Regent's Park (T)

Since Kathryn went to America, we have a new Nanny called Gemma. Yesterday, jonathan, anita and myself went to see 'Twelfth Night' a matinee performance in the (surprisingly hot) English sun in Regent's park.

Meanwhile, also in Regent's park, Gemma and her boyfriend took the boys to the playground, and took some nice photos of the boys including these.

Education (T)

The other day in the lounge room, Eddie was whirling his fishing rod around saying it was "like a windmill". I asked him where he learned about windmills, and he paused, grinned, and said "from TV". This is becoming his standard answer, though we're hoping that his school experience will also add to his pool of knowledge. I picked him up after school Thursday, and he was sitting on the steps with the other 20 or so children, cheerfully manhandling the boy next to him, who seemed also to take it in good part. Eddie saw me, ran up, and said "School's great. I love it".

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A few months ago, I recieved a letter which began:

"Dear Mr T Jones
This may be the strangest letter you have ever recieved, and we hope you accept it in the good-natured way it is intended. We just wanted to know if your name is Tom Jones?....."

I replied by email to say "Yes it is, but I'm no Welsh Baritone..."

What's it all about????....watch this space...

Nursery School (T)

Suddenly, Eddie is at school. We got a place at a local montessori school for the remainder of this term (finishes end of July). Just for 2 hours after lunch each day. Two days in, and he's doing fine. A little vague about the days activities, he confirmed today "no singing (they don't sing there)", and "no games (there are too many tables)". They did however 'wash up' and yesterday did some painting.



When he first went last week, with Anita, just to check out the school, while the class was on, Eddie joined in on the painting. He told me later "the friends gave me an apron to keep my t-shirt clean".

Time (T)

Eddie is very conscious of time now, and clocks. Not always with full understanding: we saw an airport bus on the street yesterday, and Eddie asked "how long does it take to get to the airport? A thousand years?"



In his new glasses, chosen to look like Daddy.

Art (T)

As I write this, I'm following the progress of the Italy/France European cup match by the tenor of the chants from our local pub. Italy are winning 2-0, so the cheers and chants you hear are increasingly confident.




We've been visiting galleries this last few weeks, Anita and I went to the White Cube in Mayfair to see "Hell", a Hieronymus Bosch-like recreation of hellish scenes by the Chapman brothers. It's in 3D, lots of miniture Nazi figures in violent warlike scenes, Anita couldn't look for long because of her (pregnant) sensibility.
They also had some (real) pictures by Hitler, which they had painted with sunny hippy images - the show was called 'If hitler were a hippy how happy he would be'. Or 'we would be'; Anita and I remember the title differently.

Then on Saturday we took the boys to an exhibition of Psycho Buildings, on the South Bank. I can't summarise it in words, but a lot of fun, interactive art for all the family.

We finished that with some icecreams, which both boys made short work of. Eddie very neat, Sebastian surprisingly comprehensive. He's 17 months but he didn't miss a trick, and wailed slighly unconvincingly if you took it off him to tidy it up.

Lands End 360 (T)

Lands End (T)

We were staying right at the southernmost point of England, which is called "Lands End". Its counterpart up north in Scotland is John O' Groats.

Washing machine (T)

Eddie, loudly, in the kitchen, with Anita hovering outside, while contemplating the washing machine, with his hand suspiciously close to the door's handle: "I won't open the door while it is going"...

Eden Project (T)

A holiday with children isn't really a holiday in the get-away-from-it-all sense; we spent most of our time traipsing from one destination to the next. When the weather was fine, it was the beach or if possible some sort of train (miniature one pictured).





When it wasn’t we went to the Eden Project, a series of huge futuristic greenhouses with tropical and Mediterranean conditions inside. The greenhouses were fine, though there was a slight whiff of sentimentality about the attached cause, something about saving the planet via supporting third world smallholders.