Two young rockers
Ah well, I guess every generation has its weird fads in the teen years - I can't remember what they were in my teens, but my parents' generation had teddy boys and hippies, so this too shall probably pass!
A repository for news about the Romeis family: John, Karyn, Björn and Torvald.
Labels: Birthday
I thought I would relate an incident from yesterday. I still laugh when I think about it – I just hope it works in writing, although I don’t have a great deal of confidence that it will.
Once I had achieved my main goals for the morning, I decided to take a break and go and have a snowball fight with the lad. We were becoming increasingly energetic (I have a stiff throwing arm today, as evidence), when I took a snowball full in the face. “Hang on, Torvy,” I said, “I just need a moment to recover my equilibrium,” (an expression we use a lot in the family). But before I had even finished speaking, Torvy had shoved a snowball down my neck, producing an earsplitting shriek.
Less than a minute later, I took a very large snowball right in the eyes, and the crystals scratched my eyeballs something fierce (still sore today). I was standing there, hands over my eyes, totally unable to see, when my incorrigible son said with every semblance of concern, “Sorry, Mom. Do you need a moment to recover your equilibriaaaargh?”
You can imagine that this will be the norm, now. No-one will recover their equilibrium ever again. It will ever more be equilibriaaaaargh. What a goblin!
"Björn's depth of knowledge in science never ceases to surprise me. He is an excellent student. His end of module test results are uniformly high and evidence that he spends time outside of lessons ensuring his knowledge is refreshed. With a more organised approach (Karyn's comment: Björn? Organised? Well, we can all dream, I guess!) to revision he could achieve an A* in this subject. Björn has an equiring mind and a sharp intellect and it is a pleasure having him in my Science group."Björn is reaching the stage where he starts talking about selecting his A-level subjects. The norm is to do 3 of these, but he wants to do four: three sciences (physics, biology and chemistry) and maths. To our surprise, he is being discouraged by the teachers - not for putting all his eggs so very firmly in one basket, as you might expect, but for attempting to take on more than the required minimum. Fortunately the head of 6th form is prepared to override his teachers and let him have a go at the increased workload if he still wants to by the time he gets there. He has however, recommended that he spread his net a little wider, and we are encouraging him to consider other options. There are 28 subjects available at A level, so he is bound to find something else he wants to do.
Brief interruption: When we were in the US we found that there was decaff available everywhere. And not just a sort of backup instant coffee deal. Proper coffee. Most civilised. The first time I asked at a small kiosk if they had decaff, the guy looked at me weirdly and said, "Of course!" Contrast that with the UK where they have decaff in some places, usually in the form of little sachets of instant. Bleagh! Even more extreme, in Sweden in 2001, the waitress at the coffee shop looked dazed and repeated slowly, "Caffeine-free coffee? Caffeine-free coffee?" She didn't quite say "Does not compute" out loud, but her face did!Anyway, back to the story. The man proudly informed me that they did, indeed, cater to new age weirdos like me, and produced the inevitable sachet. Now read this next bit slowly. Preferably out loud.