Category: journal

A catch-all for the day-to-day meanderings of these parents-to-be

it was hot…

Fantastic last six weeks: largely hot and dry. Hottest late Sept days for 67 years or somesuch. Twenty-eight degrees during the last week..

In fact, it’s now October 1 — a couple of weeks since I wrote the par above — and only just turning cooler. We’ve had a succession of short-stay lodgers. First was Carolina (Lola), a German lady whose daughter works for Cambridge University Press and who came for dinner the first night. Lovely, trendy, young-dressing lady whose husband was a carpenter and ran a local business that has been in the family for generations. Then came Maria, from Spain. A warm and sociable traveller from Spain. Had worked in Ireland, teaches in France, writes, translates. A keen decorator and house-improver, empathetic to our ways. And then Christian, left today. A very friendly and very polite man from Dijon. Owns 14 bikes. Works in quality control for a French electromechanical manufacturer.

Walkies!


Neve’s “new” pushchair, bought on Sunday at Trumpington car boot sale to which she went with the express purpose of buying such an item, having recalled that they were sold there.  She’s rather good at that remembering stuff.

It was bought for her doll, Baby, but Isa loaded it up with the wide-eyed pets as a tidying manouver.

Both the girls spend ages playing with their wide-eyed pets, though at this point it’s often Neve who will push Lola into it. They must have around 20, plus another half dozen soft toys who participate in the same games. Each pet has a designated birthday (and these, and other personal details are kept by Lola in a number of notebooks and Google documents); when this birthday comes around, the girls make the pets cards and presents and then they organise a party which all the other pets attend. When a new pet is bought, all the pets gather to greet the new arrival. This is a formal affair, with the royalty (for this is a monarchic, hierarchical society) appearing crowned and in ceremonial dress and the new pets being presented and educated in the ways of the pet kingdom they are joining.