I haven't had much of the 'are you a spy' treatment this time around.
We had a family gathering at a cafe for lunch on International Women's Day, with as many generations as were alive to celebrate what would have been M's grandmother's 100-birthday. Much food, and many speeches were brought forth as the older generations regaled the kids with memories of family life in the 1950s,60s and 70s. Some were controversial, most were not.
I missed most of everything - speeches, starters, (most importantly, toasts - I've never made one glass last me a whole event before) as I had to chase down rogue infants. The older boy went walkabout in the restaurant and ended up in the cloakroom, where the local cloakroom attendent, a man of surprisingly intellectual appearance was reading what looked like to be either an old copy of the Soviet encyclopaedia of everything that we think you are allowed to know about, or a bible. Not sure which, and it's hardly important.
As I called to A. in English to stop harassing his cousin who was in the bathroom, this attendant turned to me and growled (put on your best Russian spy film accent...)
'You are a foreigner?' - Yes.
'Where are you from?' - ...
'What town exactly?' - ...
And then as if to say all of this info was duly noted and will be passed on to the relevant figures, he brought out his poison tipped umbrella and started jabbing...
no wait, that's not what happened. He looked down and carried on reading.
We had a family gathering at a cafe for lunch on International Women's Day, with as many generations as were alive to celebrate what would have been M's grandmother's 100-birthday. Much food, and many speeches were brought forth as the older generations regaled the kids with memories of family life in the 1950s,60s and 70s. Some were controversial, most were not.
I missed most of everything - speeches, starters, (most importantly, toasts - I've never made one glass last me a whole event before) as I had to chase down rogue infants. The older boy went walkabout in the restaurant and ended up in the cloakroom, where the local cloakroom attendent, a man of surprisingly intellectual appearance was reading what looked like to be either an old copy of the Soviet encyclopaedia of everything that we think you are allowed to know about, or a bible. Not sure which, and it's hardly important.
As I called to A. in English to stop harassing his cousin who was in the bathroom, this attendant turned to me and growled (put on your best Russian spy film accent...)
'You are a foreigner?' - Yes.
'Where are you from?' - ...
'What town exactly?' - ...
And then as if to say all of this info was duly noted and will be passed on to the relevant figures, he brought out his poison tipped umbrella and started jabbing...
no wait, that's not what happened. He looked down and carried on reading.
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