January 14th, 1907.
Dam, today beats the coal shoveling experience by a long shot. Never would I have expected to voluntold as a draftee for the army, then complete basic training while still taking care of Ma. I'm a child for the queen's sake, not some cheap child labor! I can't criticize them though, I remember my days back when I was young. Ah, how we loved roasting raw meat on the ventilation fires that kept miners supplied with fresh oxygen.
Right after the initiation ceremony–which was initiated by ceremoniously dumping my head down a public penny–Ma had me get some sugar, flour, and 'everything else you need to bake a cake.' For everything else, I got eggs, cream, milk, some local fruits, and a pretty sweet food dye they sold at the local confectionery factory; Pop's had a particular liking to blue foods that were nearly on par with uncle Valdez's obsession with beach-loading artillery.
I really don't understand him. If it's blue food he likes, why doesn't he color everything blue? It's not like I love blue pancakes, blue waffles, blue soup, blue cookies, I could go on and on...
Recently though, Ma hasn't been up to the usual tasks she normally did, when I was younger. Just this morning, our bikes arrived as scheduled and were dropped off at Pop's workplace. Ma refused our every attempt at forcing her out of bed short of lethal force, including but not limited to bacon, a bugle call, banjo, signal whistle, tickling, etc. She only woke up when the sun went down.
A bit late in my book (If anyone but me is reading this, I will have you know this is, indeed, my book).
Pop's said I'll be serving as a personal assistant to his superior from now on. Pops may've been a general in America, but to the British, he was nothing in their culture. At most, Captain was the highest rank they could give him due to his excellent service record while keeping him from advancing any higher initially due to everyone's favorite: politics.
Apparently, Pops refuses to honor the queen to the fullest intent. If it weren't for the relaxed political tension between the two, I think they might send us back to America for subversion and obstruction of the natural peace. If you ask me, I'm perfectly fine with that. This place is too gloomy most of the time.
It's not like Texas–actually, it's a lot like Texas, so I can't really compare. Then again, I've only been here 6 days, but it's chilly enough to actively enjoy walking near the factories without sweating, so that's a plus. As they say during my time down there, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes–it'll change."
-Mark Twain.
Credit is given where credit is due, except when it's the financial kind.