belgianwaffle

Please, pass the guilt


Posted in: Family, Reading etc., Work

This morning, the Princess asked me why I had to go to work.

Her: Why can’t you stay here with me?

Me: Why don’t you ask your father that?

Him: I have to earn money.

Her: So, why do you have to go to work?

Me (feebly): Because I like it.

And that’s the truth. Of course, I hate it sometimes, but generally I do like going to work. I am fond of my colleagues and my work is interesting. We could easily survive on my husband’s salary, especially, if we removed childcare expenses.

Of course, I’d prefer to spend all my time having fun, but in the absence of that option, I quite like the challenge of going to work, getting things done, learning new things and talking to other grown-ups. That doesn’t mean I don’t love my children, it just means that I don’t want to spend all my time with them. My husband feels exactly the same. Except he doesn’t feel guilty about it.
NaBloPoMo – X is for Xenophon. Well, it is. No, I have not read any Xenophon.

Fame


Posted in: Reading etc.

At M and R’s 50th birthday party in Spain, I met one of their friends who stood a good chance of becoming an Australian MP.  If it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t know there were Australian elections on.  But, I see from the internet, that she has got in.  The excitement.  Well, all I can say is those people in Freemantle have got themselves a great bargain.  There has been some quibbling but clearly the electorate didn’t buy it; good for them.  She’s lovely.  And clever and competent too.  Bet she gets made a minister sooner or later.  Oooh thrill.

NaBloPoMo – The moment you’ve all been waiting for – W is for Wyndham, Wells, Wodehouse,Weldon, Welsh, Waugh, and Wolff.

John Wyndham is probably my favourite science fiction author.  His books seem very old fashioned when I read them now (he is not a big believer in non-traditional roles for the sexes, our John) but I still really enjoy his clever, clever plots.  “The Trouble with Lichen” and “Chocky” are my favourites but, of course, “The Midwich Cuckoos”  and “The Day of the Triffids” are very good too.

I don’t fancy H.G. Wells’s science fiction much but his “A Short History of the World” is responsible for everything I know about history.

P.G. Wodehouse is great.  Of course he is.  For some reason, I like the golfing stories best.  I am not an enthusiastic golfer, but I love it when the oldest member clears his throat to attract general attention.  Somebody once borrowed one of my P.G. Wodehouses once and didn’t give it back.  I am still scarred.

I used to love Fay Weldon and I thought all her books were exciting and novel and interesting but my passion has waned.  I’ve put her in for old time’s sake.  “Go to work on an egg”.

Irvine Welsh is very brilliant and quite disgusting.  After reading “Filth”, a story wherein you realise that the most appealing character is a tapeworm, I gave up on him.  But I still do think he is an extraordinary writer.

I heard on the radio that when “Brideshead Revisited” was first published, it was a huge critical failure.  The critics were hoping for something as entertaining as his previous work.  I know what they mean.  It’s probably my least favourite of his  books (though I haven’t read “Helena”, I just couldn’t face it).  Most of the rest of his books are funny and poignant.  “Brideshead Revisited” is too serious for me and it has all the signs of zeal of the convert as well.  This criticism can I know be applied to the “Sword of Honour” trilogy but, I feel, that at least there, you know what you’re letting yourself in for and there’s more of a point to the exercise.  I have a special fondness for “Decline and Fall”.  Many years ago I had a very exciting 6 months as a trainee in Brussels (there is a reason I came back, you know).  It was a time of constant socialising and all very exciting. I was in my early 20s.  A bit like starting at university but with more money, more nationalities and more organised parties.  It was great fun but sometimes it felt like being on an out of control merry go round, clinging on for dear life going from party to party (I imagine this must be what Paris Hilton’s life is like, yes, me and Paris we are like that – crosses fingers).  I read “Decline and Fall” for the first time then and it seemed very apposite.  Whenever I reread it, I remember that very exhausting, great fun and slightly insane time of my life.

I like Tobias Wolff.  I particularly enjoyed his two volumes of memoirs “This Boy’s Life” and “In Pharoah’s Army”. Magic.

Christmas belongs to the Germans


Posted in: Belgium, Family, Reading etc.

Everything that we associate with Christmas was, essentially, imported by Queen Victoria from her German relatives and exported from there to a waiting world. I was forcibly reminded of this today when I went to the Saxony-Anhalt Christmas market in Brussels. It was absolutely beautiful. They had lovely things for the children, singers in odd costumes who sang to them, not a single tacky stall and the most wonderful wooden toys and decorations. It was without doubt the most perfect Christmas market I have ever been to. It helped that the whole thing seemed to be fairly uncommercial. They were selling things but in a very relaxed way. We were all enchanted. There is absolutely no way I am taking my children to meet Santa after they have seen his workshop at head height in the Saxony Anhalt Christmas market.

I think we can take it that the festivities have begun.

NaBloPoMo – OK, W tomorrow, no really.

In praise of gender stereotyping


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

Him: We should get the car serviced and check the tyre pressure.

Me:Mmm.
Him: You’re only agreeing because you know that I’m the one who’s going to do it.

Me: Yes.

NaBloPoMo – I’m going to save W for tomorrow.  Because I can.  There are 30 days in November but only 26 letters of the alphabet.  Ha.

However, forgot to mention David Sedaris under S.  He is excruciatingly funny.  Since it is the season for it, here is a link for a funny Christmas story by Mr. Sedaris.  I cannot say how he feels about it being on the interweb but doubtless he will be much happier if it makes you go out and buy his books.

Wrong place, wrong time


Posted in: Reading etc.

Me: Why has your colleague gone on holidays to Israel?

Mr. Waffle: I suppose he has family there.

Me: He’s English; are there a lot of English people living in Isreal?

Him: Yes, he is English but his parents weren’t. They moved to England before he was born; they were Czech, German speaking Jews from the Sudatenland.

That is unlucky.  I suppose at least they got out.

NaBloPoMo – V is for Vidal, Vonnegut and Voltaire.   I was shocked by Myra Breckinridge. I  was young. “Slaughterhouse Five” left me baffled.  I just couldn’t see what everyone else saw in it.  Of this trio, who would have thought Voltaire would come out best?  I’ve only read “Candide” but it’s an easy and quite entertaining and, best of all, short read. I must say that none of these would have featured under a better letter like M or T but needs must.

A happy Thanksgiving to the Americans out there.  We had mushrooms on toast for dinner.  I thought you would like to know as you struggle with mountains of leftover turkey.

Interesting


Posted in: Family, Reading etc.

My sister-in-law drew my attention to this sentence from a review in the Irish Times by Mary Russell:

“When I removed my IUD – a state-of-the-art contraceptive device which served me faithfully – I sprayed it gold and wore it as an earring: an icon in its own right.”

She tells me that she and Ms. Russell did a bit of the camino together. I just thought you should know.
NaBloPoMo – U is for Updike. Which is a pity because I don’t like Updike. I cannot empathise with Rabbit. So there.

However, I now realise that I skipped John McGahern, so I will slot him in here. In my early 20s I read a lot of John McGahern and really enjoyed books like “The Dark” and “The Barracks”. Let’s remember that I was in my early 20s, shall we? I found “Amongst Women” very depressing but rather brilliant. His last novel “That They May Face the Rising Sun” is just weird. It’s a year in Leitrim (distant part of Ireland where almost no one lives). It is immensely evocative and at the end of it, you do really feel as though you’ve spent a year in Leitrim- particularly, if you take as long as I did to read it. My problem with this is I didn’t particularly want to spend a year in Leitrim. There is no plot to speak of. It was published about ten years after his previous novel. My friend C says that it was not that it took him a long time to write it but that he was holding off publishing until all the locals described in the book had died and would therefore be unable to sue him for publishing their stories (or local gossip, if you prefer). For me that rings true. The people in this book (other than the English blow-ins) seem like real people and the I bet all the stories are real.

And, imagine, I forgot Tolkien as well. I read my mother’s version of “The Lord of the Rings” in three volumes when I was 12 or 13. I had read “The Hobbit” earlier and I think it’s possible that my mother had even read it aloud to us when we were smaller. I was absolutely entranced by “The Lord of the Rings”. The year I read “The Lord of the Rings”, my family drove to the North of Italy on holidays and my mother bitterly regretted introducing me to the tome. “Look up, Anne” she would say “it’s the Place de la Concorde; fountains to wash away the blood”. My mother has a taste for the dramatic. I would briefly glance up from Frodo’s trek and then get back to reading. “Anne, please look up, it’s the Alps”. Another brief glance before getting back to business. I reread them all when the films came out and book 2 is a complete dud. Otherwise still a good read, particularly, if you are fond of elves. You may already be familiar with this anecdote in relation to same, but I have included a link, just in case because I am a good and kind person.