belgianwaffle

Hoist with my own Petard


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

We have a French priest in the parish. After months of missing him, I finally got to chat to him in French one Sunday after mass. Since he was French, he was utterly indifferent and unsurprised by my knowledge of the French language but I felt a (probably sinful) sense of smugness.

Then a couple of weeks afterwards, the Princess and I met him in mufti on the street just after emerging from mass (which had been said by the parish priest not him, keep up there). He started chatting away to us in French and, I suppose, understandably enough, asked how mass was. “Fine, fine,” I said vaguely. “What were the readings?” he asked. Whatever hope I might have had of dredging up vague memories of the readings in English, I had none at all in French. An awkward silence followed. “How was the sermon?” he asked filling the gap. Alas, I had no idea and no recollection of that either. There’s a moral here somewhere, I feel.

Weekends – Rounded up


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

We have had my niece’s communion. Looking at pictures of her Christening, we discovered to our horror that Mr. Waffle is her godfather. How many extra special presents has she got from her godfather to date in her young life? None as both he and I had completely forgotten that this was the case. I note that at one point in 2008 I was definitely aware of this but it seems to have slipped my mind in the interim. Well, we know now, I suppose. The following weekend, I also attended the school communion as Daniel was singing in the choir and he wanted me to stay and listen (and very good they were too). Nevertheless, I am a bit communioned out.

A couple of weeks ago, we went out to look at the bird sanctuary on Bull Island and took our binoculars and wellingtons. The children all enjoyed wading about the mudflats until, inevitably really, about half an hour after our arrival, one of them fell over and covered himself with that particularly gloopy, smelly mud which is typical of that kind of environment. As I tried to clean Michael off with a muddy sock rescued from the bottom of his mud-filled wellington, I realised that we had no option but to return home. We did.

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One weekend, we cycled for miles along the canal and saw a heron and, I think, a gannet.

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We cycled out along the seafront on Clontarf yesterday which was a moderately successful outing though slightly hair-raising in parts. It was nice on the sea front and in the park where there was segregated cycling provision. Otherwise not so much.

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Will Dublin ever get decent joined up cycling lanes? There are times when I slightly despair about how cyclist and pedestrian hostile the city is. I suppose it can only improve. Right?

Felix Felicis


Posted in: Princess, Twins

The Princess has been enjoying herself of late. At the end of year prize-giving extravaganza at school she won the best student of her year and all round best student in the school. She read at the end of term mass. She has been re-selected for the student council next year. Her poem has featured in the annual school magazine. She has just got notification that her school tour next February will take her to Paris and Brussels [she is keen to go]. She has joined the games club; she was told to read the rules in advance and, being her, she did. She was therefore able to wipe the floor with the boys in the club who had not done so (she is their first female member) and, as she said happily, “I just kept throwing double sixes”.

A big parcel arrived at the door for her. It contained extensive Disney merchandise for the film “The Jungle Book”. As we looked at the anorak, the chair, the lamp, the torch, the water bottle, the poster and sundry other items, I asked, “Why on earth did you get this?” “Remember,” she said, “there was that “Jungle Book” competition in the library and Michael and I entered; I must have won. You had to say what kind of animal Baloo was. I didn’t know, actually, Michael told me.”

Her three month summer is shaping up nicely. She will spend a week in London with her saintly aunt and uncle and she is going on an exchange to Paris. One of her friends’ mothers, who is a saint, has said that she is going to try to devise an arts programme for her daughter and friends over the summer.

Meanwhile, we have booked her brothers into a sports camp for a week in July. They are feeling a little hard done by.

Suspension of Disbelief


Posted in: Family, Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

We watch a lot of Dr. Who in this house. The children and I quite like it. Mr. Waffle does not. The other night we watched the episode where a hospital disappears on earth and reappears on the moon.

There is a an annoying consultant character (so far so typecast) and at one stage in the action, he hauls out his binoculars to have a closer look at the action all round. “That’s very unlikely,” I said, “who has binoculars at work?” Mr. Waffle looked at me and asked sardonically, “Really, that is your only difficulty?” There’s only so far one’s disbelief can be suspended, it turns out and I had found my limits.

Sic Transit


Posted in: Princess

They were doing a bit on bullying in the Princess’s school the other week. She came home and asked me, “Have you ever heard of Bebo?” “Yes,” I said, “I was a bit old for it, but I remember it being popular at one stage.” “Huh,” she said, “it was in a list of social media that might be used for bullying that we were looking at in school. We had to order the list by likelihood of each platform being used as a tool by bullies. We ranked Bebo last as no one had ever heard of it.”

Growing


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

Until last month, the boys always did their homework together downstairs but now I see that they haul their schoolbags upstairs and do it in their rooms. I am not sure whether this is the next stage of development or whether the new childminder is taking very much to heart my injunction to her to speak to them in French.

I suppose whether or which, they probably both need desks in their rooms.