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

La Clusaz skiing

This year we decided to ski over the Christmas break. It involved shunting Christmas to the 23rd Dec and driving across France on 25th itself; our Christmas dinner was ham baguette at 80 mph, though we stayed in a top hotel; the Best Western in Bourg en Bresse (Best Western are a totally different proposition in Europe- for a start the branding is tiny tiny, see if you can spot it!):

I had pretty raw meal - oysters and steak tartare. It was good. The next day, the 26th, we drove up into the Alps and checked in. We needed to put snow chains on for the last little bit up into the garages. We had a great view from our apartment: 

It's a lovely old mountain village that has grown into a ski town. These type of resorts are invariably more picturesque than the resorts built specifically for ski-ing. Here is the centre of town and the 19th century church: 

The ski-ing was good. George, if technically not quite there, can outrun me on a long downhill when I am tiring, and Ollie stayed on the pace brilliantly for the first three days. Very impressed. Here is a good shot of Ollie and George ski-ing red (equivalent to single black in US) with the town in the valley below. Check out the ski lift building in the lower middle of the shot as we will return to that in a minute.   

There was one amazing day when George and I set off. It was cloudy and visibility was down to only a few yards at some altitudes. We were right in the thick of it and wondering if it was safe to get on the chair lift and ski down. There was no-one else around but we thought if we were careful we would give it a go. We got on the chair and went right into the thick of the cloud. It gets colder and claustrophobic in the middle of cloud on a chair lift, especially when you can't see the chair ahead or behind. And then....amazing.....we came out of the cloud, above it. It was utterly beautiful and very still. There were very few people around. As far as we could see were clouds. It looked like a huge sea. There were a few peaks of the tallest mountains that cut through, like rocks sticking out of the water. Perhaps the most dramatic shot is the one below from a similar place where I took the shot above. Look for that ski lift building again. You would hardly know it was the same place. 

Other times we just took it easy. George, Ollie, Charlie and myself took a lovely route through the woods one day: 

For New's Year Eve we celebrated by going out for a meal. Here is a picture of tartiflette, a delicious local dish with reblochon cheese, bacon, pototoes, onion and cream. Comfort food par excellence after a vigorous day outside.  

Boys tucked away duck and fries followed by tasty chocolate crepe:

Not caring for the little blob of raspberry jus (too nouveau)...

New Year's Day was our last out on the slopes. We tried snowboarding for the first time. After a couple of hours, George had pretty much mastered the basics. Ollie and I kept falling over - I fell at the same place through the turn every time and of course fell on the same part of my left butt. I gave up when it began to hurt too much. Here is a pic of George and Ollie both up on their boards. 

For a fuller set of pictures, click here.

Ollie gets ready for Christmas

Snow in St. Albans

We've had a recent cold snap and pretty much six inches of snow. This type of view is unusual in the UK. Very cold, snow has come and the sky is cloudless. It reminds me of winter in Westchester. He is the view looking out and away from our house. This was taken on 17th December. 

On the 18th we had another fall of snow. It was the last Saturday before Xmas day, so likely to be busy for shopping. George and I went into town to get some presents and watched the cars trying to get up the  hill. Mid-morning they were just managing it, by mid-afternoon, there was no way a non-4x4 was going to get up any of the hills around St. Albans. It was like a spectator sport.

I took a couple of pix in the market. Here is the stall that sells ornamental birds for ponds and back gardens.

Here is one of the bakery stalls. It was getting difficult to make out the different types of bread!

The next day, Sunday 19th December, the Allens, from across the road, and the Barnetts all went sledging (sledding) in Verulamium Park. We spent some time close to the Abbey first of all. 

Then walked down past the lake, past the (reputedly) oldest pub in England and over to the Roman wall where there is a decent slope and an excellent view of the cathedral. 

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. 

Ollie's goes to Felixstowe

Ollie did his post from his trip to Alick in Felixstowe. Here it is:

"I visited my great uncle (Alick) and aunt (Gillian) in Felixstowe in the October half term for two nights. The whole family came to have a cup of tea, and then abandoned me for three days to have fun and research for a presentation about transport for school. The first thing I did was had hot dogs for lunch. Then I and Alick went to the Ipswich Transport Museum to give me a thorough brief of old vehicles, which were mostly buses but there were a few fire trucks and one electric car. Alick gave a brilliant brief and facts for my presentation as a he is a volunteered tour guide for the museum. My first night was a well deserved rest and had I a fine night.

In the morning I woke up I had a gulfed down piece of toast. I worked on my presentation for a bit on Alick’s computer but soon after he told me that I had a choice to make. I can’t exactly remember what name the other attraction was but Alick told me that we could either go to Framlingham Castle or the other attraction I didn’t know the name of. I chose Framlingham Castle. The castle was excellent because of the beautiful surroundings and strange towers. I loved it.

The next day I sadly had to leave. But there was still one more museum to see, The Power Museum. The pipes there were massive! It was all about electricity and pumping water.

It was sad to leave but a fun trip altogether."

Thaxted and Audley End

After a short but super stop with the Whites, we drove back to St. Albans, then set off to Felixstowe to drop Ollie off with Uncle Alick for a couple of days. George did the same thing last year. I hope Ollie does a post on his couple of days. He tells me he will. Let's see if he does.

After we dropped Ollie off, we meandered back to St. Albans, stopping to say hello in Ipswich to Andy and Angela and then heading off into the Suffolk and Essex villages: places like Cavendish, Clare and Finchingfield. Lovely, pretty, archetypal English villages.

We stopped for the night in Thaxted in the excellent Swan Inn. Here are a few pictures of Thaxted: 

The following day we headed off to Audley End, one of Britain's finest historic stately homes. The official website is here, and here is the Wikipedia entry. And here are some pix:

With the Whites in Bath

 A great Sunday/Monday with the Whites in Bath over the start of the half-term; 24/25th October.