Princess: What does virgin mean?
Me [cravenly]: Um, it’s a woman who hasn’t had a baby.
Pause.
Princess: I mean in the context of olive oil.
Obviously the Cool People Were Waiting for us to Leave
Look, the NY Times loves Brussels .
Husband’s email on being sent this link:
Brussels “is definitely not a city where everything is obvious, announced and organized,†explains Dimitri Jeurissen, the Belgian creative director of BaseDesign.
True.
Package
We ordered cereal bowls from Kellogg’s at the request of the children. Our old friends, Snap, Crackle and Pop arrived a couple of weeks ago but there was no sign of the figure whom Messrs Kelloggs refer to as “Cornelius the Cockerel”. Michael was becoming increasingly agitated on this point but, today, it arrived. “Cornelius the Cockroach!” he cried happily clutching it to his bosom.
Another One
At a certain stage, the Princess started reading and saying things backwards. Now Daniel has started. Could it be because they’re left handed? Or do all children do that?
Finding the Old Homestead
My brother is on an extended holiday in the US [because he can] and he sends us the odd update [because he believes we should suffer].
Not a lot of people know this but as a child, my father lived in Southern California. His parents came back to Cork in the 30s and people used to ask him to talk – “Let’s hear the little yank”. He remembers the ice man, and seeing a film being made at night but that’s pretty much all we’ve ever heard of his sojourn in America. My father is not a great man for nostalgia.
Latest missive from my brother includes the following:
Hey folks how,s the form…..whoever sang that song it never rains in southern California has seriously misrepresented the reality. It,s been raining here solidly all day, it,s like the west of Ireland with Palm Trees thrown in. I,m in the apple store in Pasadena near Los Angeles, trying to use the iPad 2, have to admit it,s well cool though ridiculously overpriced. It is pretty cool despite the fact I can,t find the apostrophe on the key pad. It,s also the childhood home of [our father], the directions I was given to the actual house from the man himself was that there was a machine that sold nickel sweets on the street corner sometime in the 1930s. With these pinpoint directions I have only my ineptitude and terrible sense of direction to blame for failing to find the landmark building.
Overheard
Michael: Who are you?
Daniel: I’m Ben 10!
Michael: Never heard of you, you must be from a different channel.
