belgianwaffle

Leading by example


Posted in: Princess

Princess: Bye bye Mummy (waves and walks to door).
Me: Bye, bye sweetheart.
Princess: See you soon Mummy (shuts door – glass – and waves from far side).
Me: See you soon, honey.
Princess: Nice day Mummy.
Me: Thank you, sweetheart.
Princess: Bye bye
Me: Um, where are you going darling?
Princess : Work.

Comments
princessfairytoes

on 12 February 2005 at 21:47

arhh how sweet

Friar Tuck

on 12 February 2005 at 23:44

Not surprising given the age they start school there.

belgianwaffle

on 13 February 2005 at 14:17

Eh, I don’t think so Jack. Thanks PFT. FT, well, yes, I suppose so.

poggle

on 14 February 2005 at 12:13

Contributing to the household budget already … Is that legal?

belgianwaffle

on 16 February 2005 at 21:34

Pog, evil snigger from here.

They start school at 2 and a half in Belgium


Posted in: Belgium, Princess

Me: Hello, I’m wondering about how to register my little girl for school.
Snooty lady: Was she born in 2005?
Me: What, in the last month?!
Snooty lady (coldly): Yes, in 2005 as we have a couple of spaces left
for the younger siblings of older children in our school. Does
your daughter have an older sibling in the school?
Me: No.
Snooty lady (in tones of deep satisfaction): Well, I’m sorry, you’ll have to try elsewhere.

I’m beginning to get nervous. Still, it’s not like England where a (catholic) friend of Mr. Waffle’s got involved with her local protestant church with a view to getting her children into the good school attached to it. She is chair of the flower arranging committee. But they didn’t accept her child for the school. And she’s still stuck on the flower arranging committee.  And I bet she’s no good at either because, let’s face it, flower arranging is a protestant virtue.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 12 February 2005 at 21:25

Hmm, but suppose she screams or is otherwise unadorable?

princessfairytoes

on 12 February 2005 at 21:47

noooooooooo she’s tooo small to be given over to the education system

Friar Tuck

on 12 February 2005 at 23:42

That’s odd. The Belgians don’t seem noticably more educated than other Europeans to me.

belgianwaffle

on 16 February 2005 at 21:36

Ah, but they are.

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.

Bookclub book


Posted in: Reading etc.

” Thank you for the messages! I just wanted to let you know that I will probably have to skip this book. Unfortunately my English is not so good to cope with a “fake 18th century slang”. There are too many words that are not even in a dictionary and the whole exercise, given the size of the book, becomes extremely difficult for me.”

Email from existing founder member (TM)  to new member “Here’s the info. It’s a v.long book, by the way.”

On the plus side, the publishing exec has sent me an exclusive article on how the author gets his ideas, so not all bad. I just wish he
had fewer of them.

A small prize will be available, if you correctly guess the book we have chosen to read.

Comments
Friar Tuck

on 10 February 2005 at 21:28

I’ll take a stab at it…
Is it The Oxford English Dictionary?

belgianwaffle

on 12 February 2005 at 15:39

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Pshaw. It was David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas”

Working across enemy lines


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Princess
Me: So the wolf ends up in the little pig’s pot and burns his tail, ow, ow.
Princess:  Poor wolf, kiss the tail (kisses picture).  Better?
Mr. Waffle:  But, it’s a bad wolf, it tried to eat the little pig.
Princess (reprovingly):  Sick tail, kiss it better.
Mr. Waffle (resignedly):  I see that that our daughter believes in the Red Cross principles: we care for all the injured, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the conflict.
Princess:  Tail, better?
Comments
Mikeachim

on 08 February 2005 at 20:17

The way I see it, the tail isn’t the one at fault. It’s just doing its job.
Kudos to Princess for negotiating this tricky moral minefield without breaking a sweat.
🙂

Friar Tuck

on 08 February 2005 at 23:26

We may have a place for Princess. Please complete the attached documents and return them to me. We’ll be calling for an interview later.

poggle

on 09 February 2005 at 11:46

Wow FT – Princess is going to be the next pope?

Friar Tuck

on 09 February 2005 at 17:44

Well, pog, Princess has several things in common with the current occupant of the throne. She occasionally drools, wears a diaper, and furthermore**ZAP**
*sizzle*

poggle

on 09 February 2005 at 17:54

Don’t you worry. Princess will save you from the nasty man by kissing it better.

belgianwaffle

on 09 February 2005 at 19:57

Menace, Mike, you are funny. FT, pog really, she’s going to be the next pope? And by the by, FT that’s a nappy. Princess will, of course, save you.

Friar Tuck

on 10 February 2005 at 04:02

Of course it is, dear.

Compare and contrast


Posted in: Princess

7.00  Got up
7.10  Gave the Princess her breakfast
7.30  Read “That’s not my Tractor” and “We’re going on a Bear Hunt” with the Princess
7.45  Looked at photographs with the Princess
8.00  Breakfasted with spouse while keeping a wary eye on the Princess
8.20  Put on washing machine (again)
8.30  Back to bed for nap
9.00  Awake exhausted and crawl to shower
9.30  Dressed and ready to face the day, depart for park
9.45  Arrive park and assist the Princess in extracting maximum enjoyment from swings and slides while getting mud on off white coat.  Split Princess’s lip while assisting her on to see-saw.  Deal with understandable profound upset. Get blood on (freshly dry cleaned) very off white coat. Deeply regret wearing off white coat.
10.15  Meet a number of friends and acquaintances and assorted offspring in park
11.00  Go home.
11.15  Entertain friend and offspring with tea and croissants
12.00  Attend mass
13.00  Return home.

What I used to do on Sunday mornings before my daughter was born

7.00 – 13.00  Sleep.
13.00   Get up.

Spent her nap time recovering from the ardours of the morning and discovering from the Observer what ailments she is likely to
have.  This afternoon was magic though.  We went to the toy museum. It’s a fabulous place.  Loads of toys (obviously) which children can actually play with including a little kitchen, scooters, train sets, cars, buses, trams, rocking horses and a small theatre.  It reminded me of the toy theatres that my father bought us when we were little and I have grown all nostalgic and intend to torture my mother to check whether they are still in the attic.

Comments

belgianwaffle

on 09 February 2005 at 21:31

Oh go away. Well, 9.30, probably time for me to head to bed. Yawn.