Frost

My job doesn't allow for illness. It looks like it does - I'm allowed a certain number of days' sickness, but the reality is that if either of us are away, there's no slack, no wiggle room, things fall apart.

Jo, my assistant, was ill. She literally couldn't crawl in. Yesterday, I managed, the particular programme and the particular school, allowed for me to be able to adapt and present it on my own. But not this morning's. This morning's presented the problem of my having to play two puppet parts at the same time. It never occurs to me what an odd thing we are doing when we're sitting behind the screen making puppets talk, but today, with a spider on one hand, and a slug on the other, talking to myself on silly voices, well, yeah, I was suddenly struck by the absurdity of it.

Before I went over to start, my friend said to me,
'Just stay calm, you'll be ok,' but I realised that what I needed to be wasn't calm at all, I needed to be hyper. I needed to keep the energy level above theirs to do that magician thing, misdirect, stop them from realising that anything was wrong.

Sparrows are missing in Britain. The Guardian wonders where they've all gone. And today, as I took the children to the bird feeding area, so were the birds. It was too quiet for too long, then we noticed the hawk, sitting in a tree watching for little plump snacks.