Magic dragons
2002-10-26 || 8:38 a.m.

I would say 'good morning' but I doubt that it is.

I have a raging sore throat. So the Russian authorities stormed the theatre. Great. I don't know what is wrong with this world. Nationalism is just plain evil I think. I'm totally talking out of my arse here because I am ashamed to say I know next to nothing about the political situation in what was the USSR. I know they were joking about it at school yesterday which rather pissed me off: saying that the old atlases now were back in fashion (ie now that USSR went back to the myriad of other states). Mind you, they piss me off quite a lot. The other day someone was talking about when 'they' come to 'our' country, 'they' should follow 'our' customs. That sort of thing makes me feel quite ill.

Mind you, I think I pretty much pissed them off too with my anti-smacking statment (see yesterday), they are mostly of the opinion that 'it did me no harm' but to me that's just not a good enough justification and quite honestly I cannot think of any justification that would be good enough. Quite frankly the only thing I would agree with, would be, when people are pushed they can get violent; but we need to be stronger than that if we are to be civilised.

Anyway, there I go, fucking off on a tangent again. I actually came to write a bit more about Puff the Magic Dragon.

Bex had a bad day yesterday. I don't know all the details - just the edited mum version but its to do with cutting and being found out at school. Not just her, but two of her friends as well. They are all cacking themselves. I told Eleanor on the 'phone last night that if anyone speaks to her about it, she should say she will only speak to a doctor or the school nurse about it because she wants her feelings and actions kept confidential. Eleanor thinks that if her parents find out they will stop her being friends with Rebecca. I say that is bullshit. No-one has the right to dictate who you keep company with, certainly not when you are 13/14 years old and anyway, why do people always assume that it is other people's children who are to blame? Why do they deny their children have a mind of their own? Especially when we are talking intelligent girls at a grammar school. Being led by others? I think not. Only if you want to be led.

Anway, Bex wanted to play the record 'Puff the Magic Dragon' which, amazingly, we found straight away. She loved it when she was small and like I said yesterday, I wrote extra verses so that Puff came to live with her. But we just couldn't decide last night if Jackie Paper's loss of faith killed Puff.

(Haha, I could do a Phd paper on that - 'the allegory of Puff and loss of faith')

Anyway, I find she has left me a note accusing me of lying to her - Puff never did come to live with her, he was dead! So I just made another diary and had Puff leave her a note. Hopefully it will cheer her up.

I do, however, wish I was a far, far better parent.