Some tricks just never go out of style

There's been occasional family discord around here of late over the curfew for the resident princess. See, there's that weeeee discrepancy between the time AAH feels she should come home on weekends [4-5 am] and the time her mother feels she should come home on weekends [2 am].

It's not an easy situation. In fact it requires such absolute finesse in negotiating that I bet I could be called out on a terrorist hijacking right now and would get all the hostages freed without a scratch. Seriously. If anyone out there knows of such a situation, especially if it's in an absolute deadlock, just email me. It's no problem.

Anyway, Friday night, AAH was going out and I said, 'Come home at 2' and she said, '3'. And I said, '2'. And she said, '3'. And I said, 'Okay but then you have to be home at 3 on the dot and you must phone a cab at 2.'* And she said, 'deal'.

So I drove her to where she was going and as she was getting out of the car I said, 'When you gonna phone the cab?' and she said, '2'. Very Good.

So EPI and I go to bed around 1.30 and leave the light on in the kitchen, and at 4 I wake up and go out into the hall and notice the light has been turned off. I check the front door to make sure it's locked, then I check AAH's room to make sure she's in there sleeping happily on her green ear.** And her door's locked. Which is not uncommon during the day, but it's something I've insisted she not do at night, just in case something happened. But I didn't think much of it, just that she'd locked it by accident, or something.

So morning rolls around and I get up and start getting ready for my translating course at the University. But oops - the hairdryer is not in the bathroom, it's in AAH's room, and I need it. So I go check the door again and it's still locked. I knock, gently. No response. I knock harder. No response. I knock and call her name: 'AAH!' No response.

And, you know, I'm starting to think things.

So I go fetch a krona to open the door [because they've put this safety unlocking device on the doorknob for parents who are in situations just like this one] and what do I find but an empty bed, that clearly has not been slept in all night.

And all I will say is, it's a damn good thing I know all about having a mad, intense, wonderful crush on someone, because if I didn't, AAH would be in a whole lot of serious trouble right now.

THERE'S NOTHING BUT WIND WIND WIND
It's been like this for days now with hardly any respite, and frankly I'm getting quite sick of it. Wind is such a colossal pain around here. It brings the temps down and makes it hard to go for a run. Bleh. Currently 5°C [41], and the sun came up at 9.19 and set at 5.02.

* Because the most common excuse for coming home late is 'I couldn't get a cab'.
** Nicelandic idiom.