You Learn Something New Every Day

Stuck in traffic on the way back from our weekly family outing to the smucasmarket yesterday, the Small Girl was whingeing ("I want another thnaaack!") and the Very Small Boy was beginning to get agitated (he loves car journeys but the moment the car stops, he starts to get very cross). We soon discovered the cause of the tailback: a very large group of spectators had gathered by the roadside to watch two single-person horse carts racing slowly the wrong way down the road.

"The Gypos are in town" remarked DH as I stared back open-mouthed at the rabble jumping into their cars and racing off drunkenly after the horses. Sometimes living in Ireland can be very strange.

"What's the story behind St Patrick's Day?" I asked DH as we continued on our way.
"I'm not sure... something to do with how he drove the snakes out of Ireland I think" he replied.

A Small Voice piped up from the back of the car:"Patrick got the snakes and all the people didn't like Patrick. They didn't like him and then he took the snakes away and then they liked him". I was amazed - the Small Girl had just taught me something new, which she must have learned at playschool. I never would have thought that at the tender age of two, she would be lecturing me on Irish History.

Then again, both my children have taught me a lot of things when I think about it. They've taught me that I didn't really know myself until they came along. They've also taught me not to judge people for who they are, because mostly it's out of our control. And they've taught me to stop and try to appreciate the small things in life, like a decent night's sleep or a lovely sunny day. Or even just a nice cup of tea.

And we pulled up by the side of the road as a huge army tank crawled past us down the High Street with a large and prominent "L" plate displayed just below its camouflaged machine-gun operator.