Chicks and Tamagotchis

Final chick count was 5 cute, healthy, fluffy chicks and one with severe problems that didn't make it : (

Thinking about small things that hatch out of eggs and go beep, beep brings me (tenuously) to Tamagotchis, which are the bane of my life at the moment. The children both acquired Tamagotchis about a month ago; E then promptly lost hers in the airport, realising on the steps of the bus to the aeroplane, much to the entertaiment of all the other passengers, who as one exhorted her to be brave and get on the plane anyway, etc. A kind friend at school lent her another, which she has mislaid somewhere behind her bed; more grief. Meanwhile, J is feeding and entertaining hers at every spare waking moment, or so it seems: all our conversations are punctuated by electronic demands which must be satisfied at once.
It's fascinating watching child culture in action, though, as most of the girls at school have them and are constantly making them link up to do whatever they do - they facilitate social interaction between ages and are generally a Good Thing in the playground. One bizarre aspect is that the creature's virtual weight is measured in pounds, being American. Now, when I was at school we were meant to learn metric measurements, but in fact I, and most of my contemporaries, are sort of bilingual - I use metric or imperial to cook with, metric for work, and imperial for people's weights and distances, room sizes, etc. But the children seem to be entirely metric in their outlook, so they quote the Tamagotchis' weights to each other saying "She weighs 70 L. B.s" - spelling out the letters L and B. I keep saying, "no, no, it's POUNDS", but they don't take any notice. Why would they pay attention to a dinosaur who complains about them saying "movie" and "When are you going to fix lunch?" Still, at least they still talk about plaits and pavements and lifts and nappies. We are not yet the 51st state, not quite.