Power Shot

Venus at work

Sonnet and I to Wimbledon and have the same wonderful seats as always : just on the lip of the cover so we get plenty of shade on a hot day, like today. We arrive on the grounds in time for a picnic and walk around a bit before Court 1, where we are treated by world class tennis from Venus, Maria and Stan Wawrinka, the current world #3 and recent winner of the Australia Open.  They really wack the ball, too.

The joy of Wimbledon - there are so many matches! It's like going to a double-feature at the movies, and who ever does that now ?

For all our love of McEroe or Borg or Connors : none of these guys would have made the tournament today.

Self Portrait XXXX

Trump Tower, Toronto

Sonnet: "Oscar had a good idea today. He suggests that museums ban children under 12." [Dad's note: Sonnet and Oscar visited the Tate Modern as part of Oscar's work study at the V&A]

Me: "Why not make it under 15? That should have you covered, Eitan."
Eitan:
Sonnet: "My parents used to hate children at museums. My Dad still does."
Eitan: "Maybe you could exclude children from the more sophisticated exhibitions?"
Me: "What's a sophisticated exhibition?"
Eitan: "Um, maybe shows that have Matisse and van Gogh."
Me:
Eitan: "Or maybe less sophisticated shows have sculptures."
Me: "That's an interesting one. Care to explore it further ?"
Eitan: "Not really."

Photo Booth

Spider vision

I visit Toronto for a 24 hour in-and-out. An annoyance: the T5 tram that connects the main terminal to the outer gates is a 30 second ride yet requires 20 minutes planning nor is their a walking option. But what irritates me is the time one waits from the trolly's arrival and passenger debarkment until we can enter the carriage which is painstakingly long. Some idiot did some risk analysis, overcompensated, and wastes a bazillion hours of our (my) time. This occupies my mind, esp. when running late (per usual).

Eitan competes the 1500 in today's Richmond Schools Championships (I arrive at Heathrow, 9AM, and head straight for the track in time to see him run). Eitan wins, with a time of 4:59, the same as last year when he set the meet record for Y7s.

Jumping Joy

Daisy and Madeleine burn off some energy

We spend the longest day of the year in Palewell Park at a going-away party for Alberto and Lucretia. Alberto with Diageo and returning to Spain (Madrid) from treasury to marketing. I meet the European MD of Philip Morris, the head of BAT and a couple of bankers or, as Alberto points out, a real bunch of riff raffs.

Last night we are with Jacques and Micou, a French couple, while Jacques has recently retired from private equity firm KKR.  We discuss France and agree : the prospects not good nor is there a Margaret Thatcher to make things right. And why would the best and the brightest go into govt? It's a good question right now.

Same Old Football

Eitan watches England v. Uruguay

England crash out of the World Cup, losing 1-2 to Uruguay, which, the announcers helpfully point out, is the smallest-population country to be in the finals. Joy.

There is something very English about the defeat : down 1-nil, Rooney equalises in the 2nd half getting our hopes up. Then the crushing inevitable.  Exactly the same with Italy the other night. So, four years of anticipation, a few moments of euphoria, and two stinging defeats. Enjoy your football.

Older cousin David and Donna join us for dinner on their way to Ireland.  They will visit many of the spots seen by us, Grace, Moe+Katie in '98. David continues his work at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, where his research changed how colon cancer is screened in America.

Me: "How old do you think I am?" [Dad's note: birthday]
Madeleine: "47."
Me: "Good guess."
Madeleine: "48?"
Me: "You got it right the first time. Does that seem old to you ? "
Madeleine: "Not really. I guess you have a few years."
Me: "Until I'm dead?"
Madeleine: "No! Until you're 50. That seems old."

Goldman's View

The City, from Goldman's offices

GS's HQ on Fleet Street is subtle and rich at the same time. Upon entering, one knows that one is surrounded by the world's very best competency when it comes to money.

As Dick Whittington and his cat knew in the 19th Century and Goldman Sachs knows today, "London's streets are paved with gold."

Me: "Are you kidding? Put that down. You're mom is making you a nice dinner." [Dad's note: dad finds Madeleine in the living room eating a scone 20 minutes before dinner]
Madeleine: "Yeah, right dad." [Dad's note: Madeleine points to dad's open large bag of lightly salted Doritos on the couch where dad is watching the news]
Me: "Mine is more like a lite snack."
Madeleine:
Me: "OK, eat the scone."

Thy Word

Madeleine, pre race

Me: "What are you guys going to do without your media toys during the family road show?" [Dad's note: we will drive across the USA in July]
Eitan: "We can watch movies. In the back of the car."
Sonnet: "I am going to bring a lot of audible tapes. The entire works of Shakespeare, for instance."
Madeleine: "What ?! I am not listenting to anything with 'thy' in it."
Me: "Thy hast no choice."
Madeleine: "No 'thy' and 'thou.' No way."
Me: "Thous shall obey thy mother's wishes."
Madeleine: "Whatever, Dad."

And They're Off

Starting gun (Madeleine is No 21)

Madeleine runs the 800m in the London Schools Track and Field Junior Championships having qualified several weeks ago and so I find myself at Mile End stadium in Tower Hamlets.  

My taxi driver, who drives me from Canary Wharf to the stadium, grew up in the neighbourhood but lives in Essex now - he can't afford London. His parents, however, still in the family house as his dad a bus driver who lives two minutes from the depot. They are also under pressure to move.

Since Tower Hamlets next to The City, and as the Olympics Village pulls the city's gravity Eastward, property prices and rents have gone skyward. Despite its urban and ethnic nitty gritty and working man local, property prices are on par with Richmond's leafy suburbs as young professionals arrive and gentrify. There is hardly a cockney accent to be heard.

Madeleine runs in a fast heat and unaccustomed to starting on the outside lane. She rockets forward but out of gas for the second lap. The 800m may be the most punishing race : lactic acid onset by lap one with one full-lap to go.

The Eagle Has Landed

Oscar "Crazy Bus"

Oscar joins our family for three weeks to do a work-study at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Oscar has recently finished his sophomore year of high school in San Francisco and last time he was with us in 2010 during the World Cup (England famously crashed out) and next year it's the dreaded SATs but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I have known Oscar since age-two when we met on a family vacation in Provence. Now he is a young man interested in geometry and the sciences, design and theatre.  Museums, too.

Yellow Dress

Friday Night, VA

The World Cup starts and England loses to Italy, bummer.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times, in a wonderful expose, has shown FIFA to be a corrupt, unethical and self-serving governing body of world football. Still, prez Sepp Blatter will likely run for re election for another four years. What, me worry ?

I spend the day, Sunday, doing my US income taxes (ex pats receive an automatic extension which means one thing: procrastination).  My 1040 requires forms 2555, 6241 and 1116, each with its own pull-out worksheet (found in the 300 page IRS instruction booklet), to be filled out in precise sequential order. Oh, joy.

Mall Rats

Josey, Madeleine, Lizzy

I drive the girls to the Westfield mall for an agreed 3.5 hours (negotiated down from five hours) and must wonder: what do they do?  Me, I head straight for Starbucks to watch a couple of episodes of "Breaking Bad" in peace.

Madeleine has ten pounds and buys a pair of colourful socks.  The remainder is spent on two pieces of sushi for lunch. Good value entertainment.

I am invisible in the car and listen to the girls chit chat and giggle about school, boys, clothes .. usual stuff.

Departure - 1500 - Exam Card

Christian busts a move

After ten days in London and Paris, Christian and Lisa return to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where they split their time together.  Laurance joins us for dinner, taking a break from his energy deal making.

I head for the Allianz Park stadium in Barnet to watch Eitan compete the 1500m in the Middlesex County championships but unfortunately I miss the boy's race due to traffic grrr.  Eitan finishes in 4:55 and not chuffed by the result - the winning time is 4:31 - and fair enough since he has never had a track workout.  In the next few years or even months, his growth spurt will count for more than anything else I suppose.

Madeleine: "Do you think I did well on my exams ?" [Dad's note: Madeleine's year-end exam card arrived by post]
Me: "You did an excellent job."
Madeleine: "Does that mean I can get something, since I did so well?"
Me: "Of course you can, honey. You can use your hard earned money to buy yourself a reward."
Madeleine: "Thank you, Da -- hey, that's not what I meant."
Me: "How do you think the world works, anyway ?" 

Diane's Emmy

Southeast Emmy

My cousin Diane wins an Emmy for "Outstanding Achievement, News Single Story" for her work on debt collection scams. Holy catfish and bravo! As my grandmother would have said, "she comes from good stock."

State Of Mind

Eitan at 13

He's a teenager but he's my teenager.

Me: "You know, when you wash your hands, you should do so for a minimum of 30 seconds."
Eitan: "And another important lesson from Dad."
Me: "Are you ragging on me?"
Eitan: "No way."
Me: "Hmmmm."

Jumping Mad

Arcade Fire's Win Butler

Christian, Lisa, Sonnet and I join Arcade Fire at Earl's Court for a remarkable, unbeatable, rock concert that has the audience jumping mad for the band's best beloved songs.  It is a Roman carnival.

We are home by 1AM, order pizza (the girls go to bed), finish the beer and watch England vs. Honduras in a "friendly" before the World Cup (nil-nil, bunk)

1:30AM: "Man, why don't we do this every night?!"
7:30AM: "I am never doing that again."

One Last Lap

London Aquatics Center, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Eitan competes at the British Gas Regional Swimming Championships this weekend.  He has qualified for numerous events but sticks to the shorter sprints, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly, since the boy is not in particular shape for the longer distances.

This is Eitan's last race as he drops swimming to focus on school, athletics and football. It is a sad day, esp for Sonnet who has been the Wandsworth Swim Club's competitions co secretary for several years requiring endless swimmer data entries usually done last-minute and late at night. Sonnet has joined, and encouraged, Eitan across many pools and all-day weekends since Eitan could walk.

His time in the 100m freesteyle -  1:02.55 - a personal best.

The Friday Zone

The banker, the lawyer, the entrepreneur, the curator, and the artist 

And it's a Friday evening at the museum where Sonnet shows a few friends her exhibition.

Madeleine receives her results for the end-of-year exams.  She recieves the top mark in her English class and the fourth best overall for her year. Her short story, which determines the grade, is about : "The Dead Zone" :

"In Tucson, Arizona, there are several boys, who are bored and so they try to find something to do. They go to the desert to shoot pellets at a door where a man lives. The man chases them away. Nobody is supposed to go where the guy lives, the Dead Zone. It is where people who survived the Viet Nam War are."
--Madeleine

Summer Love

The lovers

Friday afternoon, hot summer weather, train station and buzzy for the weekend. I note this flirty couple having a great time, nothing else could matter to them.

This week by in a flash as Christian and Lisa in Paris and I catch up on work.  There  are still US taxes to return but ex pats receive an automatic extension. Still, ug. Sonnet and I to dinner with clients and enjoy >$1K on sushi yet still hungry so cereal at Midnight

I send a friend, who recently left his firm to pursue something new, a note stating: "Congratulations, life rewards the bold" only my auto-correct replaces "bold" with "bowel" which kind of changes the message.

CW In The House

Christian and Lisa visit London, bringing California weather and spirit with them.

So Simon tells me that, quietly, America the only country to meet the Kyoto Protocol (recall, dear reader, that in 1997, 191 states agreed to legally binding limitations/reductions in greenhouse gases. The US signed, but did not ratify the agreement). Why ? Natural gas and shale fracking.

The US projects that 60,000 megawatts of coal-fired production, about 1-fifth production, will be retired by 2020.  Coal still accounts for 40% of US power but down half from a decade ago.  Gas not only cleaner, it's a heck of a lot cheaper, too.

And, locally, Britain's urban rivers are the cleanest they have been in 20 years, according to a 21-year study by Cardiff university.  Despite river temps rising 1-2 degrees since 1991 from global warming (reducing water O2 levels, bad), small invertebrates are thriving. Cities have done their job.

Cricket

Richmond Green

Following the dark grey months of January, February and March it is now pay back in the UK - 10PM sunsets, 20C temps and sunshine. OK, that's a fantasy, but, still, it is better than winter.

The Richmond Cricket Club have at it on the Richmond Green, once the location of Richmond Palace (1500-1649) and former home of Henry the VIII and Queen Elizabeth.

"It is far more than a game, this cricket."
--Sir Neville Cardus

Packard Bell CD Case

Loved, no longer

Remarkably this cardboard box may be the oldest thing I own other than a few cherished photographs and my comic book collection (lovingly stored at 1530, drip fed to Madeleine from visits home).  The packet dates to 1997 when I bought a Packard Bell home computer junked (I somehow recall) in 2001, piece of hardware crap.  The CD case stayed with me, though, moving from flats in Maida Vale W9 to our house in Richmond.

Usually it was stuffed with software back-ups for notebooks, printers, routers, etc etc - every couple years I pruned the unused items. It gave me pleasure to have such an untidy old thing storing the most sophisticated technology of the moment.

Today I throw it out.  CDs are artifacts that Eitan and Madeleine have never known. Move on.

Diane Has A Baby

Introducing Marcella

Our household, Thames Water tells me, uses 631 m^3 (cubic meters) of water a year.  A typical Brit household of 5 uses 199 m^3 and an efficient household 161 m^3. I am pretty sure Madeleine uses this amount for showers alone.

I visit the Thames Water website and, as expected, they treat me like an idiot. Top water-saving suggestions: only flush the toilet if you need to. Fix leaking taps. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth (the number one suggestion).  All in, the website might save our household 1 m^3 but what do I know?

And .. . I learn that in the UK every person uses 150 litres of water a day, a figure that has been growing yearly by 1% since 1930. If you take into account water needed to produce British food and products, a Brit consumes 3,400 litres a day.

The UK , in fact, has less water per person than most other European countries. South east England even more so - despite the rain on every bank holiday weekend.

Gallery 50a Fo Sho

Brained

Samson gets down to business slaying a philistine. It is my favourite sculpture at the VA, bam pow! The marble carved in Florence by Giambologna from 1560 to 1562.  As we might say in Berkeley, "he is about to get doughed."

Another expression, unique to the East Bay I believe, is "hell of" like "she is hell of fine" or "the exam was hell of hard."  Could this be the Berkeley filial of 'Ebonics' , an African-American English vernacular which, in 1996, the Oakland school board tried to introduce as a distinct native language, to be taught throughout the Oakland school district in parallel to English? Possibly.

Of course every generation has its slang to establish boundaries from the next generation. Eitan, for his part, has a slow rhythmic cadence to keep my questions at bay: he nearly whispers, "I'm OK with that", "whatever" or "If you think so." Sometimes I get a soothing "That's nice," and "Oh, really ?" when I know he could care less. Fair enough.

"Befo' you know it, he be done aced de tesses." (Before you know it, he will have already aced the tests.)
"Ah 'on know what homey be doin." (I don't know what my friend is usually doing.)
"Can't nobody tink de way he do." (Nobody can think the way he does.)
 "I ast Ruf could she bring it ovah to Tom crib." (I asked Ruth if/whether she could bring it over to Tom's place.)

--Ebonics Notes and Discussion, Stanford University, 1996

Boomerang

The dog is focused

When I was a kid I had a pretty cool boomerang which I would take to Coordinices Park and throw-about until I lost it in a redwood tree (I still wonder if it is there, 35 years on).

So I buy a boomerang and, today, Madeleine and I head for Richmond Park to give it a go, me warning Madeleine not to get her hopes and "it's going to be a disappointment."  And it is, accept for the dog, who does indeed retrieve the boomerang but only after a long chase.  We have a good laugh nonetheless.

Me: "Boomerangs are physics at work."
Madeleine: "Why do you always have to ruin it like that ? "
Me: "Well, without knowledge, we would be like Rusty. Unable to drive a car nor program a VCR."
Madeleine:
Me: "You have now idea what a VCR is, do you?"
Madeleine: "No. Is it some sort of radio or something ?"
Me: "You win."

And off to Paris in 30.

Hoop La

At the Connaught 

I arrive from Paris, Friday evening, same as it ever was, and lovely weather, so Sonnet and I to the local for a drink (me, vodka martini with a twist; Sonnet soda water), Eitan joins us since I forget my wallet.

For the first time, as a parent, I feel more like a parent than like, well, myself. Work, money, home, DIY . the garden ..  Rusty . all this responsibility who can lead (as Eitan would say), the care-free life?

Dog Day

Rusty takes it in.

So I am with Paolo Scaroni the other night - Scaroni the CEO of Eni, Italy's largest industrial company with multinational operations in oil and gas and a market cap of €65bn as of this writing.  He is also on the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School.

Scaroni is direct about sovereignty - without energy independence, a nation cannot rule its destiny. Europe, for instance, imports 30% of its energy needs in Russian gas but some European countries require 90%.  For Ukraine, who lost coastal reserves perhaps greater than the North Sea last month, gas is life-or-death as temperatures reach -30 in the winter.

Ukraine owes Russia about $3bn on last winter's deliveries and Russia is threatening to go pre-pay for gas while raising prices. Since Ukraine broke, Europe (me, the taxpayer) will have to foot the bill of €8bn, give or take. And this is the best-case scenario. Should Ukraine (Europe) refuse to pre-pay and Russia turns off the gas, the Ukrainians would surely tap the Russian pipelines and Russia would plug the spigot at the source. Since those very same pipelines go to Europe, Europe would be crippled.

This is why the West's hands are tied when responding to Russian aggression. Putin's deal, announced today, to supply China gas for the next 30 years valued at €400bn, strengthens Russia's position further. Ruthless, cunning.

One Year More Beautiful

Sonnet is 46.

Eitan, for the record, not quite Sonnet's height but it is coming.  I stick by my prediction that, based on the doubling of his height at age-2, he will be 6'4''.

London Garden Suburb

East Sheen

Sometime in 1994 Roger, Greta, Sonnet and I went to a cartoon festival at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on one of those never ending late-summer Sunday evenings.  One feature presented a typical English neighbourhood where a put upon middle-aged (suppressed) bloke (a dentist), on his birthday, dances naked on the coffee table. His wife doesn't have the heart to tell him that all his friends are hidden in the house for a surprise party.

Anyway, the feature depicted a dense garden suburb not dissimilar from what I walk by every day.

Sonnet: "Madeleine, how was your chemistry exam today?"
Madeleine: "It was OK, I guess."
Sonnet: "Every time I think of chemistry I think of Andrew's PhD experiment. He blew up the building."
Madeleine: "So did he get his PhD?"
Sonnet: "He went home then came back the next morning and the building wasn't there. It's just so funny."
Me:
Sonnet: "He's a banker now."

All Come To Look For America

T3

Our resident teenager off to see the world. Aneta will spend her summer as a camp counsellor in Western Mass then a month of travel freedom. Her whole life ahead of her.

Eitan and I go for a hard run in Richmond Park and I fall back for the last half-mile. No way am I keeping up with the bean pole.  In college, when racing, I weighed 155 pounds or about 30 pounds less than today. My friend Greg Whiteley, also about six feet, weighed 150. Yep, bean pole.

In a drugstore Eitan contemplates a wall of deodorants and goes for the Lynx Effect or, as the advertising notes, where love and attraction rule supreme. My fatherly advice to the boy (fully ignored) : keep it to one grooming product that smells.

"Will inspector Sands please report to platform 20 ?"

--From a speaker at Waterloo train station

"So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.
"Kathy, I'm lost", I said,
Though I know she was sleeping.
"I'm empty and aching and
I don't know why."

All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.
--Simon & Garfunkel

Pre Party

We celebrate early summer with drinks and about 70 friends who joins us on a perfect evening weather-wise, how unusual. We move the furniture from the living room into the den or garage, prepare for the caterers etc.  I do the usual yard-work, with Aneta , made interesting when my ladder, while pruning the backyard conifer, collapses taking me with it. Three summers of painting and doing stupid things in college and never a ladder fall. This time I am pretty darn lucky to walk away more or less unscathed. Two closes shaves in the past couple of weeks. I had better start listening.

Christian sends the play list and off we go.

I do a dry run on the living room Linn Keilidh speakers.  Eitan: "Turn it down. Jesus."

Self Portrait XXXIX

Zurich Airport

I visit a few friends in Switzerland - Luzerne and Baar Zug - and end my day at a beautiful 50m outdoor pool only recently opened for the summer.

I time myself for the 100m freestyle hitting the wall, panting, thinking 1:10 or 1:15 but the clock does not lie: 1:25. No fighting middle age but, man, do I sometimes wish I had my 20s back.

Good Day, Sunshine

Chelsea from Battersea

A few days each May bring a sea of puffy cotton which fills the blue sky as lazy as the early summer. A Beatles song.

Race On

First bend

Madeleine has an inter-school competition at the Battersea track by the Battersea Power Station and our gal cranks out a gritty 800m coming in first place in a time of 2:43 - a PB of two seconds. Dramatically, she collapses at the end of the race in need of her inhaler but fortunately the officials aware of this and problem solved (me, unaware all the while).

Madeleine also competes the high jump finishing in a tie for fourth (of 20) 1 meter 16 cm.

It's a gorgeous day, too, and Aneta and I play hooky, watching the racers, sun bathing and making a few calls (me). Sure beats the office.

Strapline

Temple Bar

Since I always get in trouble for my descriptions of The OpEd project here it is, officially:

"The OpEd Project is a community of journalists and thought leaders committed to diversifying the world's conversation.  Our Public Voices Fellowship program is a national initiative, undertaken in partnership with leading academic institutions and foundations, to dramatically increase the public impact of our nation's top underrepresented thinkers. "
--From the materials

Dublin Good Bye

Katie treats me to dinner in Dublin 2 and we drink draft Guinness and Katie (at my insistence) orders a Tusker beer, which brings back memories of Kenya, Africa, or the last time I enjoyed this brew.  She will be in Zanzibar later this year. But this this evening we enjoy Ireland's finest oysters and recount family stories.

Katie's business is going great-guns (recently she received a substantial grant from the Ford Foundation with fellowship programs in place with 12 universities) and her conference is buzzing on the Twitter-sphere.

In the hotel room I am asleep by 9PM while Katie watches The Avengers. Today we have lunch with Nick, the Deputy Head of the Irish Pension Reserve, and now the airport.

"How can a country that gave us Joyce not be able produce a road map?"
--Moe, somewhere in Ireland, ca 1998

Self Portrait XXXVII and XXXVIII

Photos by Katie

Katie Broadcasts

I fly to Dublin this morning to see Katie at the Women On Air conference, which is broadcast across the UK.  Katie is the Key Note speaker, "Who narrates the world," at a conference that brings together media and political figures. It fills the St Georges' Hall at the Dublin Palace.  I arrive midway thru and catch my sister's eye as I seat myself in one of the front rows. Pretty cool moment.

"Passion and credibility are both important but should be used at different times. Credibility first."
-Katie, Women On Air

Meanwhile At The Track

 pre 200m

We enjoy a family outing at the Andover Young Athletics Meeting where Eitan and Madeleine aim to qualify for the London Youth Games this summer.  It is a windy sunny day and we spend most of it outdoors, on the overlooking grassy hillside, watching the Shakespeares compete.  In between, some homework is done and I read the new car-manual [Dad's note: we bought a new family car - a Honda]

Madeleine runs the 200m and 800m making the finals in the 200m and finishing 3rd of 18 girls competing in the U13's. Her time: 30.14.  She also takes 3rd in the 800m (no finals) in 2:45, or a six second pb. She is proud as punch, as are we.

Eitan runs the 1500 in 5:09, off his best of 4:55.

200m

Me: "Would you rather do homework or read a car manual?"
Eitan: "Car manual."
Me: "You would rather read a car manual then learn about maths and physics and the wonders of the world? I would give my right hand to have somebody teach me stuff like that."
Eitan: "Definitely car manual."

Graduation Day

Marcus receives his masters in business from Niagra University, earning his place in the Kappa Gamma Pi honor society. Bravo !

The Wall Of Tears

Goal!

Surrey Cup Final U13's

Hampton School take on the Whitgift School in the Surrey Cup U13's school finals. The prize, the Therfield Trophy, has exchanged hands for 70 years.  Last year Eitan's Elm Grove won the Surrey Cup U12's.

Hampton the under-dogs given that four or five of the Whitgift boys play for the Academies including the brilliant No. 10, Callum Hudson Odoi, who is signed with Chelsea and selected the best Surrey U13 player for the 2014 season. Eitan assigned to mark Callum and the fist-half Eitan on his ass more often than not but by the second half he has him figured him.  It's an intensely physical game, too: loud brutal crunching that we hear 30 meters downfield; a number of collisions that stop the action and I think at least one boy concussed but no way is he coming out.

The game starts in good form with Hampton up 1-nil but we trail the rest of the match, equalising in regulation play and then again with a two minutes in over-time.  Us parents bounce along a roller coaster of highs and lows . ..  It comes down to the dreaded penalty kicks and anyone who follows English football knows that PKs mean one thing: defeat.  I have my "everyone is a winner" speech prepared for the ride home.

Hampton misses the first PK and Whitgift hit the next three. Then they miss. And miss again. Louie lines up to win the game or go down in sweet infamy.

So, the giant cumulous clouds frame the pitch as the sun sets.  Louie drops the ball on the spot and I can tell he's anxious - no shit.  One step.. then two and away she goes : all net! The boys erupt in joy and relief and fall on top of Louie. Several of the mums burst into tears. Wow wow wow.

Tiles

Ceiling, St Mark's Basilica

The St Mark's basilica constructed from 1084-1117. 

The five domes have golden tiled ceilings - to install them, the artist began at the centre and worked downward, all the while neutralising the gradient "distortion" for the viewer below.

By my simple calculation there is approximately 8000 sq meters of tiled ceiling or about 86,110 square feet or 12,400,000 square inches. If the tiles average a quarter inch on each side, well, there are about 49,600,000 tiles. 

St Mark's Camanile

St Mark's Campanile is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in the Piazza San Marco. 

The tower is 98.6 metres tall and stands alone in a corner of St Mark's Square near the front of the basilica. It has a simple form, the bulk of which is a fluted brick square shaft, 12 metres wide on each side and 50 metres tall, above which is a loggia surrounding the belfry, housing five bells. The tower is capped by a pyramidal spire, at the top of which sits a golden weathervane of the archangel Gabriel. It was built in 1514.

Venice is literally stuffed with tourists and I hear accents from around the world and mainly from America. One can always tell the Americans who are loud and unafraid with their opinions: "I was disappointed with the Campanile maybe because I'm from Los Angeles and the buildings are taller." And so on and so forth.

Madeleine: "Will you bring me a gift?"

So Lounge

Dave and Tabitha grant each of their children a weekend solo with them in the city of their choice. Netta goes for Venice and by good chance, same weekend as us. We visit them for a swim in the pool at Cipriani, where they are staying.  Netta, age 13, plugs into her head phones and reads a book, lounging poolside.

The cool thing about Venice, which takes a day or so to realise - no cars nor bikes. It is all foot traffic or canal boat.