The kids and I were sitting on the floor near the gate for the London flight. There was a power strip on the wall, so I'd plugged in my laptop and was typing the previous blog entry. S1 was reading a book on Dora the Explorer to S2. A desi family of four (desi is Hindi slang for a person of Indian origin) walked by. The guy's eyes lit up when he saw my laptop plugged in. They deposited themselves in a nearby seat. Dad plugged in his laptop and started typing away. The elder kid was being a nuisance, trying to get into the airline premier lounge every time a passenger went in. Mom kept shooing him back while keeping an eye on the toddler who was perambulating the gate area.
I'd told S1 that I would read him part of a Tintin story if he would read S2 the Dora story, so I had to shutdown my laptop and keep my end end of the bargain. The toddler started dropping in on story time in our huddle and I smiled at the mom to let her know it was okay. Mom didn't reciprocate; she had a wistful look about her. If she had asked, I would told her that our kids were not always this well-behaved. But she didn't ask. Meanwhile, Dad kept tapping away, oblivious to it all.
Your kids will be the only kids in Oklahoma, i imagine, to know Tintin! Guess where my moniker "the adventures of timtim" comes from.....you probably already knew that.
ReplyDeleteI thought it may have been a reference to Tintin, but at the time I hadn't read your blog long enough to know you were a traveling journalist. I was trying to square "timtim" with a bird watching.
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