Saturday, February 15, 2014

Transport


Daughter 2 came home for a meeting, and thus a long weekend with us. She set out from London on the 7.30 pm train on Wednesday and was due in Edinburgh at 11.30 pm. However, England has been suffering from severe weather and because of gales which brought down the power lines for the trains near York, she didn't get home till 5 am on Thursday - on a train that had to scoop up the passengers on the 6.30 pm from the previous evening as well as the 7 and 7.30 pm trains. Not fun. Not fun for the poor railway employees who had to deal with this either.

However, after some sleep, she recovered enough to be sociable later in the day with her sister and niece (and the rest of us).



A smiley baby is a very jolly person indeed.


How nice to attract such universal approval as a baby does. If only all life could be like this.


Grandson's recent experiences of feeling that he's surrounded by idiots: Episode 1 

While Daughter 2 was catching up on her sleep, Grandson and I were on a bus, sitting beside an elderly lady. "Look," said the lady to Grandson, pointing to traffic lights. "Those lights stop the traffic. When the light's red, we have to stop and then when it turns green, we can go."

Grandson gazed at her. You could see him thinking: I've known that for - ooh - months and months. Traffic lights are more or less my favourite things. Well, and tractors. And trains. And little cheesy biscuits.

"So," said the lady, "there's a red light. What does red mean?"

"Stop," said Grandson, speaking slowly and clearly as if to someone slightly deficient in the grey matter.

"That's right!" said the lady, clearly pleased by her efforts to educate the young.

Ah, teaching. It's always hard to get the level right.

9 comments:

  1. The thing I love about the traffic light incident is that he was so magnificently polite. Good boy!

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  2. I'm afraid I rmember being that sort of child, one who looks at grown ups as though they are stupid. Later, I could never understand why teachers were asking me questions to which they already knew the answers. Nobody explained to me that they were testing my knowledge!

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  3. I remember my three year old son being told by a visitor that there was a funny monster in his toy box. "Actually," he said, "It's a Diplodocus."
    The young need to learn patience and courtesy very early.

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  4. So true. One of my friends collected her son after his first day at school and was greeted with 'I don't need to come back here, I know nearly everything'.

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  5. Anonymous2:26 pm

    Delightful pictures and a clever Grandson, how lucky you are.

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  6. What a diplomatic child he is! I expect that little conversation made that lady`s day.

    So pleased that you had your daughter home to stay, even if she had a tedious journey. Baby granddaughter is a happy soul!

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  7. Well done little N - you saved the day. That older lady obviously doesn't know how smart you are!

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  8. Hahaha -- probably little N should have been teaching the lady a thing or two. How fun to see pictures of the girls with small granddaughter -- they all look so beautiful and happy!

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