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. 

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. 

Kym, Arthur, Ella and Will Visit

Great to see the Vanderbilt-Frieds last weekend in St. Albans. The weather stayed pretty warm (it had clearly been roasting in Paris the previous week) and we had a lovely couple of days hanging out. Friday evening we wandered over to Clarence Park and learnt about the mystical game that is called 'cricket', and picked Ollie and Charlie up from their classes. On Saturday morning Kym, Arthur and I explored St. Alban's market and bought our picnic lunch; cheese, saucisson, baguette, fruit. Kym also bought, and devoured, a carton of rather nice olives en route. We walked down Fishpool St, past the £1,000,000 house, here, (not that it is terribly expensive for the street but we commented on it as we trundled by), into Verulamium Park for lunch, out again to pay a quick visit to the Roman theatre, here, and a return to the park to lie in the sun, play soccer, and eat ice cream. Just like every summer's day should be. We strolled home via the Roman Wall, the oldest pub in Britain (as the Guinness Book of Records says), Ye Olde Fighting Cock, up past the Cathedral and stopped off for a decent dinner, and pint of good proper beer, at the Hare and Hounds in Sopwell Lane. 

On Sunday we went to Knebworth House, above. We checked out the maze, 

and the dinosaur park:

Will and Ollie had their picture taken with the statuesque park gardener,

and we took a picture of one of his colleagues as well:

We went to the kids adventure area, and finished off with a miniature train ride:

The only thing missing was George, who was on a school activities trip to the Lake District.

But George returned on Tuesday evening which meant we could all meet up on the Wednesday night in Windsor where the Vanderbilt-Frieds were staying. I haven't got any pictures of everyone having a great time together, as I was a little late, but I did take a decent picture of Windsor. 

It was wonderful to spend time with the Vanderbilt-Frieds. 

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. 

Curry With Cousins

Cousins gathered in the Raja, Knebworth, for curry. It was great to see everyone.  It was a fun evening out, even though there seemed to be some rather serious faces judging by the photos below. I put it down to the fact that only Briony and I ordered the sardine bhaji, and everyone else being jealous of us. If you look carefully you can see it on their faces; bigtime sardine bhaji envy. 

You see, Briony looks pretty happy!

Jane and John managed to get over the sardine bhaji ordering incident by re-enacting a pose from many moons ago. 

I wonder if at Matt's euphemistic 30th birthday and Jane and John's wedding there will be a surfeit of sardine bhajis.

The Lion King

We saw the Lion King last Sunday, courtesy of Wilf and Joan. I must say, I am not big fan of musicals and I wasn't really looking forward to this. But it was just fantastic. Not so much the story which I know already, but the sheer inventiveness of the set design and the animals. It is a real challenge to turn an animated animal film into a stage musical but it was done by fantastic ways of presenting elephants, giraffes, lions, hyenas, birds, zebras, cheetahs, even grass was done with invention and creativity. I was not bored once throughout the 150 minutes plus some. Recommended even without the kids. 

Whipsnade Zoo

Friday was a trip to Whipsnade Zoo. It is nice to have a decent zoo 20 mins drive from home. It was my first zoo visit since returning to Britain and the comparisons with my experience of US zoos - San Diego, Bronx Zoo, - are interesting even if they are a little unfair.

1. At Whipsnade it rained, all day. At San Diego it didn't, and I can't remember it raining at the Bronx Zoo. 

2. San Diego, and to a lesser, but by no means negligible degree the Bronx Zoo, relied on scale and sheer impressiveness, and the great weather to deliver the experience. In contrast, Whipsnade relied on the charm and enthusiasm of eccentric and very human staff that often seemed to be transferred onto the animals: the bear brunch kids quiz in the rain, the hornbill that flew off into the trees, the shy kestrel, the very small elderly woman guide in the giraffe house, Dominic the naughty seal, the frustrated chimp, and the Lions who climbed their especially constructed mount so they could survey - as they like to do - the Hertfordshire countryside.

3. My favourite comparison was to do with the 'splash zone'. In the States there were lots of warnings about what happens if you sit in the splash zone. It was as though the zoo administrators were concerned about the threat of legal action by anyone who was splashed and didn't want to be. At Whipsnade, our seal trainer took a rather different tone. She told the kids who wanted to take part in the show to go to a specific area (everyone knew what was going to happen but she didn't say) and of course they got splashed. When one of the kids started crying a little, she said something like "don't worry, it's only salt water, it won't hurt for too long, your'll survive" and stuff like that. It was so not tippy-toeing, though it was not mean in any way. In fact it was rather refreshing. In a British-sized zoo this oddball enthusiasm was a delight. I don't think it would to fit very well with the razzamatazz that is the stock in trade of San Diego Zoo. Though I would like to see someone try : )

We had the most snow we have had for 18 years last week. London buses were kept in their depots, train services were scant, at best, the whole country seemed to go into a paralysis. But it was very pretty. Here are some pix. First, our back garden;

Two halves of a giant snowball from a short walk near Colman's Green;

And the insides of one of the halves;

And some rather pleasant views on our walk; 

Kir and Ian and Poaching

We had a lovely lunch with Kir and Ian on Saturday. A super little Georgian fish restaurant in Highgate. When Ollie saw 'Poached Salmon' on the menu however, he was a little worried. "Isn't poaching illegal?" he asked.

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.

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.

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.

Quaser Laser

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

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 .