Typical Day
by David James Wright
Our day starts at 7am. Alarm clocks all over the house go off and sleepy children stumble1 out of bed. Milena, aged 2, is usually the only one left snoring2 as our day begins. The three school age children will sit and watch cartoons until I remind them they have to eat breakfast. Breakfast for them is cereal with milk or porridge; the older girls will drink a cup of tea too. If Rachael has to go in to work she will catch either the 7.23 or the 8 o’clock train. If it is the later she too will eat breakfast with us. If it is the earlier train she often runs out the house so fast there isn’t even time for the important morning cup of tea! For me a cup of tea and two slices of toast set me up for the day.
As each of the three school age children go to different school they each have their own school uniform3 so no fighting over clothes in the morning. Emily aged 12 goes to the large (1500 pupils) Secondary School (for age 11-18 year olds) of which there is only one in our town. She leaves at 8 o’clock and meets up with her friends for the 25-minute walk to school. Eleanor and Max both go to Primary School. Eleanor, who is 9, goes to the junior school while Max aged 4 is in his first year of infant school. When Max is 7 he will go to Junior school. It is more common for infant and junior children to be housed together in the same school building but in our town they are separate. Eleanor has to be at school by 8.45 while Max has to get there by 9 o’clock so it is convenient for me to drive them to school, along with the neighbours’ children who also go to the same schools.
Milena must also be dragged4 out of bed, dressed and fed by the time I am taking the children to school. The children all have a hot meal every day at school, Max is particularly fond of the desserts they get, his favourite is chocolate cake with custard. Milena and I have the day to ourselves to do all the things we need to do around the house. We can the go out to meet friends, go for walks or to the swimming pool.
At 3.30 in the afternoon we pick Max up from his school. We then get Eleanor from her school which finishes 15 minutes later. By the time we get home, at 4 o’clock, Emily is usually waiting for us on the doorstep. This routine5 is frequently interrupted as one daughter is practising in the school orchestra, another is playing netball6, or on Monday nights they are singing in the choir. The time between coming home from school and supper is taken up by doing any homework they have and then by watching more television. Sometime between 6 and 7 in the children all eat their evening meal. Max is usually ready to go to bed as soon as he has finished eating. We always have a bedtime story; Roald Dahl is his current favourite and he will fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.
Rachael usually gets home between 7 and 8 o’clock when we can eat together while the girls play with Milena.
By 9 o’clock they too are in bed though they read or chat for a while. Milena, who still has a sleep in the afternoon, is the last of the children to go to sleep. Rachael enjoys some time now with Milena. And that is a Typical day with the Wrights!
1 stumble – (зд.) вставать спотыкаясь
2 snore – храпеть
3 school uniform – в Великобритании школьники обязаны носить униформу
4 drag – вытаскивать
5 routine – обычный порядок
6 netball – женская игра, похожая на баскетбол
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