Monday, December 18, 2006

Love and Maltesers

There is a new romance in the Lomax family.

Not eldest daughter.

Not eldest son only son.

Not daughter number two - much to her disgust and disappointment, as has been hoping for a flame of romance for a little while now.

But daughter number three. Aged 8.

She came home the other day from school, announcing quite proudly that she now had a boyfriend. Second name of daughter number three happens to be Rose, so it is slightly ironic that new young "man" in her life is called Jack. Needless to say, there were plenty of Titanic jokes flying round the dinner table.

Now, being a mother of two teenagers, and one nearly teenager, it is quite common to hear secrets about the opposite gender, to be sworn to secrecy about the opposite gender, and possibly more commonly, to be left out all together about conversations involving the opposite gender.

So it was very amusing and quite refreshing to see Aged 8 announce her news, unabashed and quite proudly. Her only slight concern was that ESOS might tease her. When however it became apparent that ESOS had received the news and wasn't in fact particularly interested or concerned with it, she relaxed about that too, and went on to tell us how the match was made: at school, in a lesson, by sending a note. This had then caused a flurry of notes around all the girls in the class and had resulted in Aged 8, for whom butter would never normally melt in mouth, being sent to the Head along with some friends.

As she had achieved the job in hand - to catch Jack - she was completely unperturbed about being sent to the Head, and seemed to think that it was quite funny.

I asked her if she would like to ask Jack round. You know, to meet the parents. She is still thinking about that one, but she did ask if she could have some money to buy a box of chocolates for him, for a Christmas present.

DNT, who had now recovered from the indignity of her younger sister having a boyfriend before her, offered to go to the shop with her. They chose a box of Maltesers, came home, wrapped them up, and put them on the radiator in the hall, ready to take to school the next morning.

Half an hour later, hubby remembered that the radiator was on, and so the melted maltesers were removed from the radiator and put in the fridge. DNT and Aged 8 went to buy some more maltesers, and the melted ones were used in our pudding.

So second present to Jack arrived home, was wrapped, and, this time, put into the fridge.

Long may relationships based on boxes of maltesers and complete lack of embarrassment last!

20 comments:

Beccy said...

Ahh that is so sweet. Oh to be young and innocent again.

Anonymous said...

ah, the simple life.

At least she has taken him the present quickly - at that age, if she had waited until christmas day, he probably wouldn't be her boyfriend any more!

sallywrites said...

Beccy - I agree......

And Kingston Girl. You are so right. And if he likes the present, maybe he'll give her one back, before it all ends!

Sally

FH said...

Ahh..!!!! Puppy love!!!!:)))))

sallywrites said...

Asha - I know!! And needless to say that was a song being sung around the house by one or two people this weekend. Had the person for whom it was meant was aware then she might have thought them insensitive. But she was instead gloriously blissfully unaware!

Sally

ChrisB said...

Oh this is so sweet. I do hope she gets a present as well, boys are not always as thoughtful as girls.

sallywrites said...

Yes so do I Chris!! He did give her one of his sweeties though - which isn't a bad start! Term finishes tomorrow, so we'll see!

Fingers crossed!

Sally

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, the old Maltesers on the radiator trick!

sallywrites said...

indeed!

Anonymous said...

Sally, re. your post chez petite,it's 'pressies'(or whatever your chosen spelling), not 'pressy's'. no offence, i just have a real thing about apostrophes.....

sallywrites said...

Absolutely right Anonymous.

And with a degree in Education and Drama from Cambridge, I really should know that. Usually though, I tend to write comments in a bit of a hurry, hence the sloppiness!

Just for correctness though:

"re" should be followed by a colon, not a full stop;

I, as in the first person singular, should be written as a capital letter;

Ater a full stop, it's better to use a capital letter.

No offence, but I just have a thing about punctuation.

Sally

p.s. Do you have a name?

Anonymous said...

errm, i couldn't at this point to be a direct descendant of old e e? thought not. in that case i'll just have to settle with being 'down with the kids'. fair play sally, peaople in glass houses etc etc. but going to cambridge has nothing to do with it- mimi in new york also graced its hallowed halls. goodness, so did i. (although as a scientist, which might explain things).

best wishes (especially of the christmas variety),
anonymous

Anonymous said...

bother. that's 'couldn't claim at this point*, not whatever nonsense is written above.

Anonymous said...

I think your apostrophe phobic commentator could be the same one that tracked down this serious error - http://www.petiteanglaise.com/archives/2006/12/18/audio-moblog-2/#comments - see n° 52

Curly said...

It's great when the little ones start on that path, isn't it?

There's a lad, named Jack, in my little sisters school who (at the age of 14) has had in the region of 30 girlfriends... much to the disgust of my sister!

sallywrites said...

Well there you go Anonymous. So hubby and I want to know when and where? And which college?

Very true Fibsor!

Curly - 30 at 14!! Wow! That's going some!!

Sally

Anonymous said...

sally,
downing college, natural sciences (part II something unusual, but obviously biological as i was only there for the three years), graduated with a 2:1 at some point since 2000. any more and that would be giving it away!

ah yes, saturday morning lectures, post-exams champagne down by the mill pond, formal swaps (and trying to find my gown), natscis, compscis and mathmos, supervisions, almost freezing to death from november to april, the adc, smokers...truly sally, i was there!

(further evidence of the downing variety: 3x drinking societies (the patricians, the orchids and the exiles, of which i was in none), the quad run, choral evensong on thursdays and sundays, rehearsing on tuesdays, noone has ever heard of it outside cambridge except for lawyers, medics and old-school english students hankering after the long forgot memory of old f r levis, we would have been grand but they ran out of cash,etc etc ad infinitum)

sallywrites said...

Happy memories!

And Happy Christmas Anonymous.

Sally

Anonymous said...

Ah to be bought malteasers for Christmas by someone special ... If only we were all so lucky!

It is indeed sweet when kids start to take an interest in the opposite gender. I'm pretty sure if I had had a love interest at 8 I wouldn't have mentioned it to my parents. Interestingly enough, my youngest brother, 16, has apparently still not told my parents that he split with his girlfriend of over a year about a month ago. I only found out because I bumped into her yesterday and she mentioned it.

I blame my mother for being so damn patronising about all that sort of stuff. Irritates me even now, although I'm glad to say she appears to have resolved not to probe me as to why I've been single for the last 3 and a half years.

sallywrites said...

Hi Ignorminious!

Yes - mothers can be very irritating about that sort of thing!!

But as a mother, it's very easy to get it wrong too!! So don't be too hard on her. She probably just wants to make sure that you are on course to find true love, assuming that that is what you want too. But I know. It's the way they do it!

But I do agree. Oh for the simple pleasures of love shown by the maltesers box.

Sally