Aye aye Chicken Pie (3)

...see also Nov 28th 2008..........

"Baby M", the Silverwood's 3rd eldest was 3 yesterday, so I suppose, technically, should no longer be called "Baby M", but instead "Little Fella, M".

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday, dear Mmmmm
Happy Birthday to Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

We try to talk to him on the phone, but as is the way with 3 year olds, he cannot cop that we, here, cannot see the toy train (Called "Emily" - is that one of the Thomas-the-Tank crowd?) he is holding up and waving about near the phone.... "Look! Train... Emily!"

He is also a bit confuzzled around the fact that when he sees us it is usually for a Narrow-boating holiday, so he thinks we all own and live on the boat... "We go your boat?" He still responds, though, to the nonsense Dad catch-phrase, "Aye Aye Chicken Pie" and starts discussing what he'll have with his chicken pie - peas (yes), dip-dip (=ketchup) (yes), carrots (noooooo) etc

Ah well. Spring is here. There are frogs cavorting in the big pond and spring bulbs leppin' out of the ground all over the garden. It's warm and sunny, so the sloppy mud of last weekend is drying out nicely and Dad can spend some time digging up at the allotment. At lunchtime, we are all out on the terrace, where the "patio furniture" cushions are back out of storage. We dogs are positively basking in the warmth, even though it's a fairly washed out wintry sun slanting down. Mum and Dad tell me that one of the first things that impressed them about this house was the sun-trap terrace in their first February.

Have a great weekend
Deefer

Aye Aye Chicken Pie

Pssssst....... (shhhhh!) pretend you've not noticed we said we might stop.......

"Aye Aye, Chicken Pie" is an expression they use a lot at Dad's work - it's just an embellished version of the ordinary "Aye aye", as in "hello hello - what's going on here then?", or "Hey - I didn't expect that". Dad's brought it home and came out with a couple of times in Ireland, at Silverwood's, to 3 year old "M"

"M" took to it like a duck to water and Dad and he were frequently to be heard parrotting "Aye aye chicken pie" 's back and forth. M seemed to like the sound of it and it was a new bit of vocabulary to practise his skills on. Cutely, though, in the way of 3 year olds, he couldn't quite get it right and half the reason Dad kept him going with it was the smile they all had when he didn't quite copy it.

His was more like "Aye yike cheeky poy!" (the same way he says "I like that, or I don't "yike" that). We ended up with these series of bizarre exchanges - Dad would say "Aye aye Chicken pie", M would come back with "I yike cheeky poy" and Mrs Silverwood or Mum would say "do you fancy some for tea then?"

And while we're on Ireland you Silverwoods. Mum has now got back the statements for the diesel we bought over there. Coming from UK, where diesel hit £1.25 / litre at worst, so a tank full was £75 GB, Dad is all nostalgic for the tank full we bought in Portmarnock for 1.09 Euros a litre - 52.41 Eutos total - a big £ 42.84 UK. What's that all about? he says.

Deefer's-still-here.