Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day was in two parts. The first part was at home, with the kids opening their presents. The Clone Trooper outfit and helmet went down very well. The second part of the day was at Jill's parents in Surry. Bob and Sally, and the kids were also there. We did all the things one should do at Christmas; ate too much, opened lots of great presents, watched Wallis and Gromit, ate too much again, and then slumped.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is when the Danish side of the family celebrate Christmas. When I was a kid these family gatherings were pretty big, especially for a little kid, and very exciting, as it was when I got the best presents, the ones from your mum and dad. As a result Christmas Day was pretty boring. None of my friends were allowed out, as they were having their Christmases, and I was done with mine.

Anna and I make sure we still have our families get together on Christmas Eve, and we still open a few presents but the main emphasis of Christmas is no longer on Christmas Eve. And with Dad no longer around it is ever more the case.

This year we hosted Christmas Eve. It would be a change for Anna, we might not miss Dad so much and besides it was definitely our turn. The highlight of the evening was getting some of Dad's old 35 mm slides out. We got his old screen up, and the projector, it must be 40 years old at least, was still working. My Dad hadn't got the whole thing set up since we were kids so it was a little like going in back in time. We saw lots of old favourites, and quite a few pictures we had never seen before, like the pictures of us both as tiny babies.

Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in looking at my Dad's pictures, I didn't take any of my own.

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