We always had pets growing up. My childhood can be divided up into a succession of eras defined by the canine presence in my parents’ home. First there was Sam, who was around before I was. Then came Benji. Then Sophy, and now Purdy. All labradors. All wonderful, affectionate, loyal and fabulous creatures. My wife, on the other hand, never …
Lousy Excuse of the Week
Upon being asked why she was still awake half an hour after bedtime, Catherine tearfully announces: I have all these buttons in my head, and I think I must have pressed the “Scared” one. (Oh, and she’s still awake now.)
Deliver Us from Deliverance
Family traditions can be pernicious things. Bizarre rituals – whose precise genesis nobody can quite remember – are dutifully repeated year after year, simply because that’s what’s always been done. Quite often nobody is having much of a good time, but nobody is willing to admit it. Of course, it doesn’t have to be like that. This weekend saw my …
Time Passes
Ridiculously, school starts today. Our children, typically, have adopted diametrically opposite approaches to the glorious vistas of educational opportunity opening up before them this morning. Catherine is more excited than she was last Christmas Eve. The prospect of entering kindergarten is possibly the most thrilling thing ever to have happened to her; there was much debate on the way home …
Status Update
We’re back from a wonderful week away. Four days with friends in Boston, then four days in Maine. There we visited an old friend, Don, and his wife Samantha. Don and Samantha own Rabelais Books, a bookshop dedicated (and I do mean dedicated) to cookbooks. We loved our time with them. I will write more about it in another …
Soul Sister
Just in case you didn’t believe me when I said that Catherine usually sings her heart out when she hears a song she likes, here’s the evidence. And then I promise I’ll stop with the cute kid videos, OK?
Name That Tune
I confess this footage of my daughter stumps me. I can’t for the life of me remember what on earth she was listening to on the headphones which made her into a human metronome (well, kind of.) Chances are it was either “Hey Soul Sister” by Train, or, um, “Hampsterdance” by that noted songsmith, Hampton the Hampster. It’s strange – …
Wii 0, Life 1
Oh, Wii console, how you have traduced us! Not sure if it’s a terribly American thing to do, but on the 4th of July, the George family went bowling. This was largely at the request of Hallam, who has rediscovered Wii Sports and was curious to see what it was like to bowl for real. Like so many things in …
Family Business
Obviously I’m still excited about my news, but I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder here. Apparently I’m not the only person in my family doing the book thing. It seems that while we thought she was in her room playing with her dolls, Catherine was hard at work on something quite different. She may only be five, but her …
Diabolical Genius? Or Just a 5 Year-Old?
Exciting episode on Sunday evening. We’d had a lovely weekend – two trips to the swimming pool, a water-fight in the yard, lots of home-cooked food, the original Muppet Movie… all in all, a very relaxing, family-focused time, just the four of us. Catherine’s bedtime was approaching and as usual we were all crammed on to her bed listening to …