• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

belgianwaffle

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives

Archives for July 2004

Travelling

6 July, 2004
Posted in: Princess, Work

I have been rejected for three more jobs (two of which I interviewed for) and spent 17 hours on trains with the Princess since I wrote last.  It’s no wonder I’m too depressed to pick up a keyboard.

Also did have a very nice week with my parents in La Rochelle where the Princess learned to love the ocean (provided that she was not immersed above her chubby knees) and continued her love affair with sand.  However, my memories are hazy as all of my brain power was required to keep my sanity on the 10 hour train ride home.

Princess update perhaps not of interest to the general reader.  She continues to stand occasionally but resolutely refuses to walk. She loves slides and was able to go down one all on her own in La Rochelle.  Very thrilling.  She has now extended her vocabulary to say “baby” and “all gone”. The latter sounds like “aga” when she says it but we know what she means.  She will now also say “ta ta” when given something she wants, provided it’s done in good time.  Any delay in giving her what she wants is met with fury. Quite terrifying.  If you say “where’s your choo choo” or “where’s your doggy” she will crawl off and retrieve those items.  She blows kisses.  She imitates. So when I said “shush” on the epic train ride and put my finger to my lips she did the same to all of our long suffering fellow travellers.  If I sigh, she will sigh back.  She beats her chest and makes tarzan noises which is something, I would like you to know, that I only do in the privacy of my own home.  She’s fantastic.

Comments
Angela

(Homepage)

on 06 July 2004 at 16:20

If I owned a company, I would hire you in an instant! And then I would constantly come over and force you to leave your desk and talk babies and books and beer with me. (And, of course, I wouldn’t let the pesky managers fire you because of all the time you spend away from your desk talking babies and books and beer. Because, you know, I own the place!)

Locotes

on 06 July 2004 at 16:40

Sorry about the interviews – something will come up in the end (I know that’s a horribly annoying thing to say, but it IS true – keep the faith…though not necessarily in a Bon Jovi-esque way).
As for the Princess update – it’s all very impressive. A career in method acting awaits possibly, with all the sighing and inner fury. I’m at a bit of a loss with the beating of chest however….whatever keeps you happy in the confines of your own home I suppose.

jackdalton

on 06 July 2004 at 21:29

Hang in there, ‘waf.
You only need a bit of luck to make that breakthrough: and it will come. And as Locotes says, don’t lose perspective: it will all fall into place soon enough 😉
Princess updates are much enjoyed…

belgianwaffle

on 08 July 2004 at 13:23

Thank you, thank you. I feel all virtually supported. Frankly, I need all the support I can get. One of the interviewers offered feedback to unsuccessful candidates. I got my feedback yesterday. Can I offer a little tip here: if you didn’t get the job, don’t bother with the feedback, it’s just too depressing.

jackdalton

on 09 July 2004 at 00:27

nooooo you must get the feedback; at the very least it inconveniences the buggers, epecially if you ask for notes and jottings from the interview board. 🙂

belgianwaffle

on 09 July 2004 at 21:04

I know what you mean Jack and that was entirely my original motivation but the humiliation is CRUSHING.

jackdalton

on 10 July 2004 at 11:40

Only if you let it be. I’d suggest you make a list of the things they said and then rate each – in a balanced, honest way – as either A: ‘they may have a point here and this is something I can work on’, B: ‘perhaps, but there’s noting I can do about this’ or C: ‘stupid jerks they lack vision on this, so sod them’. Then set about fixing the A’s, don’t apply for jobs that need B’s and be proud of your C’s.
Not too scientific, but it works… 😉

belgianwaffle

on 11 July 2004 at 22:31

Yes, but it’s so hard not to feel that all their comments are Cs even though I know they can’t be really.

Lost in translation

8 July, 2004
Posted in: Reading etc.

Saw it on DVD at the weekend. Brutal.  What may have been artistic ennui on the big screen was plain old ennui on the little screen.  Didn’t help that herself was in roaring mode so we had to keep going off and tending to her. After a while we didn’t even bother pausing because shag all was happening anyway. Also because we’re still wrestling with pause and fast forward on the DVD and the Princess isn’t old enough to explain it to us yet.  Locotes, I blame you for raising my expectations.

More LRB personals:

“Heaven knows, I’m miserable now.  Emotional wreck, club-footed, anxious M, 33, living a half-life in a garret in London, seeks solace in the brawny arms of a charming man, 30 -40.  I’m afraid I loathe opera but love Morrissey, dodgy Brit sci fi, Barbara Pym’s novels.  Lower those expectations at box no. 12/15”

The pile of newsprint has built up in my absence.  We receive the following through our letterbox:

The Economist (weekly)

Saturday’s Irish Times (weekly)

The LRB (fortnightly)

The BCT magazine (don’t ask – monthly)

Test achat (a consumer magazine – please don’t ask – monthly)

Musee des beaux arts newsletter (quarterly)

Because this lot are not enough to keep us going we also get

The Observer (weekly)

Le Soir (weekly)

The European Voice (well – I have to look for my jobs somewhere – weekly)

The Bulletin (see above – weekly)

As assiduous readers will know, and if you’re reading this, you’re assiduous, I’ve been away for a week and the accumulated weight of stuff is threatening to crush me.

Mr. Waffle wants to know if we’d like to subscribe to the “The New Statesman”.  I don’t think so.

Comments
DruidX

on 08 July 2004 at 22:06

I think I just learnt a new word.
‘Assiduous’ means very often right? 🙂

jackdalton

on 09 July 2004 at 00:56

Yes, give LiT another try. It’s a wonderful and quirky watch. Hang herself out the window some evening in the baby bouncer or deploy HiredHelp. then give it another go. Or read it.
New Statesman is a good read too: I’d ignore you on this if I was MrW.
😉

belgianwaffle

on 09 July 2004 at 20:56

Ok lads I may try LiT again but maybe even at its best it’s a boy film.
DruidX, I think assiduous means very thorough but I had a moment’s doubt there when you asked me and I checked it in the dictionary where it says “showing great care and perseverence”. Am quite pleased with that now, I think assiduous was the very word I was looking for though I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time.

Locotes

on 10 July 2004 at 18:41

A boy film?? That’s just crazy talk…it’s a rom-com! Total girly domain. It’s just that Bill Murray is a legend, and it’s actually a really well-done humourous yet touching piece. And there isn’t much out there that gets me to say that…
As an assiduous cinema-goer, I urge you to give it another try.

belgianwaffle

on 11 July 2004 at 22:29

As a person who has become increasingly less assiduous in recent times, I don’t think I can face it. On the plus side I have booked the last installment of the LOTR on vid for when Mr. Waffle goes to Wales for the w/end for his brother’s stag. Am quite looking forward to it. Sad really.

Locotes

on 12 July 2004 at 12:38

Nothing sad about LOTR – it’s just won an oscar for chrissakes – so anyone making jokes about pointy ears and gay hobbit action is the outsider – not you.
😉

belgianwaffle

on 12 July 2004 at 13:01

I’ll revert on that Locotes. V. excited about Cork city win. Quite amazing.

Locotes

on 12 July 2004 at 14:01

Well I know we both do our best on a daily basis to promote the mighty Cork with our splendiferous writings – but I felt an actual post about the lads and their excellent win was required. I’m sure most if not all 20six is in awe.

belgianwaffle

on 13 July 2004 at 16:12

Loc, surely ALL 20six must be amazed and astounded.

A life of crime

8 July, 2004
Posted in: Belgium

I was in the post office a while back and I saw a sign from the Flemish tourism agency saying “fill in a card and we’ll send you all our brochures absolutely free of charge”.  So, I did.  Brochure arrived and it was mostly advertising.  I was about to chuck it in the wastepaper basket when I see that they have a little note as follows:

“As we mentioned, the book of ideas and brochure are completely free: all we require from you is 2.50 to cover post and administration costs”.

The nerve.  However, we subscribe to test achat and we will shop them for their iniquity.  In the interim, I am inclined to pay, but Mr. Waffle is not.  It is not his misspelled name that is on the bill though and I fear that the commune police will come knocking on our door and haul me away for non-payment of debt.  I’m living on the edge here, I can tell you.

Comments
jackdalton

on 09 July 2004 at 01:03

Shop them; they deserve it.

belgianwaffle

on 09 July 2004 at 20:59

Um, HJB, no, Belgium is sort of like Switzerland, if Switzerland has lots of different police forces but it’s not clean like Switzerland and they don’t care about washing anything on the street as far as I can tell. The main task of the commune police is to ring your doorbell to check that you live where you said you lived when you registered with the commune. You think that I’m making this up, don’t you? Would you believe that they have guns to accomplish this difficult and dangerous task.
Jack, would have to compose a letter in French and am probably too lazy for that so it will just sit and taunt me on the desk for a bit, I suppose.

Intercultural meetings

10 July, 2004
Posted in: Belgium, Mr. Waffle, Princess

On Friday the Princess and I went to the Royal Museum for Central Africa where we met the best dressed diplomat and various cousins who were visiting her from distant Chicago.  The little boys had no interest in the Princess but the little girl (6) was delighted with her and showed her round the museum leaving me to stroll in their wake chatting to the adults.  All very pleasant.  And they were all nice Americans, you know the way we used to laugh at our American cousins for being so nice when we were all growing up?  Well, I can tell you, there is nothing as nice as polite, well-behaved, little Americans when you are spending a wet afternoon in a museum with a one year old.
The museum itself is a funny place.  It was built on an imposing scale by King Leopold II to celebrate his conquest of the Congo.  The exploitation of the Congo was particularly dreadful.  Joseph Conrad wrote a book about it “The Heart of Darkness” and Roger Casement wrote a damning report for the British government.  But the museum is curiously unaware of these developments.  Nowhere is there an acknowledgement that dreadful things happened in the Congo when Leopold and co. were in charge.  This may be partly because a lot of the exhibits and display cases don’t seem to have been updated since the museum was built in around 1900.  This is part of the charm of the establishment, in many ways.  There is a piece of wood from the tree under which Livingstone’s heart was buried accompanied by a handwritten note from the donor confirming its authenticity.  There is Stanley’s case which has a handwritten note pasted on to it in fading writing saying “This suitcase accompanied my brother across Africa.  It is not to be used under any circumstances or to be removed from my bedroom.  Dorothea Stanley”.  There are old maps of Africa dating from the 1400s.  The one that impressed me most was one from 1825 where they were truthful about what they knew and almost the entire of central Africa had “lands unknown” written across it.  Best of all, from the point of view of the children, there were stuffed animals.  Lots and lots of stuffed animals. The Princess reached febrile levels of excitement when she came to the enormous elephant.  She grabbed the rail round it and stood on her tiptoes squeaking and pointing.

Friday, was terribly thrilling also as it involved a birthday party.  This was Mr. Waffle’s first children’s birthday party in a long time and, fortunately for him, it was a relatively civilised affair where the adults outnumbered the children by about 3 to 1.  Still and all there was falling, vomiting and crying, so it wasn’t entirely untypical.  One of the attendees was the birthday boy’s minder who is a very nice girl from South Carolina. The Princess was most taken with her and sat on her lap for a considerable time poking at her train tracks.  “These European kids are always fascinated by the braces” she said gamely.  “Right, I see, well, proof that we don’t believe in orthodontics over here” I said in mortified tones.  Princess continued to poke with interest and then offered Ms SC a paprika crisp to show that there were no hard feelings.
We got the birthday boy two books.  I began to feel a bit inadequate as the other presents emerged.  Ms. SC (who let’s face it, must have no cash as a childminder who’s “starting school in the fall”) got him a very elaborate turtle that makes lots of interesting noises when you poke it.  Other people got him a coat and a bottle of wine for his parents; and two very elaborate cuddly toys.  Had the following conversation with Mr. Waffle on the way home:

Me: Did you feel that we should have got him a bigger present.

Him (in tones of deep bafflement): No, why?

Me: Well, the other presents were all bigger than ours.

Him: Really, were they?  Well, I’m sure ours was fine, didn’t his mother thank us for it?

Me: Well, yes, of course, but…

Him: Well then.
Sometimes, I feel that I worry too much.

Instant soup

11 July, 2004
Posted in: Miscellaneous

Yesterday the Princess and I went out for brunch. We ordered a tea, an orange juice, a pain au chocolat, a croissant, a boiled egg and a bowl of muesli and yoghurt.  When the waitress arrived with our order, she looked at us and asked “Are you waiting for someone else?”  Humph.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Asian supermarket downtown.  Very exciting altogether. We bought a jar of “instant Vietnamese sour soup”.  Today was chilly and rainy (alas) and, with great pride, I produced it at lunchtime.  Mr. Waffle looked on dubiously as I poured it into the saucepan.  The illustration on the outside showed bits of fish and exotic vegetables floating in a clear broth. The stuff I poured into the saucepan had the colour and consistency of bovril accompanied by a remarkably pungent smell.  It turns out that you add a dab of it to the other ingredients (not included) to make “instant Vietnamese sour soup”.  This is not my definition of instant.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 13 July 2004 at 16:10

OK, you’re somewhat ahead of me on the waffle front. I’m really only an amateur waffle.

State of the Princess

12 July, 2004
Posted in: Princess

Language skills. She can do all the vowels and b as in baby, c as in coucou, d as in dada, no f, g as in aw gon, no h though she does say i for hi, no j, k (although koukou is a possibility, I suppose), l, m as in mama, n as in no (first word, frequently used), p as in uppa (little arms stretched in the air) no q, r, s, t as in ta ta, no v, w as in wah, wah WAAH, no x, no y, no z.

Sleeping skills. And speaking of no z, I see Minkleberry is taunting me by complaining that her tiny baby woke up once the other night. Meanwhile our baby continues to wake at least twice a night with no real sign of improvement. I hold very bitter thoughts about the people who told me that a bottle of formula at bed time would have her sleep through the night.  I now have to get up in the middle of the night make up a bottle and, in darkness, put a bib on the Princess, to make sure she doesn’t soak herself in her enthusiasm to gulp down the contents of the bottle and sit holding the bottle in one hand and baby in the other until she polishes it off and pushes it away.  For all its disadvantages, breastfeeding is useful for those middle of the night feeds.  If you have any advice to offer on this situation consider carefully whether it is possible that I may have heard it before.  If yes, don’t offer same.  I am a sleep deprived maniac and I refuse to be responsible for the consequences.

Motor skills.  She is excellent at step climbing and has mastered slides which she loves.  She still hasn’t got the hang of walking though.  She can, however, stand and clap herself enthusiastically while doing so.  When we were on holidays with my parents the week before last, my mother was sure that she would walk very soon after we got home.  She hasn’t.  She’s consolidating her standing.  I had the following conversation with my mother.

M – Is she walking yet?

Me – No, still standing though.

M – Are you sure she’s not walking yet?

Me – Yes.

M – Could you have missed it?

Me – No.

M – What I mean is she might be walking and you might not have noticed.

Me – Yes, I know what you mean and no.

M – Well, I’m amazed, I was sure she’d be walking by now…

This is a girl who likes to be sure of herself before making any movements. She didn’t crawl until she was 11 and a half months.  However, I can exclusively reveal that she will stumble for two steps between myself and her father.  If we try to go any further apart she will just get down and crawl between us which was not the effect we were looking for.  This morning while standing she fell over quite dramatically cutting the back of her head on the bedside table and giving herself a Harry Potter like scar on her forehead.  She seems to have recovered from the pain and trauma but I am still a shadow of my former self.  Frankly, she’s right, walking can wait.

Other skills.  She eats almost anything. Well, at least, she will try anything including soap and cardboard boxes.  She is very affectionate doling out hugs and blowing kisses on the slightest provocation.  She is stubborn.  When she doesn’t get what she wants she can work herself into a frenzy of hysterical tears.  This is maybe a trait we could do without.  Fortunately, her attention span is short so the tears abate rapidly.  She loves being read to.  She adores her doggy and is quite fond of us.

Comments
Beth

(Homepage)

on 12 July 2004 at 16:18

I love the idea that she might be walking and you just hadn’t noticed. Maybe she is climbing out of her crib at night and strolling around the house? 😉

on 13 July 2004 at 16:11

Yes, DX and quite fond about covers it too…
I know, Beth, my mother thinks that I have the observational abilities of a sight impaired goldfish. She is, of course, completely wrong! Well, almost completely wrong…

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Flickr Photos

More Photos
July 2004
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Jun   Sep »
Tweets by Belgianwaffle

Categories

  • Belgium (146)
  • Boys (909)
  • Cork (215)
  • Daniel (647)
  • Dublin (478)
  • Family (607)
  • Hodge (47)
  • Ireland (881)
  • Liffey Journal (7)
  • Michael (628)
  • Miscellaneous (71)
  • Mr. Waffle (588)
  • Princess (1,074)
  • Reading etc. (573)
  • Siblings (220)
  • The tale of Lazy Jack Silver (18)
  • Travel (181)
  • Work (193)

Subscribe via Email

Subscribe Share
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
© 2003–2023 belgianwaffle · Privacy Policy · Write