The Poppies' Blog

We had a lovely morning. Actually, I could say that our morning began last night. Here is what happened...

I tried to get Little Poppet to sleep last night, roughly around her usual time. She was full of energy (perhaps it is because we had such a late dinner) and she thought bed time was really just a suggestion anyway. And since I didn't have anything else to do I could happily rock her and sing to her for hours. And hours it was. I was yawning and my eyes were tearing up from how tired I was, trying to get her to sleep. Finally at somewhere between 1 AM and dawn, she fell asleep. I'm fairly certain I fell asleep first but she was asleep at 4 AM when I realised it was freezing cold and I had no duvet!

So, knowing our plans for morning I thought, I'd better have my shower now so we aren't late. It was a fleeting thought followed ever so closely by sheep jumping over fences. Well, maybe not sheep though I was not conscious either way.

At 9.00 AM my eyes opened and through the blur I noticed that one clock said 9 and another one said 10 AM. I chose to go with the earlier one but knew I had no choice but to awaken Little Poppet for our big day. I also had to take a shower. So at 9.30 AM I woke her and gave her breakfast and then briefly stopped under the running water, hopefully long enough to at least look and smell cleaner than I was.

No problem. I had until 11.30 AM to get us all ready and out the door. So, at 11.25 AM I phoned to say we were going to be 'five minutes late' and hope that this man's wife had him trained on what that really meant. He said no problem he actually wouldn't be ready for about 10-15 minutes! WHEW!

Well, I had to get dressed, comb my hair (quickly adding some hair conditioning styling cream to it), put it in a hair tie, then rush to get Little Poppet dressed and her hair combed. Okay, so ahhh good time for a nappy, not a problem I have 15 minutes seconds to spare! So, I changed the nappy, put on her tights (who's idea were tights anyway? I have some 'issues' to discuss with them) and her dress and her cardi and her coat and her shoes, run my fingers through her hair (putting the comb in my pocket) and out the door I flew!

AT 12.00 PM I rang the bell for my 11.30 AM appointment. I considered making the excuse 'sorry I'm late, I had to walk' but since they are next door I thought that would only confuse matters.

You see, our neighbour is a professional photographer and was taking pictures of Little Poppet! Now, he doesn't usually take kid's photos but since they now have a little boy he thought he was up for it. I hadn't ever seen his work and I never knew if he had a web site so I didn't really know what I was in for but I thought it could only be better than our home snaps taken by my husband or me.

Roughly two hours and one half smirk later he had two or three 2GB cards filled. Yes, two hours of Little Poppet throwing some baubles across the room, waving her arms to the wheels on the bus and the back of her head as she tried to look at the white background.

At one point he thought it would be a great idea to have her actually sit on the paper so he rolled it out. Yes, she loved it. In fact, she tore it! Not a big deal, just a little tear, about 14 inches long.

At this point, Daddy arrived home for lunch and came round to see us. I was on the floor apologising over and over for the tear in his photography backdrop and attempting to will it back together (clearly this takes more 'mind power' than I can muster) and quickly looked over my shoulder to say hello.

The look on his face was one of... confusion. No, more than confusion, it was as though he had no idea who I was. He asked me what I had done to my hair. 'Oh, I washed it just before leaving so its probably not dry yet.'

Wrong. It was dry, but has anyone seen Lazy Town? It looked plastic. It looked like cartoon hair. You see, the styling cream I put in is supposed to be put in lightly. Perhaps just a little dot in your hand. In my rush I apparently put enough to 'condition' my hair and it was now a crunchy, hard shell on my head.

Now, you'd think at this point I would have died from embarrassment. I mean, the fact that not only had this happened, but it is documented on film. Yes, I was in some of the photos. What I want to know is if he just didn't notice the unusual texture of his neighbour's hair, if he was too afraid to ask... or worse, what else would one expect from the nutter next door? Or, he thought his wife just wouldn't believe it so he has to show her.

Well, darling husband stayed for the rest of the time to catch flying toys and baubles and at one point to get me a nappy since in my haste I forgot any. Thankfully he is in some of the shots too. Yes, this is going to be just as embarrassing for him, with that one hair out of place and all.

So, we chatted a bit and I got her coat on and we all left his home, leaving a fairly large trail of destruction. When we got in, I gave Little Poppet a bath, fed her lunch and put her down for her nap.

So, now tonight after my darling husband arrived home from work we were reminiscing about the lovely photo shoot and deciding not to give up our jobs to live off the income from her baby modelling. So, we decided to have a look at our neighbour's web site (we'd never known it prior to today). So, we typed in the URL, clicked enter and saw his name appear. We then clicked to enter the site and saw his portfolio. We checked the contact details thinking we'd somehow typed it wrong or there was perhaps another photographer by the same name (actually, there IS another photographer with his same name). Nope, it was his site. The contact number was his mobile number.

This is where I absolutely died of embarrassment. You see, this quiet, unassuming and humble man. This gentlemanly neighbour that chats with us over the front gate, this happy chap who keeps after my husband to go cycling with him. This man that we thought must eek out a little bit of a living for them with his snaps... but his wife works as well so we didn't know who was the main income. This man has taken photographs of some of our top politicians and TV personalities, even a famous actor and a photo shoot at the House of Lords. This man has taken professional portraits of ....NELSON MANDELA!

WHAT??? When? How?

We are absolutely gobsmacked. On one hand, it could be considered kind of cool that he's also taken of our Little Poppet... but then his comments about how this was good practice for him and our thinking we were maybe helping him a bit we feel rather... silly. I somehow don't think he needs any practise. I'm beside myself that she didn't even smile once for the man either! And I bet Nelson Mandela never tore his backgrounds!

Ah well, God uses such humorous things to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously. And our neighbour? Well, he's still the same lovely chap. We'll still have our neighbourly chats and smile and wave. Not sure if we'll dare bring our Little Poppet into his home again but lets hope we get some lovely photos! If anyone can make these photos look good, I reckon its him. Lucky thing he got in a little practise.