George U14 county fencing champion (foil)

George entered the U14 county fencing championship last weekend. Last year he came third. He fences at school and is lucky to have a nationally ranked fencer as his coach. We have to be a little careful not to get excited as there aren't huge numbers of entrants and the venue is local for us (some parents are not going to do a 60 miles round trip) but nevertheless George did brilliantly. There were at least three stand out moments where he really showed smarts and spirit. Firstly, in the round robin section he was 2-4 down (in a first to five match) and realised he had to change his tactics if he was to stand any chance of winning. He did and won that one 5-4. Secondly, after leading all the way to 11-8 in the semi-final he was 11-13 down (first to 15), yet held his nerve to win 15-13 and thirdly, when in the final he faced a boy who had beaten him 5-0 in the round robin section (George was second placed after that section), George changed his game plan to the point where the favourite couldn't fence the way he liked. George took a 7-5 lead and the favourite started to crumble. Even I, who has no idea about fencing, could see that George had him on the ropes. All George had to do was keep his nerve, and ignore the increasingly desperate antics of the favourite, which he did to win 15-8.

George is a top chop. And I very proud of him, especially as he is clearly very good at something I have very little idea about, having never fenced in my life.

George in action, on the right:

The cup:

And with Paul, his excellent coach:

George's Birthday

George has braces

George becomes even more of a teenager as he acquires a set of braces. For the first few days he is in some pain and can't eat properly then things begin to calm down a little. He is a little self-conscious ( I would be as well, and indeed was when I had something similar) but in a couple of weeks things settle.

England vs France at Wembley

17th November George, Ollie and I went to Wembley to see England vs France in a football friendly. I had just flown in from Germany, and met them in West Hampstead early evening. We set off to Wembley. All the pictures are taken with my (new) trusty blackberry.

We arrived very early and found our seats. The stadium is huge - really impressive. We were sitting up high. I had a brief bout of vertigo we were perched so high up!

Here is the stadium, and the lit arch from outside.

And here is the view from our seats, about 40 minutes before kick off.

The flags of the two nations were paraded around the pitch.

And the crowd at one end of the ground made the George Cross.

George and Ollie were having a great time.

Then the football started. What a let down. England lost 2-0 and it was very boring. Almost as boring as the hour (at least) wait to get on a tube to begin the journey home. 

In short, amazing stadium, terrible team. 

Prefect George

George has been made a prefect. This is very good, as from each form, only five boys get selected to be a prefect. The letter of congratulations we received told us that it was a "real achievement", that "he has demonstrated the qualities and potential which....will enable him to be an excellent role-model as well as acting as an ambassador for Verulam School on more formal occasions". Being a prefect "should be seen as a real achievement which will open the door to many character-building responsibilities and opportunities." This means George be helping to organise and manage various activities, like the ECCO club (sorry, I don't know what that is).

In return George gets certain privileges: he can sit on the balcony for assemblies and wear a prefect tie (ok, both good for status) but he also gets to enter the canteen without having to queue, which if George's school is anything like mine was, is a HUGE advantage, saving at least 10 mins, on average, per day.

To celebrate, here is George in his (new) school uniform a couple of years when he started at Verulam.

Grandpa and Grandsons

Found this pic of Dad with boys on the steps of Douglas Rd, Chappaqua. It is a good pic.

Boys get prizes

It was George's year's annual prizegiving last night. He won a prize for science, for his form and played in the band at the start of the evening. Unfortunately, I missed it as I was getting ready for a big pitch. One effect of missing the event was that I wasn't able to take a picture of George getting his prize on stage. So instead I have loaded a picture of George in York with at least three, if not four, beanie hats on. The number continued to rise in the thirty minutes after this photography was taken.

I did, however have my camera for Ollie's annaul St. Albans City football club awards a few weeks earlier. Here he is, with his team, receiving their awards. For easier identification purposes, Ollie is the one in the middle wearing a black tie and holding a yellow pendant.

Sportsman George

Not content with bagging a brace of goals recently for London Rd in a game against Evergreen FC (his first for London Rd) George had a good showing in his first fencing competition.

George has recently taken at fencing at Verulam. He also has a friend across the road, Clement, who fences with the local fencing club. They both went to the University of Hertfordshire recently for a competition; George's first.

There were six competitors and George came a tidy third (Clement came first). As they were leaving the University sports village, the venue for today, Paul, George's fencing teacher said "Well done George, how does it feel to be third in the county?"

I think henceforth we will be finding a few more minority sports and throwing the kids at them to see if we can get a decent showing.

Boyz Birthdays

It's that time of year. Birthdays for boyz. They fall within 2 months of each other, and Christmas. 

First was Ollie. He was ten on 20th December. He is blowing candles out using some kind of swing-wing technique borrowed from dart shaped planes.

Then George, a teenager on 21st January. He is using the deep breath technique with bent arm to create a stout and straight back for better blowing efficiency.

And on 12th February, The Wooz was seven. And he is gazing adoringly at the segment of cheesecake that has no jam on and is earmarked for him!

George and St. Albans Cathedral

Great picture, though taking with Jill's camera phone, of George in Verulamium Park. Remarkable as much for Jill's mastery of technology (she sent it to a website for me to view before she as much as got home) as the lovely cold crisp weather).

George Gets Published

We learnt that a piece of George's creative writing has been selected for publication in the Young Writers' anthology. It is published by Young Writers. We don't know if George is one of ten or a million. But we do know his piece was very good. It has to be less than 50 words. This is it:

Blood

Walking down the street he saw drops of red leading down an alley. The red dots looked like drops of blood. Worried, he followed the blood crimson blots at equal lengths. The alley way seemed to darken, to shrink. He saw the ketchup bottle leaking from an overfilled bag.

Last Weekend

Was a good one. Everybody got to so something for them. On Saturday, Ollie's football team was in a 6-a-six competition. Here he is with Guiseppe: 

His team made the semi-finals and Ollie played very well throughout. He passes very well. He also scored a couple of goals. One was from a free-kick. This is him, just after he struck the ball, 'majestically' he tells me. 

It was very hot. Hot enough to have a REAL barbeque in the evening. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture. 

Sunday morning was time for Charlie to practice his cycling. We have a vested interesting in him being able to cycle properly; namely so that we can go for a family cycle ride. We went to to Clarence Park to practice. Charlie was fantastic. Best ever. He was almost cycling around the park after a couple of goes. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that either. 

In the afternoon, we went sailing at Stanborough Lakes.  It was warm and gusty.  George took the tiller. This time I did have my camera but we capsized before I took again pictures. Luckily, I managed to cling onto the boat whilst George got wet. I was able to hand over all valuable items - camera, expensive sunglasses - to the instructors in the power boat before I also got wet. I did take a picture of the lake after we have got onto dry land: 

And for the evening, it was 10cc (for Jill and I anyway). Excellent 1970s art rock/pop band. Only Graham Gouldman remains of the famous four, though there are a couple of musicians who were with the band from the start so it isn't a bogus set up. And the gig certainly wasn't. First an acoustic set of well know songs Gouldman had written prior to 10cc then a full on, really tight and rocking set of all of 10cc's hits. It was very good. And in St. Albans as well. Andy came with us, though Fiona didn't due to their long long drive back from Swanage. 

George Returns

Jill and the boys picked George up on Easter Monday. He got an overnight flight - his first ever- and believes he got two and a half hours sleep. He had a great time, not surprisingly; five nights in Florida and two up in Chappaqua. He didn't take his camera, for fear of losing it, so I haven't got any pix I can post. Not only did the Summers take him to Florida, but also laid on a BBQ for him back in Chappaqua. And Kym and Arthur hosted a sleep over on the Saturday night. For George he slotted right back in, like he hadn't been away. It was like he was just popping over to Jeremy's for a playdate. For George's American friends it was a little special; George was back in town and he had acquired an English accent!! I am so pleased it worked out alright and dead proud of George for making the trip by himself. Here's to continued links between the Barnetts and Chappaqua. 

George Goes to Chappaqua

Yesterday George set off with Jill to get the 8.30am American Airlines flight from Heathrow to JFK. He is going to go to Florida with the Summers for a week. I am really proud of him making this trip by himself. The only glich was that Jill had to leave George at security instead of at the gate as she thought. But it was all okay as George arrived safely. At 12 I didn't get further than down to Hertford on my bike by myself, if that.

The picture is of Jeremy (right), Ben (left) and George.

George Soccer

George's football/soccer club has a web site, http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/londonroadjuniorfootballclub/under12s/

Unfortunately George isn't in the team photo, nor has his individual photo on-line but he was man of the match in the report below. If you do look at the site ignore the number of games they have played. To be honest, they have played a lot. It is just that the website has only been up for a couple of matches.

Sun 08 Mar 2009

Whetstone W 4
London Rd Under 12s 1

The under 12s produced their strongest team performance of the season. Unfortunately lack of concentration at the back , proved costly . Both teams played some nice football and the first half looked to be heading for a stalemate .With a couple of minutes to go , a Road clearance dropped to a Whetstone midfielder who smashed the ball back beyond Aaron. With seconds to go , the ball was pumped into our box. With time to clear Ollie hesitated and their forward nipped in to lob Aaron. Half time gave the manager a chance to make some changes . Ollie , Jacob and Marli made way for Josh , Gavin and Harry. We came out flying ,Connor shored up the defence. George Barnett bossed the midfield and captain Jack Gage was running them ragged. We were soon back in the game, after a fine run and finish from Jack Gage. The next 15 minutes saw us push hard for an equaliser. Once again lack of concentration, saw Ben Nailard divert the ball to their forward 3-1. Jack Armstrong was introduced for Jack Rintoul and Marli replaced Ben. Ross dropped back in Ben's position. We kept pushing forward but could not break through. Just before final whistle , Ross sliced a clearance to a grateful forward 4-1. The scoreline did not reflect the open game. A few more performances like this and we will march up the table. Aaron and George both had their best games for the club.

George's Birthday

George's real birthday was on 21st January. We celebrated it with a little family gathering. 

But this weekend was when he had his mates around and played War Hammer for most of the afternoon and evening. I can't pretend that I have any understanding of what War Hammer is about beyond a kind of Airfix meets Lord of the Rings meets Risk in a five day test match way, but these kids are totally immersed. And good on them. Next time we might get them to set up in George's attic room and send some food up once every few days.

Many happy returns George

Battle

The young warrior was blinded by the Force of the Light.

It was overwhelming.
Out of the light came Daft Vader. The two fought.
The young warrior morphed himself to safety using his superpower light transporter. He escaped safely.

Oh England, My Lionheart

So this is what we returned to the UK for. Sunday 10.14 am. 0 C (or 32 F); either way it is freezing, literally. Fortunately you can't see (or feel) the wind or the freezing rain. It even started to snow at one point. The best word to describe the conditions is 'miserable'. It was cold watching; the guy in jeans and wellies in the foreground decided to jog a couple of laps just to keep warm. Feet were wet and frozen. Hands tingling cold. It would have been even colder playing; shorts and all.

This is London Road, George's team. They beat London Colney, 2-1. George played his best game yet for them. We went straight off to watch Ollie's game afterwards.

This is Jill dancing at home in an attempt to get warm.

In contrast here is some cold US weather. This is really cold but you would never say it was miserable. It is one of my favorite winter pictures. By total coincidence, it was also taken on a Sunday morning, one minute later, at 10.15 am, but in February not November. It is 0 F. Proper cold. No grey clouds. No rain. Ski-ing not soccer. I am going to miss US winters.

Geek Orthodox

We were discussing religion at dinner tonight, working our way though the different types of faith. George asked us what Geek Orthodox was all about.

Evening Reading