 Changing Places Week 144 W/C 23rd November 2008
Collecting my grandchildren from school is a great pleasure even if I am warned not to embarrass! Emma the four year old goes to the local school in the Port of Soller and enters her own little world each day where she communicates in Majorcan. She switches back soon enough when she is collected from school but on the day I collected her this week she felt the need to explain my ignorance. She was giggling in a corner with her friend Aina and they noticed I'd arrived - Emma immediately went into an explanation, with a big sigh for emphasis that I really was a good Nan even though I didn't speak -Majorcan. The two `fish wife' four year olds sat there with their arms folded discussing how you just can't get the Nans with the right language these days. The trials and tribulations of grandparenthood - no matter what I do right this is one battle I am not going to win.
Collecting Kate is altogether another matter as she is part of a school run from Palma so collection will always be two, three or more. The car becomes a gaggle of girls with their own in jokes and stories. Eight year olds in exit mode shaking off the restrictions of the school day can be a loud place to be. I don't have to say much, listening to the stories of their own world is enough. This week was stories of poems and poetry that they had as last lesson of the day. That together with preparations for Christmas and the choir concert and it is clear they inhabit a very busy world all of their own - just like the littlest one.
As both children arrive home their thoughts are with their sick cat Sol. My family are having very bad luck with cats - it has to be said. The vet is like one of the family and is probably booking a winter cruise on the money that has changed hands in treatment bills. The sweet little kitten arrived and was delightful, playful and all the things a kitten should be. After a couple of months its legs started to swell and his feet became wider and wider and he began to look as if he was turning into a cartoon character. The vet was stumped and prescribed antibiotics and anti inflammatory tablets. It made little difference and the kitten had to visit the vet on a daily basis with warnings that each day might be its last. A second opinion revealed that the kitten had arthritis and then it developed a skin condition. The kitten now looks some mutant being and the prognosis is not good. This follows the story of the cat they got from a refuge which had to be put down within 24 hours. Maybe its time to give up on cats for awhile or at least until the wind changes - as Mary Poppins might have said
The wind did change on me as I went to London this week, a little snow and icy blasts from a severe North wind made me wonder what I was doing out of the winter in Majorca. The Light Box Bench was the reason for my visit. The inventor Graham Smith and I were unveiling more Light Box Benches in various locations around South East England. Graham is often on TV with his inventions and is used to the cameras and the publicity machine. Asda, B&Q, Tesco all want his recycled, solar powered advertising invention and I sat on most of them! Majorca next stop for the Light Box Bench, for the first is being shipped as I write this. Advertising is doubly important in recessional times and the opportunity to be able to advertise on a completely environmentally friendly product with no carbon footprint is fantastic. No electricity is used in its night time illuminations as it's all solar powered. Yogurt pots, plastic bottles, , supermarket packaging and carrier bags have all gone into the production of the 100% recycled plastic bench. An advertising opportunity that helps save the planet - that is a mega thought for a Nan - even though she can't speak Majorcan.
  |
||
Copyright © Sun Search Acquisitions 2008
|
||