Pen's Tumblings

A visit.

Today I had a home visit from my youngest daughter’s psychologist. I am firmly of the opinion she schedules extra time for visits with me, she was here on one visit for three hours. Of course we have all the professional stuff to discuss.

However the visits are also fun. Like me, my daughter’s psych is from Northern Ireland. We have been known, in the middle of meetings, to joke about the need there was during The Troubles, to duck when crossing the border. Or laugh hysterically at some rambling tale of a hi-jacked bus, much to the discomfiture of the others present. For one thing, they just don’t get what’s so funny, for another, I think they are genuinely worried me might get into some sort of row.

The very first time I met this psych she accompanied my daughter’s autism nurse on a visit. When she arrived I was in my winter uniform of jeans and rugby shirt.

“You support Ulster”, she said.

“Yes”, I replied.

We looked at each other and laughed. The nurse was completely non-plussed. Even after all the years both of us had been away from home we did what all people from our little island do. Made sure we “knew”. Once we had that sorted we were fine.

Today we laughed about the weird sandwich fillings people like at home, particularly at church related events. People, this is where we shine. You want some old-fashioned High Tea style food, finger sandwiches, fancy buns, (I know most people call them cup-cakes but they will always be wee buns, except of course they won’t because they have moved on and I too am caught in the ex-pat’s (ha) timewarp) fancy cakes and homemade pavlova, get yourself invited to a church supper in Northern Ireland.

Not once was the dreaded corned beef mentioned. Until we both said at once, something along the lines of, “Americans would never believe what we DO eat compared to what they think we eat. Corned beef. Ha.”

One of the reasons the visit was scheduled? As well as discussing behaviour management, my daughter’s respite provision is due for it’s six monthly review next week and she wanted to get our Northern Ireland talk out of the way before the day.

We’ll see next week if it worked.