. It was super windy though, so we could only spend an hour or so. We then moved to a place nearby, a house bought by one of movieStar’s friends. A French lady, living in NY. She bought a place in the last place you’d imagine someone like that being interested in. We had drinks, some food, and left well into the night, the little one asleep as soon as we got to the car.

  • πŸŽ‚ Next day: Saturday. One of tinyMovieStar’s friends from school had a birthday party. We attended. She’s two years older than our little princess. We actually met her mom on the island, while she was shooting a movie there (she’s a camera person), pregnant. It is a very small, small world! Now she’s living close to us, and they attend the same kindergarten. Anyway, she decided to have her birthday party an hour outside the city, and a place with a pool and a special breed of donkeys. We did not see the donkeys a lot, but enjoyed the pool for hours! Again, as soon as we got in the car to drive back to the city, tinyMovieStar crashed.

  • πŸ’– On to Sunday, and what was probably the craziest thing of the week: Cinderella! There’s a famous theatre producer in the city, known for very colourful musicals. He decided to give us his version of Cinderella, and it was a huge hit. Yesterday was the last performance, and movieStar’s oldest friend managed to get her hands on some VIP tickets (she’s an actor, and knows the guy). Also, her daughter is one of tinyMovieStar’s best friends, and, of course, she’s in the same class at kindergarten. The four of them went to the show. At the end of the performance, since it was the final one, they had a celebration, a party fit for princesses. tinyMovieStar got to meet the cast but, obviously, as far as she’s concerned, they’re the real deal. She hugged and kissed Cinderella, she ate cake with Cinderella, she met the prince, she… Well, she went CRAZY!

  • πŸ› On Tuesday, we got a call from the in-laws, letting us know they’d be in town, and would have dinner with us. A surprise family dinner! We messaged a brother-in-law, the one who lives in town, and invited him as well. Aunt Marta would come along, of course, and that is always a treat for tinyMovieStar. We’re not used to host that many people at our place, but managed to entertain, and feed, everyone. tinyMovieStar missed her grandparents after a weekend without her usual visit, and that was fixed.

  • πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ We enrolled tinyMovieStar in swimming lessons. There’s a pool really close to home, so we’re taking her there. The pool belongs to a well know club here, one we used to compete against decades ago, when we were swimmers. My brother and I swam in competitions for many years, from very young kids, well into our teenage years. No sure I want her to go through all that, but swimming is obviously a skill she must have.

  • 🏦 I know I’ve complained before about this, but the bank that holds my mortgage for 30 years has an inordinate amount of imbeciles working there. Thursday was the day when, supposedly, the money would be gone from my account, and the mortgage would be paid for. So, when I saw their closing time approaching, I decided to visit a branch, and make sure this was happening. It was not. The clerk that handled the whole thing forgot one document! How does this happen, when all they do is handle loans? No idea. I did, however, and quite surprisingly, managed to walk out of the bank without any threats of physical violence. I did end up telling the nice lady that her bank is really a shitty one, and this issue was yet another proof of that. Will be back next week.

  • 🍭 Special shoutout to Vincent, and the new Tinylytics service, now with Kudos! Whenever you’re reading a post on the blog (not often, I know), and just want to let me know you’ve liked it, you can tap the lollipop. I won’t know it’s you, of course, but the lollipop count will increase, and my heart will sing.

  • 🧡 And Threads! Even though the app is not available in the EU, I did remember I had a dormant US App Store account, and used that one to get in. I’m in there, if you’d like to follow. Not sure where this is going, but I had to give it a go. Instagram is still the network where I have more friends and family, even though most of them can’t join at the moment. The app feels a bit beta, but nice. Photos look nice there too.

  • πŸ“Ί Jack Ryan’s new season is available on Prime+, with a couple episodes ready to view, so that’s done. Hijack, on ο£ΏTV+. I don’t even care if it’s good, for I’ll watch anything with Idris Elba in it. Since I had to pay for a month to watch it (as this is the streaming service we don’t have a yearly sub with), I watched an old favourite’s second season: Slow Horses. I want season 3 right now, I’d forgotten how good this one is. To top it off, nothing like this week’s episode of The Righteous Gemstones.

  • πŸ’ˆ It was time, so a new visit to the barbershop. I now use these to make a few new photos from the shop, and offer them to my barber, so he can use them on social media (Instagram). It’s been a couple of days now, and the photos remain unedited. Told ya, busy week!