Princess

Perspective

5 November, 2020
Posted in: Middle Child, Princess, Reading etc., Twins, Work

Are you familiar with the world of DOMs and TOMs ? They are bits of France overseas and they are more or less closely linked to the mother ship. Herself tells me that the, very right on, young French woman who does French conversation classes with her heard a lecturer in UCD (her Irish university) refer to them as French colonies and she was shocked to the core of her being. I mean to the rest of us, they sound a lot like colonies but as a French person, she had never heard of them being referred to in that way or thought of them in that way. On reflection, she found there was much to agree with in the lecturer’s throwaway comment. It appears travel is broadening.

In other news, not much happened today but the American election count continues. Daniel had a long day in front of his laptop, attending his virtual course. It is so grim that they can’t go in person. And I am exhausted from working. Exhausted. And now I’m going to bed. Daily blog updates may yet be the death of me.

Updates from the Coalface

4 November, 2020
Posted in: Middle Child, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

Herself went to a “Higher Options” online conference today from the comfort of her own bedroom. In previous years it has been in physical form and the various third level institutions manned stalls for hordes of 6th year students to descend on and ask questions. The online version appeared to be entirely non-interactive. “No interaction at all?” I asked. “No,” she said, “except for the school group chat which is hopping as we all feel we’ve been scammed out of a tenner.” It subsequently transpired that there was a chat function which had been overwhelmed by bored sixth years typing in the letter T. You’d think they might have ensured against that.

More generally she is quite pleased with herself as she applied for a writing mentorship scheme and has been accepted.

I was off work today for various logistical domestic reasons and was able to greet the boys as they came in the door from school. They were both in great form having had excellent days in school. Very pleasing.

For those of you following filtered permeability updates, our bollards have been replaced by planters with trees. The street whatsapp group was largely very pleased. We’re all basically incomers, even the people who moved here 40 years ago. The one woman who was born and bred on the street (75 and very active) and remembers it before trees were planted at all (the first gentrifiers starting the rot 40 years ago) was a bit less positive than the rest of us welcoming the trees with the following: “Ah Jesus, they can’t look after the ones that are here.” As she is regularly out clearing the storm drains of leaves, I do see where she is coming from but I, for one, welcome our leafy overlords.

And finally, the weather has turned and it is cold enough to turn on the Aga. Thrills.

The Challenges of Leadership

2 November, 2020
Posted in: Princess

Herself held a zoom training session for her student council this morning. It was facilitated by a student organisation. Last Friday week she sent all of her council members home with letters to be signed by their parents allowing for them to stay at home for the first three classes this morning so that they could join the zoom session (children from different years/classes can’t be in the same room together and all of their engagement is virtual which is a pain).

Last week she repeatedly emailed the facilitator and texted him until on Friday he confirmed the zoom link. All 13 of her committee members confirmed that they had got the link and given in the permission slip duly signed.

On Saturday the two second years on the committee said that actually they hadn’t got their permission slips signed and wouldn’t be coming. She gave them the wording on the slip (via text message in Irish – all of this is via text message in Irish, imagine) told them to write it out, get their parents to sign, take a picture of it and send in to the school. Then she alerted the relevant teacher that it would be coming and asked her to confirm to the disorganised second years that they could stay at home for the zoom session and come to school late.

On Sunday, another student said that she couldn’t come as she had a (surprise?) dental appointment on Monday.

This morning, two of the committee members claimed that they would have trouble getting a lift to school at the later time and had come into school at the normal time and therefore would not be able to attend the meeting. Herself described this as “not credible” on the basis that one of the offenders lives within walking distance of the school.

One of the committee members (one of the second years) came to school by accident and then panicked and refused to answer any of the texts from the increasingly frustrated student council president. Herself then rang a teacher, got her to hunt down the errant second year and put her in a – hard to find – empty room to take the call.

She had 11 out of 14 members there in the end including herself. This could well be the death of her. On the other hand, useful life lessons right here.

NaBloPoMo

1 November, 2020
Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Work, Youngest Child

It’s November lads. Do you know what that means? Yes indeed, I will be posting every day. I’ve a lot on this month as it happens but am I daunted? Well, a bit. We’ll see how it goes. I see an old blogging comrade in arms is going to give it a go; I recommend you head over to her site for excellent content, she writes beautifully.

So back to diarying. I had left you in mid-October. What has happened since then you wonder. Well, wonder no longer, your wait is over.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Mr. Waffle and I went for an early morning tea before work. Sitting outside in a slightly gloomy nearby square. This was in part to recover from a perplexing anxiety dream where Mr. Waffle was leaving me. Confusingly he was Julia Roberts and if only I could stop him appearing on the Late Late Show, he wouldn’t leave me. The children were small, he was leaving me with them. I kept trying to talk to him to persuade him not to go on but was constantly interrupted by the old man from the Vicar of Dibley who says, “No, no, no, no, yes.” Unfairly, I concede, I was inclined to blame Mr. Waffle for his nefarious behaviour in my dream hence the tea to soothe my unquiet unconscious mind.

I arrived into work to be told by a colleague that I looked absolutely exhausted. Which we all know just means you look terrible. He wouldn’t have looked so great if he’d been trying to persuade his husband/Julia Roberts not to leave him overnight.

Herself has turned down the chance to chair the main Irish committee in school and is feeling some regret but there is only so much one girl can do. One of her classmates (not a friend) had a party at the weekend about which herself was feeling quite sore but the guards raided the party and sent them all about their business so that was gratifying.

The authorities announced that we would be moving to Level 5 max lockdown level from Wednesday at midnight. I really don’t care any more. It’s not like lockdown 1 as the schools will – hallelujah – still be open. On the other hand, our cleaner won’t be able to come. Sigh. Back to the rota.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

I realise that the libraries will be closed on level 5. Gutted.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

I had an interview for a new job over zoom. The horror. Daniel bought a dozen Agatha Christie novels from his charity shop and I feel we are stocked with lockdown reading material.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

My boss has decided that I am an individual whose physical presence is indispensable in the office. On the whole, I am glad. I am not a great worker from home, it transpires. So Day 1 of Level 5 is not that different from Level 3.

A friend of mine has got Covid. She’s the first person I know well to have it. She is sick as a dog and her husband and son have got it too. Miserable.

Friday, October 23, 2020

The children wore outfits for Halloween in school. It was thematic by class. Herself had pairs (she’s Juliet from the Baz Luhrmann Romeo andJuliet), Daniel had football (pathetic theme as he said bitterly) and Michael’s class didn’t bother but he went in as a Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings. Admire his crown crafted from tin foil and a cereal box. Great to see that the traditional crafts are not dying out.

There was a kerfuffle about hand sanitiser and the school, anxious to allay concern bombarded us with emails saying they had the right kind.

It was the bank holiday weekend. Never was a bank holiday more welcome for all of us. Admittedly the children only went back to school at the start of September but it’s felt like a long haul. And I’ve been very busy at work and worked late and a bit over weekends, so I was flattened.

I bought myself some more Spode Christmas ware. Middle aged pleasures. Herself hates it and says it’s right up there with my old person filters on instagram in hideousness.

We had the 20th anniversary meeting of my Monday night bookclub (moved to Friday in view of special occasion) over zoom. Not really the celebration we had imagined but look, we do what we can.

One of my bookclub friends confessed that she has become a daily sea swimmer. My sister-in-law is the same. I am impressed and horrified in equal measure. The cold.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

The weather continues very mild. Halloween does not appear to be effectively holding back the tide of incongruous Christmas advertising which is everywhere. Brown Thomas have launched their Christmas window. I want to turn on the Aga, because I love it but it’s just too warm. “Always Christmas and never winter,” said Mr. Waffle.

Next door’s gardener came (booked many months ago, finally had a moment) and did some much needed clearing in the garden and trimmed back the apple trees (still loads of bloody apples falling in the garden notwithstanding that it’s nearly November and that the trees were stripped of 83 kgs worth a couple of weeks ago).

Michael, Mr. Waffle and I went to the Botanic Gardens to investigate their Halloween pumpkin display. It was not as impressive as previous years.

Poor Daniel hurt his neck at training and had to cycle home unable to look left or right. He survived.

Herself started reading “Ulysses” by James Joyce as a lockdown project. She loves it. Where did we get her? She took a break to make brandy snaps for me. Very satisfactory.

The school emailed that there was another Covid case in school; that’s 5 or 6 but they all seem to have got it outside school and not transmitted inside so, I suppose, that’s ok.

The picture framers texted me that I could pick up some pictures I dropped in to be framed a couple of weeks ago. I was a bit surprised but apparently lots of places are open for click and collect.

On my way home, I ran into a woman who lives near us. Her children went to the same primary and we often walked in together. I said a cheery hello and she seemed a bit put out. I stopped to talk and it transpires that, boy oh boy, is she annoyed by the filtered permeability (what normal people call bollards) at the bottom of our road. I ended up listening to her for the guts of an hour. She was unconvinced by the arguments on traffic evaporation. It didn’t help that I had parked in front of her house. That was only to pick up the pictures from the framer and, in fact, I have used the car even less than usual since the introduction of the bollards but I suppose it didn’t look great. Basically, she feels that all the traffic that uses our road is now using her small, residential road as a rat run. Anyhow, I said that I would definitely support her efforts to make her road local access and it would be good for all of us etc. and cravenly promised to put her in touch with the chair of our residents’ association who is amazing (he does film production and I suppose lockdown has been quiet for him and he has put his not inconsiderable energies into local issues). Ok, possibly an unnecessarily detailed local update but I was quite shocked how annoyed this generally pleasant and quite reserved person was about something that I thought she would broadly support.

For film night we had “The Addams Family” which was perfect in its endearingly creepy yet undemanding nature.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

I wanted to go for a walk in the mountains but the children were spared by my realisation that they are outside our 5km limit and also, Daniel’s neck though improving was still a bit stuck. Mr. Waffle and I went for a cycle along the canal instead and saw a heron.

In more exciting bird news, there was a hawk in the back garden. It stayed for ages. Does this explain the dead pigeon on top of a bush from a couple of weeks ago?

I had my other bookclub (Sunday bookclub, keep up) over zoom which was nice though nowhere near as nice as physical bookclub.

Monday, October 26, 2020

We had a slow start to the bank holiday Monday. There was an exciting letter in the paper from my friend’s mother. The excitement is there really, the content was less exciting.

Mr. Waffle and the boys (Daniel’s neck recovered) and I went out for a cycle in the park in the rain. They’ve opened the park to traffic again and it’s really busy now. Alas. It was great in lockdown 1 in the spring when it was closed to traffic. Herself met a friend and they had a lovely cycle in the park she tells me. It was the first time she had gone for a cycle with a friend for fun and she rates it as an experience. The poor young people, they’re taking their thrills where they can get them at the moment.

When we got home Mr. Waffle made me afternoon tea. There should be more afternoon tea in my life.

Meanwhile my poor nephew is self-isolating again while waiting for a Covid test.

I decided not to apply the cleaning rota and live the next week in squalor.

At bedtime, I went to put on my alarm. Then remembering the criticism from previous occasions (the beeping noise it makes when being set), I just left it set for the time it was set for (9.30) on the basis that I would probably wake up and worst case scenario if I got up at 9.30 I could be a bit late.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Back to work. At 9.30 safely at my desk, I got an irate message from Mr. Waffle saying the alarm had gone off an woken them all (children on mid-term and Mr. Waffle minding them). Oh dear.

I heard I got through my interview. Reward: further interview. I’m not sure I entirely rejoice as I don’t think I will get the job and the prep is killing me.

I met a friend for a cup of tea in the park. We sat 2 metres apart and shouted at each other. Since I last met her 6 weeks ago, she has got a job in the west of Ireland and herself and her husband have gone sale agreed on a small apartment by the sea as a base there. She says that they can decide based on the weather if they’ll spend the week in Galway or Dublin – this whole remote working thing is really changing people’s lives. She also had a copy of Dutch Royals magazine for me. She’s married to a Dutchman and her mother-in-law knows I have a morbid fascination with European royalty so gave it to her to hand on to me. My Dutch is rudimentary but boy did I enjoy that magazine. I mean did you know that the Monegasque royal family have a holiday home in Northern France? Interesting choice. Hilariously, wikipedia tells me that “its acreage is six times the size of Monaco. A whole world out there.

I cycled home in the dark (the clocks changed at the weekend) but herself told me to rejoice as I was coming home to the middle class parent’s dream: “Your three children are just off a zoom call with their French tutor; Michael is making dinner; Daniel is making chocolate mousse; I’m making brioche and I’ve just finished “Ulysses”. ”

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

I received a further irate message from home that the alarm had gone off at 9.30 again but Mr. Waffle had now made the device safe. Oops.

Also the gardener finished his work and the garden is looking a bit bald but, basically, I am pleased.

Mr. Waffle attended the residents’ association meeting by zoom. One of the older residents hasn’t really got the hang of zoom and they spent the meeting talking to her ear. She also had the telly on in the background and the chair asked could she mute it but she said no, it was a very interesting documentary about Kevin Barry. I love her.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Arrival of Spode! The thrill.

Friday, October 30, 2020

I got my half day. Rejoice. All of the local restaurants now have a takeaway option and we picked up dinner from the local gastropub which was surprisingly good given that I had mussels and chips which you wouldn’t expect to be particularly portable.

Further good news, it was announced that they’re going to close most of the local park to traffic again for the duration of lockdown.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

I dropped into the church for the first time in ages. It is pretty weird with all of the tape and one way system.

I spent the morning avoiding work so had to get down and do it in the afternoon.

Herself did an interview with an arts organisation as part of the Creative Schools Programme and it was published online. Much excitement.

For film night, Daniel picked a scary film as it was Halloween. We are not great people for scary films. My niece has starred in a real – would have had a cinematic release but for Covid – scary film but it is 18s and we are too scared to watch it. We watched “A Quiet Place”. Many of us went next door at the scary bits. I was fine because I remembered this blind comedian talking about it – mildly funny, in summary not a great film to watch if you rely on dialogue to follow a film.

All in all, a pretty quiet Halloween.

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Another morning procrastinating and not getting down to work that has to be done before Monday. At about 4, I finished up and Mr. Waffle, Michael and I went for a walk around the block: Daniel had already been to training and herself had work to do. It was a bit damp and uninspiring though, as Michael said kindly, good company.

And here we are. Still no cleaning rota but Mr. Waffle cleaned the bathrooms because he is a saint. More tomorrow. Something to look forward to.

Knee Deep in the New Normal

4 October, 2020
Posted in: Dublin, Family, Hodge, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Work, Youngest Child

Monday September 21, 2020

Mr. Waffle and I went to a nearby cafe and sat outside for breakfast. I’ve had worse. “It’s like skiing,” said he. You’re cold, you’re all wrapped up, you’re outside and it’s surprisingly sunny. Sun cream was unnecessary though. That’s as close as we’re going to get to skiing for a while, I’d say.

I ate my lunch in the park and that too was surprisingly pleasant.

Herself finally interviewed her person in the arts for her artistic school project. She really enjoyed this project and put a lot of work into it and her interviewee seems to have enjoyed it as well. We’ll get to see the finished project on the organisation’s website later in the year. Small thrills.

Meanwhile, the boys learnt how to use a defibrillator as part of their Transition Year school experience. Good to know, I guess.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, herself is now head of the student council and most powerful student in the school.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

I forgot that it was my turn to make the sandwiches for school. Everyone survived and herself is vindicated in her decision to take over this work herself making ever-more elaborate vegetarian offerings.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

I finally got to go to my dentist for my six month delayed check-up. My teeth are fine, I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear.

I rang a pub where a former colleague and I often meet for lunch to know whether they were taking outside diners (permissible under our level 3 Covid rules). Yes, normally Thursday to Sunday but not, said the barman, the following day: “It’s going to be wet, so we’ll be closed, we’re like farmers now, relying on the weather,” he remarked bitterly.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Dan had to do his transition year exciting outside school course via zoom from home which was not at all what he had been hoping for. Alas.

As the barman had predicted, it was very wet indeed and I got absolutely soaked cycling home from work. I passed miserable groups of people eating outdoors, coats on, hunched over their food trying to avoid the rain driving in sideways underneath the canopies. I’m not sure eating out this way in the winter will be sustainable.

Friday, September 25, 2020

I ended up, yet again, working my half-day and arrived home quite late – 7ish. This meant a delayed start to cinema night – Enola Holmes (alright) – and herself had to bail and go to bed before the end of the film as, lucky her, she had extra maths classes in the morning. Unsatisfactory.

Out of the blue, Daniel said he loved the time we made candles on holidays. This was during our holiday in Kerry in 2011 when he was 6. The day as I remembered it was characterised by driving rain and misery but it just goes to show, you never know what they will like and remember.

In other news, herself has found a website which calculates your Leaving Cert points and what courses they will qualify you for. She put in my results and her father’s and told us, “You could have got quite good Leaving Certs, actually.” Since we’re both 30 odd years out of school – and thought we had both got quite good leaving certs in the 80s when we sat our exams – this wasn’t the ringing endorsement it might have been.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Herself confided at breakfast that she had had an anxiety dream (presumably inspired by the wretched Leaving Cert.). She had been on University Challenge and the picture round had been identifying French philosophers and she had buzzed in that the philospher pictured was Sartre but it was actually Derrida. I’m enjoying the quality of her anxiety dreams.

Michael and I picked some more apples, literally the low hanging fruit. Still a great number of apples in the upper branches of the trees. Alas.

I rehung all the pictures on the landing – on what a friend of mine calls the honoured ancestors wall – to include the two new pictures of herself that I got framed. It took a lot out of me but I am very pleased with the result.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

It was the boys’ 15th birthday. When herself celebrated her 17th birthday in lock down in April, I really didn’t think we would still be here in September. More fool me. Still we were readier for it and I think they had quite a nice day. We began with an elaborate breakfast and as we sat down and I looked around at my lovely family I said, “I really don’t think I could be happier and, obviously, I don’t want to die or anything but, if I did, I would die happy.” There was a pause and Daniel said, “Well, you know what Nana always said?” “What?” I asked. Himself, his siblings and his father chorused, “Always leave when you’re enjoying yourself most.” They’re hilarious.

My sister went to all sorts of trouble for their birthday presents and they unwrapped a blizzard of things from her to add to what they had got from their loving parents and their aunt and uncle in London. Lucky boys.

Mr. Waffle and I left them to play with their new video games and went off for a walk in the Botanic Gardens which was crowded but pleasant.

I began the process of making mint jelly (which is mostly apple jelly with mint added).

A birthday post on the boys will follow in due course. Something for everyone to look forward to, doubtless.

Monday, September 28, 2020

My office is freezing. Possibly the authorities have decided they won’t heat the building for the few of us deemed essential, at least we’re getting out of the house, what more do we want? I wore a green woollen poncho type thing to keep myself warm. I thought it looked fine until herself asked me why I was dressed like Paddington.

We gave away some apples by leaving a box at the front gate. Rejoice. In fact this turned out to be successful beyond our wildest dreams and we managed to give away a box a day until the weekend.

We had my Monday night book club by zoom and one of our members pointed out that our October meeting would have been our 20th anniversary. I wish we were meeting live. It’s been great, the bookclub. One of our younger members reminisced that when we started, we were all 4/5 years older than her and we were busy admiring door handles in each other’s houses (we were all buying or about to buy houses) and she thought how dull we were, but she stuck it out and as I pointed out gleefully, there’s not really any difference between 46 and 50 so it’s all evened out in the end. I do miss meeting people in person.

The children had the day off school, possibly because everyone has suffered enough but more likely because of a teacher training day.

We’re trying a new wifi provider. Mr. Waffle had some difficulty with installation and became annoyed with people who inadvertently threw out what looked like spare packaging but was a vital part of the new infrastructure. Trying times at Waffle Towers.

I finished making the mint jelly. It’s not green naturally you know. Commercial mint jelly manufacturers add colouring. Probably not the colouring I added.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

My mint jelly did not set. Sigh. On the other hand, it’s perfect for Halloween.

A man came to look at our upstairs bathroom with a view to getting it redone. He is to send in an estimate – perhaps a new bathroom by Christmas. Thrilling.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

We got a note from the school that there were three additional Covid cases in the student body, but we’re all to carry on, they’ve been inspected, all is well. It’s a bit unnerving all the same.

My sister got promoted. She seemed underwhelmed but I am suitably impressed. She has a very flash new title and more money to spend. What’s not to love?

Thursday, October 1, 2020

It was a really fine day and I had lunch outside a pub with a friend but it was a bit nippy. I should have brought my Paddington poncho.

We lit our first fire of the season.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Our saviours came in the form of an organisation called Falling Fruit which picks spare fruit and gives it to good causes. They got 83 kgs of apples from our trees. We rejoice. They gave them to a cider maker who volunteered to give â‚¬80 to a charity of our choice. We sent it to Threshold which was founded by my father’s cousin so that was pleasing.

They arrived as Mr. Waffle was about to tuck into a salmon bagel and he went to the front door to let them in. When he returned, it was to find the cat tucking in to the salmon from his bagel. We thought she didn’t like salmon but it turns out she likes it if it’s wild salmon. He was summoned away again by the Falling Fruit people and this time he put a cover over his bagel. When he returned, his bagel was safe but the cat was on the work surface tucking into salmon straight from the packet where he had, admittedly foolishly, left it. Still, a small price to pay.

Mr. Waffle and herself were talking about dinners over the weekend and he said, he was missing an ingredient. “Could you substitute Delia seeds?” she asked. An understandable error.

Mr. Waffle and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and I was felled by a migraine half way round. I took some tablets and went to bed for a couple of hours but I felt a bit sorry for myself.

Michael chose Gladiator for film night which I rather enjoyed -partly because the muted colour palette suited my migraine – but it is both long and bloody. Herself had to bail early again due to the ongoing demands of extra maths classes.

Saturday, October 3, 2020

I went into town to pick up various supplies. Town was absolutely heaving. Loads of people eating outside. I quite enjoyed my little trip to what felt like normality but it does worry me a bit also.

Mr. Waffle and I went for a cycle in the park which, sadly, has been re-opened to cars and is much less pleasant than it was during lockdown when it wasn’t bisected by traffic. We ran into a neighbour in the park who remarked that he had seen us in Clifden when they were driving through in the summer. Incidentally, this is why Irish people can’t have affairs.

Herself spent the day undergoing cold turkey. She’s decided she spends too much time on the internet so has locked herself off internet on her phone and given herself 15 minutes a day on instragram, twitter and tiktok. Her friend has the code to unlock the internet and instructions not to give it to her. She is bereft.

The boys went to get their hair cut. The hairdresser asked whether they were cousins and Daniel said that no, they were twin brothers. She commented to Daniel that he should share his food with his brother which when reported back to his family made us all laugh.

The boys spoke to their grandfather via Skype to thank him for his generous gift to their (frankly overflowing) coffers. It does make me sad that they can’t go to Cork to visit him.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

I cannot believe that I am saying this but I really miss mass. Extraordinary.

The weather was awful but we had a cousin and his parents around in the afternoon which really cheered us up. Everyone is fed up though. When will it all end?

17

26 September, 2020
Posted in: Princess

Herself was 17 on April 12 so this is, even by my standards, a particularly belated birthday post. Look, there’s a pandemic on. I understand from a friend of my father’s now, unhappily, deceased that during the second world war when Ireland was neutral but in a state of emergency, known as “the emergency”, it was used an excuse for all sorts of unrelated delays and problems: “Don’t you know there’s an emergency?” I cannot imagine why that might have sprung to mind.

So she still has her braces. The pandemic may put back their removal. She is, understandably, very bitter. She still has a gap between her front teeth but otherwise they look perfectly straight and even underneath their metal shield. Of course, she didn’t have a gap between her front teeth when she started the treatment so we will all be pretty annoyed if the orthodontist cannot make it go away.

She had a good fourth year in school with a starring role in the transition year musical and then her school summer trip to Zambia. Fifth year in school was going fine too until the pandemic cut her academic year short. She has a full social life and lots of friends. While she is still on a lot of committees, some of the committee attendance has been replaced by going to concerts. I feel a little ambivalent about that. The committees seemed much safer.

She is still a vegetarian and recently confided to me that she is a vegan outside the home but is not vegan at home as she knows it would tip me over the edge. This is an entirely correct assessment. I am not the world’s best cook and nor am I much good at remembering to make a vegetarian option. I often end up heating up something frozen at the last minute. Hence her regularly repeated mournful refrain: “The vegetarian always eats last”. As she is now (finally) taller than me, my oft repeated concern that being a vegetarian might stunt her growth is ever less convincing.

This last year, she dipped a toe in enterprise setting up a little online shop to sell her clothes second hand. She found it all a lot of work and the returns poor. That’s a valuable lesson right there, I suppose. Babysitting for her little cousin was, I think, more lucrative until, sadly, her cousin, uncle and aunt all moved back to London.

We haven’t seen her natural hair colour in some years. Much of 16 she spent as a white blonde but she’s grown much of it out in the pandemic. Exciting.

In the past year, I notice she’s more inclined to take her bike when she’s going in to town to meet people. While at one level, I rejoice, I always worry that she will be run over.

She is still not sporty and, I suppose that this is unlikely to change very much at this stage. She does love swimming in the sea though.

She is only two and a half years older than her brothers but sometimes she feels a lot older. She’s a bit old for her age, they’re a bit young. They view all her utterances as gospel and if she is a bit snarky to them, they are very cast down. She doesn’t realise her own power and sometimes they drive her crazy but mostly she regards them with mild fondness.

It sometimes feels that they don’t have a lot in common other than school. While she has always been very resistant to revealing any information, the boys tell us things about school and she regards them as fifth columnists.

Academically, she continues to do well. She’s hardworking, bright and genuinely naturally interested in the kind of things that might lead to you doing well in exams. For example at this moment she is reading a biography of the poet Louis MacNeice which she picked up for herself in a second hand bookshop. Is he on her course? Nope, just interested.

While she was in Zambia, my mother died. I think it was probably worse for me than for her that she was away, but it was no picnic for either of us.

She was in a short film for the Dublin film festival and her face was on the (virtual) poster. I was extremely excited; much more so than my ultra cool child. We saw the film just before lockdown – it was fine, possibly a bit arty for me but, you know, featuring my first born.

She is quite cool. She is always wearing exciting and unusual outfits which are generally successful. She’s really interested in fashion. I have no idea where this came from. The greatest compliment which you can pay her is to ask whether she is a student at the National College of Art and Design.

She took some of my mother’s old clothes after she died and re-purposed them. I love seeing her wearing them. Firstly, because they remind me of my mother and secondly because my mother was a big believer in hand-me-downs and would be delighted to see clothes she paid good money for getting another lease of life.

She is very interested in politics and social movements. On her Friday half day she used to go off and march for climate change; in fact she is an inveterate marcher for all kinds of causes. She follows all our local politicians on twitter and knows their views. She had a long old chat with one of the general election candidates on the door step earlier this year about his views on penal reform.

Last summer (2019) she went, for the last time, to this three week residential summer course she has been doing for years. She always loved it and made loads of good friends and I was keen that she should do it again this year but she said that no, she was ready to conclude that chapter of her life. That proved a pretty prescient choice.

Increasingly, living with her feels like living with an adult. I find her endlessly charming and entertaining. While I wouldn’t say we never argue, these occasions are becoming rarer and rarer. Her independence and self-sufficiency which were a worry when she was younger and constantly pushing boundaries are now great as she is very smart and street savvy and has a good sense of what is safe and what might not be. As she stands on the threshold of adulthood, I am very proud of her. Honestly, she’s a delight.