Daniel: When I grow up, I want to be an assassin.
Me: Oh sweetheart.
Daniel: What?
Me: Oh honey, you can’t be an assassin.
Herself: I thought that you said we could be anything we wanted to be.
How the Mighty have Fallen
Daniel:What are the dark ages?
Me:Well, after the Fall of Rome..
Him: With the Goths and the Vandals and the Ostrogoths..
Me: That’s it. Well people forgot about a lot of the things that they used to know and there wasn’t much science but then the renaissance came [Insert digression here on the topic “what do you think renaissance means?”*]
Mr. Waffle: But before that the flame of civilisation was kept alive by monks on a tiny island. Do you know where that was?
Children in chorus: Ireland.
Mr. Waffle: That’s right and there’s a story about how Charlemagne the great Emperor wanted to know about solar eclipses and an Irish monk had to explain it to him.
Herself (slightly sourly): And only look at us now.
*Is it any wonder my poor children tend to wander away from the table over dinner?
Extending our Family
Last weekend, my sister-in-law got engaged. Oh the excitement. She has asked her two nieces to be flower girls. Oh the further excitement. She will be getting married in London. Oh the breathtaking excitement. Michael walked up to his teacher the next day and announced proudly, “I may have to miss a couple of days at school because I will be going to my Aunty’s wedding in London.”
You will be delighted to hear that we have had an opportunity to inspect the young man and he is lovely. As I pointed out to my other sister-in-law, we weren’t meeting him we were vetting him for the purposes of holidays together in Kerry in the rain. I am sure that he would be thrilled to know that he passed with flying colours.
Oh yes, and since it’s all about me, the first thing I said to my delighted sister-in-law after “Congratulations!” was “Please, please, please don’t get married the same weekend as the boys’ first communion.”
Last Weekend
I took the children to Cork last weekend. We went to Charles Fort again and Michael said bitterly, “Why oh why do we have to go here every time we come to Cork?” Because it’s nice and I can get in free with my heritage card. And also, Daniel got to drink hot chocolate through a straw at the Bulman. Are these not reasons enough?
Daring
Me: What’s the most annoying aspect of my OCD tendencies?
Him: The way we can never eat until you’ve tidied up.
West from O’Connell Bridge
October 31, 2012