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.

Morgan Snr

It was so good to play host to the wonderful Morgan McGrath, who paid us a visit last Friday night for dinner whilst in UK on business for a week. It was really interesting to see the kids wide eyes (they love Morgan) when he arrived. On one level it was a mixture of bashfulness and intimacy. On another level it seemed to be the realisation that the Chappaqua part of their lives is not a separate 'compartment' from their life in St. Albans. Morgan's appearance seemed to link the two worlds powerfully together. And this validates one of the reasons we went to the States; to show the children there is a bigger world out there and that its all connected up. 

So a big thanks to Morgan, not just from coming and making the boys' light up with the delight of seeing an old buddy again, but for helping to make them start to make those connections. It's a great thing. 

North Wales

We set off briskly on the morning of the 27th December for a week in a remote Welsh cottage. The boys have not seen lots of the UK and North Wales is full of good stuff, easily enough to fill a week. The cottage looked idyllic online and the prospect of turning a generator on and off was intriguing and made us feel like it would be a little 'back to nature'.

We arrived before sunset, and we were right to do so. The cottage was the only building on a single track road that ran up the side of one valley. In the dark it would have been tricky to find, and even tricker to get set up once we had found it. To get electricity for anything we needed to get the petrol fueled engine up and running (we also had to turn it off again at the end of each evening and when we left each day). There was little in the way of central heating and what heat we did have was created by the oil burning stove in the living room and the range in the kitchen.

The location was, however, stunning. It was like having our own valley. The was no-one anywhere near us. 

Night-time was amazing: total darkness. Here is Jill holding our battery powered lantern:

The stars looked beautiful. There was no artificial light for miles around so we got a fantastic view of the night sky. 

We visited the castles at Conwy and Caernarfon. They were built by Edward 1 in the late 13th Century to impose English rule on the Welsh. In both cases the town walls, built with the castle, still stand. This is Conwy:

And here is Caernarfon:

We went on some walks. On Snowdon;

And straight out from the cottage towards Llyn Conwy: 

And we went down the slate mines at Blaenau Ffestiniog: 

Evenings were generally filled by huddling around the kitchen table, near the range, and we had a couple of evening where DJ Ollie arranged a dance-off competition in the living room. It was one way to keep warm. Despite the cold, (it got to -10C), we had a terrific time, and it was far better to have cold and sunny weather than slightly warmer yet rainy/cloudy conditions. 

I couldn't possibly let this post go without a picture of the outhouse and the generator where I spent many happy moments, both last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

For a full set of pictures go here and click on the slideshow icon in the top right hand corner.

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.