What does London remind you of?

Although I grew up in an English-speaking country and spent much of my youth reading about the history of the British culture and society – my memories of being a teenager now filled with visions of various medieval English monasteries, battles and villages all to a Mike Oldfield soundtrack – I have never spent more than a couple of hours in England travelling between the various London airports. And now that I am about to go to England for a week I find myself feeling as nervous as if I was about to meet my fiancée’s parents for the first time. Most of my cultural references are in some way tied to Great Britain, be it my favourite poets or my favourite TV shows. Many London landmarks are as familiar to my mind as the streets on which I grew up. Indeed, I feel as if the English language, itself, was integral to what I am – I very much look forward to being surrounded by once more. Some would say, I guess, that I am in the typical position of someone who grew up in one of the countries of the Commonwealth – permeated by English culture, yet separated from the actual place and the actual identity. So, when the time to reconcile the private visions with the reality comes it is likely to be difficult. Of course, I do not have the naïve view of England as a place that is in some way better or different. Indeed, I expect that most striking for me will be the similarities, similarities that, living in Europe, I would have come to have miss. Strangely, maybe England will end up mostly reminding me of growing up on the other side of the world.

How much ethics can a two-year-old understand?

Our daughter, at this point, still falls asleep in the same bed as we do. However, as she has grown very rapidly the bed has got too small for the three of us. Particularly as she has the habits of taking at least one large teddy bear to cuddle as she falls asleep, of sleeping sideways across the bed and of moving around so much that she ends up kicking us in our faces. So, we have been letting her fall asleep in our bed (while I do a last bit of work before sleep) but then moving her into her bed. Still, this is getting somewhat tricky as she gets heavier and harder to move without waking up.
The other evening we tried to get her to fall asleep in her own bed, something she has sometimes managed. Unfortunately, she reacted rather badly to this and was getting very, very upset with the idea – trying to crawl over the bars on her bed and begging to be let out – so, in the end, we let her fall asleep in our bed (while my wife and I looked on, as there wasn’t the space for all three of us to lie down). She was resting nicely, almost asleep when she looked up at us, sat up, kissed my wife and said “I’m sorry,” before lying down again and finally falling asleep.
My wife and I looked at each other silently, flabbergasted. Here was a two-year-old with the awareness to know she had behaved inappropriately and the ability to apologise for it even though she’d actually got what she had wanted! This seems to be a level of what could not be called anything else but ethical awareness that is striking at that age, a level which some people never reach. I still feel the buzz seeing her do that made me feel.