Ollie's Birthday

We went bowling for Ollie's birthday.

We came home and had Ollie's choice of dinner: roast chicken and roast potatoes followed by ice cream sundae. Then Ollie blew out the candles on his cake but we didn't eat any because we were too full.

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.

The Blues

Steve, my Dad's bridge partner for many years, and the fella who gave this very excellent and dry speech at the funeral, took me out last night to a local blues night in St. Albans, 'Shades of Blues' at the Maltings Theater. It was good to see a strong local following for a local, amateur, jamming band. Steve clearly knows his way around the scene. Here is a little bit of Dr Shades's Hoochie Coochie Girl (courtesy of the trusty blackberry camera, so forgive the sound quality).

St. Albans seems to have a pretty good arts scene going on: three theatres, comedy club, pub bands, cathedral. We ought to keep supporting it. Perhaps we might persuade Steve to make a trip into St. Albans again, though I don't know if we can get him down to the Arts Theatre Puppet Season's "The Man Who Lost His Nose".

Long Shadows

It was a lovely crisp day today. We went to the park and kicked a ball around. Even at 12.24 pm(the time at which this picture was taken with my trusty blackberry camera), the shadows were long. Winter days are shorter in St. Albans than in Chappaqua. The sun never gets as high in the sky. The shadows are longer, earlier. This is because London is on the same latitude as Calgary in Canada. There is no part of the US, outside Alaska, that is as 'high up' the earth as London. And St. Albans is a little north of London.

The Inquest

Because of the nature of Dad's death, the law requires an inquest. It was at the Old Courthouse in Hatfield today at 11am. The inquest was a documentational one; there was no need to call witnesses but I thought it would be good to go. The coroner, Mr. Thomas, was excellent. He drew upon police and medical evidence for the 'hard' data of the death and also upon the piece I wrote about any relevant information I had about the death and some of the family history I also provided. He was very compassionate and seemed to 'get inside' the case very well, especially as I only handed in my pieces 15 minutes before the inquest started. The room looked quite imposing when I went in, but he made it small and intimate. That is a good skill. I was very happy to have gone.

It Was Good Weather Today

I have been chided for the recent run of posts complaining about the English weather. To redress the balance it seemed only fair to make a post about the fine, fresh day we had today. Here is a view across Verulanium Park, with the Abbey in the background. Even the trusty blackberry camera couldn't turn it into a foul and misty day.

Scooting From School

I went to pick up Charlie from school today. I took the scooter, partly so he could scoot home and partly as I was running late and I could scoot faster to get him than if I walked. I can confirm that Charlie is a better scooterer than me.

Philosophy Park

On Monday I went down the pub with Bob. We had an excellent lunch. The good food and beer fuelled us for some serious philosophy. In little over a mile we covered the goodness of the human spirit, deregulation and self-accountability as evidenced by examples of (non) signage experiments on the roads, the inadequacies of a computerised workflow system in contrast to the subtlies of a good work team to sort process efficiently, and how on rapid response units with their ear to the ground can deliver a superior public service than the policy wonks in HQ (no surprise on the last one). I think there is a coherent political and personal philosophy running through all this about self accountability and empowerment at an individual or 'street' level. And I like it.

We also chatted about the footie.

Bob is terrific and has a wonderful life affirming spirit. It was a splendid trip. And all that philosophy stood me in the right frame of mind for an evening meeting with DEMOS, which I cover, here

Wet

It was wet all weekend. It may not have been raining all weekend, but it felt like it. Every time I went out; to yoga, to see Richard's Dad, to take Ollie to James' party, to get some power chord extensions from Curry's and Jill and Charlie from Sian's party, to take Ollie to soccer, get George from soccer and take George to Alex's Quaser Laser party, and finally to go to the station to get a ticket for tomorrow's trip to Southampton, it was the same.........wet.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a fantastic holiday: No presents, very little commercial nonsense surrounding it and a time when family and friends and SAYING THANKS is really what it is all about. Every country should have one.

We were so lucky when we were in the States to be invited to Judy and Morgan's house every year. The one year we thought we would give them a break and take a family trip away up the Connectitcut coast it rained so heavily and so continuously, it had to be an omen. We didn't skip the McGrath's thanksgiving again!

And with the wonders of technology we didn't skip it again this year. Between courses Judy, Morgan, Peter, Junko, Sarah and Morgan Jnr took the time out to include us in this year's Thanksgiving as well.

And we had a Thanksgiving phone call as well. Wonderful people.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

Jonathan Taub

Great to see Jonathan Taub at the Market Porter next to Borough Market last night. He has flown over from Chappaqua for the weekend to see two soccer games, catch up with some mates, drink beer in pubs and generally be British. Cheers Jonathan!

The boy's happiness at seeing these pictures was tinged with a little sadness too. We miss you. : (

Here are a few words from boys:

"hello, miss you, wish we could have seen you. i miss having such a great football/soccer coach. say hello to the team from me." george.

"hello, miss you so much. I miss your really funny jokes and your "trying" to do an English accent.I wish I could seen you(with my brothers)\I miss you very much." Oliver Barnett

"you're a good ref" Charlie

Quaser Laser

It was Nathaniel's birthday party at Quaser Laser. It was great to see the Carisses and Fryers again.

Bob's New Friends

Bob was given a bit of a surprise last week. A mate of his got some prime tickets to the Liverpool-Spurs Carling Cup match. The surprise bit was that he got to meet some of the Liverpool players, and the manager as well. Shame Steven Gerrard wasn't playing and Torres was on the treatment bench, but there was still a pretty good turnout for Bob. Here are a couple of photo opportunities.

Firstly, the manager, Rafael Benitez...

Secondly, Alonso (so Ollie tells me)....

And thirdly, Mr. Babel (again, according to Ollie)Unfortunately, Liverpool lost 4-2 to a resurgent Tottenham under Harry Redknapp.

Poem

Erin forwarded me this poem by Jane Kenyon in response to the post on the whisk.

I took the last
dusty piece of china
out of the barrel
it was your gravy boat
with a hard, browndrop of gravy still
on the porcelain lip
I grieved for you then
as I never did before

It is a lovely and poignant poem.

Erin's blog is excellent. It is here.

It's Funny What's Important

Anna and I have started to go through the content's of our Father's house. It is not an easy task. One of the nice parts is finding unexcepted things that have strong emotional resonance. This whisk is one of them. We both remember our Mother using it 35 years ago and more. Of course there are better ways to whisk things nowadays and the whisk itself is so tempremental that it takes a persuasive hand to get it work properly - slow and steady - but of course that isn't the point. For a good few minutes we were memorized by it and the memories it stirred in us.

Fleetville Fireworks

Last night was fireworks at Ollie's school. The fireworks were good and the crowds big.

I had a conference with Charlie's teachers last night. He is doing well. The fact that he started school a year later than other kids ( as in the USA, kids start school a year later), doesn't seem to be holding him back. In a couple of months, with some extra tuition, he has managed to pretty much catch up in reading and writing. The interesting point here is that the American system of starting reading a year later hasn't put him at much of a disadvantage. I understand the Scandinavians start their children reading even later and they certianly aren't dumb! The other thing to say is "Well done Charlie".

This is a self-portrait (by Charlie) taken with the trusty Blackberry camera.

King's Lynn Road Trip

When both George and Ollie were younger I had taken them for off for a few days. This weekend it was the turn of Charlie. We stayed in the King's Lynn Best Western (Charlie is pretty brand loyal after all our American stays) and explored the Norfolk coast. We checked out Ely on the drive up, the cathedral is magnificent:

Went to Blakeney Quay to go on a seal watching trip (though the only trip of the day had already departed by the time we arrived), and have a walk around the charming seaside town:
Had a really good fish and chip lunch in Wells-next-the-sea:
and checked out Snettisham beach as it was becoming dark:

Unfortunately, Charlie was sick on the Saturday, but I hope he had a decent time.Perhaps we can go for another road trip when he better.

For all the photos, click here .

Halloween

Without much exaggeration I can say that Halloween in the UK is pathetic compared to the last five years in the States. I have such wonderful memories of big groups of parents and children walking around Oak Hill, or Spring or Begg for a couple of hours, welcoming anyone who wanted to join and all the children in some fancy dress. Everyone made an effort, always, and especially Jill, who never resorted to buying a costume for the boys. She may have borrowed a lion outfit once, but other than that she generally cobbled together stuff and made the most wonderful outfits; my favourite is still The Cat in the Hat. Anyway, in honor of five great US Halloweens, here are some snaps from 2003 to 2007:

Christian's Birthday

We finally celebrated my birthday last Sunday, the 26th Oct; a month late. We were going to celebrate it on Saturday 27th September at Dad's house, but other events that day got in the way, and it hadn't felt right to celebrate it until now. My Arsenal away strip complemented Jill's - see Jill's birthday home strip, here - and we had some lovely flapjack cake. The hardest part of the day was opening the card my Dad sent me.

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

Natalie and John's Wedding

Last Friday night was Natalie and Johnathon's wedding. The reception was held at Tewinbury Barn, where Anna and Rupert had their reception. We did some dancing, which was fun, especially as our dancing styles now have a significant retro quality to them.