Sunday

Oliver awoke from a nap of just over an hour, late on Sunday afternoon, and was very cranky for a while. I decided to take him into the bigger of the two convenience stores near us to let him explore. He began identifying letters and numbers on the displays and products on the racks in front of the counter, which greatly impressed the woman working there, so she let him walk behind the counter.

'What's this?' she asked him, pointing to a pack of duMaurier on the shelves.

Aargh, don't teach him about cigarettes now! I thought.

Oliver remained silent.

'Red!' she said, and I was relieved to discover this was going to be a primer on colours, not tobacco products. Yellow for Matinée, blue for something else (Dunhill, maybe?), and so on.