Other people's kids

Tonight I am babysitting. It is a joy to babysit where there is wine and wireless internet.

I love kids and enjoy spending time with my friends sprogs but there are regular things that as a surrogate auntie I get subjected to.

Here are some of my favourite moments with other peoples kids:

1. Bathtime. Yes they want you to be there at bathtime because it's such a novelty having you around they don't want to miss your presence for more than 10 seconds. Bathtime involves perching on the toilet seat (lid down) and being interested in all the bath toys, getting your jeans soaked (hilarious), listening to nazgul style screams (enhanced by bathroom acoustics), singing bath-time songs, washing hair (they all hate this), followed by crying and exiting the bath. No bathtime is without some trauma - slipping, soapy eyes, floating poo...
   
   
2. Story time. I quite like story time, except when I am nominated to tell the story in the precence of a parent (or at worse both parents). One friend revels hearing the words 'I want auntie Jo to read my story'. Mom and Dad will then sit and listen. Are you sitting comfortably? ... Mid story I get told I'm not putting enough effort in and they snigger at my character voices, I don't need this kind of stress, life is hard enough already.
   
   
3. The bedtime/goodbye kiss. I dread the following words: "Go and say goodnight to Jo". This is the worst possible thing to ask a kid to do. You sit there awkwardly as the child says "NO!" or just runs away. Or sometimes they approach and you have to try and give them a cuddle or a kiss while they squirm about. An alternative is when the kid comes at you open mouthed and you get covered in slobber. And all this under the watchful gaze of the parents.

I guess I should thank my luck stars I don't have to do all these things every day.

The Dark Night

This week I went on a bat walk with a friend who works for the Bat Conservation Trust. We completed a waterways survey which was last done 10 years ago, previous to that it had been done yearly so it was about time for a re-count!

The bats we were counting were Daubenton's, known as the 'water bat' as they fish insects from the water's surface with their large feet or tail.

So here's the drill, starting 40 minutes after sunset. There are 10 set points along the route, at each point you stand by the water for 4 minutes, one of you holds the bat detector (set to approx 35kHz for Daubenton's) and the other one holds the timer and a torch. When you detect a bat coming you shine the torch on the water to see the bat fly across. Then you write down how many you see in the 4 minutes. 

We had good fun, when we arrived it was still light and so we saw loads of Pippistrelles bats, it's cool when you're holding the detector and you hear when they're coming close. It was quite spooky wandering down a woody path in the dark and I kept on having to put various scary thoughts out of my mind. As well as the bats we heard an owl, saw loads of geese, some night fishermen and we startled a swan by shining a torch at it when it was minding its business on the water. 

I forget how much I enjoy being out in nature, it makes me ridiculously happy.