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. 

Liquorice Smoker

I was flicking through some old photos (Denmark 2009) and saw this one. I liked it and though I would post it. When I was a kid we used to have liquorice pipes in sweet/candy stores but not any more in the UK as far as I can tell. Even pretending to smoke a liquorice pipe nowadays is probably politically incorrect. I remember, when I first show the pipes on sale, I bought a batch as much out of nostalgia as anything else. Good on the Danes for not succumbing.

DJ ZOZY B Presents The Barnetts Bonkers Boogy

Part of my birthday present from Ollie was a disco. Check out the disco strobe. It was from Poundworld. What a bargain. What a night. ps turn the sound up when playing the film

Christian's Birthday

This year it seemed that my birthday coincided with the first really chilly day of Autumn. I mention this as I spent most of the day outside.

After a gentle birthday jog around Clarence Park I took Charlie to his match for St. Albans City U8 vs Panshanger. It was only his second ever match, and the first I had seen. He looks rather good in the strip.

Charlie's team won easily and Charlie played really well. Well done Charlie.

After lunch the boys and I went to see the men's St. Albans team in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup vs Beckenham Town. There couldn't have been more than a few hundred people watching, and most of them were old boys who have probably going for decades. It was a nice atmosphere; more swearing from the pitch than the spectators, the ability to wonder all around the pitch, a sweet little family sized merchandise shop and 'Andy's Snack's serving a decent cup of tea and a plate of chips from Andy's van.

In the evening we went to see 'Laughs in the Park', a big outdoor, and very chilly, comedy event in Verulamium Park. Overall, it was a very good show. Dylan Moran kicked off. He was good, but the material was a little predictable - men vs women, getting older and not understanding the younger generation, etc. Second up was Reginald D. Hunter, who left few stones unturned as he took on race, racists, class, women, Jews, and Tiger Wood's detractors with equal gusto. It was good stuff. Top of the bill was Eddie Izzard. Though he only occasionally hit truly amazing, you could see how his mind works as he took us through a premise, Noah's Ark being a true story for example, before going on a series of brilliantly entertaining and increasingly surreal sidebar stories, as though he was distracting himself, and always turning back to the main thread, whilst keeping the audience following along. And when he was good, he was exceptional. The highlight was the exploration of The Ten Commandments, in particular the one about not coveting a neighbour's ox, which ended with him concluding it was a typo. Why would you want to covet your neighbour's ox? It must have been 'cover' instead of covet, he claimed. Which led to an brilliantly surreal image of all the townsfolk hiding their oxen under duvets. Izzard also questions the wisdom of the Hebrews, whilst Moses was receiving The Ten Commandments, to smelt a golden calf. Izzard's suggested they should have had better things to be preoccupied with, like getting out of the desert.  Wonderful stuff. 

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. 

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!

My Basil Plant

The pot on left used to hold my basil plant. The basil plant (in picture, with green leaves) grew nicely to the point where it was way too big for the little black pot. So I bought a bigger pot and transferred the basil plant. It is as exciting as seeing ones stock grow!

Stitches Out

Remarkable they can shave some bone off my shoulder with only two stitches. One, the top pic, more on the back of my shoulder, and the other, the bottom pic, more on the side. 

Shoulder Operation

Almost two weeks ago I had an arthroscopy of my right shoulder. All the years of tennis serving, throwing and cricket have taken their toll, and my shoulder bone grew a spur. Of course when trying to serve or throw all the muscles, tendons, ligaments and whatever else is inside my shoulder rubs against the spur and hurts to the point where I can't do it. I have had, over the last decade, two bouts of physio, some shots and a lot of pain. So, at last I had the operation. 

It was pretty quick, in and out in a day, but I didn't do so well on the anaesthetic, being sick for some hours after the surgery. I also got worried about how red the right side of my chest and arm got, but realised, after the red rubbed off onto my clothes, that the red was a dye, probably iodine, and I could wash it off!

The sling was on for three days. Once it was off I could hardly move my arm. The kids laughed at how little movement I had in it. 

I have the stitches out on Monday. Hurrah!

Charlie Goes Cycling

Charlie is getting very good, and keen, on his bicycle. This is him zooming around Clarence Park today. Here are some more pictures of him. 

I like how it is a series of pictures with Charlie in the same pose; earnest peddling and head down in concentration with a variety of backdrops. I guess that is what cycling is. But I thought it was cool. The best Charlie has ever done. However, it is not as cool as this:

It is still a little dangerous for Charlie to cycle his bike to the park. So rather than carry it on the downhill bits of the journey, I ride it.