Dec 15
Cavan Crash ~ Interview Sgt Jim Greene
He is warning motorists
to exercise extreme caution if driving in Co Cavan near Ballinea where more than 5,000 chickens escaped from a lorry following an accident. The chickens have begun to lay eggs.
Friar Tuck
on 17 December 2005 at 03:03
]]>
https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2005/12/493/
“Unbelievable
as it may now sound, that keyboard layout [QWERTY] was designed in 1873 as a
feat of anti-engineering. It employs a
whole series of perverse tricks designed to force typists to type as slowly as
possible, such as scattering the commonest letters over all keyboard rows and
concentrating them on the left side (where right-handed people have to use
their weaker hand). The reason behind
all of those seemingly counterproductive features is that the typewriters of
1873 jammed if adjacent keys were struck in quick succession, so that manufacturers
had to slow down typists. When
improvement in typewriters eliminated the problem of jamming, trials in 1932
with an efficiently laid-out keyboard showed that it would let us double our
typing speed and reduce our typing effort by 95 percent. But QWERTY keyboards were solidly entrenched
by then. The vested interests of
hundreds of millions of QWERTY typists, typing teachers, typewriter and
computer salespeople, and manufacturers have crushed all moves toward keyboard
efficiency for over 60 years.”
Friar Tuck
on 16 December 2005 at 18:36
on 16 December 2005 at 19:49
Sweetie(s) given
on 09 January 2006 at 10:24
Sweetie(s) given
]]>
https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2005/12/492/
I only ask
because this appeared in the Irish Independent on December 8:
“IARNROD
Eireann could soon have some competition on the railways, from cross-border
trains, or until a proposed tunnel to Wales opens up.”
I think
that I may have been away for too long.
]]>
My sister
has been working for the same American multinational since leaving
college. She started in the UK, then she was sent to Germany, then China, then the US.
Each move was accompanied by a promotion and a hefty salary
increase. I bask in her reflected glory
and only experience very mild envy, no really.
Guess where sheÂ’s off to in the new year with promotion and hefty salary
increase? Just as well, another Chicago winter would have killed her.
on 16 December 2005 at 11:41
Sweetie(s) given
Friar Tuck
on 17 December 2005 at 16:23
on 09 January 2006 at 10:18
Sweetie(s) given
]]>
https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2005/12/490/
The school boasts a big advantage for us – it’s round the corner from
where we live. The Head, however, describes it as “socially
mixed” and my middle class soul was a little nervous about this.
Of course, I felt bad about feeling nervous and Mr. Waffle, who seems
to suffer from none of the usual middle class hang-ups despite having
attended fee paying private schools said bracingly “what would happen
if everyone refused to send their children to socially mixed schools?”.
Today, I discovered that one of the consequences of being
“socially mixed” is that a lot of the children don’t speak
French. The teacher was delighted to discover that madam a) spoke
French and b) was toilet trained. I must say, all of this
unnerved me a bit but a lot of the children who don’t speak French are
Polish and I found this comforting because I sort of see the Poles as
like the Irish; catholic, committed to education etc., no NOT
feckless. Anyway, she’s only 2 and a half, how much of a
problem can it be that half of her classmates can’t speak French?
But my heart sank as we were leaving and I saw the teacher put on
“Finding Nemo”. Somehow it seems wrong, but, you know, good for
crowd control.
and can i say wow about the potty training? lucy is just 3, and so ready to move on to the next class at preschool, except that she’s got to be potty trained, and she’s resisting peeing at school. sigh.
clever princess, starting school. kisses to her.
on 16 December 2005 at 11:07
Kristin, thank you, that makes me feel a lot better. Am sure your toilet training blues will pass shortly though I realise it is a pain at the moment. Nemo was in French, by the way.
Peggy, that was the worst bit, she loathed it and was like a briar for the rest of the day. I think she was slightly overwhelmed by the numbers and she said to me afterwards “That’s not my school Mummy, my school is different”. I’m not sure what she was expecting but it’s fair to say that her expectations weren’t met.
Sweetie(s) given
]]>
https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2005/12/489/
For example, last
night the Princess sought vainly for my attention as I tried to simultaneously cook dinner and express 200mls of
breastmilk (I know 200 mls, amazing eh?). Standing under a hot shower in the
morning can lead to me spraying the walls with milk in a sort of
sub-Psycho fashion (a little too much information?).
Last night, having fed the boys
all evening at about 1.00 in the morning, I prodded my poor spouse
awake and said “give Michael a bottle, I can’t stand it any
more”. At 5.00, I woke up and having fed the babies, trotted out
to the kitchen to take meat out of the freezer for dinner (which I had
forgotten to do last night, no, this is not a regular feature of my
nights). On opening the fridge, I found that the expressed
bottle of breast milk was still there, which meant that Mr. Waffle had,
all gasp please, given Michael formula earlier in the evening.
Since my husband had disappeared from the marital bed, I had a look
round the house for him to discuss this serious matter. Found him
on the couch looking up the phone book for the number of a local
bookshop. He wanted to order a Princess Waffle memorial book for
the creche. I had to have out the matter of expressed milk v
formula so I was only momentarily distracted by the weirdness of his
timing.
Me: You gave Michael FORMULA.
Him: Eh?
Me: When you gave him the bottle.
Him: Oh right.
Me: But there was expressed milk in the fridge.
Him: Sorry, missed it.
Me (purple in the face with indignation): What?
Him: Are we really arguing about this at 5.00 in the morning?
Both collapse in mildly hysterical giggles as oddness of my behaviour becomes apparent.
A little tired today…
on 14 December 2005 at 09:59
Marvellous.
Sweetie(s) given
on 14 December 2005 at 12:19
At 5am I was ignoring my big child as he whimpered for attention in his bedroom, whilst simultaneously avoiding eye-contact with the cot that is now sharing our bedroom.
Incidentally, me and Jimi have some of our best rows in the wee hours.
Sweetie(s) given
I think I would have poured the expressed milk in the bottle of coffee that Jim takes to work everyday.
on 14 December 2005 at 16:51
Sweetie(s) given
on 14 December 2005 at 21:59
Sweetie(s) given
on 15 December 2005 at 12:27
GPM, very dull..
Peggy, how imaginative you are.
Minks, am awaiting your new arrival with bated breath. Unlike Ez, I suspect.
Bobble, we aim to please.
HJB, 2 sweeties, you are too kind. For this, I can confirm that there are no mad axe men in Switzerland.
Sweetie(s) given
Friar Tuck
on 15 December 2005 at 16:28
on 16 December 2005 at 11:08
Sweetie(s) given
]]>
https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2005/12/488/