Mellow Weekend
Mar. 9th, 2009 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nayelaI liked Pete's reaction to my last entry. "You updated LJ? My god, is the world about to end??" Such boggled astonishment should be encouraged, I feel, so here's another one.
At the end of last year, my father retired from his job. Since the beginning of this year, both of my parents have been on a diet. Both of these seem to be working out better than anyone expected. (I have to admit to my great shame that I've succumbed and joined in on the diet, for the first time in my life. I was fed up with my trousers not closing at the top.) Cooking all those fiddly dishes, what with the obsessive weighing and measuring and experimenting with new ingredients, my parents have finally found something they can enjoy together. My dad especially is having a ball, because "cooking is a science, dammit!" has ever been his approach. (Not mine, nor my mum's. We're both of the "take some of this, add a pinch of that, pour in a slosh of thingy and leave until it's done" school of things.) So they're keeping busy, they walk a lot, and they seem happier together than they've been in many a year.
The three of us are in a good place at the moment, actually. I visit them on Sundays as per usual, and at some point in the last year I've begun to look forward to these visits instead of making them for the sake of diplomacy. I'm still on my guard there, but not actively defensive, mostly because I haven't had much reason to be. And for the past four Sundays or so, I've been teaching my mother English.
Pete and I stayed with my parents for Christmas, and translating for three days straight did my brain in. But on the whole it's awesome to be bilingual, so when my mum found that box of vocabulary index cards a few weeks ago, we decided to make good use of it. The box contains a few hundred basic words, along with simple sentences to put them in context, and a pronunciation guide. It's a nifty tool, although all things grammar will have to be found elsewhere in due time. So we go through a small stack of cards each Sunday, with me providing explanations, pronunciations, and etymology. (As expected, the latter helps a lot with memorising. I learned my basic English by finding the connections to German, and my mother's mind works much the same way.) Despite her wails of "But I haven't done anything all week!" there is some good progress each Sunday. I always knew I got my knack for languages from her.
This Sunday, though, I went and met up with Christiane, the one friend who has stuck with me since Kindergarden. We don't see each other very often these days, but it still feels like the good old times when we meet. She and her fiancé are the latest couple to join the "ARGH, everyone around me is getting MARRIED!" conspiracy. I guess it was only a matter of time... So we flopped on their living room floor while their bunnies clambered all over us, and talked weddings and filk and England's panic in the face of snow. Yeah, I tried to explain filk to her. I'm not sure I succeeded, but she liked the music I'd brought along.
And lastly, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bardling , I've joined the ranks of those who play with pixel dragons. What can I say, I'm easily amused. :)
At the end of last year, my father retired from his job. Since the beginning of this year, both of my parents have been on a diet. Both of these seem to be working out better than anyone expected. (I have to admit to my great shame that I've succumbed and joined in on the diet, for the first time in my life. I was fed up with my trousers not closing at the top.) Cooking all those fiddly dishes, what with the obsessive weighing and measuring and experimenting with new ingredients, my parents have finally found something they can enjoy together. My dad especially is having a ball, because "cooking is a science, dammit!" has ever been his approach. (Not mine, nor my mum's. We're both of the "take some of this, add a pinch of that, pour in a slosh of thingy and leave until it's done" school of things.) So they're keeping busy, they walk a lot, and they seem happier together than they've been in many a year.
The three of us are in a good place at the moment, actually. I visit them on Sundays as per usual, and at some point in the last year I've begun to look forward to these visits instead of making them for the sake of diplomacy. I'm still on my guard there, but not actively defensive, mostly because I haven't had much reason to be. And for the past four Sundays or so, I've been teaching my mother English.
Pete and I stayed with my parents for Christmas, and translating for three days straight did my brain in. But on the whole it's awesome to be bilingual, so when my mum found that box of vocabulary index cards a few weeks ago, we decided to make good use of it. The box contains a few hundred basic words, along with simple sentences to put them in context, and a pronunciation guide. It's a nifty tool, although all things grammar will have to be found elsewhere in due time. So we go through a small stack of cards each Sunday, with me providing explanations, pronunciations, and etymology. (As expected, the latter helps a lot with memorising. I learned my basic English by finding the connections to German, and my mother's mind works much the same way.) Despite her wails of "But I haven't done anything all week!" there is some good progress each Sunday. I always knew I got my knack for languages from her.
This Sunday, though, I went and met up with Christiane, the one friend who has stuck with me since Kindergarden. We don't see each other very often these days, but it still feels like the good old times when we meet. She and her fiancé are the latest couple to join the "ARGH, everyone around me is getting MARRIED!" conspiracy. I guess it was only a matter of time... So we flopped on their living room floor while their bunnies clambered all over us, and talked weddings and filk and England's panic in the face of snow. Yeah, I tried to explain filk to her. I'm not sure I succeeded, but she liked the music I'd brought along.
And lastly, thanks to
bardling , I've joined the ranks of those who play with pixel dragons. What can I say, I'm easily amused. :)