We saw Daniel off to Paris yesterday. It was his first time flying without school or family and I was a bit nervous even though, flying as an unaccompanied minor, he was accompanied by a bored airline employee. You will be pleased to hear that he made it safely to Paris, notwithstanding my concerns. Herself is in Botswana due to fly home via Addis Ababa. Michael is enrolled in a drama course for the week despite his protests.
I see in today’s Irish Times that i) the heatwave is expected to be so intense in Paris this week that they are opening the swimming pools at night and ii) there has been a coup attempt in Ethiopia and that there are “reports of gunfire in Addis Ababa”. Also, Michael is loathing his drama course.
Honestly, the lengths some will go to to furnish a blogpost….
😎
I confirm that we are having a heatwave (except in Brittany) and I don’t know about the swimming pools, but the parks in Paris will remain open at nights, there will be air conditioned rooms available in the “mairies” and water bottles will be given out to homeless people. But I have no information about Addis Abeba, sorry…
Your blog leaves me exhausted just reading it. Botswana is lovely, very calm and polite. One of the few places in Africa that is safe after dark. Your daughter is remarkable, at her age all I could do was scrape through O-levels.
I have not been here recently and it is always worth a visit to a very different world, a warm and friendly one.
School trips do seem to have improved don’t they? I once went to Hameln in Germany for ten days with the cadet corp but that was about it.
I know, Conor, I know.
Oh Viviane, I love (except in Brittany) – they were stoic and even played tennis – though indoors. They seem to have had a great time and have adjusted seemlessly to local conditions here now that they are back in Dublin.
School trips have improved considerably, Charles – I suppose it’s all of us middle class parents and our expectations rather than our lucky children. Germany not bad though…