Chinatown

Ben We stopped in a square by St. Pauls Cathedral. The bells were ringing and two ladies with two year olds stopped to admire my bike. One lady with a South African accent was an education consultant. We got talking about house swaps somehow. She has been wanting to do it. We had enough time to ride to Rich Mix, so we left on our bikes. Ben clasped his ears and said it was giving him a headache, the bells. A sunny day. Slight torture to sit inside with a movie on a sunny morning, so the riding there made up for it. A parrot film called Rio. Some popcorn costing the price of two  tickets. Some ham and cheese from the Brick Lane cheeseman who knows the leatherlane cheeseman. They all know each other. Years of selling cheese, I suspect you would.
A plastic miniature beetle that vibrates. A 2011 Dr. Who calendar for fifty pence. Some sanding blocks...six for a pound. Some ten pound notes that are actually napkins. A bracelet, a hamburger, a cabbie that swears by the stall. Liba's mum knows the person who wrote Brick Lane. I had dinner with her and Brindisi from Armenia and Liba's son in Chinatown. It was a mellow evening with very hot food that required some soy milk on the side. the Malbec was good. Happy time.
Time away from Ben. A few hours doing something myself without Ben. Every mother knows that melting point when you need to get away to redefine yourself before you lose your name. But things are cool between me and Ben. And Liba says that the cycle 7 to 11 is an easier one, the child more independent. Her son is 16 now. He is nice with floppy hair and headphones.