belgianwaffle

More Dispatches from the Cultural Differences Frontier


Posted in: Ireland, Siblings

My sister’s friend who married the Swede was back in Cork for Christmas.

She decided to take her husband’s name. She is wrestling with Swedish bureaucracy and they have referred her request to head office.

While she was in Cork, she decided to check with at the local Garda station to see what the procedure was in Ireland. Dialogue as follows:

Her: So I want to make my name double-barrelled and add my husband’s name.
Guard (puzzled): OK.
Her: So what do I need to do?
Guard (long pause): Start using it, like.

This reminds me of when I left Belgium and went to hand my id card back to the commune.

Man in commune: Where are you moving to? I will post your documents.
Me: There’s no need, I’m moving to Ireland.
Him: But tell me your commune and I will post it for you.
Me: We don’t have communes.
Him: But where do you get your id card?
Me: We don’t have id cards.
Him: But how do the authorities know where you live?
Me: They don’t.

Collapse of stout party etc.

Everyone’s a Critic


Posted in: Princess

Herself: The 1990s was a golden age for cinema.
Me: Eh?
Her: I give you “The Parent Trap” and “The Baby-Sitters Club”. Need I say more?

Books of 2014


Posted in: Reading etc.

Leaving aside books written by those nearly related to me, these are my top 5 books of 2014, in order of preference:

“In the Woods” by Tana French
“Dear Life” by Alice Munro
“Greenery Street” by Denis Mackail
“Love Nina” by Nina Stibbe
“Look Who’s Back” by Timur Vermes

2014 was a really great year for me – I read loads of books I enjoyed very much and the choice of a top five was unusually hard. More detailed reviews below, lifted from old posts and slightly updated, if you care.

“In the Woods” by Tana French

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It’s a detective story and a page turner but also very well written; quite lyrical in places without ever being dull. The author has written quite a few books and I plan to read them all. I’ve read another one since and it is just as good as the first and would have made this list only I was very tight for space.

“Dear Life” by Alice Munro

I really enjoyed this collection. I had read some of her work in the past and found it tough going but I found this collection drew me back again and again and I was putting aside other things to read it. I am not sure whether her style has changed or whether I like her better now that I am older. These short stories are all sad. They are slices of life and although things happen, that is not really the point. She is superb at drawing characters; not necessarily very nice or appealing characters but convincing ones. She writes beautifully. Well worth a read.

“Greenery Street” by Denis Mackail

My kind sister-in-law gave me a present of this in the Persephone Bookss edition and I was charmed. It is a lovely novel about a young married couple in their first home. The couple are singularly ineffectual, always running out of money and live in fear of their maid whom they call “the murderess”. All their crises, however, are minor ones and happily resolved.

I discovered on reading the introduction that Angela Thirkell, whose books I like very much, was the older and much loathed sister of Denis Mackail. Apparently she was by far the stronger personality of the two. I can see that as there is a sweetness in “Greenery Street” which is entirely absent in Thirkell’s work.

“Love Nina” by Nina Stibbe

This is a very entertaining read but might possibly be even more entertaining, if you were intimate with literary London in the 1980s. Unacquainted as I am with London literary figures, it still made me laugh. Also, Alan Bennett is a lovely man.

“Look Who’s Back” by Timur Vermes

The conceit of this novel, which was a best seller in Germany, is that Hitler wakes up in modern day Germany. Everyone things that he is a Hitler impersonator and he becomes a media darling. It has some very clever and amusing pieces like when Hitler tries to set up an email account (“Adolf Hitler” – No that’s gone – “Reichstag” -That’s gone too – and so on) and when he visits the neo-nazi offices. Quite daring overall, as well as funny, and interesting.

Epiphany


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

I always thought this was the last day of Christmas but the priest said firmly at mass last Sunday that it is not over until next Sunday. I am doubtful but I suppose he knows best. It seems sad that by the time Epiphany or Women’s Christmas rolls around everyone is back at school and work and it is grim January at it worst. When I was small, I think it was a holiday but not any more. Still, this evening as I came up the road in the dark, I saw that all the neighbours have their trees up and lit and they looked beautiful.

This evening Mr. Waffle made dinner and cleaned up as it was Women’s Christmas (unfair when he also helped to wash up after dinner on Christmas Day but there you are, he is paying for the sins of the patriarchy). He and I and the boys played 110 in which Michael channelled my mother and overbid outrageously. Like his Nana, he is lucky though and has a good feeling for cards so he survived. So far have I gone from my roots that I had to text my father to double check whether the rules allowed for reneging on the ace of trumps (he thinks not). I was surprised how enjoyable it was. We played in two pairs as my poor first born was the picture of misery from a nasty cold and not up to the effort of cards. After the boys went to bed, she and I watched the end of singalong “Sound of Music” later which we both enjoyed considerably more than her father.

So that’s the end of Christmas for me whatever the parish priest may feel. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our tree. Alas.

Untitled

Glendalough


Posted in: Ireland, Mr. Waffle

Mr. Waffle and I eased ourselves into January by going for a walk in Glendalough today. It was pretty rainy but pleasant all the same.

I have seen it look like this in sunshine; to be honest, that is better. I felt for the American tourists who were unlikely to be back.

The visitors to the toilets have strong views about grammar. Glendalough: attracting pedants from all nations.

More Excellent Parenting


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins

When we are in Cork, rules about electronic devices go out the window and, basically, if you can get to it, you can play it.

One night I brushed past Daniel who was on his way to bed. “Ow, ow,” he said. “What’s wrong, I barely touched you” I said. “Oh it’s nothing,” he replied,” just a thing I call ‘gamer’s thumb’.”