This is the Adventures with the Clark family archive
May 5, 2008
our house
Went to see Happy-Go-Lucky last night, which was great fun. The kids particularly enjoyed the important supporting role played by our house as Poppy and Scott toured the neighbourhood during her driving lessons. Holly's car also did a bit of upstaging.
I also enjoyed for once being in a cinema that fell into complete silence as the film began. And the hearty laugh of the guy in the front row. he made me think of that line in Woody Allen's philosophy:
'What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?'
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2007
culture
We've been taking in a lot of culture recently, since I went through a phase of grabbing those cheap or 10 squid special offers, but Apoa and I think this might be the most exciting cultural event we've come across recently.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2007
specs
With our usual tardiness, we finally took Kiloh to the optician's on Saturday and confirmed her need for specs. It's not a strong prescription. It was explained to her on a different system from the one I understand, but 'a wee bittie' is probably as accurate as I need. Apparently, she only needs to wear them in class and when she thinks she needs them. Naturally, my genes are the culprit.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 8:04 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2007
back to 505
So struggling to blog these days. In case you're interested, our family is currently totally grooving to '505' from the new arctic monkeys album. Puts life in all our slideshows.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2007
a falby on youtube
Over a month with no blogging. What a disgrace. Thought I'd get going with this clip which will interest a single-figured number of my readers. This is the one and only result for 'falby' on youtube at the moment, guys. A commercial advertising the town of Sarnia in Canada paid for by local landlord Andrew Falby. I enjoyed the comments. 'Why no reference to the Chemical Valley?' 'I assumed everyone already knew...'
B-)
Posted by Billy at 7:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2007
'you don't say mair'
It was nice to see everyone in Scotland even if not the reason you'd choose to get together. Lewis and the 'gerrils' enjoyed each others' company very much and we had a nice trip to Auntie Lorna's and some family resting places. We visited the towns where I lived and went to school until I was around Apoa and Kiloh's ages, which of course was more interesting to them than me, and the Bass at Inverurie where Mary ('born twice, died twice') Elphinstone is buried (supposedly - we didn't have time to look for her grave).**
Apoa and Kiloh kept laughing at my rapidly reaccommodating language, objecting to my use of words like 'baith' and 'mair' which they insist I don't say. I tried to coach their acccents a bit. The vowel in words like 'Billy' is a bit tough for them and Lewis's pronunciation of the Billy who's his best friend at nursery had the girls thinking his friend was 'Bowie'. We also mused on the different vowels in the 'fit' that means 'pardon' or 'what' and the 'fit' at the end of your leg (same vowel as 'Billy').
It was also good to catch up on some other phrases like 'makkin on' (pretending), and 'getting into trouble'. I don't know whether it's just my rellies but I also noticed some words that would seem too formal for everyday speech (e.g. 'incorporate', 'discretion') in informal conversation.
B-)
**The story is that she had been accidentally buried alive and came back to consciousness when grave robbers removed her ring. A quick google suggests that the story has been transplanted to Inverurie from elsewhere but we won't let that get in the way of a good story, will we?
Posted by Billy at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2007
Ted
Ted passed on last week. He was in hospital for a week after falling and breaking his hip at home. It's sad to lose him but good to have had a chance to get to know him and, of course, for him and Bess to have spent some time together as a couple.
Posted by Billy at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2007
midwinter night's dream
dug just pointed out that I reached the magic 1111 posts on this blog. Here's number 1112.
Apoa is very thespian this week. Tonight she's in Alice in Wonderland. On Monday she was a commanding stage presence as Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her Bottom (sorry - couldn't resist it) was very funny and reminded me of the incredibly hilarious never-ending death sequence I saw Timothy Spall do in Robert LePage's version a long time ago. One of the best performances I ever saw. I also thought she might enjoy seeing Paul McCartney's Bottom (sorry - I really couldn't resist that) and John Lennon as Thisbe. Funny how Ringo's lion looks a bit like parkakid from East is East.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:06 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2007
bastard language
We had a good seminar over the pizza. The kids ordered The Truman Show and when we settled down to watch it, we opened the box to find they'd sent us The Wind That Shakes The Barley instead. Good for me and Ohna but not for the kids, so we decided to watch East is East instead. Just the thing for tonight. Not an absolutely great movie but loads of good acting and writing and directing.
One of the most obvious linguistic features is the use of 'bastard' in phrases like 'bastard hippie'. Once we'd established that describing doesn't make a word an adjective (you can describe people by saying 'bastards''), we noticed the word kept appearing in adjective position but also that no-one ever says 'bastarder' or 'bastardest'.
There's loads of good dialogue, but I think my second-favourite bit was when Tariq packed a suitcase and rushed out of the house:
Saleem: Where you goin?
Tariq: Nowhere
Saleem: Wait for me!
Meenah: Where you going?
Tariq: Nowhere
Meenah: I'll come with you
My absolute favourite moment was of course the flying fanny and the absolute best line was the 'fanny over your bastard head' one
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:45 PM | Comments (0)
'But I've eaten myself full!'
Poor Kiloh didn't realise there was chocolate cake until she'd finished her pizza B-(
Posted by Billy at 9:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2007
'I really hope it snowed in Enfield'
We'd been up for quite a while before Ohna looked out and noticed the snow. There's enough for a snowball or two but London's carbon-emitting activity always clears it up quite quickly.
No sign yet of major services failing to cope with this 'very rare' (= 'happens every year') and 'unexpected' (= 'they told us 10 days ago it was coming') occurrence. I did see a cyclist come a cropper as he slowed down for a junction, though. Just a minor skid. Nothing damaged.
B-}
Posted by Billy at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2007
ouchy
Luckily, Kiloh's foot is not broken, so we don't have to add this to the catalogue of guilt. When she was wee and broke her arm it took us 10 days to take her to the hospital, It took around the same amount of time for her foot, but luckily this one turned out not to be broken ater all.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:48 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2006
christmas swim
Yes, some of us did indeed jump in the sea on Christmas Day. We thought we were on time but arrived just as everyone else was jumping in. They were all out before we got there but we waved goodbye to the lifeboat and jumped in (for what couldn't really be described as a long time).
B-)
Posted by Billy at 4:13 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2006
merry christmas
Merry Christmas, folks. This is Clem Christingling.
And here's some footage Dug uploaded of the cousines performing Away In A Manager:
They're all in bed together right now trying to sleep so Santa can come.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
it had to happen
I spent a couple of hours this evening looking for Apoa after she said goodbye to her friend at a bus stop and proceeded to wait for a bus that was on strike. She had no power left on her mobile so it was like the old days when we couldn't just phone each other to solve things like this. A kind neighbour drove me off to look for her. The tube station supervisor was great. He called the police for me to get a number to tell to the network operations centre so they could alert everyone at the tube stations. As he was doing this, I got a call from the very nice people in a Turkish restaurant where she'd gone after getting halfway home. Meanwhile Ohna had phoned the police. They were really helpful and are coming round tomorrow to talk to Apoa about it all.
B-}
Posted by Billy at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2006
halloween treats
I started Halloween at my piano lesson and came home to find around two dozen kids (three groups, I think) ringing the doorbell of my sadly empty house. I made it in without being lynched. Ohna spent the evening helping woodcrafters combine trick-or-treating with partying. Apoa visited the church where her friend's grandad lives and contacted the other side ouija-style (yes, contact was made). But I think Kiloh had the coolest experience. She and her friends rang a doorbell and it was answered by Shaun of the Dead! He didn't have any sweets (at first - his flatmate then showed up with some) but he did supply autographs.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2006
reclaiming the weekend
We managed it for once. Big woody walk on Saturday and a late family lunch/tea with Nicki and Clem on Sunday. A bit like civilisation. I still couldn't help Kiloh with her English homework but I managed to come up with some good bits for Apoa's research on fashion in the 1920s (she's citing me as 'Dr. William Clark').
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2006
family news
Well there's too much to update you on really, but it's been domestically busy too with Kiloh having moved up to secondary and us all getting used to our first year without an au pair. Kiloh has settled in very well and has a load of extracurricular activity sorted including drama, sax, netball and the junior singers (or 'junior mingers' as everyone calls them). 'OMG' as Kiloh would have me say! The latest big news is that she got a merit in PE for doing a roly poly. The sisters seem to enjoy going to school together, which is great. And it's a major change for us to have them leaving earlier and at the same time every morning.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 8:51 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2006
farewell primary school
If I did have time, I would definitely tell you about Kiloh's last day of primary school on Friday. Many tears during the leavers' service and some fun memories from the kids. Followed by a really nice picnic in the park in the evening. Yet more tears. Kiloh and Anna gave each other a big hug and said 'See you next door'. Now summer has begun and the kids are tempted to enjoy the sunshine by spending most of their time in Sims2 world. Apoa has had more sense and has gone off to the pond for a dip while I sit here working on my conference paper.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:00 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
mais pourquoi?
Well we was mainly supporting France by the end of today, but somehow Ohna doesn't seem as sad as the rest of us. B-(
Meanwhile, someone has already uploaded these images of 'le scandale' with the tf1 commentary:
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2006
come on papoe
Apoa is very happy to see Ghana doing so well in the MacDonalds Fuji Coca Cola Londis Budgens TK Maxx World Cup (or whatever it's called these days). This is partly because we discovered that Apoa is an existing name in Ghana and partly because they have a player called Papoe (Papo was Apoa's name for herself when she liked her words to have at most one vowel or consonant at a time). I don't know why they're saying their win was a 'shock', though.
For the record, we're also supporting to varying degrees England (different percentages of support from each of us, with mine fluctuating quite dramatically, down with every aimless lob, up with every robodance), USA (for passport reasons), France (for Thierry and family connnections), Togo (for the nice flag and similarities to Scotland - leave you to work out what they are), Brazil (because they're Brazil), Portugal (ois pois), Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden (for the au pairs) and most of the other teams really.
This afternoon, we'll be supporting Australia (because we'll be in an Australian outpost at Tim and Rebecca's barbecue during the game) .
What a relief that Scotland aren't there!
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2006
my portrait
Just did the which artist should paint you quiz as recommended by oopsydaisyivegonecrazy and it seems I should be painted by Alfred Gockel, the verdict on me being:
'All American yet funky, you inspire an artist's imagination
And while not everyone will understand your portrait, you will!'
Meanwhile, on the what age do you act quiz I came out as 26, one year younger than Ohna. The kids were 16 and 17 so it's clearly a bit of an equaliser.
B-))
Posted by Billy at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
March 2, 2006
results just in
Kiloh made it into her school of choice, the one Apoa already goes to (apparently, this blog has a bit of a readership, there, btw). She was quite touched that I came back from Cambridge early so I could be here when she got home to open the letter. We're chuffed but there are a few tears around the hood as well. Ohna woke up in Australia to get the news by text. It was like election night as I sat typing the 'results' into my email while Kiloh sat beside me discussing it all and getting new results on msn.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:19 PM | Comments (1)
March 1, 2006
secondary transfer
No news yet about where Kiloh will be going to school next year. We had all thought the letter would be arriving today and I thought it might have when I saw one letter addressed to Ohna with Kiloh's initials after it. As Ohna's in Australia and it'll be the middle of her night when Kiloh opens it, I wanted to make sure I had the right envelope so I phoned the council and found that they're putting them in the post today so it'll be tomorrow or the next day before we get it. Hope it's not tomorrow as I'll be away until night-time. Do I make her wait or have her open it while I'm on the other end of the phone?
B-}
Posted by Billy at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
McClosure
TImes - McDonald's closing 25 restaurants
Oisin will be pleased about this. We traumatised him last week when McDonald's was the only option for a snack after swimming.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 8:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2006
wifi
The older you are, the more you're likely to be impressed by current technology. I'm quite excited to hear Apoa tell me that she's currently Mario-Karting (on Kiloh's DS, hope the permission is there) against 'some random guy in Japan'. She doesn't even know his name as it's displayed in Japanese characters.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2006
all roads lead to Haldane
We got the message on Wednesday that visiting hours ended at 8pm so we all rushed to Hampstead to visit Nicki and Haldane. We came from three different starting places but made it on time. Apoa enjoyed me interrupting her guitar ensemble to ask if she could leave early as 'she has to go and see a doughnut'. We made it past the security and gathered behind the curtain to introduce ourselves. I was particularly excited as I got to do a bit of nappy-changing. He is, of course, much smaller in the flesh than in the photos but just as cute.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
February 8, 2006
the family that blogs together...
Now that Ohna Apoa and Kiloh have all joined in, my whole family is blogging! I'm trying to get Verena to start one too.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
Haldane Edward
Here he is,
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
who you calling doughnut?
He's here and his name is now Haldane Edward. Pictures are on Dug's flickr pages
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:13 AM | Comments (0)
February 3, 2006
another blogger
Yes, Kiloh has one too. I'm not sure about that title, though.
B-}
Posted by Billy at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
oopsydaisyivegonecrazy
Yes, it's happened. Apoa has a blog. She's already had two comments, although she did send them herself!
B-))
Posted by Billy at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2006
cosmopolitan
Well, it's Chinese New Year, so naturally we celebrated by attacking a haggis-shaped pinata that Kiloh made and then eating haggis neaps and tatties with a bit of Rabbie on the side (Kiloh was slightly disappointed as she says she prefers the meaty haggis but had to eat the veggie one since she's just joined Verena on the meat-free side of the family). We think it's been a productive weekend, but that's partly cos we didn't really go out and have any fun. The kids did that on their own yesterday. The closest I got was half an hour in the garden with a cup of tea and Nobuyoshi Araki. Apart from getting the handouts ready for tomorrow, my big breakthroughs were to get the tax return 80% done - there are always a couple of bits of paper you can't find just when you need them so it's desperate phone call time tomorrow yet again - and to finally fix the puncture I've been cycling around on for a couple of weeks. I've been calling it a 'slow' puncture but it didn't look slow when I took the tube out of the tyre. Hope it's still inflated in the morning.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2006
#3
"The noises are about to begin"! (followed by some thuds) B-))
Posted by Billy at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)
#2
Followed by: 'Billy! Do you know where there are any nails?"
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:43 PM | Comments (0)
utterances you might not be sure you want to hear #1
Kiloh just said: 'I'm about to do some DIY, so don't be alarmed if you hear some noises'
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2005
oi, have you counted those bicycles properly?
We laughed a lot when Simon Singh appeared on HIGNFY
He objected to the inaccuracy in the second verse of her song Nine Million Bicycles, which goes:
We are 12 billion light-years from the edge, That's a guess, No one can ever say it's true, But I know that I will always be with you
and wrote new lyrics which go:
We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe, That's a good estimate with well-defined error bars, Scientists say it's true, but acknowledge that it may be refined, And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you
Here's what he says about it in his latest newsletter:
I have now embarked on a new career as a lyricist, but not with any success. I won't go into the details - it is a very long story - but it started with me writing an article for the Guardian newspaper criticising Katie Melua's reference to the age of the universe in her song 'Nine Million Bicycles', and ended with Katie re-recording her record using my lyrics, which was then broadcast on Radio 4. The original article is contained on the website below and the broadcast can be heard at the second link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1581445,00.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today1_melua_20051015.ram
The HIGNFY bit ended by suggesting that he also pointed out that it is NOT a long way to Tipperary and that, technically, Gloria Gaynor will NOT survive.
The programme is repeated tonight at 10pm on BBC2. I might tape it for class (it is a kind of prescriptivism, or 'verbal hygiene', after all).
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
October 9, 2005
oliver twist
It's OK. It's not amazing and not awful either. Good acting (especially Mark Strong as Toby Crackit), sets, scenery and photography. The main negative comments from our crowd were:
- not sure there was any need for a new version
- oliver's behaviour was a bit weird in the last scene
- the ending felt like something we needed to go through rather than something organic
- Kiloh preferred the musical version
We did Pride and Prejudice a couple of weeks ago. It was also not amazing, but I think it probably gets the vote over this from our crowd.
We couldn't resist the cake shop when we came out of the cinema. Ohna was embarrassed when she went to pay and found that they didn't take plastic.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 6:57 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2005
'I'm NOT... TIRED!'
Kiloh doesn't cope well with being tired, and it seems they really pushed the kids on their trip to Wales. Kiloh's class had one day at school last Friday (8 days ago), which they spent doing first aid and circuit training, before heading off on Monday for a week at Haringey's outdoor centre in Wales. When I got home from the thunderstorm at work yesterday, I found an exhausted Kiloh and an au pair who was seriously delighted to see me. Our mission this weekend is to let Kiloh recharge her system so she can focus on being a more positive person next week.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2005
kiloh
While I'm here, I've heard from another person with the first name Kiloh (the maiden name of a great-grandma in Aberdeen) who passed on a bit of etymological info:
Yes, Killoh (with two l's) is derived from the same "Kellog" as mine. Even going further back it's from Cel (Celtic?) which refers to the bog around which the family was established. So the name actually translates as "from the swamp" yippee!
This explains why the name is sometimes written with two l's.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2005
Purbeck to Long Beach
Things are looking up. A week ago, I was sitting in a rainy, muddy field in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Yesterday, I was playing on Long Beach in Long Island.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
REM
Well, I've done the first exercise so I'll sneak the time to tell you about the REM concert which I went to on Saturday with Kiloh and 84,998 other folk. It was a great evening and an excellent show, aurally and visually. The highlight was watching Kiloh and Susie bouncing and waving their arms, but I also enjoyed the Scottish voice shouting 'Come on! play Nightswimming, for fuck's sake!' (they did eventually - I was expecting to hear him shout 'About fucking time!')
I read two reviews so far, one of which said there was no reference to the bombs that caused the postponement (if it'd been a week ago as planned, Ohna and Apoa would've come too). Didn't they hear him say 'I am not afraid' a thousand times while those words were endlessly repeated on the screen?
B-}
Posted by Billy at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
English language
I've just been looking through one of Apoa's English books. She's looking at etymology and language variation and change. It's really impressive how it moves from one interesting topic to another. Her current homework is to write a letter to Prince Charles to try to persuade him that the English language syllabus shouldn't just be about literature. One line she's taking is to point out that if you don't do language work you can't really understand Beowulf. Meanwhile, QCA are consulting on what should be in the various English curricula.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)
July 7, 2005
London bombs
Thought I should post to tell family and friends that me, Ohna and the kids are OK. Ohna is in the chaos of central London and can't text or phone anyone.
Posted by Billy at 11:30 AM | Comments (2)
July 1, 2005
storms and politics
Had a really nice woodcraft evening on Tuesday night. We did a peace walk in town which was bookended by fantastic thunderstorms with sheets of rain sweeping through and flash-flooding Trafalgar Square and then Parliament Square. The second one came on as we were talking to Brian Haw who's still there with his tent and display. We failed to find Mountbatten at the Ministry of Defence but the kids were excited to spot a see-through tardis with a man inside it in the car park. They then noticed Downing Street and spontaneously started chanting 'cancel third world debt!' until they were hoarse. At the South African Embassy, Apoa was extremely shocked to discover that it was only ten years since the end of apartheid.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
balloons in bulger
Message from Kim:
I found a balloon once – along at Bulger Harbour from a fair up the Moray Coast – I got a £ 5 Book Token for returning it…………
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2005
balloon race
Apoa came back from Wales on Friday evening. She had a great time and it turned out that she had tried to phone once to leave me a happy father's day message, even though we didn't hear a peep from her all week.
Ohna came back from Cannes yesterday, tired and glad to be back. Cannes was a mixed experience, it seems. The bit that sounded best to me was the groovy parties with Jarvis Cocker DJing and the Nouvelle Vague people playing. The bit that sounded worst was the unbelievably rude restaurant.
Anyway, it's great to have the whole family back. We celebrated yesterday by going to Apoa's school's summer fair and having one of those days where no matter how many buses you get on you never seem to get any nearer home. The highlight of the day was when we were all sitting eating tapas and saw a balloon floating down the street with a note attached. The kids rushed out and grabbed it. It seems there was a summer fair with a balloon race in Beaconsfield yesterday. You might not be impressed by that but I've sent off many balloons in my time and never had one found nor known anyone who found one. And we got to play with the helium when we got home.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
falling Apoa
Well, at 11.30 last night Ohna and I finally decided that she would be the one who had to cancel important work commitments this morning and take Apoa to hospital for an x-ray. She had a big fall from a rope swing in the woods on Tuesday evening and her hip has been really painful ever since. We couldn't wait any longer as she's off on a school trip to Wales for a week tomorrow morning.
The news is that she doesn't seem to have broken anything so she just needs to take it easy and keep an eye on it.
Ohna's sacrifice meant that I was free to get up and leave home at 6.30 to take part in two job interview conference calls. The bright side of this was that I was cycling in the woods at 7am on the way to the campus.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2005
window shopping
It's amazing what you see in shop windows in Regent Street, these days!
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)
May 4, 2005
kentish weekend
Holly and Sara celebrated their 50th birthdays together at the weekend at Mount Ephraim in Kent. It was a great party with a ceilidh and a number of musical turns, as well as the hanging out and eating and drinking. The best bit, though, was watching the gangs of kids running around having adventures everywhere. Not sure about the brandishing of the dead eel, though.
It was the first time I'd been to Kent (rather than just going through it), apart from a works outing to Dreamland (which has been under threat for a while but looks like being open again for a bit more at least). Kent was much nicer than I'd expected and more in touch with its traditional agricultural past than a lot of bits of the countryside. We got a lot of info from our landlord who is Kentish, a volunteer guide for Faversham, and a pub expert. Naturally, I prepurchased a copy of his book on Kentish pub signs while I was there.
We went by bike, taking the train from Harringay to King's Cross, the Circle Line from King's Cross to Victoria and the train from there to Faversham We were particular popular on the Circle Line ;-) We did some cycling around while we there (this was my third weekend of country cycling in a row), including to Whitstable, which is very busy but much less full of middle class Londoners than I'd been led to believe (unless they were the ones on the private beach). On Monday, we had a really nice cycle along the Saxon Shore Way. Beautifully quiet but difficult terrain: thick spongy grass with occasional mudholes. We were very impressed with the girls' determination and seriously enjoyed the moment of finding the proper path at the end of it, followed by one of those pub lunches that feels better cos you've earned it.
Incredibly, though, I don't think anybody took any pictures B-(
Posted by Billy at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2005
monster raving loony apoa
Yes, Apoa is representing the Monster Raving Loony Party in her school's mock election (canvassing rather than standing as a candidate). She just watched the whole of the Question Time Special (no school tomorrow cos of a training day). Kiloh watched a bit of it too, but she does have school tomorrow so she was in bed before the vampire came on. It's interesting to watch the girls begin to get interested in politics and think things through for themselves.
I'm still not sure exactly what I'll do next week. Obviously, Howard and the Tories would be a nightmare, but can I really do the nosepeg thing? The bad bits of Labour are so bad I don't think I can do it. On the other hand, I do think they've done some good. But is 'we know we're awful but these guys are worse' really enough to convince me to vote for them? On the other other hand, as Joe E. Brown so famously put it, 'nobody's perfect!' I'm thinking more and more I should just vote for something that doesn't turn my stomach (that would be Green or LibDem) and see what happens. It's interesting that the more Labour try to argue their case the less I want to vote for them.
B-}
Posted by Billy at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
clearance
Kiloh's been reading this blog. She's asked me to check with her from now on whenever I'm going to post about her.
B-)
Whoops! Forgot to check about this one!
Posted by Billy at 3:06 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2005
pictures
Dug's got Ohna a flickr account so we'll soon be posting loads of pics there. Just put a few up just now to get started.
Meanwhile there are two loads from around Easter on my mac homepages:
(Dug, there are some Clemmies there, including 'Spiderclemmie'!)
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
paper thrower
Extract from Kiloh's email to Ohna today:
> hi
> its so unfair i got sent out of class(first time in the whole of
> primary)
> today for THROWING PAPER!!!!!
She's not known for this kind of thing so I guess we can let her off with one misdemeanour.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
Sister rules
The BBC doesn't mention it (too busy blowing off about the ones they won). And Ohna's not going on about it. So I guess it's up me.
The short film Ohna produced won a Welsh BAFTA on Saturday.
I'd point you to the page in Welsh but I don't know enough Welsh to find it.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
shopping and cycling
Big day of shopping yesterday. I had two things on my list - shoelaces and photos to develop - and, after trailing round Oxford Street and Covent garden all day, I managed to come home having accomplished neither of them. We had a good day, though. The town wasn't too crowded but the kids did get bored of being constantly flattened by people in a hurry. We managed to buy some nice clothes and the birthday presents that were needed, as well as spending some of the girls' christmas credit at HMV and Claire's Accessories, before going for a lovely meal in Carluccio's on the way home. Got home too late, though, with one girl (Apoa) suffering serious tummyache.
Apoa was surprised yesterday morning by the delivery of her new bike so we arranged to go out cycling with the kids and some of their pals this afternoon. Tragically, though, Apoa hurt her arm landing badly off the trapeze this morning, so she and Jessie walked to the park instead. She had a hard time getting to sleep tonight so I might be going to the doctor's instead of my first year class tomorrow morning. I feel bad about the students but i don't want to repeat my mistake with Kiloh when she broke her arm and it took me 10 days before I thought of taking her to the doctor (I even forced her through a swimming lesson with an arm she couldn't straighten out properly - bad dad!)
B-(
Posted by Billy at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2005
devon
We had a great Easter time in Devon with Clemmie and her extended family. Clemmie's approaching her third birthday now and her egg-hunting skills have really come on. Her linguistic abilities are also amazing - she's now firmly in the stage which Steven Pinker describes as 'all hell breaks loose' and never stops speaking. She loved her day out at the fun park - a context where grownups just say yes to everything you ask to do! Although I think Swinging Queen Bess was one ride too far.
The other kids had a great time too. Highlights for me included the fishermen silhouetted in the moonlight on Easter Saturday, Oisin racing ahead and getting lost on our walk along the cliffs (that's a loose use of 'highlight', you understand) and the Sunday pub visit with a really enjoyable walk there and back. Apoa and Kiloh took 80 photos on the walk to the pub. Thank god for digitisation!
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
computer youth
We've reached the stage now where, when I sit at my computer working on my homework, either Apoa or Kiloh is sitting next to me working on theirs. Which is cool. At home, I'm in the soppy mac world while they're masters of the PC universe.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 7:40 PM | Comments (0)
musical youth
Apoa's new school is in Enfield which means she had her Easter break a week later than everyone else and is still off this week. The Harringay kids had a training day yesterday so they all spent the day composing songs and filming pop promos. They've been working on the music constantly since then. The band they've formed is called 'The Neighbours'.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 7:37 PM | Comments (0)
March 6, 2005
what a carb-up!
Apoa can move on now from updating us daily on how many days to her birthday, since it's now three hundred and sixy three days to go. We had a really nice celebration, starting with a few kids coming for cake after school on Friday and then going back to primary school for international evening, which was great and fitted in pretty well with my equal opportunities training. I guess 'celebrating diversity' would be the buzzword way of describing it. It was a free, nonfundraising event where everybody brought a dish, we all ate them, and a few groups put on entertainment. The highlights were the caipirinhas, the feast and an amazing group of Turkish dancers accompanied by a circular-breathing pipe player and an awesome drummer (sorry - didn't find out much about the names of instruments etc.) Then it was back home for a sleepover (11 kids, counting Kiloh and Anna) with the DVD of Princess Diaries 2. The grownups didn't bother with the movie. I was particularly put off by the cgi people who looked like leftovers from the deck of the Titanic
Yesterday we served them pancakes and then Ohna took them swimming, meeting up with the nonsleeping over guests at the pool, while I did the lastminute shopping and raced back to tidy up the house and cook. Naturally, the cash machines on Green Lanes were all broken but I managed in the end, diving round to Londis for a couple of postlastminute supplies. It was a carb-heavy meal and they got through an impressive amount of pasta and various forms of bread. They did eat some veg as well, though (yes, we're a bit uptight about this now, thanks to Jamie) I'm off to Londis now so they can have a sandwich when they get back from circus school.
Yesterday evening's DVD was Bridget Jones 2 which was also fairly disappointing. I'm not sure how much of its worseness was to do with it being the second one and how much was to do with it being worse. Anyway, the grownups have a say in the next choice so we're going for Anchorman which sounds much more promising.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2005
sleepover
Apoa's off sleeping over with a new friend she's made at secondary school tonight. I think it's a bit weird to think that she's off in a house we don't know with a friend we haven't met yet, although Ohna is much more cool about it. Must remember to tell her that Roxy is taking advantage of her absence and spending the night with the bed all to herself.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
snow and shaving
Came home last night to find Kiloh had accidentally shaved off part of her eyebrow. Taking a decent photo is surprisingly hard. When she was four, Apoa gave herself what we described as her 'Tellytubby' haircut. It'd be nice to add the eyebrow to the collection. We're wondering whether Kiloh will get teased today or whether everyone will think it's cool.
We woke the kids up around 10 last night so they could look at the snow. 5 minutes later the doorbell rang and Aidan snowballed Ohna when she answered. 5 minutes after that we heard tapping on glass and assumed he was back with another attack. We shouted at him to get lost and then realised it was Christel who'd locked herself out while taking a picture of the wee menace.
Not much snow on the ground today but they say there'll be more later today. The kids are desperate for more. Apoa is fantasising about missing school and worrying about not being able to get home, but I told her neither of these was likely. She's jealous of those Aberdonians (well Aberdeenshire-onians) who had 30 schools closed yesterday. My worry is if the roads get icy as that's the one thing that would keep me off the bike. The thought of public transport is not appealing.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:15 AM | Comments (2)
February 8, 2005
puking and punctures
Apoa's school phoned yesterday afternoon to say she'd been sick. Since all her mates were staying late and she didn't seem up to going home on her own, the school organised her a taxi. I thought it was a fairly minor thing until I got home and found she'd puked in the playground, gone to the sick room, taken some air, puked again, puked in the taxi home (outside the door as he'd stopped at a light), puked at Andrew and Cathy's house (she had to go there when she got home cos we were out) puked on the doorstep on the way home and then puked a few times after she got home. She's had a quiet day and should be back at school tomorrow, but you know she's not quite right yet when she chooses not to go to pancake night with the woodcraft folk.
Meanwhile, my bike had its third puncture since Friday today (yes, I've changed the tyres) so I had a bit of a rush to make it to school to talk to Apoa's guitar teacher. The other big musical excitement is that Kiloh brought her double bass home yesterday (quarter size but still sizeable). Haringey offered her free lessons and free hire of instrument for a term since not many people have been opting for it recently.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 7:50 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2004
go mental, Kiloh
Kiloh was telling us that her tutor says she has a lot of physical energy and that it will be great if she can convert some of it into mental energy to help her with maths and stuff. As she told us, she was waving her arms around like crazy and jumping up and down.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2004
It had to happen...
Yesterday Rose missed the train to school. Today it was Apoa's turn. I somehow managed not to set the alarm last night* and was woken by a desperate Apoa who had one minute until her train was due. She woke herself up on time, had breakfast and everything but didn't wake me until just after the last minute.
Just to make sure my day started beautifully, I came home to hear our lying weasel of a prime minister ramming his incompetence down my throat on radio 4.
Alec spent the night last night* and made me a bit jealous of Scotland where they have the extra option of SNP to turn to. Everyone in the right-on bubble I live in is trying to decide between Lib Dem and Green without feeling that confident in either.
B-(
*Could these things be connected?
Posted by Billy at 9:55 AM | Comments (1)
September 27, 2004
Pescarolos
When I said 'a Pescarolo', I meant a car. I should add, though, that she'll also be playing with M. Henri Pescarolo himself who will be driving the car.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2004
pescarolo
Ohna headed off to Estoril this morning to play with a Pescarolo
And it's work!
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2004
Ohna's latest
Just been looking at some of Ohna's recent work on davidreviews website.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:36 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2004
two tims
Went to Tim's 4oth on Friday night and then another Tim's 40th yesterday. Both born on the same date, one in Australia and one somewhere in the Birmingham (UK) area. Juicy conversation at both of them, but the funnest moment was talking to Sunil and Justin and discovering that all three of us were at the famous Rock Against Racism march and concert in Victoria Park in 1978. I think I win the dedication prize having bussed down from Aberdeen with a bunch of lefties. To give you a feel, I remember they were all singing a satirical revision of The Red Flag which was making fun of the Labour government (but not for long) at the time. One line I remember was 'and we believe, if we persist, we'll make the new year's honours list'.
The march was genuinely scary with some very angry anti-anti-racists around, including one guy in a van who tried to run everyone down who was queuing on the pavment outside a shop. The concert was great. Memorable moments include Poly Styrene dramatically removing a towel from her head to reveal she'd shaved her hair off, The Clash playing early cos they had a gig in Birmingham that night, losing our mates when me and Mike rushed to the front to see The Clash, Patrik Fitzgerald being bottled for reading poetry and therefore being, by definition, a 'wanka!', and Jimmy 'where is he now?' Pursey hanging out for ages afterwards to talk to the fans.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 2:36 PM | Comments (1)
September 11, 2004
note from Apoa
This was what it said on a post-it on our bedroom door when we got back from Tim's 40th last night:
'Love 'oo Mummy & Daddy!!!!!
DON'T YOU DARE BE DRUNK!!!!!!!!!!!
luv Posa & Kysa'
B-)
Posted by Billy at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2004
Kiloh and SEO
Just spoke to Kiloh on the phone. She was impressed to see this site showing up when she did a bit of vanity surfing, and then to find a company called 'Kiloh Associates' with a Kiloh and a Clark in them. Reminded me of the time we saw a photo in Bessie's local paper of a football player called Clark Kiloh.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 4, 2004
Kiloh's bedroom
I could of course fill you in on the stuff we've been doing while I've been fairly silent (2 weeks in Club Med, a weekend in Tuscany sleeping at the top of a tower in the castle at the highest point in Tuscany between Florence and Siena, an interesting linguistics conference) but I kind of think it makes sense just to leap forward to today where Kiloh is just going to sleep in her finally decorated bedroom. The colour scheme is Kiloh's choice, which means the colours are dark blue, light blue, green, red, pink and yellow. I'll post a photo at some point (this kind of thing being delayed just now because the digital camera broke as soon as we went on holiday)
B-)
Posted by Billy at 9:50 PM | Comments (3)
July 16, 2004
wedding and rites of passage
Hi Kim,
Rachel and Karl's wedding was great fun and we do have some nice photos of carthweeling bridesmaids and trampolining mothers-in-law which we'll show you as soon as we get a sec.
It's all go at the moment, though. Today was Apoa's last day at primary school so we went along to a leavers' memory service, which was fun and emotional. Apoa and Jessie shared their memory of when they wrote to the head teacher to try to do something about the dinner lady who kept telling them not to talk at lunchtime. Their opinion was that talking was what lunchtime was for:
The dinner lady would keep shouting 'less talking, more eating!' but the teachers in class would always tell us not to talk because we'd have plenty time to talk at lunchtime.
The head wrote a really nice letter back and had a word with the dinner lady for them.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 8, 2004
sorry blog
Kim writes:
Begin forwarded message:
> Cumon you - I'm dying to know what you really thought of the wedding
> and to see some of your photos - I'm working on Jonathan to make ours
> sendable.
>
> Thanks again for coming
>
> Luv
> Kim
>
Many bloggable things are happening at the moment, but I'm afraid it's so many that I haven't got time to tell you.
B-(
Posted by Billy at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2004
family news
Wow, this feels a bit weird after having been neglectful for so long. The amazing news in our family is that Kiloh has not (so far as we know) sucked her thumb since last Thursday (that's 5 days). We've tried many things to persuade her to stop including that horrible-tasting stuff you put on your thumb. Even that didn't work but it did make her food taste terrible.
The breakthrough was when the dentist said that not only was a brace inevitable but that she was on course for an operation involving breaking her jaw and reassembling her face.
She's been backing up her resolve using a chart which she made and keeps up to date on her own. Every morning everyone in the family is asked whether they saw her suck her thumb yesterday and then she enters the record on the chart.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2004
weather watch
We're off to Scotland on Thursday night.
The kids are excited, and also excited by the prospect of snow. They're saying we might get some in London tomorrow but if not, we're hoping to see some in Scotland. Hope we don't manage to avoid it. On the other hand, Ohna is very busy at work and can't afford any weather delays. And the kind relatives who will be ferrying us around when we get up there would probably rather do it on roads with a bit of traction, visibility, etc. I remember borrowing Tracey's boyfriend's VW beetle up there once and driving back to Bessie's from Aberdeen with the most ineffective windscreen wiper in the world.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2004
my dads gone crazy (and my mom)
Aidan's teacher phoned his dad and asked him whether he was sure it was appropriate for his son to bring a book like this to school. Then Aidan showed him the dedications inside the cover revealing the guilty parties who had given it to him for his christmas.
B-}
Posted by Billy at 7:06 PM | Comments (0)
December 1, 2003
thanksgiving
Had a nice thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, Thursdays being too complicated for people who work in a country where they don't celebrate it. Ohna made all the food, including pecan pie and brownies, and even made danish pastries which she baked on Sunday. I hope this is going to become a habit. We had a nice bunch of visitors, including Clemmie, who charmed everyone and then decided to spend the night. Apoa did a particularly good job of looking after her before she returned to her usual circumstances at the moment, with her dad following her round all the time reminding her to do her homework.
Robbie terrified me by revealing that he had discovered yet another embarrassing recording of me in my younger days, sitting around with Alec in an adjusted mental state listening to the Rocky Horror Show. He's now threatening to let me hear it one day. But he also emailed some nice pictures from Dug and Nicki's wedding. He's obviously been finding time to sort out his archives.
B-)
Posted by Billy at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)