Chin Choo

Some days gratitude comes easily. 
Yesterday was one such day.
I was sitting on the sand beside Chin Choo with some of his friends as a group of 17/16 year old, top class footballers, two of whom are professionals, already playing in a junior premier league team, entered the sandy pitch.
As we watched them play 4 a side football, eyes wide open in awe, each time they did something brilliant, Chin Choo said wistfully, “there you are, did you see that?”
It was so exiting, just to sit a few inches from the action. After a few minutes the play was interrupted as one player left the group.
It was then that one of the two coolest players said “Chin Choo, come on”
Chin Choo swiftly wriggled his brown, slim, muscly body under the net and placed himself, feet apart on the soft sand, ready for action.


I knew this was his dream come true, but I was a little worried that he might get hurt, not yet 11 years old and  weighing only 32 kg but they played a clean, very technical game with virtually no body contact.
I will not bore you with the details but I assure you that Chin Choo played  brilliantly and even scored a goal.
This was the first time we’d been down to the beach for over a year because we prefer our beaches empty. Since the weather was not suitable for sailing and was threatening rain, I suggested that we walk all the way from where we live, down the beach to where the kids were. I didn’t mind the people. There were so many of them that they were rather like wall paper.
With only a bottle of water and diet food, we set off. I wore my new 5 euro bikini that I’d bought one size larger than usual so that the extra flab would fit in. It took two hours of weaving in and out of bathers, buckets, etc. and the wonderful thing is that I had no pain at all.
S. found the wallpaper intolerable and decided to walk home after lunch. I spent the whole day at the beach and had the most fantastic day. F. was especially kind  and chatty and the kids were as gorgeous as usual. I bummed a lift home and if you think that S. had our evening meal ready upon my arrival, you are wrong.
The blip is of today, up in the cool of the woods. We took a path we’d never tried before but is was far too steep and stony for my taste. Then it began to rain and we legged it back to the car.
If any of you have read thus far, I’ll let you into the secret that Lorenzo has this “Chin Choo” nickname down at the beach, on account of his oriental eye fold.
This is just for  me, to remind myself, later on.  
A. has been obsessed with swords and toy guns ever since he was tiny and at his very first opportunity to shoot at a fairground stall, all of his shots hit their target.

L., when he plays football,  can tell you afterwards, exactly what he did and why he did it and recall all the minute detail, including what the other players did. He can also sing a complex song correctly after having heard it once.