Skip to main content

Keeping Schtum

We found out Lisette was pregnant at about 2 weeks. A combination of common sense and tradition meant we decided to keep the news pretty much to ourselves to start with. And it's undeniable that we were shocked enough with the news as is without having to deal with other peoples reactions as well.

However, keeping the news of Lisette's pregnancy quiet up until this point has proved somewhat challenging. Lisette stopped drinking when she found out and to her surprise a friend, let's call him Chris for now, clearly noticed straightaway (what this says about Lisette I couldn't possibly comment). For Chris truly hates not to know a secret. Subsequently any time we met up with him we would be entertained by the ways in which he sought to know for sure. Various approaches were taken. There were the random questions:

- "Are you okay Lisette?"
- "Yes I am Chris."
- "You're well?"
- "Oh yes!"
- "So... you're good"
- "Yes... good"

We found this thread of questioning would roll round with startling regularity. Moving on, there was the night we were drinking at the Eel Pie on Church Street and everyone was chinking pint glasses and "cheers"-ing. Someone randomly asked "are we celebrating anything?". At which point Chris turned to me, fixed me with a look and said "I don't know John... Are we?"

Having got no joy with us Chris decided on a different tack... interviewing mutual compadres. Our friend, let's call her Sarah, was round visiting Chris for lunch. As it happened, Sarah was pretty much the only person who had advance knowledge of our news. Whether Chris had guessed this or not I cannot be sure but he certainly used it as his jumping off point:

- "So Sarah... do you think Lisette is pregnant"
- [Slightly stunned] "Why Chris, what makes you say that?"
- "Well, you know... I've noticed that Lisette hasn't been drinking recently. And I was thinking to myself... well Lisette's just glowing right now. Don't you agree?"

This about the woman whose spent the last 2 months clutching my hand and saying "John I'm nauseous - I need a ginger biscuit". After we heard that little tale we decided to deny knowledge of the child to Chris throughout the pregnancy and even after the birth. Our resolve on that point did not last long. We cracked and told him at 11 weeks. He seemed delighted; whether he was delighted that Lisette was pregnant or if he was simply pleased to finally been able to scratch his Sherlock-ian itch I couldn't say.

"And there Lisette are the Peaks.
So - are you sure you're not pregnant?"
Labels:
Location: Fig Tree Cottage, St Margarets

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be ye here

Working out where to go on holiday has always seemed like slightly hard work. How do you choose? Do we go to Italy? We've been before. Do we go to France? They'll only want us to wear Speedos at the swimming pool. So where shall we go? We were delighted when we discovered a friend in Belfast, who had recently had a baby, would be up for a visit. A mutual friend of ours, was also planning a trip back to Ireland from where he lives. We've known each other for 25 years now, and have travelled before as a group. Why not get the band back together and spend some time in Ireland this summer? That was the thought, and so the Reilly family made plans. Passage was booked on the Liverpool to Belfast ferry. Grandma Reilly kindly leant her car to the Twickenham Reillys, so that myself, Lisette and the boys could roll Northwards and over the Irish Sea to Ireland. We were leaving an English summer that was that rarest of things: warm and sunny. The week before we'd left, Twicke...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cable Cars and Credit Cards

I proferred the binbag. "All the rubbish; in here please". Conor turned to his right, "Una, will you climb in now?" Una grinned and mimed throwing objects into the sack. "There's my hopes and dreams right there Conor." Conor, Una, Lisette and I have known each other for half our lives. Well; Conor's not quite there - he's the elder statesman of our group. We met when we were working for British Airways as students, and living in Hounslow's finest dodgy digs. Since that time we've been scattered to the four winds; Una to Ireland, Conor to Switzerland. Lisette and I, well, maybe 3 miles tops to Twickenham. In seeking a mutual meeting place we found ourselves reaching for the logistically logical location: Italy. (I know; like a stepladder where you least expect it.) In keeping with how we first got to know one another, luxury accomodation was not our priority. We decided to camp. Can there be a fuller way to challenge your fear of...
4 comments
Read more

Father's Day Advice

When I was 16 years old, my father gave me a piece of advice that dramatically changed me. His advice changed my interactions with the world. I rather doubt he thought it would have such impact, but change me it did. Having finished my mandatory schooling, I had recently started attending sixth form college. I was taking A-levels in Maths, Computer Science and Economics. I found I took to the former 2 subjects like a duck to water. They weren't a struggle, they were interesting and I had a natural aptitude. For want of a better phrase, I could "do it". However, Economics was a different kettle of fish. It did not fit in my head. I could not grok it. I sat there, in lesson after lesson, listening hard to Terri Wilcox explaining Keynes, Monetarism, supply and demand. Occasionally she deviated and talked about her beloved Blackburn Rovers. It did not go in. Not the Economics and certainly not the football. At the end of each sentence uttered I found myself more bewilder...
Post a Comment
Read more