The Clever Girl on the Train
We’re off to London today for Mother’s birthday. I’d decided not to bring my headphones, thinking it would waste my phone battery, so I thought I’d make an effort to have conversation with mother. Sadly, she didn’t seem to like this plan because shortly after the train departed she told me she was going to have a little sleep. So I was left playing Solitaire on my phone, which I was able to plug into a nearby socket to preserve the battery. I would be regretting not bringing my headphones if it were not for a woman and her kids sat on the table offer us.
They first peaked my interest when they were playing a card game. I heard the mother say “You need to dry your hair and then find the Zebra… Now name something that is round.”
What game is that?! Why can you only find the zebra with dry hair? So many questions but I want to play too!
After the card game, they played I Spy. On the little girl’s go, she said Elephant.
Mother: “Where’s the elephant? I can’t see one.”
Girl: “Close your eyes… Now imagine an elephant.”
I know that’s breaking the rules, but you have to admit it was pretty brilliant. It perfectly shows the innocence and imagination of children. No adult could come out with that.
The girl was full of great comebacks.
“Take your bracelet off.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“There’s some little cows.”
“They’re called calfs.”
“When do they become cows?”
“When they reach a certain age.”
“What age?”
“I don’t know.”
“So they could be little cows then.”
“Well, yes… Maybe.”
At one point, the girl said she wanted to see Big Ben while they were in London. The mother promised that they would and the girl said “Yey yey yey yey yey yey yey.” But she didn’t say it, she sung it as an arpeggio up and down (like when a singer is warming up and sings “me me me me me me me.”) which made me smile.
The on board entertainment also included the mother teaching them bits of French and trying to explain to them that wind turbines were not called ‘winter bines’.