Fleetville School Fete

A regular feature all over Britain are school summer fetes. Today was Ollie's school. There was some BMXing, some nice dancing by pupils and all manner of catching things, throwing things, kicking things and lots of food, including sweets, BBQ, and of course the scones stall:

George also did his bit, by helping out at the penalty shoot out:

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.

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. 

Charlie Wins The Treble

On the final day of the season Charlie single-handedly wins the Premier League, FA Cup, and European Champions League with one amazing strike.

Back in New York

It was really nice to spend a weekend back in NY, including a day back in Chappaqua. Even getting the Metro North was a good experience as it rekindled lots of memories.  I must confess I miss it. 

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.

Anna and the Marathon

Anna applied to run the London marathon and a few days after Dad died, she was accepted. She decided to go for it, and run for Parkinson's.  The dedication it takes to get prepared is something else. Not just the physical preparation but getting mentally ready to decide to take that next stride 38,000 times (the average number of strides taken to complete the 26 miles 285 yard course).  I don't think I could do it. 

Today was the day. We arrived nice and early at mile 9 and watched literally thousands of runners go past. We were there when the elite men flew through and soon the few out front became the many of the middle. Luckily, Anna was able to let us know when she was approaching; it is difficult to spot people as the above picture shows.  This is her at 9 miles, below. She was looking good and her back, which had caused some problems over the last week, was holding up well.

We saw her again at 19 miles. The field had spread out somewhat and some people were really beginning to suffer. Anna still looked in great shape, though unfortunately we caught her whilst she was 'in the zone' (or at least appeared to be by the shock she registered when we shouted her name);

It didn't take any more pix, I was too busy listening to her telling us how she was. She said it was getting a little trickier. Her comment was prophetic. She remembered that someone had told her that 20 miles was half way. I think she would endorse that given what said about miles 20-23!

The main thing was that she completed. It took a shade over 5 hours. She raised over £3,000. 

I have total respect for Anna doing this. With her fantastic speech at Dad's funeral, here, and this run, I have seen a determined and courageous side to her to add to the generous, caring and warm hearted woman I am very proud to call my sister. 

Boys Play Cricket

Cricket is a great game. I used to play alot; that's me, above.  Click here, to see me enthuse a little about the glorious game. Currently, I can't play properly (shoulder injury I am hoping to have operated on) but nevertheless I fulfilled one of my ambitions by playing cricket with all three boys yesterday. It might only have been in Clarence Park, but it didn't matter. The boys themselves may drifted off from time to time to play football with their friends or take a quick cycle around the park, oblivious to how cool this was for me. It wasn't even with pads and a proper cricket ball. It didn't matter. For about 30 minutes we were all engaged. Here are some pix:

Let's see if we can make any advances on this!

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. 

George Returns

Jill and the boys picked George up on Easter Monday. He got an overnight flight - his first ever- and believes he got two and a half hours sleep. He had a great time, not surprisingly; five nights in Florida and two up in Chappaqua. He didn't take his camera, for fear of losing it, so I haven't got any pix I can post. Not only did the Summers take him to Florida, but also laid on a BBQ for him back in Chappaqua. And Kym and Arthur hosted a sleep over on the Saturday night. For George he slotted right back in, like he hadn't been away. It was like he was just popping over to Jeremy's for a playdate. For George's American friends it was a little special; George was back in town and he had acquired an English accent!! I am so pleased it worked out alright and dead proud of George for making the trip by himself. Here's to continued links between the Barnetts and Chappaqua.