Sunday 9 March 2008

Joy

My dad's safely back from plant-hunting in Vietnam. I asked him how it went and he told me some long story of a knoll with an odd distribution of podacarps (?) and taxus something or other. I have no idea what it all meant so I had to act out responses of interest and pleased surprise at what seemed like appropriate moments but it's made him happy, so thank-you, Vietnamese podacarp knoll.

Also: five furlongs is one kilometre! This gladdened me, and I wish there was someone with whom I could share the pleasure. When I explained it to my mum she sounded pretty pleased about it, but she may have been responding like I did to my dad's podacarp knoll. I feel quite good about the way that families pretend interest in each others' pleasures; there's something about this amiable pretence that speaks more of affection than if we actually all shared the same interests.

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