Dublin

There was no sign of herself when I rose from by bed at 10 last Saturday morning. She sent a message to the family group chat saying that she was gone in to the Trinity Open Day with her friend E. They had an interesting enough morning. She was shocked how many people were there with their parents. I felt a bit bad that not only did I not accompany her but I didn’t even know she was going. She on the other hand was delighted not to have me there.

She discovered that she could get €2,000 off accommodation, if she stayed in an Irish speaking student residence in Rathmines. She would still have to pay the balance and be further away than if she stayed at home but I think she was gratified to discover that membership has its privileges. Trinity apparently has an exchange arrangement with Stellenbosch and she is keen to go with the money we will save from having her live at home while she’s in college. As there are quite a few hurdles between her and operation Stellenbosch, I decided to let that go but my reservations were in no way addressed when Mr. Waffle said, “Quite dangerous, no?”

There were a couple of lectures on various subjects and since her friend E is keen to study law, they attended that one. There was an enormous queue and the students on the door announced that it was only open to school children as there wasn’t room for all the parents. A [very old – probably about my age] woman did not move from the queue. When she got to the top and the student at the door asked her not to go in, she was very cross and said that she was a mature student. This misfortunate student at the door apologised and berated himself saying, “I am so sorry, we should be more inclusive.” Aren’t the young people lovely all the same?

Herself ended up sitting beside this woman and her daughter. It became abundantly apparent that the mother was not, in fact, a mature student but a pushy mother. Herself was outraged. The lecturer said, “I’m sure some of you are the first people from your families thinking about going to college.” Pushy mother was heard to hiss audibly, “No one in this audience, I’m sure.” As it happens, the Princess’s friend E, sitting two seats away from pushy mother will be the first person in her family to go to college. I say will with complete confidence as she is clever and organised; found out about the college open day herself; and dragged my daughter out of bed to attend.

Anyhow, the welcome upshot of this is that my daughter now believes that I may not, in fact, be the worst mother in the world.

A couple of weeks ago, I was cycling back to my, very traditional, workplace after lunch wearing my, very traditional, work suit when I had to stop to walk past the Extinction Rebellion installation. As I looked in, who did I see, with her face painted with leaves, only one of the Princess’s friends from primary school. I called out to her and she trotted across to me with a big smile. We had a friendly chat across the barricades and she explained that despite her very best efforts, she had not been arrested. The Guards said that she was too young to be arrested. “Where is [herself]?” she asked. “At school,” I said offering up silent thanks and asked, “Why aren’t you at school?” She paused and then offered, “My parents are hippies?” Fair enough, I suppose.

Herself and her friends were walking along the road when they saw a car hit a parked car and take off the side of it. The driver of the offending car, got out, had a look and hopped back into her car leaving no note or any indication that she had caused the damage.

The Princess and her friends leapt into action, ringing doorbells along the street but to no avail. Her friend N had taken the licence plate of the offending hit and runner and they were anxious to pass on the details. But no one answered the doors and they were about to give up when they spotted an older woman in a dressing gown emerging from a house on the road. Herself leapt up on her bicycle and caught the lady with the others sprinting along behind (possibly a slightly alarming sight for the frail elderly woman but let us hope not).

It turned out that the older woman was the owner of the damaged car and she had just come out of hospital. She was very grateful to the young detectives and gave them all a hug. They passed on the information they had and gave their contact details. That evening N got a call from the guards asking about the incident and it looks like they are going to pursue it.

Aren’t teenagers sometimes lovely all the same?