Disgruntled – Part I of II
Posted on Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 4:15 pmCategory: Edukation, My Drivel
I’ve been disgruntled for some days now.
To be fair, sometimes I am just gruntled, and on occasion merely a tad grumpy.
One reason for my discomfiture is not hard to identify: my eldest daughter is away from home and, despite the racket made by the other two, I am missing her.
She left at some ungodly hour last Sunday morning for a 10 day sojourn in the Alps. It was something we said she could do on completing 6ème – her first year of high school. But the fact that she is only ten years old (OK – ten and thirteen fourteenths) and not exactly big for her age does weigh heavily upon my narrow shoulders.
She’s gone off with about 50 other children all vaguely connected to some Catholic youth action group. When I first heard about this set-up I wondered in what kind of action they were involved: super gluing the mechanism of condom dispensers crossed my mind, or helping nuns cross the road, perhaps.
But mostly they appear to bake cakes for people in disaster areas. I believe they sell the cakes to elderly ladies as they leave church to raise money, this being a good time to tap old biddies for a spot of ready cash, not that the cakes are forwarded to earth quake zones directly. I mean, they’d go stale. The cakes, not the pensioners.
As it happens, the hostel in which they are staying is very close to the home of a good friend of ours. So Yesterday, he and his fiancée went out with them on a very long walk. He sent some pictures to me today, and it is obvious that she is missing me too. I mean, look at this one:
Clearly she’s pining for her Old Dad. Or this one, where her homesickness is clearly apparent.
It’s tough when they grow up. Maybe next year I should agitate to go too. It looks fun.
July 8th, 2010 21:04
It’s good to see that Gavin is instilling some decorum to the proceedings! xx
July 8th, 2010 22:09
My late mother-in-law had a word that descibes exactly how you are feeling Jon.
You are discombobulated.
July 8th, 2010 22:29
Sticking out your tongue means “wish you were here”. Ask any baboon…
July 9th, 2010 09:48
My god, Jon, How can you parade her torment like this? They evidently made her carry the baguettes too!
You’ll be sending her up chimneys next…
July 9th, 2010 22:33
Jo – well, he’s getting all grown up now.
Expat – now that is a word I’ve not heard for a very long time. My father used to use it on occasion, but I’d quite forgotten it.
GB – Yep. My daughter the baboon. She’s not going to be pleased with that picture either.
DD – I know! Fancy forcing the poor thing to carry bread that is longer than she is tall. I’ll be pleased when she is home. Far too quiet and sane around here.
July 14th, 2010 23:39
Jon,
I’m more than grumpy and disgruntled at the moment. Just when I’m busy trying to help people “fix things and make everything better”; some bloomin’ do gooder scrubs my postings.
Shocking !
http://derektempleton.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/how-to-get-gagged/
July 16th, 2010 22:50
Derek – This sort of thing is most tiresome. There are too many people out there who just can’t accept polite criticism, even when the wisdom is clear.
July 18th, 2010 20:20
little by little they tug at their boundaries. my eldest sailed around the world (Semester at Sea) when she was 20. we both survived that… and it’s good to know that homesickness can be diagnosed via a look at the tongue!
July 18th, 2010 21:47
Grief – around the world! Puts the Alps in context.
Many things can be diagnosed from looking at the tongue I shall return to this at a later date.