5 things (with righteous indignation)

1. Dude, if your driving school website proudly proclaims “Deutsch, Französisch, Englisch”, then please ensure that you can actually talk to me in English when you respond to my (English) voicemail. I need to concentrate on driving, not on trying to understand each other. And if you say you can talk “a bit” of English, but can’t understand that I don’t need to take the driving test even after I explain multiple times in both English and bad German… I theenk we are not going to have a happy driving experience.

2. A much happier outcome was achieved from my phone call about dance lessons for Claudia. All in German thank you very much (as was the initial internet research), can I haz medal? We’re going to check the class out tomorrow afternoon.

3. I am sort of starting to see the point of raclette. Not really. I don’t get how chucking some melted cheese over boiled vegetables is anything to get excited about from the diner’s point of view. HOWEVER as a way of faking dinner for an overwrought mommy? Hell to the yes.

4. My hair is really shiny. Ha! You thought I couldn’t outdo the tedious narcissism of yesterday’s post? You wuz wrong. I am really, really pleased with my hair today andthisisnewsBECAUSE I’ve been struggling with it. More than a year ago I stumbled on the Curly Girl concept (nutshell version: curly hair needs special treatment; avoid sulphates (or ideally all shampoo) and silicones). Trying it out led to immediate improvement in certain areas, and convinced me it was worth sticking with, but I haven’t been able to reach a point where I’m actually pleased with my hair overall – mostly, I think, because of buildup from hard water (insert ritual ptooiee! to hard water here). (It works really well when I’m in Cape Town…) I have just tried a new shampoo and conditioner and the results, after one wash and two days, are very exciting.

For a given value of “exciting”.

5. I’m trying really hard to think of something to revive the tone of this post after that little nosedive. Um. I got nothing. My brain is entirely taken up with baby sleep problems. Um. Okay, here’s something: caught in a sudden downpour on the way back from the bus stop today, we passed some other moms & tots running home from the playground, and I recognised them and remembered their names.

I didn’t say it was exciting. But still I think I get a little star for that. Integrating, me.