La Cocotte

About half an hour walking from where we live is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in the greater Tunis area. Villas surrounded by large gardens, lots of green and surprisingly clean: this is clearly an elite place. Café Journal is located here, and right next to it is restaurant La Cocotte. The building in which La Cocotte is located looks exactly the same as café Journal and the atmosphere is very similar. There is inside seating and around that a terrace on a verandah-like area. Part of the verandah is a playground, which Rihanna Gaga is immediately interested in. She will spend the rest of our time here almost completely on this playground.

And she's got a lot of playing behind her already, today. This morning we went to the baby and toddler group, an initiative for - but not limited to - expats living in Tunis with small children. Once a week, between 10.00 and 12.00, people get together at somebody's place so that their children can play together. I can't go there too often, since I mostly work on Wednesday, but this week I've swapped my free Monday for a Wednesday so that we could join the group.

Needless to say, I was the only dad this morning, as I always am when Rihanna Gaga and I join the group. I could feel awkward about that, but I decided to just completely ignore it. In any case, Rihanna Gaga had a great time. The house where we gathered was great, with a playground and a swimming pool and lots and lots of toys, including a large collection of cars - the child who lived here was a boy - which she loves playing with. As always, she was a bit timid at first, preferring to assess the situation from my lap before venturing about a little bit, but then she didn't mind playing on her own and of course, when we had to leave she didn't want to. A boy she sees regularly was there too, but she was disappointed because her favourite friend, a girl of about the same age, didn't come. Nowadays, when Rihanna Gaga wants something, she'll just start repeating her demand non-stop - so she was now repeating the name of her friend non-stop, until she found something better to do. In fact, she used to have two favourite friends, but one of them left the country for good recently - thankfully, she kind of seems to understand this and doesn't ask us anymore to take her to her place.

I don't feel so well. I had a terrible cold last week and I am still sniffing and coughing, feeling weak and worn out.  So I am quite happy Rihanna Gaga is fine with playing by herself. I order a salad - I feel like eating something light as there were a lot of cakes and cookies at the baby and toddler group - and the waitress is disappointed I don't order the mussles with fries for which this restaurant is apparently famous. I tell her some other time - the disaster of the mussles in Bizerte is still too fresh a memory - and pick up my book. Rihanna Gaga is playing with an older girl of about seven years old on the playground. She has great fun with the girl. There was a short moment of friction when one of them wanted to close the window of the playing house and the other wanted it to be open, but I told them that they could take turns in opening and closing the window and after that everything went well.

The salad is very, very good: two round pieces consisting of layers of mozzerella cheese, tuna, olives and rucola, served with bread and spreads. It's all very fresh and tasty. Rihanna Gaga is too busy with playing: she only comes to eat some bread and sip some orange juice when the girl is told to sit down to eat with her parents, but then quickly returns to the playground. After I've finished eating, I continue to read.

Two young children - a girl of about two and a boy of about four - enter the playground to and suddenly the mood changes. The older girl teams up with them against Rihanna Gaga, who is kicked out of the playhouse, after which the doors are locked and she's told that she is not allowed to enter anymore. Children are cruel creatures and I tell the other children that the house does not belong to them, but they deny this - apparently the feel it does. Their parents, who sit close by, do not act at all. They see what's going on, they see my growing irritation, but instead of correcting their children - as I would do if Rihanna Gaga behaved like this - they take out their cell phones and immerse themselves in whatever it is they see on the screen.

Rihanna Gaga is a smart girl. She sits down at a table and is soon emerged in her own play again, in which a seat  that has come off from one of the chairs is a plate of food from which she's eating. There is even some interaction with the older girl again. But then the other children take the chair seat from her, retreat back to the house and lock the doors again. Of course, Rihanna Gaga starts crying. I try to correct the other children, but obviously I am in no position to tell them to let go. The parents glance towars me but then are quickly immersed in their cell phones again. I pick Rihanna Gaga up and comfort her. Other than that, there is nothing I can do for her, because I can't raise other people's kids. We pay and leave. Only a few minutes later, she's laughing again. When I ask her if she enjoyed the playground, she confirms cheerfully and tells me that the girl was very funny.