Time consumption

The week-end before last we went to stay with my parents and brothers and sundry others, invited for a day or two, at a lodge in Perthshire. We did something similar last year when, among other things, we played golf for a stone collected from the beach as a trophy worthy of our limited efforts. This year the stone has been mounted on a wooden plinth surrounded by a carefully engraved silver band - we didn't really rise to the occasion in golfing terms. Among the party were various children - my own and my nephew and nieces. When our daughter was born my mother commented that there was little which consumed time like babies, not in the sense that looking after them kept you busy (which of course it does), but in the sense that one can occupy hours simply guddling about with them. Its fair to say we guddled about a bit with toys, monster chases along corridors and general entertainment of, and peace keeping among, the under 10s. Sadly one day they will beat us and carry off the stone!

Last week end I wandered along the beach searching for cowries - it is an equally time consuming (although considerably more useless) activity. I had assumed it was a private obsession until I read an article about others equally pointlessly engaged in The Telegraph a year or two ago. My granny always had a small glass of them on a telephone shelf in her hall. She never seemed to have more than half a dozen and we would occasionally go to the beach with her to look for more. We were delighted at the week-end with a haul of twenty four. Our daughter gets cross if the scores are unequal and so in the interests of a quite life we share.