This week was all about (indirectly, and also making it all about me me me) feeling like a proper grown up rather than a man-child pretending to be an adult.
You see poor old Fifi (well not so much old, she’s only 7) had to have some dental surgery at a London hosptial. Fifi has abnormally weak teeth. This is probably partially inherited but also due to having chicken pox at a young age and possibly an early course of antibiotics too. Who can say exactly why but the fact is that she brushes her teeth diligently after every meal, uses a special fluoride mouthwash, and has a low sugar diet (no sweets, and all we drink is tap water) but nevertheless had to have 6 teeth out, 2 capped and a treatment put on the rest, under a general anaesthetic at St Tomas’ Hospital earlier this week.
She was super brave, as was wifey, who hates hospitals. The next day was designated a day of rest so we installed Fifi on the sofa with the Fire TV remote and access to her kids Netflix profile. I sat snuggled with her for most of the day, providing freezy pops and ice cream on demand, and I got to see a very Fifi selection of movies:
- Oddball and the Penguins. It’s about a dog. And some penguins. “Heartwarming” is the word I’d use. I must admit I dropped off in the middle as it had been a very long day previously and I’d not slept well.
- Dear Dumb Diary. Diary of a Wimpy Kid for girls, lots more sass, some good dance routines and the glamorous aunt was cute.
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. A 2002 Dreamworks animated movie about horses in frontier America. This is Fifi’s favourite non Scooby-Doo related movie. We’ve seen it close to 3, maybe four billion times. It’s a good film for the first few hundred viewings.
- Zookeeper. Kevin James is like a fat more likeable version of Adam Sandler. This is a great feel good movie, funny enough to keep me entertained (comedy Mariachi bands tend to do that) while being aimed at the younger audience.
- Boxtrolls. It seems like this was only at the cinema yesterday but it’s one of Fifi’s favourites. The stop motion animation is great and the story very quirky.
- Hotel For Dogs. I have literally no idea about this one. I decided to make some dinner at this point and I don’t think Fifi finished it as she was playing Pacman 256 on the PS4 when I came back in.
What was great was we could sit together and watch stuff on Netflix without having to get up and change discs or endure endless advert breaks. It’s that time of year when I could happily ban television for the kids because whenever they watch it, I get endlessly harassed to buy whichever gaudy bit of plastic junk sponsors that show or is endlessly advertised. Although I’m on the Netflix blogger programme (the StreamTeam), Netflix is a service we genuinely couldn’t do without. We watch so little live TV now, the idea of actually waiting for something to be on is decidedly odd.
Thankfully Fifi was back at school yesterday, determined to carry on her education and put her dental woes behind her. Me, I had a surprisingly relaxed day on the sofa watching girly movies.