belgianwaffle

Archives for May 2010

Weekend Round-up or the Concerns of the Middle Aged


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins

I spent a very happy afternoon on Saturday in the back garden digging up things and poking at things I had planted. I was slightly appalled by this but as a friend of my mother’s whom I met for lunch today said “you have to grow up some time.”

On Saturday night I attended a joint 40th birthday party and dissipated all of my zen happiness by encouraging a friend to tell me all about her beautifully renovated large house. Envy is such a corrosive emotion. Was slightly soothed by getting a lift home from another friend in his porsche which he (hilariously) enjoys driving around underground car parks at speed. I think that Mr. Waffle who was sitting in the front, enjoyed it a lot less. On a negative note, while the 911 is built for speed, it is not built for back seat passengers and getting in and out was not a dignified exercise.

I then brought our lovely, but slightly neurotic and highly strung, French babysitter home and said that she looked tired. She is very confiding and told me a long and complex tale about her boyfriend’s perfidy, intertwined with her difficulties in getting a summer placement for her course. I sympathised as effectively as I could. I was somewhat hampered by the fact that all of this was confided to me in French and I wasn’t entirely clear what the perfidy was.

On Sunday at mass, the children got given plastic rosary beads and miraculous medals. Daniel insisted on wearing his blue beads around his neck all day and, combined with his peaked cap and baggy tracksuit, he looked like a little wannabe rapper. The Princess ate her miraculous medal.

In the afternoon we went to Dollymount beach which could be pretty but suffers from the following, not insignificant, drawbacks:

a) it is smelly;
b) it is rough;
c) there are horse races with little buggy things;
d) large ships pass nearby;
e) it was low tide (not a permanent drawback, I concede);
f) a large husky kept escaping from his very tattooed masters and barking at the small children;
g) the car park is on the beach – yes on the sand – I am not making this up;
h) motor bikes drive up and down the beach.

Despite the above, the beach has beautiful golden sand which kept the children amused for several hours when they were not cowering behind rocks in fear due to c), e) and h) above. It also has beautiful views of the Dublin mountains which are lovely so long as you keep your line of sight above the industrial buildings that litter the coastline.

Grave Concerns


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

I never told you about the Sunday that I made everyone go to the museum in the cemetery. Here is an extract from the museum guide to “Ireland’s Necropolis”:

“The glazed Prospect Gallery offers a breathtaking panorama of the cemetery, along with information on its marvellous array of historic graves.”

I bet you wish that you’d come too.

Much as I love cemeteries and tea rooms, I am not sure that I would have had the audacity to combine the two. This is what the brochure has to say: “As part of the visitor experience Glasnevin Museum has provided a 70 seat cafe for your enjoyment. Serving morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea, this is the perfect place to meet your friends or take the family.”

To clarify, the cafe is in the cemetery. You can see people being buried from the window as you eat your chocolate muffin. It is mildly unsettling. I am not sure that I would call it the perfect place to bring the family.

Though I am being sarcastic at their expense, it was all mildly entertaining (15 euros to get in, mind you) and the cafe was pleasant with futuristic bathrooms which the children enjoyed.

I thought you should know, in case you ever find yourself at a loose end in Dublin.

My Vocation


Posted in: Siblings, Work

My sister often asks me for advice as to where she should eat in Dublin. I sent her to Alexis in Dun Laoghaire and got this text message “Hi, restaurant was great. Give up current job and provide restaurant recommendations. There is where you skill lies.” Having just had a report I wrote massacred by a committee, I am inclined to think that she might be right.

Bookclub


Posted in: Princess

The Princess has been reading the Narnia books. The other night, I begged her to let me read the first chapter of “The Silver Chair” aloud to her. She very rarely lets me read to her these days as it is, of course, much slower than reading to oneself. The story begins in “our world” in a nasty boarding school. “Will they go to Narnia?” she asked me anxiously. “Yes, I imagine they will,” I say. They do. She interrupts me again, bouncing up and down on the bed in excitement “Do they meet Aslan, do they?” “I think they do,” I say. It was almost like reading the books yourself for the first time but with the added thrill of seeing something you love prove a delight to someone you love.

I told this to a woman at work the other day and she said to me: “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say something nice about having children.” I was somewhat abashed and I record it here in an attempt to balance the books.

It’s either C.S. Lewis or Enid Blyton’s fault that she said to me “Mummy, haven’t these hols gone on for ages?” Hols, hols? “Was it for this the wild geese spread/The grey wing upon every tide?”

Weekend Round-up


Posted in: Family, Mr. Waffle, Princess

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was full of little first communicants in regalia which filled me with envy. On Saturday night, Mr. Waffle and I went to see Date Night. This, although entertaining, was a very poor choice. It’s about a married couple in mid-life who work full-time, have small children, are well-meaning and are constantly exhausted. Mr. Waffle and I are that couple. We winced as each joke hit home. In an example of life imitating art, after the cinema we went to an edgy new restaurant. Happily, no one tried to shoot us.

The restaurant is run by a man called Conrad Gallagher who is famous/notorious in Ireland. An acquaintance had recounted investigating his new restaurant and I was curious to go myself after hearing her description. She described the service as pert. Before she arrived, they rang several times to remind her that they only took cash – no credit cards. On arrival, the waiter interrupted her to tell her she was wrong about something. My acquaintance, who is formidable, was not pleased. She was also right.

My own experience of the service was similar. When I rang to book for 8.30, I was asked whether I played the lottery. I was baffled. I was told that I had as much chance of winning the lottery as getting at table at 8.30. How about 9.15? Oh how we laughed. 9.15 it was. Which would have been fine, if we had been seated at our table at 9.15 as promised, instead of 9.45. There is no waiting area so we stood just inside the door feeling deeply unwelcome.

Dinner is a tasting menu and you opt for one of 4, I think, set menus. We opted for the €34 a head menu which, I have to say is pretty good value. Courses 1, 4 and 5 worked very well. Dessert was particularly good, I thought. On the minus side the second course of curried crab reminded me of the curry tuna orange paste that is such a staple of the Belgian lunch time sandwich market and the third course asparagus risotto boasted woody asparagus and, bafflingly, a duck confit topping. Not a marriage made in heaven. Still, I think that all would have been well, if the service had not been so unbearably slow. By 11.45 when we finally got the bill, I was practically asleep on the table. My mood was not improved by the waiter saying smarmily to me as he handed over the bill and pointed to my husband “Is he boring you?” Yes, certainly you will endear diners to you by insulting them/their partners. All in all, I’m not sure I will be rushing back.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the park to celebrate my niece’s 2nd birthday. I was very dubious about this outing as a) it was likely to rain and b) my children were unlikely to eat anything offered in the market. I was wrong on both counts and a very pleasant afternoon was had by all. We were able to let the Princess encounter commerce – she went to buy herself some sweets. I deeply regretted giving her a €20 note (smallest I had) as she arrived back with a €9 box of artisan fudge rather than a 50c bar of chocolate. A learning experience for all of us there. However, she was able to run and play in the playground on the far side of the park on her own which made her seem very big and grown-up and I think she was quite pleased with herself.

When we got home, herself ran upstairs to finish off “The Horse and his Boy” and Mr. Waffle played ball games with the boys in the garden while I made dinner. It was all very suburbia in the 1950s but none the less pleasant for that.

Then, yesterday, disaster, my childminder’s boyfriend can’t find a job and they are moving back to France. Alas.