Here is the image every American so cherishes and nets the UK £15 billion a year from tourist receipts (Office of National Statistics). In this case our valiant guard has to fend off - or rather ignore - a bus load of Japanese and Asian tourists who, rest assured dear reader, are queed up the Pall Mall for their chance to mug for photos and make the poor fellow blink. Or move. Or breathe even.
Rob is in town for business and Sunday we meet in Primrose Hill with Dana and Nathan. Already Rob's influence is having an effect on the boy. Rob's trade-finance company is growing and his trip to meet existing and new investors. From London he travels to Amsterdam and Cologne, where I will meet him tomorrow.
"When your back is against the wall, it is time you turn around and fight."
John Major, former Prime Minister of Britain
Eitan looks pretty good in his all-70s 'fro and shades. Costume from Paul.
As today is Sonnet's birthday, the kids great her with an early morning cheer then spend the morning crafting a "mural" to mark Sonnet's occassion. First they tape about 12 pieces of white paper together then begins the writing, gluing, coloring, smudging, irritating and fighting. Eitan: "No! Madeleine - that is not how you tape the papers!" Things calm down and a nice work vibe is reached pre-school drop.
OK, we are all mourning Jerry Falwell's passing - may he go to where he deserves. With the living, religious tart Monica Goodling, a former top Alberto Gononzales aid who has pleaded her Fifth, received her law degree from Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law, formerly known as CBN University School of Law, after Christian Broadcasting Network. Regent's web site, as reported by The Boston Globe, boasts that "150 of our graduates were hired by the Bush administration." This despite a U.S. News & World Report ranking in the FOURTH QUARTILE. In Goodling's graduating class, 60% failed the bar exam on the first try. Whether the 150 working for Bush got there because of merit or insider dealings it makes one mad.
“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”
-- Jerry Falwell
Cal shared a piece of the Pac-10 title last year but Jeff Tedford's squad wants nothing less than a BCS berth this time around. One of the nation's most electric players, DeSean Jackson, and very dangerous offense return to help the Golden Bears knock down that barrier. Christian Wright has purchased tickets for the USC game at Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, on November 11. I will do my best to to make the re-union. Photo from the Cal Athletics website.
Paul and I have entered a happy Sunday morning routine, taking our kids for a walk of Richmond Park often while Paul's wife Lorena and Sonnet jog the thing. In tow are Eitan and Madeleine and the lovely Camilla who ensemble take advantage of us dads - in this case, 11AM ice cream from the Ice Cream Truck at the park's gate. Paul lives in the neighborhood and the company he founded - ShipServ - provides e-commerce services to the maritime industry (Paul is HBS '97). Paul is otherwise a Dane from Copenhagen who met Lorena in San Francisco. Lorena is from Buenos Aires and together they are cosmopolitans par excellance. Note Madeleine's bird-spotters.
Joey Jr, son of Joe and my cousin Susan Schady, will shortly leave his Westchester roots for the green golf courses and warm clime of Charlotte, South Carolina, so Joe Sr. may run his family's business. Susan and Joe's new home has a big rap around porch to die for - good for sipping ice tea and watching the kids grow up. It also has a lovely yard filled with trees and flowers. Little traffic, no parental commute and sandy beaches will add to Joey Jr's pleasure. Life is good.
Here's a photo from September 18, 2003. Madeleine still in diapers. Her haircut from the local barber-shop and I think the barber thought she a he. Saying Sonnet was upset would be an under-statement.
Sonnet asks Madeleine yesterday what we should give visiting Rob as a gift. Her reply: "How about that old doll that I don't like?"
At the dentist in the morning I ask Madeleine if she wants me to tell her a story. Her reply: "How about Rotten Teeth Jack?" (I may point out this straight from her head)
Eitan and I watch the FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea. He cries when Chelsea scores the winning goal in double-extra overage.
Madeleine at the dinner table: "Daddy, do you want me to fart?!"
Yesterday I take Eitan and Madeleine to the Richmond Arts Centre to make music and choose an instrument. On offer are the majors: winds, strings, keyboards and of course drums. Both kids are drawn to the guitar - and Eitan goes electric. Long-haired rocker and instructor Gary strums Iggy Pop's "Free Bird" and the boy is committed. Madeleine takes her time and investigates the acoustic guitar, reeds and piano. She is also intrigued by the drums but that is a non-starter. Neither wants to leave which is a good sign - make them beg for their medicine, I say.
This is a photo of a Duckie Brown ensemble, taken by me at the V&A. According to Sonnet: "Duckie Brown is a joint venture, founded by Steven Cox, who had spent over a decade in New York designing for others, and Daniel Silver, who had worked as a glove designer and television producer. With no financial backer to satisfy, they design to please themselves, juxtaposing classic tailoring with whimsy. Thus, a conservative silhouette may come in unexpected colours or it may feature unusual textiles or embellishments." Friend Joseph Porterfield and I meet at the V&A to see the program. We then meet Ritesh at Aubaine nearby to have lunch. None of us dressed in colour.
Madeleine weighs in with her chop-sticks Sunday afternoon. With interest I watch her technique: one in each fist gutting the target. When a gentle bit of instruction is offered she replies: "STOP IT! DADDY!" which turns a few heads and makes me blush. Eitan has a better outcome: "See Madeleine, this is just like a Chinese." Eitan and Madeleine still believe that Asians live upside-down as China is on the other side of the planet. Sonnet rolls her eyes and I do not correct the mis-perception: let them have fun with the idea, I say.
Here we are this evening at our favorite local which, conveniently, is two minutes from our house and has a play-area for the kids. There is a coal fireplace for the winter or grey London spring. Today I'm up at 0415 to catch the second flight out of Heathrow to Zurich. I have several meetings then catch the return arriving home by 1700. As I tell Sonnet: "at least I got to wear my new tie." I might also add snobbishly - at least it isn''t Cleveland.
Sonnet to Madeleine: "Do NOT shout out the window at the Tesco Man!" (Tesco being the grocery delivery).
Madeleine finds a slug: "Can we bring it home and keep it as a pet dad?"
Madeleine climbs to the top of a tree: "Woo-hoo! I'm on top of the world!"
Tommy Thompson, a presidential candidate from Wisconsin, sited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining why he said at a Republican presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker. Speaking to reporters after giving an address at the state Republican convention, Thompson also said Saturday that he had been suffering from the flu and bronchitis and had been admitted to a hospital emergency room three days prior to the May 3 debate. Photo of Butt Head (left, in AC-DC) from the WWW.
It's a rainy day yesterday and Eitan and Madeleine are cooped up in the house all morning. After a wind-fall two hours of cartoons, Sonnet and I motivate and take the kids to Wagamama's, pictured, and a movie - Road to Terebitha, which has a PG rating for scary scenes. Madeleine asks a lot of questions earning a turn-around glare (at a matinee!) while Eitan quietly absorbs the action. He then chooses a toilet-run at the key father-son reconciliation scene. Ah, well.
Beloved horse Charlie in Colorado passes away. Both kids wail real tears of anguish at the news. Madeleine asks if we can remember Charlie by bringing some grass, a few apples and a dandelion to the dinner table - I agree, of course. She also water-colours her friend and asks that we remember him in "horse heaven."
Madeleine asleep. I often tease her that she snores - she doesn't - but this always gets a rise from her. I guess she views it as unladylike.
Yesterday, the family completes the school Fun Run of five miles in Richmond Park beginning at Richmond Gate. Both Eitan and Madeleine are up for the challenge and we join 500 or so runner-walkers on a bright, cloudy morning to complete the race. Eitan and I charge ahead and he does a great job jogging (most) of the course. During our breaks we discuss things like the circulatory system and why one's heart beats faster during exercise. At completion we rally at the school for a BBQ and make-shift game of footie where 30 or so kids joined in.
Madeleine during story-time. Photo is blurry as Madeleine is never still, even when transfixed. We are reading chapter books, like James And The Giant Peach, which offer complicated plots and emotional under-currents. Eitan's focus is laser beam while Madeleine drifts in and out with a question. Eitan has a 16 month advantage and the trick is to find a balance so I read a picture book or tell a home-spun story on alternate evenings. Sonnet logs plenty of time too.
London's late night dance scene is alive and kicking and rest assured that Sonnet and I are no part of it (photo www). The last time we disco'd was pre-kids so I'm guessing 1999 (excluding weddings, but that doesn't really count does it?)
Eitan, Madeleine and friend Jackson and I have dinner at Pizza Express to congratulate our week's survival without Sonnet, who returns today. Madeleine FYI loves salami and Eitan is going through a Margarita phase.
Tony Blair gives his Bon Voyage in a brief emotional speech broadcast on all UK channels. He apologises for when he "fell short," and asks the nation to make their own decision on Iraq. He also notes that there are "more jobs, fewer unemployed, better health and education results, lower crime and economic growth in every quarter" since his arrival. Tony will remain in office until 27 June when, presumably, Gordon Brown will become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.
"The British are special - the world knows it, in our innermost thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth." Tony today
This morning Madeleine points at my chin and says "what's that daddy?" and I explain it is a zit. After a brief explanation of the zit, I tell her she can expect to have them when she is a teen-ager. She sobs.
Eitan and Madeleine had their Spanish lesson yesterday and were wiped out when I arrived home around 7PM. Madeleine adjusts to the full-day ending at 3:20PM and I remember Eitan being cranky when the hours were upped. Both kids making progress with their reading and writing - Eitan is working on "chapter books" while Madeleine completes sentences. We all look forward to Sonnet's return tomorrow. Hurray!
This post-card photo from Berlin in 1944. It is a particularly chilling image of End Of Days.
Today, the cathedral remains, but gutted, on Gendermanmarkt. The first parts of the structure were built from 1701 to 1705 by the Huguenot community and was modelled after the destroyed Huguenot church in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France. In 1785 Carl von Gontard modified the cathedral and built the domed tower - pictured.
This collage of Madeleine taken at Lego-land in, and I am guessing a bit, autumn 2004 making her under three. Flash forward to today, when she gives me a huge hug and says: "Dad you are the best!". She also tells me matter-of-factly on the school-run not to step on anything round because "it might be poo."
The most recently reviewed book in my book-club is Flaubert's Parrot, by Julian Barnes, chosen after we thoroughly enjoyed M Bovary earlier this year. (Retired Goldman Sachs partner) Erich remarks from the book he has learned that "parrot soup" in French means bread in red wine, that Nabokov supposedly gets the phonetics of the name "Lolita" wrong, that for a while one could rent a closed carriage by asking for a "Bovary", in reference to the famous scene of passion in one such, which we learn may have been quite cramped. "The whole parrot angle, starting with which stuffed version is the one that sat on Flaubert's desk, is not too interesting, really." It may explain why the Peter Seller's Pink Panther gets such an immediate, if mis-understood, guffaw.
We head West to Bath, where we stay with friends Dave and Tabitha and their children 'Netta, John and A-C for the bank holiday weekend. We have known them since Maida Vale when Tabitha and Sonnet shared notes on pregnancy and babies. Shortly after graduating Amherst, Tabitha biked around the world on a BMW motorcycle. Dave is a Managing Director on Morgan Stanley's emerging markets desk and his team of 70 is responsible for p&l of €1B - most productive at the firm. On the way home we visit the RAF airplane musuem and see the old spit-fires, Lancasters, mustangs, a euro-fighter and others. Fun!
On the weekend when asked to say one thing, Madeleine: "on holiday, me and 'netta had fun on the slide and we pushed our buddies in the wheel borough." The photo of 'netta during books-before-bed.
Rancho de Taos in New Mexico was built in 1772 by Franciscan Fathers and enjoys its patron Saint Francis of Assisi. More recently, the church has been made famous by Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams. I took this photo last summer.
Madeleine and Eitan each score a goal at football this morning - Madeleine has three break-aways and on a rip. Perhaps its her purple "all England" shirt. From footie we head for the Prince's Diana playground in Hyde Park and picnic with Iranian shwarmas - a real treat - and carrot juice, which nets a protest from the pip-squeaks. At Diana, the kids fascinate themselves transporting water from a nearby fountain to the sand-pit constructing a "damp castle." My effort to roll up their pants and keep sand from their crack a failure. We stay three hours which is a long time to contemplate life from a park bench.
Madeleine cries big tears as Sonnet leaves for New York City to promote her book. I show Madeleine and Eitan this photograph of the skyline so that they know where she will be. Eitan immediately identifies the Empire State Building and says: "you found it on Google" demonstrating Goggle rates with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald.
Eitan tells me: "Madeleine, seeing a man playing snooker on TV, wants to marry him." He carries mud into the house from the garden singing: "I have some mud, mud, mud. I have some MUD" before I scream at him.
Paul Wolfowitz yesterday blames the World Bank for his woes, stating that the the unclear bank rules are responsible for creating questions about his handling of the hefty pay raises to his girlfriend. Recall, of course ,that Wolfowitz's girldfriend Ms. Riza had worked for the Bank when Wolfowtiz arrived in 2005. She was moved to the State Department to avoid a conflict of interest but stayed on the bank's payroll. Her salary went from $133,000 to $180,000 with additional raises to $193,590 while she was no longer at the Bank and receiving a salary from State. Wolfowitz has made his main-stay mission... wait for it... the elimination of corruption where the Bank lends money.
Madeleine and I spend the afternoon together mano-a-chica. We head to the common taking reading materials and other entertainments. She is, of course, immediately bored so I tell her the story about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. This lasts ten minutes. "Come on dad, I thought you said we were going to have some fun" she exclaims. We sit on the park bench and I tell Madeleine that "if you are bored you are boring" and she rolls her eyes at me. Finally, she breaks through her barrior and follows the travails of a lonely ant returning to its ant home. From there she imagines herself as one with the ants and I watch her imagination at work. It is a good afternoon.
Last night I attend our PTA meeting - me and 20 women. Our main discussion is the fast approaching Summer Fair, which I am overseeing (theme: Wild, Wild, West). Yesterday also was a fair all-hands meeting following the morning school drop. I am happy to report that the mums are coming out in full force, thank goodness (our goal is to beat last year's £14,000 fundraise). During the pow wow, it became known to me that there has been some grumbling about the entrance fee of 50p ("why should the children have to pay?!"). Last night I raise the issue with the PTA and in true PTA fashion we debate the 50p charge for 30 minutes. Time... stands... still....
There are rumours that the horrible US Embassy in Mayfair (pictured, www) may go up for sale, fetching £300 million according to property experts in London. The building is on Grosvenor Square, in the heart of Expensive. It would likely be converted to a fancy hotel or high-end condos, thought the US Government insists a decision has yet to be made though "no options have been ruled in or out." Hmmm.
Eitan and I watch the Chelsea-Liverpool match last night on ITV. This their second meeting in the EUFA Championships and thanks to Joe Cole's winning goal last week, Liverpool had to win outright, which they did in penalty shoot-outs and long after Eitan to bed.
Randall Tobias, Deputy Secretary of State and Bush's co-coordinator for foreign aid, resigned yesterday after being found on Deborah-Jeane Palfrey's roledex; Deborah-Jeane, of course, being the founder of a Washington escort service. For Bush, Randall masterminded a policy that required recipients of Aids assistant to condemn prostitution. Mr Tobias, 65 and married, quit after being contacted by ABC in connection to... wait for it... soliciting prostitution. Randall says he had "the gals come over to the condo to give me a message." What tosh.
Madeleine observes a variety of performers compensated for their services as we stroll along the Southbank Center on the Thames. Quick as a bat she has Eitan's sweatshirt on the ground and begins tap dancing (Eitan is a bit shy and watches mostly from the sidelines and clearly impressed). Amazingly people toss coins Madeleine's way - I think from bemusement - a powerful reinforcement indeed. She begs to continue after I tell her she is being unseemly.
A bike is stolen every 71 seconds in Britain.
Bill and Martine visit London to see Sonnet's exhibition and we spend Saturday afternoon on the London Eye. From London they will head to Croatia to check out some Baltic culture and beaches. Bill tells me that the Colorado winter has been fierce with a major snow-storm last week (how different from the UK, which is fast becoming the South of France climate-wise). The Minis's keep their horses in Denver during the cold-season as their ranch may be snowed under for much of the season. We will see them in July and Madeleine chatters away about Charlie, Nugget, Praline, Buckwheat and her other pals.
Brit shoppers will spend £42 billion online this year - up 35X from 2000's £800MM during the Internet "bubble." According to Internet research group IMRG, 860MM parcels will be shipped to Britain's 26MM Internet customers in 2006. Each will receive, on average, 33 packages over the year. Online shoppers are expected to splash out £1,600 per surfer in 2007 when IMRG guesses that the global Internet shopping marketplace will equal £250 billion. Pictured is the Apricot F1 personal computer which was U.K. released in '83 based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor running at 4.77MHz with 256KB of RAM and two floppy disc drives. The Apricot could not store one MP3 file (my photo from the WWW).
This morning I show Eitan how to construct a paper-airplane using Todd Price's classic design back in the day on San Ramon from 1974. Life was good and I recall standing on our pink porch watching our simple creations circle around and through (and in) the trees. Eventually we graduated to model-rocket kits and other heart-quickening pursuits. Eitan tells me that he will take his planes to show-and-tell.
"There's a lot of weirdos on the Internet." Miss Texas Teen USA (during 1998 pageant)
Eitan and I listen to our favorite Sheffield Brit-band Arctic Monkeys. In '05 we grooved to their debut and Internet phenomena "Whatever You Say I Am, I'm Not" from '05 and are equally happy with today's "Favorite Worst Nightmare." The Monkeys crest the Brit-pop wave which includes The Kooks, Hardfi, Maximo Park with heavy midlands accents and ripping guitar, along with a fast pace and snappy beat. UnlikePublish the others, ours keep their edgy garage sound and troubled cul-de-sac youth.
Or a business school student. It was reported today that Marilee Jones, an outspoken critic of students falsifying their resumes for elite colleges, resigned Thursday as dean of admissions at MIT after acknowledging... wait for it... that she had misrepresented her academic credentials when applying to MIT 28 years ago. Marilee says: "I did not have the courage to correct my resume when I applied for my current job or at any time since." What tosh.
A Virgin mobile lands about 100 yards from where I am sitting in Green Park on a lovely Tuesday morning. The bird does a low circle, brushing back a maple or two, then lands on the green attracting several curious Japanese tourists and a raised eyebrow from the local morning sun seekers. Out jump two yellow-attired medivacs, complete with O-2 and moon-boots, who cross the common to Mayfair. I stroll over to the pilot who munches a sandwich and refuses to take my question.
Madeleine at Climber's and Creepers. This morning on the school run I respond to a Madeleine-ism saying "sheesh". She tells me to "shush!" and I say: "Are you shushing my sheeshing?" And around it goes.
Eitan's bad behavior loses him the Chelsea-Liverpool UEFA cup semi-final televised on Sky Sports. Both kids excited to wear their new football colours and my punishment comes as a startling blow. Feeling sorry for the kid (and wanting to watch the game with him), I propose that Eitan swap Chelsea-'pool for Sunday cartoons. He accepts the deal and draws the contract, signing his name in black ink.
Stan and Silver at Kew Gardens. Eitan is a bit grumpy being forced to pose for the photo, which he doesn't. We play tag whereby the winner earns a "double ice-cream" for not being "it". The kids run with an urgency reserved for, well, nothing else. Both are fast and slippery and I can still scoop up Madeleine on the fly. From the park to home where Sonnet has prepared a roast beast and three-berries tart. The weather is spring-like and the bluebells are in bloom. Not a bad Sunday spent.
Sonnet at the National Gallery in Berlin, artist unknown by me. Sonnet studied art history at Smith College which she puts to good practice here or in London. The night before we join our friend Dr Frank Albrecht for dinner at the Borchardt restaurant. It is a local and we each order the weinerschnitzel and potato salad and bottle of rieiling wine (white). Frank was born in Berlin shortly before the wall and there to see its end. After receiving his PhD and re-unification Frank worked for the Treuhand which privatised the East's national enterprises. He now works for CAM, a substantial private equity investor.
At the antiquities museum, Sonnet and I see Queen Nefertiti or translated: "the beautiful woman has come." This is one of the most famous and beloved of all ancient Egyptians and here is her bust. Nefertit's orignis and life are shrouded in mystery but the speculation has kept many a PhD program going. She surfaced with King Akhenaten during his fourth year at el-'Amarna 2500 years b.c. The city was dedicated to the god Aten. In the sixth year of his reign, Neferiti's name was changed to Nefernefruaten, which means "Beautiful in beauty is Aten". This we know. And too that she was a lovely.
Thinking of last night's opening, I use my mobile to snap this strange horse-manequin on rue due Faubourg St-Honore in Paris where I am staying in the 8th. The shop is Levan and other window-displays show a well presented gentlemen with a rooster's head. And a dressed-to-the-nines goat with a snake on his lapel. Go figure. But hey, if it sells it sells.
Eitan is sad that I am away tonight but cheers up when Aggie takes the kids to McDonalds and Mr Bean, a new movie showing at the Richmond Odeon. Sonnet arrives home at a reasonable hour with plenty of sunshine to focus on Eitan and Madeleine and unwind from New York Fashion Now. Me, I have a drink at the swank l'Hotel Costes surrounded by models and the uber attractive then head back to Le Faubourg to have dinner and finish some work.
This morning on Radio 4 Eitan heres about Virginia Tech where 33 are murdered. While we filter most adult news, the outside world encroaches and he is curious.
Sonnet at the V&A. Her dress by Osman Yusefada, London.
Sonnet's Big Show last night opened without a hitch. The press and celebrity arrived in high spirits for the museum's fashion and sipped vodka fizzies under the Chihuly chandelier. In the house were Tom Ford, Ya Ya Yas and David Furnish. Sonnet was interviewed by Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune. Of importance to Sonnet, many of her designers made it to London happy to see their couture in bright lights. Bravo.
Katie at Kelly Flynn's wedding last month at Barney's, New York.
Did you know?
Over 80% of those working in central London travel to work by public transport compared to 14% in Great Britain as a whole.
Over three million trips a day are made on the London underground system. Over 5.4 million trips are made by bus each day in London.
Overseas visitors spend over £100million on London's tubes and buses and account for 25% of taxi fares.
A CCTV camera that can detect potential criminals, then follow their movements, is being tested in shopping centers in the U.K. This following the recent announcement that CCTV will be hooked up to bull-horns. The so-called "Bug" is fitted with a ring of eight cameras which record a panoramic view of the street below. The footage is scanned by software that "identifies 50 behavioral traits" and determines whether someone is acting "out of the ordinary." When a suspect is spotted, a ninth camera automatically locks on to them and follows their movements. Their are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain, or one-fifth of the world's total. Comments Simon Davies, director of Privacy International: "We do not know what the psychological impact will be on the population."
A sunny afternoon yesterday and Eitan must decide what he wants to do: backyard gardening, football at the common, quiet play in his room... he chooses none so I drag him to the drug store. He is clearly pissed off and I tell him: "In life, if you don't decide somebody will take the decision for you."
Mitch and I go to quasi metal band The Deftones at the Brixton Academy in South London. The Deftones are from Sacramento, cA, and influenced by hip hop. Their music is loud and satisfying . I get home around midnight buzzy and tone-deaf. Sonnet takes a pass on this one - which is just as well as she would have bolted for sure.
Katie enjoys the Upper West Side sunshine with a neighborhood friend. She has received a considerable positive feedback to her New York Times profile and the Women Op-Ed project. Last week she dined with Phil Donahue and his wife Marlo Thomas, the creator of "Free To Be You and Me" which Katie and I listened to as kids and Madeleine and Eitan experience now.
Madeleine is in a good mood this morning as it is is spring and Silver and Stan are in town with presents and attention. Yesterday we play in Hyde Park with the grand-parents and Uncle Anthony sporting the latest cool facial hair. The only downer occurs when I exuberantly push Madeleine on the swing and... she falls off! The tears. The pain. The guilt. The playground's mums are like meercats: heads pop up and point directly at me. Madeleine hams it up and is only placated with a hug and promise of ice cream. For shame.
In this photo, she counts her coins separating Euros, pounds and US. She knows the equation: money = candy.
This image is the cover-page passport of Heyman and Catharina, the parents of my French instructor and friend Suzette, who has been kind enough to share a copy with me and allow me to poste it here. Heyman and Catharina are Jewish and their documents date-stamped to expire January 7, 1941. It allowed the family to leave Antwerp for, eventually, Britain and the remainder of the war. The Benelux countries were invaded by the Nazis on May the 10th 1940 and Antwerp Jews shared the same fate as the other Jewish people in Nazi-occupied countries: many were transported to the concentration camps. The Nazis were frequently angered by the 'soft' attitude of the Belgians towards the 'Jewish Problem'. Indeed, a lot of Belgians managed to save Jewish children by hiding them in schools, monasteries, sometimes by 'adopting' them into their own families.
"PVC and steel" by Anish Kapoor was on display at the Tate Modern from October 2002 to April 2003 as part of the Unilever Series. Looking like a giant cochlear space-ship, the thing occupied the entirety of the museum's turbine hall or 200 meters by 35 meters. This image from a post card and photo taken by John Riddy.
Stan and Silver arrive today and Madeleine is up at the crack-of-dawn and full of anticipation. I note that this is the first time that she has seen the sun-rise, which she contemplates for a moment: "but I have seen the sun-set and that is like the same thing." Smart kid.
Madeleine with my presciption sunglasses.
People often confuse the names for this country, and frequently make mistakes in using them. United Kingdom, UK, and Britain are all proper terms for the entire nation, although the term Britain is also often used when talking about the island of Great Britain. The use of the term Great Britain to refer to the entire nation is now outdated; the term Great Britain, properly used, refers only to the island of Great Britain, which does not include Northern Ireland. The term England should never be used to describe Britain, because England is only one part of the island. It is always correct to call people from England, Scotland, or Wales British, although people from England may also properly be called English, people from Scotland Scottish, and people from Wales Welsh.
This year we get a new £20 banknote in pretty purple and Adam Smith to boot. I learn that the Bank of England has been issuing notes for 310 years and the first were security documents, handwritten, providing the bearer with evidence that they had a claim on the Bank. Only in the past 50 years has the design of the banknote attempted security. For instance, to prevent counterfeiting, Shakespeare became the first historical character to appear on a banknote in 1970. Other notables include George Stephenson, Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday, Elisabeth Fry, Charles Darwin, Sir Edward Elgar and Sr John Houblon (I know four). The banknotes have a contoured edge on its metallic thread and windowed metallic thread, an ultraviolet feature, a strip of holograms, micro-lettering and a "see-through" register that, when held up to light, produces coloured irregular shapes that combine to form the pound sterling symbol. In 2006 among £38B worth of notes, £8 million worth of counterfeits found, most of them twenties.
The kids take their hard earned dough to Woolworths to do some shopping (the next two weeks are school holiday). Eitan is forced to make a decision: to have ten pounds in his pocket or to not have ten pounds in his pocket. Of course he decides the former so Aggie has to coax him into buying something, which he does reluctantly purchasing a plastic torch, some papers and a crayon. Madeleine does not hesitate: Mr Potato Head is hers with £1 to spare. She has been in love with Potato for some time and simply glows having him and the Missus in her possession. This morning she shouts: "Come see! I've put the feet where his ears should go!" Today Aggie takes the kids horse-back riding in Richmond Park.
