Thursday 30 May 2013

Always schedule a toilet stop

Don't underestimate your daughter.  Or misunderestimate her, as George W Bush would say. 

First child and I visited a top uni yesterday.  We know it's a top uni because a young lady spent quite a lot of time telling us that it was a top uni in the pre-tour presentation.  This tour mostly involved running around a huge city centre campus having massive, ugly buildings pointed out to us by a student in a special t shirt.  We couldn't go in any of the buildings properly, although we did hover in the entrance of the library for a few seconds.  Mostly we got soaking wet and tired.
"This is the humanities building,' he shouted, as we ran past a Stalin-esque bunker with tiny slitty windows.
"This is where so and so did a so and so experiment and won the so and so prize," he shouted, pointing at a glass and concrete structure.  We all grunted and nodded politely as we jogged after him.
The campus had a massive, busy road running through it which absolutely terrified me.
"You can't go here," I told first child.  "I will picture you being mown down by one of these huge buses every day."
Our guide at least took us back and forth via the pedestrian crossings.  Another guide was seen darting through the traffic, pursued by a crowd of panic-stricken youngsters and their distressed parents.
I rate the tour very low because at no point was I offered a toilet break.  These things are important.  First child thinks that people should be able to go an hour without a toilet break.  I think that male students lack the ability to empathise about bladder need.

The best thing about the day was spending time with first child, and the highlight of the day was when I dared her to ask a workman at Stafford Station if she could try on his hard hat.  I offered her a financial incentive, of course.  (We were a bit desperate for entertainment at this point; there isn't much to do when changing trains at Stafford except dare your daughter to do increasingly outrageous things.)  I offered her £5 to tell the workman that she liked his beard, but she wasn't going for that.  However £10 was sufficient incentive for her to ask him to loan her his hat.  Now I know that she can be bought.  I'm not proud.  I expected better behaviour from her really.  I blame the parents.

2 comments:

  1. There should be a special section in all university prospectuses detailing toilet facilities! Perhaps it was an initiative test..... I think child one should have gone for more than £10 personally!

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  2. I did find a number of toilets but it' always nice to be asked. You are always leading my children astray.

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