Aisling's Diary

Chapter 15

Saturday 12 November

1:00p.m.

Just got back from the dancing competition. What can I say? Well, here are a few words to describe it: waiting, boring, dancing, shouting, disappointment, waiting, watching, other people getting prizes, driving home. The truth is, Mrs Kennedy is right. I suck! No time to dwell. Lunch – hope Rory keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t keep going on about how much I sucked.

3:01 p.m.

Parties-to-Go start their business today. Just about to leave to go and meet Ali. I’ve just had a very worrying thought. What do I know about kids? What does any of Group C know about kids’ parties? Arghhh. Perhaps if I hide in my bedroom I won’t have to go and entertain 30 four-year-olds. Oh no, there’s the doorbell, it’s Siobhan. Gulp. I’ve got to go. 

3:45p.m.

Siobhan and I have just finished decorating the house. She wanted to do the house and for me to do the garden, but that seemed crazy because it would be much quicker doing both together. She really didn’t want to do it together, but in a while we really got a rhythm goin’ on. It looks great.

We had these helium balloons – if you breathe in a little bit of the air from one of the balloons it makes your voice go all funny – I kept saying ‘Siobhan, would you mind telling me about the main themes in James Joyce’ like Mrs C the English teacher and she was really laughing. We had to stop when Mrs Griffin came in because we are, of course, professionals but I could see Siobhan was laughing so much she couldn’t even look me in the eye and had to concentrate very hard on putting the balloons up.

All we have to do now is wait for the kids to show upso they can tear down all our decorations and we can tryto stop them breathing in the helium balloons. Fun! 

3:50p.m.

The first kid has arrived. He’s dressed as Spiderman – I think his costume is better than Tobey Maguire’s himself– it’s a perfect replica! How much must have that cost? 

3:56p.m.

Time, I think, to break out the old face paints.Unfortunately, I’m not as good as I thought at the Butterfly Face – mentioning no names, Ali, but I’m not one to hold a grudge, let’s get this party started. 

4:35p.m.

Mixed success with the face paints. I’ve got to be honest.I hadn’t exactly got round to doing the 20 practise Tigers the book told you to do. And it wasn’t quite as easy on the kid as when I was practicing on Siobhan, as she actually sat still and wasn’t trying to eat a big bowl of ice cream at the same time.

Even when I’d done my best job it was clear to everyonewho’s ever seen the Discovery Channel that he didn’t look like a Tiger at all. He looked like an orange and black stripy-faced kid. Mrs Griffin was not happy. She said, ‘And what type of Tiger is that, Aisling Fitzsimons?’ in this really funny voice. The kid looked like he was going to cry and I thought it was curtains for Parties-to-Go. But then Siobhan said ‘He’s a Celtic Tiger, Mrs Griffin?’ Then I started doing this funky dance. Singing ‘Ooh ooh I’m a dancing tiger’ with a couple of break moves and a big roar at the end. Then the stripy kid started shouting ‘Ooh, ooh, I’m a dancing tiger’, then suddenly a couple of kids near us started shouting ‘Us too’ and then they all made me do the same thing to them. Gotta go – there is a line of FIVE kids awaiting my face-painting skills. FIVE. Count ’em. 

4:56p.m.

If I ever see any type of wild cat again in my life it will be way too soon. I didn’t even think Ireland had any Tigers. Maybe it was in olden times.