I cannot do the same, more's the pity.
Listening to the barbed comments delivered to me at the breakfast table, I think that daughters number 2 and 3 are becoming a little resentful about the attention that Shark is enjoying. And probably they are irked at how mama seems to have abandoned family loyalty in favour of peering into the sea to catch hopeful sight of grown men gearing up. (Yes, of course I am learning the lingo; how else can I establish my credibility?) Squirrel not very politely reminds me, over the toast, that I am married. You children have a lot to learn, that is for sure.
Well, I give in to my miniature morality custodians. Really, I have not much choice. The Philippines has slapped me about something rotten, so I am not much of an eyeful. I have sun burn on one shoulder, carry a headache the size of Manila, limp on a left leg eaten by mosquito, and the rooms at the Portofino Hotel come with the wrong sort of mould, so my eyeballs have swollen up like a couple of watermelons.
Then Aunty Dee says she must buy a post card, and Tiger says unless she sees something interesting she will never travel anywhere again. So there is nothing else for it. I must dutifully occupy my custodian daughters 2 and 3 in a day of constructive and improving education. While Shark is having fun, I conduct a geology lesson,
become a cooperative tour guide for the local town,
describe Philippine cuisine from the contents of the local grocery store,
go oooh and ahhh with the marine biology,
and equip everyone for an afternoon's snorkel.
By bedtime I am chastened and promise to behave myself.
(But I keep my fingers crossed behind my back when they make me promise not to strip down to what looks like my underwear again and run about the beach pretending to be Bo Derek.)
1 comment:
Commendable behaviour indeed! I'm glad you kept your fingers crossed though and look forward to photos of their shocked little faces when you reprise your Bo Derek performance ;-)
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