Grandsons 16 3 18 then (33) reflected now 25 1 20

That is to say for a few days while their parents S my elder son and his wife Sa go to Gdansk in Poland for a spring break. The last time i child-minded them was a year ago when their parents visited Prague in a similar exercise...

So after several years a pattern begins to emerge to permit a few generalisations to be made about the highs and the lows of such an undertaking...

Perhaps the most striking aspect is to acknowledge the fact that as they grow up I am seriously growing down. Hahaha! Though we are quite accustomed to people "growing up" no-one usually talks about "growing down"? But it was graphically illustrated on the present occasion because both boys are now taller than I for the first time and if I am growing down I am not the only one because when I last saw my elder brother J who lives in UK, whom we have only visited once a year for the last several years, in the beginning of May, he is more my height today than ever before, because his growing down must have kicked in before mine...

A and D respectively are 17 (in a few days’ time) and 15 1/2 with a similar age difference between my two sons S and P and between my elder brother J and I which further lends spice to the exercise we now discuss. A and D are likewise very different in stature as J and I once were and if you look closely the one has his stature more from his father as the other of his mother: so in a sense they have vied for who is taller at any particular time as they each exhibit different rates of growth at different times. In the case of my two sons and my brother and I, I cannot say this was ever true the older boy always being the taller when growing up...

It was interesting for me to have the boys to myself when to my surprise A would confide things that he punctuated were not for his father’s ears but perhaps mine alone and it was interesting in D’s case to discuss with him his chemistry studies which I told him were more advanced than mine had been at his age. The same was also true for his studies in physics I had concluded on an earlier occasion, and when I discussed with A what he was doing in Geography I had to tell him of my studies in Astronomy at University to talk on the same level.

There was nothing special about the meals I put on the table because I knew from past experience what they liked. The first evening we had what I affectionately refer to as Greece and Garlic which is my own version of a Spaghetti Bolognese comprising a sauce of minced prime beef, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes and on this occasion served with a pound, say 450 grams, of spaghetti all of which disappeared 2 of the 3 also adding grated cheese which A doesn’t eat. On the second evening I served 2 packs of American bacon and eggs fried in an open pan with tomatoes and kidney beans together with oven ready French Fried potatoes again very little remaining to my great surprise.

During the intervening day as usual I visited the odd store in the Capital surveying the new clothes in a Men’s’ clothing store where I had a gift card left over from the return of ill-fitting Christmas gifts which I decided not to use on this occasion and when I decided to dine in a part of town I used to frequent during my business life of course the place had closed many years ago but in its place this day I found a Vietnamese restaurant which I enjoyed as it recalled my visit to Sapa in November 2011. My visit was rounded off by catching the last 45 minutes of an exhibition of Asian Art under the heading Japanomania...Have a good day everyone as I adorn my blog this day with images if not totally representative nevertheless conveying something of the flavour courtesy of Google's contributors and their copyrights.