So it turns out that I'm not even very good at regular drivel. But I've actually been quite busy doing stuff n'at since the last time I drivelled here.
First I spent a day at arc en reve, Bordeaux's architecture centre, for an exhibition and a lecture by Bjark Ingals of BIG. Interesting.
Then there was E's eighth birthday. Eight's a good age, I think. She had her ears pierced. A couple of days before we had this done, that is after I had already promised that yes, now she was old enough to have holes in her ears, my friend Deborah told me that she thought it was a terrible thing to do. A bit like giving her a tattoo. What is the general feeling on this?
I wrote a paper and then went off to present it at a conference in Glasgow. I took that new direct Ryanair flight from Bordeaux to Edinburgh. It was on time but, my God, what a horrendous experience the new low-cost terminal at Bordeaux is. They've called it Billi. Basically it's an enormous cattle shed - a massive metal structure with no internal cladding and no air-conditioning when I was there. Passengers are basically herded into pens then left to stand for long periods. There were exactly three seats in our pen and you're probaby only allowed to use them if you've booked priority boarding and ten bags.
I stayed with friends in the West End. They like to eat out and we had some excellent meals. We had a great tapas style Indian meal at Mother India's Café on the Thursday evening - I love tapas and I love Indian food so this was doubly delicious especially the garlic mushroom pakora. On Saturday my Mum joined us for lunch at Fratelli Sarti - a Glasgow institution. And for lunch on Sunday we went to Chinatown for a mountain of dim sum. We were practically the only non-Chinese-looking people in a very busy restaurant - although when I tuned into the conversation at the neighbouring tables, the accents were mostly very Glaswegian with some Australian.
The weather was lovely in Scotland. Much more civilized than the 35°C we had here today.
Confinement
Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...
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Deborah, who still doesn't have a blog, sent me some photographs of her place for posting "to make everyone else feel better about...
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I spend far too much time reading blogs. I’m sure you all agree it’s a shameful, compulsive disorder. So I’m cutting down. I’m going on a dr...
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Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...
7 comments:
For what it's worth, I had my ears pierced when I was 5. I've heard in Spain you can barely get your newborn out of the maternity without her ears being pierced. Culture differences aside, I hardly equate earrings with tattoos, that's a bit extreme to me.
I didn't have mine done until I was 18 or 19. I think my parents associated pierced ears with gypsies!
I don't think ear piercing is like tattoos. You don't have to wear earrings and the holes can close over eventually. I think if a little girl is old enough to ask to have her ears pierced and perform the necessary cleaning ritual until they're healed, then why not? I had my ears pierced at around 5. My uncle made my cousins wait until they were 16. My niece has her ears pierced- her mother took her to get them pierced around her first birthday. It's very cute but I'm not sure I agree with that. Little boys with pierced ears is a big no-no for me though. I think that looks so... *snob alert*... common.
Garlic mushroom pakora sounds droolsome. I love all of those foods individually. Put them together and it might just be a food heaven.
Ms Mac: E has been really good about the disinfecting ritual - she's much keener on doing that than brushing her teeth.
There's Mother India Café in Infirmary St in Edinburgh too apparently.
My sister took me to have mine done for my fourteenth birthday, it's a nice memory and one I keep meaning to wirte about, even though I nearly fainted because I'm a terrible wuss like that (it was in the days before the gun method and I heard the squelch as it went through...). I don't particularly mind seeing it on little girls, but I think, like pets, the you-must-look-after-them-properly-yourself rule should apply. I'm kind of surprised that mothers of very young babies should want the bother of that along with everything else...
The terminal called Billi sounds like it came flatpack from Ikea!
Once a month in the Oldie magazine there is a rubric called Rant ... I like reading them so I subjected you to one the other day, Lesley! Sorry about that! Of course Ms Mac is right, holes in the ears can close over eventually so why on earth do I get excited about it! Especially as I do like earrings even though I use clips or screw-ons, pathetic.
If I am ever stuck in places where there are no seats I have no scruples about sitting on the floor immediately. You need a bottle of water, a fan and a crossword next time you are in the pen!
Deborah: It was a friendly rant though! And not at all pathetic - I think it's a perfectly valid point of view. And it did make me hesitate - but it was too late to do a U-turn.
I'll be at Billi three times in July, so I'll be staging multiple sit-ins!
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