Matthew's Bar Mitzvah

We were honored to be invited to Matthew Altman's Bar Mitzvah in Chappaqua. I managed to schedule it with a business trip to New York. It was a huge shame we were not able to all go. It was an amazing occasion. I have never been to a Bar Mitzvah before. It was a wonderful mix of traditional  - cutting bread, lighting candles, speeches, raising family members aloof on a chair - and modern - the karaoke style of the entire room singing along to 'living on a pray' and some of the more 'urban' dressing up, as demonstrated below, provided a rather intoxicating mix.

But the highlights were when the family came to the fore: the grand entrances (below Steve and Lydia), 

the speeches from Matthew, Steve and David, and of course, moments like this:

It was a special night. 

Charlie and Daddy go to Paris

On 20/21st Feb Charlie and I took a trip to Paris. I had taken the other boys away on their own when they were young and my previous trip with Charlie was a bit 50:50 (we went to Norfolk, Charlie was ill), so I was hoping for better this time. Charlie was very keen to go on Eurostar, and fortunately I had lots of 'points' from all my trips to Brussels. Charlie was very excited. Here he is in the business lounge at St. Pancreas (I have a card that gets me in):

We got on the train:

And stood by the front of the train at Gare du Nord:

We had a decent room in the hotel opposite la Gare. Here is a view of the station from our bedroom window: 

After a little rest, at Woosie's request, brought on by all the excitement of the train, we headed off towards the Eiffel Tower.

We went via the Tuiliers: 

And got our first glimpse of the Tower: 

We headed towards it: 

And then up it:

After all this activity we needed sustenance. We walked across the Seine and up towards the Trocadero. We found an excellent restaurant and tucked in. 

The Wooz had Le Menu Enfant, which included some ice cream, but he was desperate for a chocolate crepe, so he got both! 

We put the ice cream in the coke bottle so The Wooz could eat his crepe. After dinner, we checked out the lights on the Eiffel Tower.  

We got the metro back to the hotel and went to bed. Charlie could not go to sleep so he read a book. 

Next day we walked to the Sacre Ceour: 

And Montmartre:

We walked back to La Gare du Nord, where The Wooz took some photos of Eurostar, TGV and double decker trains.

We then made the return journey back on the train. Here is Charlie on the moving walkway at St. Pancreas:

We had a fantastic time, Charlie loved Paris - good chap - and walked like a trooper. And I got to spend some quality time with my beautiful third son. 

Charlie Joins The Table

Following this post, about boys birthdays, I found this charming shot of Charlie.

It may not look like it, but he is sitting at the table with George and George's pals on George's birthday. He clearly wanted to join in, but felt a little nervous so sat a little away from the table, but it was clear that he had his part of the table which was his: even from long range!

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!

Charlie-isms

One day over the Christmas break, Charlie started talking about the electric bacon. We didn't know what he was referring to. Then it struck us: he was talking about the target he was trying to destroy in a pc game we were all playing. It was The Psychic Beacon.

(The above picture is not Charlie really smoking, or promoting smoking. It is a liquorice pipe and he is eating it : )

Christmas 2009

Snow, the carol service at the Abbey (pic), roast pork and red cabbage at the Handley's on Christmas Eve, George's new bike, Joan and Wilf's, playing Red Alert, DECODE at the V&A, pot roasted beef and Ade on New Year's Eve, bike rides and football in the park, too many lbs put on and insufficient calories coming off.

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).

My Birthday

It was a while ago (late September in fact). Ollie's present to me was a disco. We had had one on out North Wales holiday last Christmas-New Year when it was so dark and so cold a disco made lots of sense!

Ollie had put an announcement on the kitchen door that Friday night was disco night, but still when I arrived hope it was still a surprise to have all the lights turned off, except the strange blue ones in the kitchen, and a disco ball our friends from across the road lent us.

DJ Ollie ran the show. He had created a couple of playlists for the evening, and organised the dancing competition, which Charlie won.

Then we all had a jolly good dance!

Scattering The Ashes

This is a shot of the beach at Tisvildeleje, and old fishing village in North Zealand, Denmark. My great aunt and great uncle had summer houses within a few miles of here. My grandparents honeymooned here. My dad came to the beaches here when he was a boy, and he brought Anna and me to the beaches here, when we were kids.

Dad didn't specify what he wanted done with his remains. We decided to scatter his ashes into the sea around Tisvildeleje. There is a beautiful little jetty that seemed the perfect place.

We decided to do it at sunset Monday August 24th. It was a lovely sunny day and the wind was blowing away from the shore (probably a good thing when scattering ashes). Anna's family had come up from Copenhagen on Saturday with us and Uncle Alick, Dad's younger brother, arrived on the Monday morning. We had a proper Danish lunch and played on the beach and in the sea in the afternoon. It was good fun. Alick, Anna and I made a little tour of the aunt and uncle's summer houses and he also showed us where our grandparents spent their honeymoon; the black cottage just back from the beach, below.

We had had a late lunch and didn't fancy returning to the summer house, so we went down to the ice cream shop at the car park and bought the most amazing (and expensive) round of ice creams to keep us going; flavoured scoops, soft ice on top, 'guff' (meringue whilst still soft), flodeboller (a kind of marshmallow encased in chocolate), with coatings. It was great. Rupert took the pictures. Firstly, Anna and I (don't worry about the moustache, it was a bad holiday experiment, it's gone now)...

and then the whole group:

Then we got down to the business at hand. The wind was blowing off the shore, and the tide was going out. We felt that we should be discrete, so Anna and I chose a site amongst the rocks on the seaward side of the jetty.

We all gathered about twenty minutes before the sunset. Those who wanted to say a few words did and Anna read this short poem;

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there;

I did not die.

We had given everyone an egg cup with ashes and some lovely purple petals that Anna had picked from the bushes just behind the beach, and after the poem was read, we stepped up, in our own time, and placed the ashes and petals into the water.

And they drifted, slowly and gently towards the setting sun.

It was all lovely and sad and beautiful and poignant.

Bye Dad

x

c