Friday, Cornwall

The day began well enough with Buckaroo, jigsaws, video, etc. Carolyn and Ray dropped round and we offered to look after Ray. Perhaps it was a result of tiredness or the unfamiliar surroundings, the bad weather (driving, though mild, sea weather – rain that soaks you through very quickly, poor visibility) or the fact that they had both been given far too much sugar (sweets, chocolate spread, etc), but Amy began to behave abominably. She’s begun recently to occasionally snap at Is very rudely, seems to happen when Is is trying to be patient and understanding. This time Amy began whispering with Ray in a way that excluded Gabes and Is asked Amy to make sure Gabes knew what they were saying. The ensuing argument continued until I had to send Ames to her room. She refused to go, so I carried her there. Much screaming. I’ve very rarely done that, not good. Could see the angry frustration it caused. Some kind of boundary transgressed on both my and Ames’s part. Took a long time to calm down. Eventually made it out by mid afternoon. Drove around in the wind and rain, visited a tearoom for cakes and suchlike. Gabes now defiant in public. Events began to feel sort of nightmarish. Finally got them to bed, but feeling emotionally fragile, bruised. Is went out for drink at local pub and Carolyn’s mum kindly offered to babysit, so I joined Is when she arrived. Really nice hour with a pint of Doom bitter (we’d already crossed Slaughter Bridge to get here and noted somewhere nearby called Strangler Beach…), with Mike, Carolyn, Tracey and Jane, curtailed all too soon by the need to go home to relieve Carolyn’s mum.