Vacation Round-Up: An Ominubus Post

We've been away (Long time no see, blog.  How are you?).

We went to Vancouver, to visit my parents.  The trip was organized to coincide with a conference in Victoria at which I gave a paper.

Here's some stuff that happened while we were travelling:

1) In flight entertainment.
I recommend tic tacs.  They take a long time to eat.  They keep kids swallowing (and thus their ears from hurting).  Winton calls them dik diks (which is funny in and of itself).  And when the box is empty you call ball up miscellaneous shreds of paper to see, as Winton put it, "how many dik diks you can put in the box."

2) Random conversations
Clara: "Mummy, who invented all the words?"
Winton: [interrupting] "Dr Seuss."

3) Parental slights, directed at Mummy:

Opa: "You only got here yesterday, but it feels like you've been here forever."

Opa: "Yeah, you do bruise easily.  It's a sign of old age."

Oma: "Clara is a much nicer child than you ever were."


4) Parental slights, directed at Husband:

Opa [at IHOP, while 8 people including Uncle Michael, were trying to seat themselves and find menus]: "Are you just going to sit there and sulk?"

Oma: [several days later, while Husband was trying to wedge himself into a seat at the very cramped table at my parents' house]: "Are you sulking?"


5) Parental slights, combined targets.

Opa: "Knut [his nickname for me], don't lose any more weight.  But it's good [Husband] lost some weight.  He was kind of fat."



6) Conference highlights

Number of people at my paper: 5 (I blame the unusually nice weather in Victoria).  Responses to my work: worried, primarily.

Response to price of my book: "$40??  Oh, my god!"