It's the little things

It isn't really a "little thing". It certainly doesn't feel like one, it feels like a huge, enormous thing. This evening, on three separate occasions, my dear, sweet C (who turned 10 at the end of December and is suddenly so very much not a little kid any more) said that, if she and L don't have their Sunday School class this week (it's alternate weeks, I'm not involved - D is the churchgoer - and just can't keep track of which week they have it, which they don't), she wants to spend the day with me and "do something with me". My heart melted, it truly did. She's often affectionate, and she still loves getting hugs and cuddles and kisses, but she's rarely (maybe never) shown such a keen interest in spending time with me just for the sake of being with me. I mean, if I propose something (not necessarily anything wild - it could just be making Christmas cookies together) and she wants to do that, then she wants to spend time with me. But this is different. She wants to spend time with me, pretty much regardless of what the "something" that we do is. And that has rarely happened before.

So, yeah. That's made me feel all warm and tingly this evening.

On a much more materialistic note, a truly little thing also made my day today: on the sale page of the Cath Kidston website (oh to have the money to truly kit out my home from that site...), I found an adorable fondue set for just €15, down 70% from €48... I know I'm flat broke and still in the throes of trying to sort out my catastrophic financial situation, but seriously: I have wanted a fondue set for years. I've priced them elsewhere but here in France at least (notoriously expensive when it comes to shopping, it has to be said) even ugly ones come out at almost double that. So, of course, I bought it, and it'll be arriving by post sometime in the next 10-14 days according to my invoice, but most likely much quicker than that now that Christmas is over. I'm sooooo excited! I adore fondue - cheese, meat, chocolate, all of them! - and I'm pretty sure even L, probably one of the pickiest eaters in the world, will like it too. And I know C will.

Obviously, making a fondue can't be the something we'll do together as my lovely fondue set won't be here in time (unless there is Sunday school this week, in which case it might be here for the next Sunday), but preparing one and eating one, just the three of us, could be a fun thing to do together.

And, finally, the third nice thing to happen today was that I got a call from a dear friend - originally "just" a fellow translator but soon a friend and even, for a while, C's wonderful daycare provider - whom I haven't heard from in several years. She had a translation job proposition (vaguely regular work, not particularly hard, possibly a little restrictive because of the short turnaround times) and thought of me. We chatted for about half an hour and have been invited - the three of us - to spend a day with her in Narbonne (where she now lives; the fact that she's left Montpellier is part of the reason we sort of lost touch). Really nice to be back in touch with her!

Can you tell that I'm trying to be upbeat this year?! No, seriously, things still aren't great, but today was a nice day with nice things, and I'll take that!