Everyone got very excited recently when the Ethical Co-op started offering unbleached toilet paper. Actually Dorje’s mom was probably most excited of all.

Dorje seemed impressed, but didn’t think it looked pretty enough. After all, brown toilet paper may be more exciting than its toxically bleached white counterpart, but it’s still not that exciting, is it?

Never fear! WIth a little bit of love and attention, the toilet paper can be brightened up. Mushrooms, guinea fowl, seals and tortoises…

You can see the last of the additions on the far left of this photo.

It’s his friend’s name, Leo (misspelled). I’m sure he meant well adding his friend’s name to the toilet paper.

A few weekends ago I took Dorje and his friend Jemima to the lake at Silvermine.

In spite of the freezing midwinter water, Dorje was quite keen to wade in.

And so was Jemima.

It didn’t take long for the wading to morph into soaking. Jemima, sopping wet, was sitting in the shade. I asked her if she was cold.

“No”, she said, firmly. “Are you sure you’re not cold?” I asked. “No!” she said, more firmly. Since she was shivering, I decided to stop asking and change her into the spare clothes I’d luckily been provided with in case she got too hot.

If I remember, at this point she was hungry, and helped herself to some of my cacao beans. See the clenched fists.

They didn’t remain so for long. Soon the beans were duck food. I hope they at least appreciated them.

When you’re cold, (and her replacement clothing wasn’t exactly warm) there’s nothing better than a little physical exercise to get the circulation going. Jemima led me (and Dorje) back and forth across the bridge a few times. The third time, Jemima decided to keep going, round the lake, into the trees. Dorje lagging behind me, Jemima racing in front. Trying to keep them both in sight, asking Jemima to slow down, and Dorje to speed up, was fruitless.

Soon Jemima was lost amongst the trees. After a few fruitless minutes searching, I asked Dorje to stay where he was, and went running off to try find her. Assuming she had run on, I charged off around the lake. Only to hear a scream to wake the dead. Back across the bridge, exactly the furthest point from me around the lake, Jemima was not happy.

I went racing back, again asking Dorje to stay where he was when I passed him, and crossed the bridge to fetch Jemima.

“Is she yours?” asked one family. “No, but I’m looking after her, and not doing a very good job” I joked. They laughed.

The next family gave me the evil death stare, and I decided not to crack any jokes and hurried on.

Having retrieved Jemima, and Dorje, we now had to find our bags, which I’d left somewhere in the all the chasing. Luckily some other children had found them, and they too were retrieved, a little less noisily.

Jemima’s mom was having an afternoon off to get some last-minute packing done in peace. I’d planned a meal on the way home, but decided to skip it. Jemima wanted to go home, and I wasn’t ready for any more trauma.

I spent most of the time from retrieving Jemima focusing on her. With her dropped off, Dorje and I drove home, about a 45 minute trip.

It was only when I was almost home that Dorje mentioned that he too had been scared. Left on his own (twice) as I charged around the lake, he’d been quite frightened, and I realised I hadn’t even noticed, or considered it.

All is well, but next time I’ll insist on at least two adults per child, not the other way around!