clocks & cloches

There are no clocks in our house.  I am used to having my cell phone on me and don't even have a watch.  We live in a narrow town house on a narrow street making it difficult for light to peek through, thus disabling my fine "telling time from the direction of the sun" skills.  Fortunately (da, da, da, dah!), there is an Ikea nearby (2.6 km to be exact -- I have never,  and will never again, live so close and I hate to be tacky, cliché, unamerican, and cheap, but I just love that place) so we hopped on over there and found some little alarm clocks for .70¢ a piece.  We bought five.  We also picked up a high chair because as much fun as Phin wiping cheese, snot, chocolate, what have you, on me at every meal is... it was getting a little stale.  We also grabbed some little trains because our poor baby boy had arrived with no toys of any sort and was compensating by wrestling everyone to the ground.  Now he calmly toodles his train along everyone's arms, legs, etc.  Much nicer.  And also some great little throws because we are chilly without central heating, brrrrrr.

Back to clocks.  One lovely thing to counterbalance the lack of timepieces is that there are two bells in our neighborhood that regularly toll at the hour and 1/2 hour.  They are a little confusing, though.  A few days ago someone asked what time it was and Lucy answered, "It's fifteen."  Fifteen?  It can't be fifteen.  "I heard the bell ring fifteen times."  They are about one minute apart from each other so in the earlier hours one hears a few chimes and then later a few more, but later at noon and midnight, for example, they overlap and one really has no idea what the time is.

We also have no mirrors which is rather liberating.  Until I catch a glimpse of myself in a store window.  Aach!  Not being a very good ambassador and all that nonsense.