Pinch, punch

The excitement of French homework

My daughter, her husband and girls arrived here early June for two weeks. They have now been here a month and show no signs of leaving. Indeed yesterday I overheard “...first week of August......do you think she...[inaudible whisper]”

As a result of their presence, certain childhood pranks have been revived: I got a “pinch, punch, first of the month and no return” on 1 July. The good news is that it looks like I will now be able to retaliate on 1 Aug. As long as I keep my wits about me.

I’m helping home-school the girls in French. Their excitement is hard to bear. See above.

They attend our local village school occasionally. Everyone knows them in our valley: they’re foreign, identical, and have been known to wear nail-varnish. One of them rolled her eyes last night and sighed: “it’s so boring being famous.” I so get it.