Day 2484. I had set my alarm for 11 am this morning. Of course I was up earlier a few times, but that's when I actually got up. I had to go to the kitchen to cook so we could eat at noon, and that's what we were able to do. But I was a little stressed as I had to leave the house with Tammy and Emmy at 12:30 pm already. We left a few minutes after that.
We rode the subway to the end, then walked to the location of their maths club. There were a minute or two late but they hadn't started yet. There was just one other kid there. I told the teacher that they already had to leave after half an hour today, at 1:30 pm, and asked permission to stay in the room which she gave me. So I sat down on a chair in the back. Last week they had done "mental arithmetics olympics" - without prior notice - so they were impatient to find out how they had done. There were trophies and medals lying on a table up front. Then the teacher started by calling out the one in second place as the boy in first place was in the other group. Next came third place - and I was surprised when she called Tammy's name. Tammy was over the moon and brimming from ear to ear! For once she was better than her brother who was in fourth place. Together with the other group, that was out of about 10 children. Emmy received his medal and sat down. Then the teacher started reviewing all they had learned this past year. As the parents never get to sit in the class and see what they are doing, I finally got a little insight and saw how much they've learned. At the same time, I kept watching the time as we had to be a the soccer place half an hour away by 2 pm. I kept watch on how many minutes it would be for the Uber to arrive, then we left just before 1:30 pm.
We were standing outside waiting for the taxi. Then we saw it approach and waved at it but the driver kept going. I kept waving at him after he had passed but he just kept going. I couldn't understand how that was possible. I thought he was gonna go around the block and come back, but then the app told me it was looking for another driver. Absolutely unbelievable! It was another 6 minutes for the next one to arrive, so in the end we left 10 minutes later than planned which made us arrive 10 minutes after 2 pm. The kids didn't mind. They were having fun with each other and with me in the car. Tammy would not let go of her trophy.
Randy and Sammy had taken the tram from home and got to the soccer field at 2 pm. Randy called me as Sammy was upset that we weren't there but ten minutes later we walked up to them. There were lots of people everywhere, and the kids from the morning games were only just leaving. We waited for a while for Emmy to register, then he could go join his coach and team. The rest of us left to find a spot to watch the games from.
Last time we had been there, everything was under construction. Now it was all finished. We stayed on top of the hill and found a bench along the ballustrade with available seats even though they were in the sun. But we could see well from there. At 2:50 pm the first match started - about 20 minutes late. Emmy's team played the third match - and they lost. They played two more games, losing one and winning the other. After 12 games, each team having played three times, they separated the four best from the other four, then those two groups played against each other in their groups.
Emmy had seen us up there and came to us a few times in the course of the afternoon though not often. Tammy and Sammy had their tablets with them to help them make time pass. Sammy also played ball with Randy, and the two of us role-played phone calls as he likes doing that. At some point I got very tired and had to close my eyes for a while. The kids also got hungry, so we got some fries for them, and Tammy and Emmy also had a slushy, plus Randy had snacks with him.
After a break, the second half started - another 12 games, three games per team. It was 5:20 pm by the time that started. This time around Emmy's team won one game, lost one and was tied once. By about 7:30 pm it was finally over. The kids were all getting tired after a long day, and usually go to bed at 8 pm. We all walked over to where they had their stage and waited for the award ceremony to start. They started from the bottom. Emmy's team was second in their group of the bottom four which means they were 6th out of 8 teams. Emmy was the first one on the stage and got his medal. They took a picture of the team, then they came back down. They still handed out fair trade prizes and best player prizes, then it was over. The five of us actually left right after Emmy's team had received both those prizes so we knew it wasn't Emmy who was getting it.
Emmy looked very tired as we were walking to the tram stop but he was also hungry, as were the others still. Randy was able to find some more snacks in his bag. We rode the first tram, then waited for the second tram that we also rode for a long time. It takes about an hour to get home from there, and we left at 8 pm. I had Emmy to my left and Tammy to my right, and both of them fell asleep leaning on me. I also closed my eyes and rested. I had to wake them up when it was time to get off the tram. We still had to ride the subway for one stop, then we were home. The boys were still hungry, so I quickly made them some bread with nutella while Tammy was the first one in bed. It was 9:30 pm before the last kid was in bed. I then made myself some soup and sat down to finally get a break after a long weekend. But I still had more work that I eventually started. Now it's 2:30 am and I still have to unload and load the dishwasher.
