Thursday, January 11, 2007

Getting To Grips With The Lingo

Last weekend, my Dad's partner Maureen was looking after Carl while I got my left eye lasered and Dad took Niels to his swimming lesson.
The best way to keep our kids entertained is to chuck them in the swimming pool for an hour or so, which she did until Carl got sick of that and wanted to go back upstairs. Because Dad had left with the only house key they had to wait for his return before getting back inside, so they sat chatting beside the pool.
Peering underneath the brick barbeque, Carl pointed and yelled “A snake!”
One can only imagine what effect this had on Maureen who had up until that point probably been quite relaxed in the warm sunshine, but suffice to say she was no doubt hugely relieved to point out that no, it wasn’t a snake, it was “a piece steel” which was part of the barbeque frame.
“Oh” replied Carl, his standard answer to any new piece of information while it’s being assimilated into his memory chip. Shortly afterwards he got bored with sitting by the pool so they moved to a seat on the low wall by the fountain out front, where Carl could wave enthusiastically to Mark (the security guard) and watch people coming and going. In due time a workman walked past with a large crowbar over one shoulder.
“That’s a big crowbar” said Maureen, “I wonder what he’s going to jimmy with that?”
To which Carl replied scornfully “That’s not a crow bar, that’s steel…just like the snake”.

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