today i was helping my friend sandi pack.

friend sandi is leaving hong kong after 25 years in our fair city. that might be another blog for another day.

however, at 2.35 i dutifully got up, brushed off my jeans (still tight from Christmas excesses if we are being honest) and rushed down to meet Gary and off we went to pick up the kiddos.

at kennedy school i was greeted by jasper who informed me that "i want to go to karate".

why?

some of you used to giving children the benefit of the doubt might wonder if he was inspired by the Karate Kid, which he saw bits and pieces of the other day.

some of you, who are suspicious and stingy (me) might wonder if the sudden interest in gis and martial arts might be because word has filtered down to jasper that after karate, i often take sebastian for an ice lolly.

whatever, he wanted to do karate. i let him.

sebastian of the big eyes walked up to me and said, "mummy, will you come and pick me up?"

now, i had planned to go back to sandi's, but where are my priorities? i said, "yes".

and the boys skipped off, jasper ecstatic.

then we noticed that jessica, carys' friend, was standing near us, tears streaming down her face. and when i say streaming, i mean STREAMING. poor little poppet. she was immediately surrounded by girlies who asked her what was wrong. and she replied, "my mummy isn't here!"

i pulled out my phone and said, "should we call her, jessica?"

that cheered her up and so i pressed CALL and gave the phone to jessica. who spoke to her mum and then handed the phone to me. while i was talking to her mum, who was about 30 seconds away from the school gates, another mum approached jessica.

i talked to that other mum for a bit. and we said that was one of the great things about kennedy school. how we all have each other's backs.

i went back to sandi's and we did a little bit of work. but soon it was time to pick up my little karate men.

however, we were late.

and as we turned on to sha wan drive, my phone rang. and it was a mum who has had to call me before, my friend Christine.

"hi tess"

"hi Christine…we're just coming!"

"sebastian just asked me, very calmly, if i knew where his mummy was. so i suggested we give you a call."

Forty five seconds later i was cuddling my little man and hearing all about karate.

But Sebastian said to me, "He can't find his mummy."

I called the friend over. He verified his helper was supposed to come and collect him. Or his mum. Neither were there.

I tried calling his mum. No answer.

Gary tried calling the helper. She said she was having a tough time getting to the school and hadn't left yet. Gary and I offered to drop the boy off.

Hilary wasn't kidding when she said it takes a village. Where would we be without those calls, people who stop when they see your child looking troubled, people who stop and take the time from their schedule to help someone else?