belgianwaffle

Family

Bespammed


Posted in: Family

My twitter account has been issuing weight loss spam. Sorry about that. I suppose it could be worse. In all my lengthy time on the internet, I have never had this kind of difficulty before. I have joined new things with gay abandon. I have given my credit card details without a second thought.

My mother on the other hand is ultra cautious. She has never joined anything on the internet. She has never given her credit card details over the internet (I know). She has never told anyone her PIN. She shreds all her personal details before binning them. Nevertheless, she has been very unlucky and regularly been the object of scams. The bank have been known to ring to check whether she is in the Bahamas spending money like water. She never is.

While I would like her luck to turn, I do hope that mine isn’t. Sigh.

Activities


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

We went to visit the President’s House. The children threw pebbles in his fountain.

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We went to the zoo. We saw some animals but we spent most of our time in the playground. The African grasslands closed at 4.30 so we missed the lions. Alas. At €45 to get in, that’s the most expensive playground I’ve been to in a while.

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Oh dear.

Where is my Willpower?


Posted in: Family, Siblings

Sometimes I stay up late into the night surfing the internet. My almost famous connection (give it time – also, buy her book) put up a blog post about make-up wherein she said “I’ve just spent about 45 minutes watching make-up videos by Lisa Eldridge”. “Ha,” I thought to myself “well I might as well have a quick look at this before I go to bed as there is no way I would spend 45 minutes looking at a make-up video.” Bear in mind that I last bought something for my make-up bag in the 1990s. It’s not that I don’t wear make-up, it’s just that I take my sister’s free gifts from her amazingly extensive collection. But yet, I found Ms. Eldridge strangely compelling and 45 minutes later (at 3.45 am, alas), I finally tore myself away from her advice and found myself contemplating my first make up purchase since 1995.

It’s going to be a clinique airbrush; I thought you would like to know.

God and Pharmacology Working Together to Make a Better World


Posted in: Family, Twins, Youngest Child

I was ill last week. I am almost never properly ill (as opposed to whining and sniffling into work with some Lemsip in my bag). I did not enjoy it. I had taken some time off work to go to Cork with the children for mid-term and I was not pleased with the timing of my illness. Reluctantly I dragged myself to the doctor and paid €55 for a diagnosis and a course of antibiotics. I started straight away.

My father is a pharmacologist. He is against the reckless use of antibiotics. This was therefore my second ever course of antibiotics. They were quite miraculous. I was able to drive to Cork as planned. I picked the children up from school having told them that this would not be possible as I was too sick. They were pleased. Michael was unsurprised: “I told the teacher you were sick and we wouldn’t be able to go to Cork and I was sad. So, we all said a prayer for you to be better and now you are!”

Lent


Posted in: Family

I can’t believe that I’m 42 and I’m still giving up sweets for Lent. Somehow, I thought life would have given me more glamorous things to give up at this stage.

Hot


Posted in: Cork, Family, Ireland

I took the children to my parents’ house at the weekend. Mr. Waffle’s parents’ house is always a bit on the cold side for me and my parents’ house is always much too warm for him. This means that at home, I wear my fleece of an evening – mmm synthetics – and Mr. Waffle wanders round in t-shirts and shorts.

The children take after him. Herself couldn’t sleep with the heat in Cork and even I was quite warm. I took off my fleece. Ah, my Cork family observed, you have become a Waffle. Still, my mother, who feels the cold terribly couldn’t really believe that any human being could really be so warm. As herself lay sweating under a single sheet, my mother asked me anxiously, “Do you think that she’d like a hot water bottle?”