belgianwaffle

Middle Child

Weekend Round-Up


Posted in: Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Twins, Youngest Child

On Saturday night we had “Rouge” from the French film festival for cinema night. Honestly, the excitement of seeing something new was thrilling. Mr. Waffle was able to book a slot and stream it from his laptop via the projector onto the screen. This, frankly, opens up a whole world of films for cinema night. The film itself was billed as the French “Erin Brocavich”. And, yes, imagine Erin Brocavich as made in France: not much humour and a fair bit more nuance. It was good but I’m still a bit traumatised.

I bought Christmas leaf teas in Lidl and spent all weekend sampling them. Delighted with myself.

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Daniel spent a good while on Saturday working away at his physics problems for this outside school course he is doing during Transition Year. He got through them and was quite pleased with himself. On Sunday he cycled to and from training in the rain and was much happier than you might expect afterwards. Particularly in view of the fact that he appeared to have lost much of the epidermal layer on the left side of his body following what I can only imagine was a spectacular sliding tackle on the astro turf pitch.

Mr. Waffle and I made Michael go for a walk around the block with us in the rain so that another weekend would not pass wherein he had not seen outside. Herself spent most of the weekend studying in line with a punishing schedule she has devised for herself. She did take a brief break on Sunday afternoon to go for a walk with a friend in the rain.

I forgot to mention that our lovely childminder who we had for years sent the boys a birthday present which arrived in the post on Monday. He went back to Paris to work as a tour guide and I worry that he is on the breadline (it is not a good year for tour guides) and shelling out from his savings to send them presents. I do hope not. The boys were genuinely delighted to get his card and present though which was nice.

And still no cleaning rota. There had better be a plan to exit level 5 soon or the house may become a health hazard.

Saturday, November 14, 2020


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

Daniel and Michael went on a scavenger hunt around town with school yesterday which they both enjoyed. Michael could not find Leinster House, the seat of the Irish parliament which I have been pointing out to him for a lifetime. Who’s sorry now, eh?

We had take away from the local gastropub (parents) and Domino’s pizza (children) for dinner last night. Satisfactory though possibly not healthy.

I worked yesterday afternoon instead of taking my half day but the advantage of this is that I have hardly taken any work home this weekend which is an absolutely massive improvement over the last two weekends.

I slept until midday today. I am really a champion sleeper (we take our achievements where we can) and after a leisurely brunch faced into my day. I had bought Michael two pairs of new trousers online. Right in the leg but too wide on the waist we discovered. Daniel took one pair but the other are too small for him and too big for Michael. Alas. Perhaps he will grow into them. Herself pointed out that I have bought my teenage sons trousers that would be perfect for retired British army officers and I realise that is true. She has started calling Daniel “Major Major” which did not add to the already limited enthusiasm he was showing for brown corduroy trousers. In my defence I offer that they looked less late middle-aged online and there weren’t a huge heap of choices on the website.

Mr. Waffle and I went off to the bathroom shop as part of our very slowly progressing plan to redo the upstairs bathroom. In exciting Irish celebrity news on our way there we saw Conor Pope consumer correspondent of the Irish Times heading into Lidl and when we got there design legend Hugh Wallace (so described in every episode of “Home of the Year”) was ahead of us in the bathroom shop and spent ages talking to the shop assistant. A thrill a minute, lads.

Basically, all quiet on the Western Front and tonight is cinema night. Hurrah!

Be Prepared


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins

Three children in Daniel’s class were put together for a geography project. One of them took the lead and developed the presentation and did the work. The other two had a brief look over it and declared it to be good. Alas, for them, when the moment came to present to the class, the student who had actually done all the work was out so the other two had to present. As Daniel said, it’s hard to spontaneously deliver someone else’s presentation on Cambodia. I imagine it is.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Twins

I am indebted to the school Twitter account for the information that Daniel and some class mates won a school science competition and for sight of the video that accompanied it. They tell me nothing. I cross-questioned Daniel looking for further information on his school life. “I applied for the Green school committee, but I didn’t get on,” he told me. I was outraged. As herself explained on her siblings’ behalf, “This is why we can’t tell you things.” I see.

In other news, I got absolutely soaked on the way home from work. I see new rain gear coming up on my exciting Christmas present list. My waterproof trousers let in water at the back of the knee. How does that even work from a physics perspective?

Tuesday, November 10, 2020


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

The boys had a session with Roddy Doyle today as part of Transition Year. They liked it. We had a debrief over dinner. He’s 62 and bald and he answered all their questions. A boy from Dan’s class’s mother grew up next door to the house where one of the families lived in the film of “The Snapper” or possibly “The Commitments”.

I did not get the job I interviewed for and I feel a bit sorry for myself. As Monica so memorably said all those years ago in Friends, “Why can’t a learning experience ever be fun?”

I am treasurer to the parents’ council in school and we had the parents’ council AGM via zoom this evening. Underwhelming and not really welcomed by anyone after a day in the office.

And how was your own Tuesday?

Sunday, November 8


Posted in: Family, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

I fell off the wagon again and stayed up until 3 in the morning looking at my phone. Why, why? I’ve been pretty good generally at putting it away in the evening and not going back to it but once I do, disaster. I blame Joe Biden. As a result of my late night, I got up relatively late and then, with pretty limited enthusiasm threw myself into work.

Herself helped Daniel with his physics work for this Thursday course outside school that he’s doing which was terrific as his parents are absolutely useless to him. Then he cycled up to GAA training. When he came home, he asked me whether there was a cleaning rota and I said, “No”. “Well,” said he, “I’ll hoover the house anyway, it needs it.” What a hero, in fairness, and his father did the bathrooms again so we are approaching clean. Very gratifying.

Herself spent the afternoon in an endless hideous zoom call with a national student representative body. After some consideration she decided she had enough on her plate and that she wouldn’t put herself forward for office. Good call.

I finished working about 3.30 and myself and Michael and Mr. Waffle went out for a cycle to the Botanic gardens. Michael is sick of the Botanic Gardens but is resigned to his fate. We saw lots of squirrels. I love a squirrel, very exciting.

The Irish Times produces this magazine called “The Gloss” every couple of months. It’s strangely compelling in a dreadful kind of way. Herself was reading it this morning and announced that she is not going to have Christmas dinner outdoors. Apparently this is what all the cool kids are doing.

This evening we played online games with the relatives in London; reasonably successful. Uncle A in London is good at finding games that work for all ages which is not easy.

Finally, and this could be my most boring factlet to date (and worse, one which I may have already shared), I bought a woollen throw for the end of the bed and I am absolutely delighted with it. Pulling it up over the duvet at night is like slipping into a warm bath. I should have got one years ago.

Finally, finally, I mentioned previously that Heather is blogging every day and you really should have a read. Her posts are a delight. I particularly enjoyed today’s post.