Daily Life

JULIET MORLEY, ex-rebate officer, mother of David, 5 months: The alarm goes off at ten past seven. We get up after the half past seven news. I made some tea, made Paul a piece of toast, had a piece of toast myself. David woke up about eight o’clock - no, that's wrong, he woke later than that this morning, because I cleaned up last night's dishes and things first. Had my wash. So he must have woken about half past eight, quarter to nine. After that I had my jeans in the machine and I was waiting for them to dry so I was wearing my dressing gown, and I did a bit of sewing while he was in a good mood after breakfast. He usually has a bath, I didn't give him a bath this morning, I gave him an all-over wash instead about ten o’clock. About quarter to eleven he had his nap for about half an hour, then we went down to the village to do a bit of shopping, about half past eleven. [Juliet moved from London to a Somerset village after her son's birth.] And he was hungry by this time. So he had his meal just before twelve. And then I put some more washing in the machine. He sat in his chair and played with rattles and chewed bits of celery. And then I took him round the garden, looked at the branches of the trees, that sort of thing; then I put him back to sleep.

I did some housework - I was doing the kitchen. He had his tea at four o’clock so I probably spent some time playing with him before that - if you play with him afterwards he's sick.