Not being one to brag, here are some letters from children in Germany.
A good time was had by all at the European Schools in Frankfurt over the past two days.
The children are voracious drawers and askers of questions, and like looking at books especially 'if they are in colour'. Most of all, they like laughing and giggling and in the case of one boy: sleeping. The students are from all over the world, and all will have interesting stories to tell one day.
Drawing with the children always make me wish I had their fearless approach to getting an idea down onto the paper. We drew bears and other things, and my favourite part was when Finn had a go at drawing Snoopy, to huge encouragement and ceaseless laughter from his class.
Children's questions are consistently surprising and Germany was no different. There is a recurring, familiar question however and it was finally asked late in the morning by a little girl who asked me if I had any children. I answered in my best German: Nein.
Profuse thanks to Renate, Ute and Stephanie for inviting me to their fantastic libraries and looking after me. More huge thanks to:
Marion (who collected me in her Mini which had been imported from the USA to Germany, and who pointed out the Australian Bar in Bad Vilbel); Finn's mother (who collected me on her school run and described Kentucky to me); Barbara (who collected me at 7am when everyone else was sleeping, met her English husband grape-picking in Australia and explained the workings of the European Central Bank while we were stuck on the autobahn); David (who explained how teachers don't exploit all the capabilities of the Smartboard, and set up my presentation so well); and last but not least Kimberley (from Texas via The Netherlands who drove me to the airport and was misdirected by the poor pronunciation of 'flughafen' by the American voice on the satnav). Danke vielmals.
Bad Vilbel, good water.
Zwei katzen. Photo by Ute Arias.
Before, not during.
Sally wearing a turtleneck jumper and sports jacket. Circa can't remember.
Cat asleep on chair:
Covert in darkened room
Watch out where you sit.
The longhand equivalent of the folded hands or smiling face emoji. All you need to do is send someone some money and you may receive a letter in the post just like this if you're lucky. It's nice that people take the time.
Sender: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Years ago I lived in a room and shared a bathroom with an actress who lived on the same floor. We had to put a gold coin in a meter if we wanted to take a bath. The actress was even poorer than me because I once found her sharing her bath with all her clothes to save on laundry costs. (I would use the laundrette down the road every Saturday afternoon). After that encounter I would make her donations of bath money. For some reason she kept this, probably because it is still loaded with a coin.
Circa the last century. Good for one bath or three showers, whichever is longest.
It was already spitting on the tarmac. I could see it on the window before we took off.
Today is Remembrance Sunday and I thought about a school visit I did, talking to some children about picture books and that type of thing. One little girl asked me about The Frank Show which is a book about a boy whose grandfather is a source of some embarrassment to him, until he learns a little about Frank's life.
The girl pointed to the picture below and asked me what type of phone Frank was using. I said it wasn't a phone but a hearing aid to help him hear things better. And she said that if he had a phone he could show people pictures about his life instead of telling stories all the time.
I had to agree with her. But Frank was probably too busy to take pictures during the war because he was a soldier and had lots of more important things to do. She thought that hearing aids were a good idea.
I like how pictures can generate questions as well as make statements about things. Someone told me that children born this century don't recognise a dial-telephone. If they see it they can ask, is my opinion. It keeps them thinking and asking and learning.
Frank wouldn't be patient enough to work a smartphone anyway.
Bluetooth bypassed Frank.
