We went for tea (that’s an evening meal to anyone southern reading this) in Coverdale Hall. A pretty decent mass produced steak and ale pie with some very oddly textured mashed potato (I think there was wallpaper paste in it) followed by some kind of pudding with warm [...]]]> I had a surreal experience last night.

We went for tea (that’s an evening meal to anyone southern reading this) in Coverdale Hall. A pretty decent mass produced steak and ale pie with some very oddly textured mashed potato (I think there was wallpaper paste in it) followed by some kind of pudding with warm lumpy custard. The latter landed like a brick in my stomach about five minutes after leaving the dining room. But hey, it was food and none of us had to buy it, cook it or do the washing up.

That wasn’t the surreal experience though.

I sat there with VIT and one of her colleagues, a former air traffic controller with some great stories to tell, judging by the “737 nearly lands on a Chinook” one. Opposite was my 15 year old VKIT and next to me, wriggling almost continually except when he was running up and down the dining room, was the 7 year old one.

Now, I am used to VKIT talking about essays she has to write, deadlines she mustn’t miss, deadlines she nearly missed, deadlines she has missed (exceptionally rarely) and so on. She sometimes comes home with her friends, and like any GCSE student, discusses schoolwork with her friends.

What was surreal about last night was that my wife was doing this. She and ATC person were discussing the mission essay, when it had to be in, how long it was, which books they had to read and so on. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. THIS IS WHAT SCHOOLCHILDREN AND STUDENTS DO. Ah yes, but my wife is a VIT and therefore this is normal.

Weird though, because I last heard her saying these kinds of things more than 20 years ago, and that was when she had a notice above her desk that said “Have you done your Greek today”…

Share/Bookmark