Prams, Karaoke and Farewell...
Hey up me ducks!
I'm so glad that the BBC team managed to publish all your comments! Thank you so much to everyone who posted answers to my question about what makes a good dad. It gave me plenty of food for thought and a great deal of encouragement too.
Tomono is now only two and a half weeks away from the due date, the cot is ready (with nifty animal mobile attached!), the car seat is fitted and all manner of baby goods have been purchased. One thing came up, however, that I really wasn't expecting. Last weekend my parents kindly took Tomono shopping for a pram. We picked one out - not too heavy or big so Tomono can get it in the car without having to spend 6 months at the gym - and ordered the colour we wanted. My mum then told us that we shouldn't have it sent to our house. "What on earth are you on about?" I asked. Apparently, it is bad luck to have a new pram in your house before the child is born. I was perfectly happy to go ahead and have it delivered to our house anyway but Tomono, not wanting to encourage bad luck of any description, insisted that we follow my mum's advice. So we had it sent to my office instead. This got me thinking about superstitions in other cultures regarding all things to do with babies...I bet there are some good ones out there - can't wait to hear them!
On a completely different topic, one of my colleagues at work told me a strange story about one of her neighbours. A lady who lives next door to her recently bought a karaoke machine from ebay. My colleague and this lady have been neighbours for about two years, but my colleague had always kept her distance as she finds her a little overbearing. One night her neighbour knocked on her door and she had brought her karaoke machine with her. She asked if she could come in and show off her new toy. Not wanting to seem rude, my colleague invited her in and helped her set it up, which was difficult because it didn't come with any instructions. Eventually, they got it set up and the neighbour proceeded to sing, without a break, for two whole hours. To say that her voice wasn't good is a big understatement. My colleague said that she sat on her sofa for two hours politely listening to her neighbour singing, out of tune and at the wrong rhythm, because she didn't want to be rude and ask her to leave. Incredible! Eventually, she went home after midnight but left her karaoke machine behind. My colleague is now terrified that she will come back for an encore. Again, a good question for you all: What would you have done in that situtation? Would you have asked her to leave? Would you have told her that her singing was like listening to cats fighting? Would you have sat there for over two hours and listened politely?
Anyway, I've been rabbiting on for ages. Tomono is downstairs waiting for me to watch a DVD together, so I'd best get a riggle on and say goodbye.
It's been a real pleasure catching up with you all. Anita, you are a model for all English learners and I'm so proud of your commitment and dedication. It's a shame we didn't hear from Jenny again but there's always next time, I guess.
Have a lovely rest of 2008 and hopefully two years down the track we'll all meet again...
Take care
Lewis
P.S. I'll leave you with a picture of us showing our love for the Bakewell tart. Yummy!
Comments
Hi, Lewis, Congrats, you are going to be a Dad. I am Kuldeep Raj, Male, 38 years, Jammu, India,, attempting to learn English for the last about 12 years. I am engaged with BBC Learning English Site for last 1-1/2 years and was very happy to find such a wonderful and useful site I ever came across. I improved vocabulary as well as grammar also. I wish to establish grip over English Language to the extent that I could be able to express even very complicated and critical ideas. I hope I will be successful in my mission with the help of daily reading of BBC Site. Blogs and Flatmates are very much interesting and are big language improvers. I owe to BBC team and its great teachers who are putting their best and doing a great social service. Keep it up. Kindly convey my this message to BBC team. I convey thanks for your today’s interesting blog . You has really been successful to provoke me to participate in blog. In fact, I uses to read but always hesitate to write (although I admit that a reverse order should be done to improve upon English rapidly). India is a country full of superstitions. Some Superstitions regarding newly born babes particularly in north built are: After Delivery of baby, mother gets confined to a single, dark room for 40 days. Even in hostitle weather conditions (extreame hot and humidity temperature say 40 to 45 degrees; and extreme cold ) neither Mother nor child get out of that particular room. During severe cold wealther, when sun shines, mother and child never exposed to Sun heat. Although they should do so for good health and early recovery. She responses to natural calls in that particular room only. Some close relative mostly Mother or Mother-in-law dumps her wastes in a field, in case no toilet room facility in house. It is really very terrific. Is it not. Although trend changing but very slowly especially in cities. You know, in India, Son baby preferred / given more weightage. In order to keep him away from bad souls / Evil souls, a black thread studed with small iron balls and small beads ( 2 to3 mm dia size approx.) of black / White / Red colour, is buckled / tied around the Waist of son child. It is known as Taragi An Iron ring putted on wrist of child. Some Mustard seeds wrapped in a piece of cloth bucked /tied with Bed of Child as well as on the upper portion of his / her Arm (between Ankle and below shoulder) Whenever, we went outside with child, a dot / point of collyrium / antimony (or any black colour application) is applied on forehead so as to protect him/her from those persons having evil eyes or considered having bad eyes. If child continue cries despite of proper care and medical treatment, people take them to Saint. This Saint ( say Villain in other words) do some religious rituals, explits and befools people. In Kashmiri Community, people put on wrist a Horse-weared-Iron –nose-ring to keep evil souls away from child. Nearby Nabourers ladies comes to Home to see newly born child and hand over some money (called Pyar) to newly child as a token of love and affection. Whenever this newly born baby visits any of relatives home, they welcome baby by pouring a mustard oil at the doorsteps at boundary wall of house and then let the baby cross a doorsteps / boundary wall of house. Incase of Son baby, when his first Lohri comes (festival falls on every year’s 13th January) it is celebrated with a much enthusiasm and fervour. All relatives are invited who stay at night. Locality residents are also invited to have a Lunch / Dinner. As evening grew, say from 2 pm, Children in groups of 2 to 10 starts to come home and ask for a Lohri Money, Groundnut, Some chunks of Jaggery etc given to these children. At late evening, big groups of Adult boys and girls (of age between 15-20) visits newly born home and dance on traditional lohri related songs for some span of time. They are also given same treatment i.e Money, Groundnut, Some chunks of Jaggery etc (but in good quantity) Then after paying obeisance to God, a big wood
Hello Lewis! It´s the first time I´ve sent a comment to you and I just would like to wish all the best for you Tomono and your unborn child. Enjoy the DVD, Ana Paula.
Hello, Lewis Are you ready for the big day.I bet you have got lots of butterfies in your stomach and of course Tomono is more nervous about the birth and she will misse her mum so much if her mother won't be with her.Would you give Tomono a big hug and say she'll be alright on behalf of me ? I'll be thinking of you and her around the time and gook luck! hyoshilxxx
Hi, Lewis. It's my first comment to you, because I've read your 'Aug-Sep 2006' blogs just a couple of days ago. They all great. Many thanks to you. As for tradition and superstitions, in my country people also belive, that it's bad luck to buy baby things before baby is born. I don't belive that, but must say, when I was pregnant, we didn't buy anything either. Goodbuy for now. Best wishes to you and your wife.
Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.
