belgianwaffle

Work

Talking on the phone


Posted in: Princess, Travel, Work

Am most relieved that the Princess consented to talk to me last night. They had a paddling pool in the creche (“nager, NAGER Maman, dans le creche”). Am optimistic that, once given her present, she will welcome my return. Trust that even minus present my loving husband will welcome me with open arms.

By the by, has anyone seen Locotes since Liverpool won the cup?

Comments
Locotes

on 27 May 2005 at 13:14

Locotes is alive and well, though relatively dishevelled and still in a wonderful dreamy haze where nice things really do happen to deserving people.He is waiting for all that to stop very soon, and for the real world to resume kicking him in the gut.

Locotes

on 27 May 2005 at 13:14

Oh, and maybe a present for the hubby wouldn’t go amiss….just to be safe you know.

Bobble

on 27 May 2005 at 14:06

How could she not? x

belgianwaffle

on 29 May 2005 at 13:46

Pog, you are always right. Locotes, glad you haven’t died of happiness. Yeah, I got him a pressie, better safe than sorry. Thanks Bobble.

Two things


Posted in: Family, Work

1. Received the following text message from my husband “got a call asking whether you would like to go election monitoring in Burundi, said no”.

2. Despite arriving at the Ryanair bus stop 10 minutes before the bus’s due departure time, my unfortunate mother in law discovered that it had already left and ended up having to get a taxi to Charleroi (she could have phoned her son for a lift, but she has an independent stubborn streak which her son has inherited).  She will clearly never visit us again. 6 days of intensive babysitting followed by a traumatic taxi ride.  Am gutted.  On the plus side, you will be surprised to hear that we have the kind of contacts in Ryanair which mean that any complaints will be thoroughly followed up.

Comments
Bobble

on 26 May 2005 at 12:38

I need a contact at Easyjet – any friends there..?

Beth

(Homepage)

on 26 May 2005 at 16:39

How could you pass on Burundi?

jackdalton

on 27 May 2005 at 01:43

That’s 100odd euro you owe her….. 😉

Friar Tuck

on 27 May 2005 at 04:11

What’s so bad about a taxi? The drivers in Brussels are so charming.

jackdalton

on 27 May 2005 at 11:44

ps if you can get anyone in RyanAir to follow up anything, you deserve some kind of recognition as a national treasure.

belgianwaffle

on 29 May 2005 at 13:48

Visage, Beth, I bet Burundi is lovely this time of year, but in this patriarchal household, my chance to visit was cruelly turned down. Sigh.
Bobble, no chance, I fear. Jack, I know. Guilt. Good point FT.

Scholl sandals – why?


Posted in: Family, Princess, Travel, Work

I went to buy new slippers at the weekend. I know, my life is full of thrills. I decided that thought I would buy Scholl sandals rather than slippers so that if I had to go out to put out the bins I wouldn’t look quite so weird. Why has nobody ever told me how profoundly uncomfortable these yokes are? And also that they are very noisy. And quite expensive. I am bitter.

In other news, Princess continues a bit unwell and her saintly grandmother is staying for an extra couple of days to tend to her. Doctor today pronounced himself satisfied that she is on the mend, though baffled as to what might have been wrong. Am informed by my husband that Princess wailed convulsively for the entire appointment despite sustaining no injury whatsoever except, one assumes, to her dignity.

Royal grandparents have flooded the house with newsprint and I am fully up to speed with Jools Oliver’s new book which the Guardian described as like a “common or garden baby blog”. Have realised to my horror that I am the owner of a common or garden baby blog and I thought that there was so much more to me.

The Princess is speaking far more English following her grandparents’ visit as evidenced by the following exchange.

Princess (shouting from the bathroom where she is sitting on her pot): Je fais caca, Papa, tu veux faire caca?

Her father: Non merci.

Princess: Mummy, you want to go poo?

Me: Thanks, I’m ok.

And finally, I am off on a work trip tomorrow, so blogging for the remainder of the week may be somewhat limited as I labour in a distant land.

Comments

poggle Those scholls will feel comfortable if you persevered, waffley – they’re kind of like acupressure and take a bit of getting used to. Your feet will thank you for it eventually. But, sadly, the loud clacking is par for the course.
Princess has a bit of a poo fixation at the moment, doesn’t she? I foresee a lucrative future as a stand-up comedienne …..

beachhutman >on 24 May 2005 at 17:24 Ah, so she’s twigged her mama is Monolingual…..

belgianwaffle on 25 May 2005 at 11:12 >Oh, Jojo, if only you knew, you would laugh cruelly.
Pog, thank you for both these pieces of information. Will persevere with deeply uncomfy Scholls.
BHM, well, only temporarily, I suspect. JoJo Birmingham? Calais? Bognor? Bradford???

Even sexier than Bradford…

Why not blog about the job?


Posted in: Work

Dooce

Have a look at her masthead, why don’t you?

Also, have a look at Woolamaloo

I like my job and I would like to hang on to it.

However, today, as I sat in a meeting where we considered the best conduct of meetings (what Mr. Waffle calls a meta meeting), I lost a
tiny bit of my enthusiasm. On the plus side we don’t have to do meta-training which is a regular part of Mr. Waffle’s job. That’s training on how to apply for training.

Comments
Friar Tuck

on 10 February 2005 at 03:57

Oh, and you forgot to mention Diary of a Flight Attendant

belgianwaffle

on 12 February 2005 at 15:40

Am very bitter that you got to see Dooce on the telly, I want to see Dooce on the telly. I deserve it…

Friar Tuck

on 12 February 2005 at 23:46

Perhaps if you got a ladder and helped her up…

belgianwaffle

on 16 February 2005 at 21:36

Oh very funny.

They are always sick


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Princess, Work

Just back from an, ehem, exotic destination where I went for work earlier this week. I had planned to blog like mad in my quiet evenings but found I couldn’t attach my laptop to the internet thingy in the wall of my hotel (no sniggering please) so my evenings were entirely blog free. I’m sure you missed me. Not as much as my poor husband though. I had no sooner set foot on the plane than herself came down with a mystery ailment which involved much unhappiness for everyone (I will spare you the details). Anyway, by the time I got home, she was entirely recovered but I don’t think he has yet and I’m pretty sure that the rug never will.

Off to Ireland for a long weekend now, so normal service will only resume next week.

Yes, we have no


Posted in: Princess, Work

This morning Mr. Waffle left for work considerably before dawn and the Princess and I got ourselves out of the house on our own somewhat later.

She woke at 7.45 and I collected her from her bed.

“Would you like some porridge?”

“No”

“Will I open the zip on your sleeping bag?”

“No”

“Come on now, we’ll get up and have some breakfast”

“No, no bekast”

“OK, let’s change your nappy.”

“No, no, no! Pas changer, no nappy. Howl”

“OK, let’s just go have some porridge”

“No, down. DOWN”

Put child on floor.

“Cole”

“Will we put on your socks then sweetheart?”

“No, no sock”

We struggle through breakfast (no porridge, no porridge), my shower (no shower Mummy, no shower Mummy), dressing (rigourously folded arms while running about the room to evade capture) and leave the house.

“Will we go to the creche darling?”

“No. No creche.”

“We’ll see M”

“Yes M”

Remember it is M’s day off. “Actually, no, not today”

“No M?” Lusty sobs.

Arrive at creche after only one near miss (“exciting Mummy, again”). Deposit child. Weeping and gnashing of teeth “No mummy, no, no. Hop hop?” Realise Hop hop has been left in the car. Rescue Hop hop. Return to creche, child is playing happily. She catches sight of me and prostrates herself on the floor “No, mama, no, no,” she says reaching out her chubby little arms. I detach myself and depart. Very traumatic all round. I arrived at the office in a state of advanced exhaustion and had a relaxing day of meetings to recover.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 15 December 2004 at 21:49

Hmm. Thank you pog for extracting the positive..