What are Little Boys Made Of?

We went by slow train through to Glasgow to meet up with Dennistoun daughter, Nina and Ewan at the Drygate Brewery for lunch. Ostensibly we were there to look at Nina's medal, real gold she told us, for perfect attendance in Primary 2 at Alexandra Parade school and a certificate for 'Successful Learner', which is the new dumbing down way of saying top of the class. And so she should be, being a wonderful reader and brilliant conversationalist. In fact a delight to be with.

As for Ewan aged18 months, let me say it was like having a child on 'acid' sharing the table with us. He was never still for a minute climbing out of the high chair, emptying everything there was to empty on the floor and keeping his mother on the hop the whole time. I did at one point do the unthinkable Grandmother thing and shout very loudly 'No' as he dropped the crayons, kindly provided by the staff, on the floor for about the tenth time.

Whoever wrote the parenting book which forbids smacking children has never had to endure life cooped up indoors with a toddler like Ewan. Little boys should be exercised like puppies outside in vast open spaces where they can run wild until they drop from exhaustion

Meanwhile outside the mizzle of rain turned into stair rods of water with small lochans developing beyond the window.
It was time to call a cab to the station and hurry home to peace and sanity.