Anniversaries, ipod swaps, films that don't get seen, chips, beer and pepsi, never being able to look at Richard O'Brien in the same way again, magic tubes and train connections, 48 seconds, 15 minutes, elbow licking. I guess some things are hard to blog.
7.2.06 10:01


"Are you going to sit there all day looking sad?"


"Yes"


"Ok then."
9.2.06 09:12


A simple way to cheer yourself up in easy steps:

  1. Turn the computer on and get your child to sit on your lap/next to you.

  2. Go to the Distorted Tunes Test on the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders  Website.
  3. Prepare to giggle like a loon at every bum note.

I guess my son is as easily amused as I am.
10.2.06 08:10


I am of the lazy kind of gardeners. I also know I don't have the inclination to do very much in the winter. So once a year, once it's clear the vegetable beds won't be giving out much more I clear the beds, do a light dig, throw an handful of worms from the compost bin on top of the freshly forked earth, cover with compost and staple a lid of weed suppressant membrane on top. That way when it's time to plant again all I have to do is take the membrane off to reveal the hard work the worms have done on my behalf during the winter months.

Recently the lids have been opened on a regular basis and there were clear signs a 4 legged creature had been digging. So I braved the cold weather sent Him Indoors in the garden with the staple gun to put the membranes back and blamed this creature.

black cat posing for the camera

Him Indoors accused me of slander. I mentioned to the cat I was considering turning him into lining for my gloves. The cat sniggered and I could almost read his mind "pah, you'd never do that, I'd be just another UFO to add to the list and I'll die of od age before you come near my skin" and "pah, if you even looked like you meant it, all I'd have to do would be to lay a rodent offering at your feet and I'd have earned another reprieve". But still Him Indoors was determined his pet's reputation shall be untainted by accusation of vegetable bed digging.

His patience and determination was rewarded and I was handed a memory card. He had caught the culprit in the act. Miscarriage of justice avoided.

young fox on veg bed
11.2.06 11:40


Earlier this afternoon there was:

— Allo Maman, il est en route, et je ne suis pas inquiète du tout.

— Oui, et on ne l'entend pas du tout à ta voix.

Now
the worry that couldn't be heard at all in my voice aheum has gone. My
baby has landed safely after his first flight as an unaccompanied minor
and has gone from the care of the lovely ladies at BA skyfliers to the
care of his grandparents for half-term.
12.2.06 15:17


The Boy is home. There was another "I know I put it somehwere safe,
now if only I could remember where that was moment" when I spend 20
minutes looking for my passport so I could collect him from the
airport. This almost spurred me into tidying up a little bit of the
house; almost. The enthusiasm for it did pale a bit after the trip to
ikea to buy boxes to put away some of my hoarded junk. There's always
tomorrow I suppose. Now I really ought to put my passport and The Boy's
away somewhere safe, and I will as soon as I remember where I put them
when we got home.
19.2.06 20:01


A children's book meme via Daisy

Name your three favourite children's series
  1. I remember Martine fondly. Yes, the stories where as sickly sweet as the covers suggest they may be. I am surprised the series is still going strong.
  2. I also enjoyed The Famous Five
    quite a lot as a child, though a quick flick through one of the volumes
    at the library showed that the stories and characters have aged rather
    badly. Many playground arguments where had over who should be which
    character and I had quite vivid memories over nobody wanting to be the
    dog (incidentaly in the French translation the dog is not called Timmy
    but Dagobert) yet nobody seemed to mind being the whimpish one.
  3. last but not least Gaston Lagaffe. I still like comics and this one still appeals to me as a grown up. If the appeal of the Marsupilami
    series has on The Boy is anything to go by it won't be long before I
    have an excuse to buy some of my favourite volumes (those were shared
    amongst siblings books so they remain at my parents' house).
Name your three favourite non-serie children's books



  1. St Exupery's Little Prince of course.

  2. Kipling's Just so stories, in particular the elephant's child.

  3. When I went to secondary school, in an effort to get us to read
    more our French teacher put a number of whodunnits on the list of books
    we were expected to read. While Leblanc's Aiguille Creuse
    - a tale of a thief and a mystery involving a local landmark carved by
    the seafrom the cliffs at Etretat - failed to stir my imagination, the
    more gruesome And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie did start a lifelong attraction to the genre.
Name three favourite children's book characters





  1. The Rose from The Little Prince

  2. Ali Boron the
    donkey of one of the stories from the Albums du Pere Castor. I think I
    must have asked my grandfather to read me the story a hundred times at
    least.

  3. The cat from the Contes du Chat Perché.
Recommend a book not covered by the above



The choice in children's books has improved a lot in the last 15
years. It is hard to pick just one. For very young children it would be
hard to go wrong with The Gruffalo (beware you might want to turn the volume down on your computer if bad children songs offend you) or A Kiss Like This
(go on try and read it and do the action without having your toddler in
stitches I dare you! Not one for a quiet bed time). For older children
The Boy recommends the ever popular Roald Dhal books, Lion Boy,
The Marsupilami cartoons, the terrible history series (I am not a big
fan myself but I feel guilty applying too much censorship on his reading
material, I am bad enough with what I let him watch on TV without
extending the restriction to the printed word) and Varjak Paw which is "full of boy stuff".
21.2.06 21:31


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