Bru Re United

Bru and his bike

We spend Sunday with Sonnet's cousin Bru who is a mad genius with near perfect recall applied to art, film, television and anything that grabs him (Bru dropped out and followed the Grateful Dead post high school then applied to Cornell, at 23 or 24, and was accepted). He has lived in Italy over 15 years and his personality somehow suited for here - the gesticulating hand motions, the Italian's love of argument...  Last we saw Bru, he was working in the Vatican and I recall his dark suit and tie, emblazoned with naked erotica, hidden whenever a priest or higher up went by. Oi vey.

Now Bru raises his son, Lucca, a beautiful child interested in football, video games and school.  He is in good hands. I wonder when we will see Bru next? It will likely be a while.

Maxxi

Along with flutes of Champagne and fancy cocktails we and are greeted by a "living art" display of naked women, about 30, covered in pink veils who stair at us directly or distractedly as their pointy breasts and wispy pubic hair draws one's uncomfortable attention. Appetisers are served. Sonnet says hello to Miuccia Prada.

The party filled with major politicos, film stars and (of course) models along with the beautiful people (men) while we are guests of the glamorous Anna Zegna whose company Ermenegildo Zegna is one of the largest fabrics manufactures in the world while producing men's suits for its own label and Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Tom Ford. I am seated next to Francis, Anna's husband, who runs the fabrics business and we compare notes on Tokyo, New York and London and other various places we have been in the last few months. He is elegant in a way somehow unique to Italians - stylish, clever and understated.

"It all started with you."
--Stefano Tonchi, Curator of Belissima, to Sonnet

Rome

Coliseum, taken from the taxi. Restoration work funded by Tod's

Sonnet and I to Rome on Saturday to re-connect with a favourite city I have not been to since, gasp, pre-kids without kids (gasp!). Sonnet has been here regularly for her exhibition. Following a day at the National Museum filled with beautiful ancient Roman sculptures, mosaics and frescos, we attend the opening party for "Belissima", an exhibition on .. Italian fashion .. at the Maxxi Museum. 

Rough Day

Richmond Park

And it's Friday, another week gone by.

Eitan runs the 3k borough championships, which he has owned for the past four years. Lining up, our hero not 100% with a cold and still catching up from missed training due to osgood schlatter. More so, the curve is catching up: the boys who train are making strides during these all important youthful years.

Eitan finishes 11th after rounding the half-way at fourth. The second loop and a difficult hill does him in. Not a bad result but he's disappointed as the top 9 qualify for counties.

Me: "Do you think I'm bald?"
Madeleine:
Me: "Seriously. What do you think."
Madeleine: "Well, um, you're not bald. I mean you have hair."
Me: "But you can see my head."
Madeleine: "It's like 65%. You have 65% hair on your head."
Me: "So 35% bald. I can live with that."
Madeleine:

Thanksgiving Sunday

Halley and Sonnet

Willem picks up a 14 lb turkey from an Oxford colleague and professor who, when not on campus, owns a small holding where he raises free range livestock (I love the eccentricity). The bird, named Cyril, arrives frozen and goes straight into the oven for five hours, perfectly done at the end. 

We enjoyed a large American ex pat community in our first years in London - a group now mostly dispersed across the US and around the world. We hosted a number of Thanksgivings for 20 or 25 people in our flat in Maida Vale, crawling under the table to serve people. One thing that has changed: I now watch the Detroit Lions vs. the New England Patriots. I only need to tap my ruby slippers together three times . ..

Eitan's Hampton School A team loses 1-nil to Chigwell School.

It feels like it should be a holiday but back to work tomorrow.

Happy Returns

Halley and Willem

Halley and Sonnet spend the day preparing early Thanksgiving. Big things are happening in their family: Willem is heading up the Oxford's mindfulness center having built up a similar program and first of its kind at Exeter University. He is two weeks on the job. He is also taking up a Chair at the Univ of Oxford as Prof of Clinical Psychology in the Dept of Psychiatry and notes "that I feel like a young Turk again" and one should always feel on the up and up. [Dad's note: One of the major research programs Willem is working on is mindfulness at secondary schools and Hampton School was one of the first to sign on].

Zoe is in her AS levels preparing for her exams and running cross country (she recently won a race in East Devon) while Ava continues to pursue top level football with the Oxford United FA Center of Excellence. Halley keeps it all together and moving forward in a most forceful direction. Halley is also involved with CIC which offers mindfulness courses in Exeter.

Me: "Give me a quote."
Zoe: "Lower your voice and strengthen your argument." 
Willem: "I can respect that."

Christmas At Claridges

I am in Paris this week so Sonnet attends solo the launch of the Dolce & Gabbanna Christmas tree at Claridges with, you know, a lot of models. Sonnet says, "that sucker [ie, the tree] is big, maybe 20 feet high". The kids impressed to learn that 'Made In Chelsea Star' Mark Francis in attendance (Eitan: "Did you get a selfie?")

In Paris the lack of foot traffic on rue de Faubourg St Honoree a marked contrast to year's past. The lack of buzz reflective of France, which is somehow demoralized with its lagging economy, deficits and failure of leadership. Young people in Paris want to be in London and South Kensington now has over 400k of France's brightest. Yet, and despite this, Paris remains the most magical European city and I am lucky to know it.

Mum

Sonnet could not possibly be a better mother. She is constantly upbeat and organised around the kids ceaseless various activities and, above all else, she is their champion and confident. She is their role model. Somehow she manages all of this while I am travelling and with a full time job. She is the reason our house is a home. We are blessed.

I find a bottle of Haut-Medoc 2004 in the pantry, opened, and not by me. The wine earned a Bronze medal at the 2006 Decanter World Wine Awards amongst other recognitions. Sonnet used it in a beef bolognese.

Cumberbatch

So who is the is Benedict Cumberbatch, I wonder, as girls swoon over Sherlock and his long curls? Cumberbatch may be the Sean Cassidy for this generation but even more: He has appeared in such films as Atonement, Star Trek and 12 Years A Slave as well as other BBC dramas like Hawkings.

In life, Cumberbatch attended boarding schools from the age of eight, was educated at Brambletye School  in West Sussex, and was an arts scholar at Harrow School. He was a member of The Rattigan Society, Harrow's principal club for the dramatic arts which was named after Old Harrovian and playwright Terence Rattington. He was involved in numerous Shakespearean works at school and made his acting debut as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night's Dream when he was 12.Cumberbatch's drama teacher, Martin Tyrell, called him "the best schoolboy actor" he had ever worked with. He was also part of the rugby team, and painted in oil while at Harrow.

After leaving Harrow, Cumberbatch took a gap year to volunteer as an English teacher at a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling. He then attended the Univ of Manchester, where he studied Drama. He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art with a degree in Classical Acting.  (source: Wiki)

All this and not even 30. He will be with us for a while which is good news.

Game Off

Pitchside

Sunday morning which means club football and today the boys take on the Met Police. They go down swinging, 3-nil, in a game tied nil-nil at half-time.  It's been a rough season and today's outcome puts the Lions in the bottom half of their league. Still, for the joy of the game.

Sonnet and I out to fun restaurant Pizza East in the edgier part of Notting Hill, an area we are familiar with for many visits to the Portobella Road and market in our early days in London. We are with Natalie and Justin, who has recently been offered the CEO role of a substantial UK business. He is perfectly suited for it.

London Youth Games

Parliament Hill, Hamstead Heath

Madeleine competes in today's London Youth Games representing Richmond borough having qualified several weeks ago when she won the Wandsworth schools championship on the Clapham Common. The course a muddy 2K and begins fast: straight up Parliament Hill. Madeleine in the top 10%, by my judgement, huffing and puffing, but then hardship: she slips and falls on a tight bend and pulls out of the race with 500m to go. I greet our fallen warrior on the course. She is covered in mud and feeling downbeat; we get her patched up at the aid station then cubano sandwiches for lunch from the local farmers market. She's now watching television and feeling better.

Sonnet in Amsterdam to give a lecture. I have lunch at Fortnum And Mason with the Ladies That Lunch. Greg in London for three hours en route to Maryland following an AGM in Barcelona. We catch up.

The Heath

Hamstead Heath

Hamstead Heath is a large, ancient London park covering 790 acres. The Heath is rambling and hilly, perfect for a Sunday stroll or cross country race. The cozy Hamstead village is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and, perhaps not surprisingly, has the highest concentration of millionaires in London. 

So Sonnet and I split an evening: She to the Italian Ambassador's house to discuss fashion with the Good and the Great and me, to Emanuel school to meet with Madeleine's 14 teachers to get the low-down on her performance. I get the better deal. The feedback is excellent and it is clear that our gal is making her mark. What stands out, in the feedback, is Madeleine's enthusiasm and effort; sure, there are a few minor comments about chitter-chat but overall she is doing tops in her school work. We could not be more proud. [Dad's note: since the parent-teacher evening, we received a letter from Madeleine's form teacher telling us Madeleine scored top 10% in school effort work.

Early Hours

Sonnet and I up at 5:30AM to jog 4 laps around Palewell Park. Our preferred run is Richmond Park but it is pitch black this time of year and spooky plus the annual deer cull locks the park's morning gates for the next six weeks.  The dog is ever on the ready for exercise and could care less about the hour of the day.

The morning darkness recalls my teenage swimming years, also up around 5:30AM, when I biked to the King Jr high school swimming pool. Berkeley was sound asleep as I cycled from the Northside hills to the flats, passing streetlamps and front lights - sometimes in the rain with my shoes protected by plastic bags. I envied those still asleep. Bill (God bless him) delivered a two-hour workout for me and Katie (we had our own lane) while Moe swam laps with the lap-swimmers. If I recall correctly, Moe swam one length of the 25 yd pool for each year of his age which seemed like a pretty good deal against the 7,000 yards Katie and I put in.

Following our effort this morning, we are rewarded with a beautiful sunrise filled with warm colours; Madeleine wanders down for breakfast and I wake Eitan ("5 more minutes.")

Prince

'Controversy' single

Sonnet and I join Emily's birthday party themed "Exposed" where she holds a salon format inviting her interesting friends to offer missives on the subject. A choreographer, for instance, discusses how she feels when her work performed by others. A techie turned designer describes his app that concentrates central and peripheral focus and an entomologist tells how plants offer signals to pollinate them - "a glowing runway".  We conclude the evening with Prince's 1999 - Eitan and Madeleine would have been mortified to see us dance. Ah, well.

Thinking of Prince, I recall West Campus where my class spent the 9th grade while the Berkeley High School C building retrofitted to make earthquake sound in 1982. That year the black girls enthralled by 'Controversy', Prince's break-through album one year before '1999' which became a mainstay on the disco floor and has followed me across .. . 30 years.

'Controversy' was a racy album with song tracks that I am embarrassed to write like 'Private Joy', 'Jack U Off' and 'Do Me, Baby' but I suppose this is now easily eclipsed by the stuff Eitan and Madeleine exposed to in music or online. Back then it was about the funk before the lyrics (though I am sure our parents only heard the lyrics, if they knew of Prince at all).

Today is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Gorbechav warns of the new Cold War.

Sonnet: "Tell me three careers, if you had to imagine into the future, that you would be interested in doing."
Madeleine: "One, a full time actress. Two, a physical therapist. And three, to work at Google."
Sonnet: "Great ideas. Give me one sentence for each explaining why."
Madeleine: "I think it would be amazing to be in a film. If I was a physical therapist I would make a difference in people's lives. And Google because it is such a cool company."
Sonnet: "Those are excellent explanations."

Aneta In The House

Post Game

Sunday afternoon following two-weeks of half-term break and that can only mean one thing: homework. Eitan must review history and French "and do a bit of writing." Same as it ever was.

Sonnet and I review our last couple of weeks which sees our family in NYC, Minneapolis-St Paul, Madrid and Tokyo. Pretty cool.

Me: "Tell me one thing about the half-term break for the blog."
Eitan: "It was fun."
Me: "Can you do more than that?"
Eitan: "Minneapolis was fun. I got to meet Henry's friends and stuff. And I went to an American football game on Friday night. The home team won. The atmosphere was really good because everyone was supporting the team."
Me: "What do you think of American football?"
Eitan: "It's OK. A bit boring I guess."
Me: "How so?"
Eitan: "I don't know. It's kind of slow. And there is a lot of throwing the ball around."
Me: "I see your point."

Coach's Huddle

"Watch the through balls"

The Sheen Lions battle the Kingstonian Youth to a 3-3 draw which our side equalises with a minute to go on a free kick by Woo from 40 yards out, headed into the net by Luke. Joy! The game notable for the miserable weather and Sonnet and I soaked and cold by half-time. Eitan is selected 'Man Of The Match' (and now happily watches Manchester United vs. Manchester City as I blog). 

Aneta with us for the weekend and we catch up on her summer, spent at a Jewish camp in Western Massachusetts, and her other various travels in the US.  She is as agreeable as ever and always a good vibe to have around.

Sonnet takes Madeleine to the Richmond High Street for some Sunday afternoon shopping. And the passage of time rolls on.

Boo

Eitan out this afternoon in a "flash mob" (he hates it when I say this) when the teenagers text each other and meet an hour later. Today it's Kingston where they wander about, looking at shops, no money or at least limited funds. Maybe a snack then home.  Tonight he will hang out with his Sheen Mount crew but no trick-or-treating. Those days long gone.

Pre Candy

Madeleine spends the day with Sonnet at the V&A (last day of half-term break) finishing homework and hanging out with mom. Tonight she hits the block with Abby resurrecting the chicken-hat which, dear reader, was my long-running costume when the children were children and not so embarrassed by such things. And then they were.

Hallowe'en Pumpkins

Madeleine and Jack

We slip into Friday evening and it is my once favourite holiday, Halloween, before it become somehow commercial, even in the UK. Even in Tokyo.  I liked the unsettling nature of the transitional autumn heading into the dead zone of winter and what better way to celebrate than trick-or-treating? Usually I try to watch at least one scary movie to put me in the mood but now not so much. Maybe it is in line with my mood these days - who needs more death? In any case, our block doesn't receive much attention from the candy crowd as there are more elderly folks vs. families. No kid wants fruit in their bag.

4AM

Tokyo is really God damn big and sprawls for as far as the eye can see. But it never loses its vibrancy. Here are a few of the neighborhoods I visit:

Shinjuki, which is a large business, entertainment and shopping district centered around JR Shinjuku Station. It's the busiest train station in the world with 3.64 million passengers a day. Due East is Kabukicho, Asia's biggest red-light district.

Shibuya, a large shopping and entertainment district best known for the Shibuya crossing, which is the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. Estimates are that almost 1 million people cross the street here each day (2.18 million people use Shibuya station daily).

Tokyo Station Area (Marunouchi & Yaesu), which handles over a million passengers a day. It's Tokyo's intercity rail hub connecting Tokyo with the rest of Japan by Shinkansen (bullet train). More trains pass through Tokyo station each day than any other station in Japan. My hotel, the Shangra La, located nearby.

We also visit the Park Hyatt, where Lost In Translation filmed, and dine at Gonpachi made famous in Quentin Taratino's bloody Kill Bill.

Robataya

We enjoy a robata style dinner, which is similar to barbecue, where the food is skewered (often alive, brutal) and slow-grilled over hot charcoal. Traditionally the servings are a combination of seafoods and vegatables while we have shrimps, beef and .. fish. The ingredients displayed, and cooked, before us ("Like a puddle" our host helpfully tells us) interrupted by a traditional Japanese dinner chant complete with brusk clapping. Robataya is one of the best restaurants in Tokyo.

Tokyo

I arrive in Tokyo for business, meeting Thierry at the hotel and off we go.

It's my first visit Tokyo and the city is BIG - the most populous metropolitan area in the world with 37.8 million people. From the 33rd floor of my hotel, Tokyo just goes on forever.

Tokyo has eaten everything around it due, mainly, to the decision to build the Shinkansen (or "new trunk line"), a network of high-speed lines in Japan that opened in 1964 weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.

The Shinkansen owns 1,483 miles of lines with max speeds of 150-200 mph. It links most major cities on the main island, making Tokyo ever more important as the central force of the economy while weakening regional cities. By an odd quirk, employers pay for the commute time making a 2 hour one-way somehow tolerable or even desirable. Any case, it carries over 300 million passengers a year. It runs like a Swiss clock.

I watch the World Series, game 5, which is broadcast on Japanese television delayed for prime time (Giants beat KC, 5-0. There will be a Game 7). The commentary is in Japanese. I note that restaurants and bars are showing the game to locals who watch, enthralled. No surprise, either, since baseball introduced to Japan in 1872 by HOrace Wilson who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo and the first baseball team here was called the Shimbashi Athletic club in 1878.

España

Madeleine unpacks

Madeleine's half-term break takes her to Madrid, where she flies in Monday until last night when I scoop her up from T5 followed by a late dinner. She is a chatter box, filled with enthusiasm and good cheer. 

In Spain,  the school group stay in the Sierre de Gredos mountains: "very hot and sunny, mountains everywhere. Streams and lakes, too, along with forests". Madeleine bunks with nine other girls and gets maybe four hours of sleep despite the designated curfew of 23h30.  During the week, the kids horseback ride, hike, mountain bike, enjoy archery and visit Real Madrid football stadium. In addition, for us parents, there is an hour and a half of Spanish lessons per day (Madeleine groans). 

Madeleine tells me the best part of the trip was "playing 'Slender Man' at night, pitch black, through the forrest, with my friends." (Slender Man, dear readers, is when the Slender Man, dressed in dark clothes, try to capture the non Slender Men; once captured, the captured join the Slender Men or the chasing team. Or so I think).

I prepare for Tokyo tomorrow.

Minneapolis St Paul

Twin Cities with Mike and Gretchen

Sonnet is in Minneapolis St Paul for the opening of Italian Style (renamed from "The Glamour of Italian Fashion" for the Americans") at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.  Eitan joins her from some mother-teenager bonding, and are hosted by the Bransfords who roll out the red carpet.  Recall Mike and Gretchen part of our original ex pat group, post business school, who returned Homeland maybe ten years ago. Bill and Whitney join for the opening and it is a family affair.

As Madeleine has been in Spain this week, I am solo for several nights. I take advantage by catching up on work, a trip to Manhattan where I see Katie, and going to the Egon Schiele opening at the Courdault.

Any Given Sunday

On being a teenager

Eitan celebrates his freedom - half term! - watching football from dawn until dusk (right now it is the ever important match, Stoke v. Swansea). In between televised matches, The Sheen Lions take on KPR and win 3-2 on a nail-biter though the Lions outplayed their opponents.

Dear reader, Eitan began his club play with KPR and there are a handful of kids that I recall from Eitan's very first competitive run down the pitch with the Rangers. 

Sonnet and I go to yoga which is something I have not done in, like, three years - shocking, really, as yoga was once an important part of our routine. Back in the early days of our relationship, ca. 1993, Sonnet introduced me to Bikram yoga in North Beach - it was their second studio though now they can be found everywhere (though Bikram's system has come into question). I still can't do the balancing poses and I sweat like a maniac.

Me: "Why don't you you put on some NFL?"
Eitan: "Do I have to?"
Me: "Let's watch some real football."
Eitan: "Whatever."
Me: "Who do you think would win - the Baltimore Colts vs Man U in soccer or vice versa?"
Eitan: "Well it depends on who is playing. But, um, probably the Colts."
Me: "Manchester wouldn't make it through the fist quarter. Look at how big the players are."
Eitan: "It probably wouldn't be pretty."
Me: "I'll say."

School Press

Madeleine wraps up top place.

Friday night and everybody has been working hard. Since Sonnet out and Eitan at football practice, Madeleine and I have a date: Praline's And Cream ice cream+several episodes of "Modern Family." Doesn't matter that s/ we have seen every episode maybe more than twice, it is still funny and shows us what the 'normal' is. 

“I’ve always said that if my son thinks of me as one of his idiot friends, I’ve succeeded as a dad.”

--Phil Dunphy, Modern Family

Focus

I take Madeleine to her drama class in NW London where today she "goes over a script called 'The Accident'. I play a guy named Dillon, who is the director of the play. The play is a 'play within a play.' We had to perform the play without props and costumes as the the van (in the play) gets into an accident and loses all of the props and costumes.  Yep, that's it. That's what we did." Intriguing.

During the interim I visit Panzers in St John's Wood. Panzer has the lock on American food for homesick ex pats. Like me. I pick up Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops and Nestle chocolate chips for (maybe) chocolate chip cookies.

The kids are now officially on half-term break which means I find Eitan flat on his back on the couch, television on, dull lifeless look on his face. I join him.

Julian's Pot

Julian is a potter. He makes pottery in his studio in Dulwich. The pot on display, pictured, was made as part of a 2012 series of over-sized urns. In order to fire them, Julian found a special kiln in North England. Just getting the things there, and back, a challenge. Now one is on display at the Frieze Art Fair. Many years ago we introduced Julian to Scott who is on the acquisition committee of the Rhode Island School of Design museum - RISD commissioned a tea set.

Sonnet returns from Milan and Rotterdam where she gave a lecture at Palazzo Morando and attends a fashion conference at Erasmus University.  She has a five hour dinner with the conference speakers in a renovated train terminus in a gritty but up-and-coming part of Rotterdam. They discuss fashion, mega egos and prostitution (Sonnet tells me). Not my usual conversation about private equity.

Frieze Art Fair

Sonnet and I attend the opening of the Frieze Art Fair this week - Frieze on the serious art purchasing 

calendar and an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in Regent's Park.  It features more than 170 contemporary art galleries and their works from Damian Hirst to Alberto Giacometto. But it is really the people watching that is most fun. There are a lot of French collectors for some reason and of course the Good and the Great, but also the artists and the strivers. Everybody dressed to impress and having a good time. 

Sunset at 30K

Modern life. In my absence, Madeleine runs the Wandsworth Borough 2K around Tooting Common for Years 7 and 8s. Our gal finishes third of 120 runners and first in her age group (Text to Sonnet: "I came first out of everybody!!!!"). The Shakespeares trial track teams in Wimbledon and Kingston (Madeleine wants the former, Eitan the latter. Of course).

In school news, Madeleine nails the never ending Tudors with a score of 97% on a mid-term exam while Eitan delivers results with top marks in biology, physics and chemistry. Even better, they bring their subjects to the dinner table.

Back In Action

Eitan plays midfield

I return from the West Coast and spend the weekend catching up with family, yard work and soccer which sees Eitan in only his second Sheen Lions match of the season. Pictured, vs Shelton, who is top of the league and a full head, on average, taller than the Lions who go down 3-1 (but in fairness should have drawn on a goal-line block and goal bar strike). Eitan scores the Lions goal.

California (San Francisco, Menlo Park, LA and Newport Beach) is filled with business meetings and friends including an evening with my Berkeley pals at Pizzaiola in a trendy neighbourhood in Oakland.  Everybody doing what they should be: Ivor overseeing major architecture projects in San Fran and the peninsula; Mike and Tyler representing the Winklevoss twins of FB fame; Debbie is a local theatre legend and Eric is the Associate Commissioner of the Pac 12. Secretly or openly we all wish for a Cal Rose Bowl but it ain't ever gonna happen.

Christian and Lisa show me a special evening in LA with a sunset drink at the Wilshire Hotel overlooking the Hollywood Hills, than a pre dinner cocktail at the LA County Museum of Art, followed by dinner at a local Terroni. Fabulous.

Newport is a strange alternative lifestyle: alternative for the rich and super rich. It keeps its beach culture but the harbour yachts stuff the gang planks. Surfers walk along the high street where I have coffee; the black Bentley driven by the housewife somehow out of place in the glorious sunshine.

I bring home a stack of comic books for Madeleine.

Almost 14

Eitan turns 14 (we celebrate early as I will be in Paris on the actual day).

How could Sonnet and I wish for anything more? Eitan has become an independent and confident young man while navigating his second year as a teenager.  And this has been a year of change. At school, he has a new form and friends; he has added new coursework in French while dropping design, technology and art. Hampton won the Surrey Cup. Momentarily, his social scene shifted towards crowd sourcing and the High Street (often leaving Sonnet and I perplexed) but now, in the new term, he has adopted a more focused approach towards his studies.

Eitan remains a quiet and thoughtful young man. He is rare to open up with us but we know he feels deeply about those things he holds dear: sport, school, friends and Manchester United. He also carries nostalgia linked, perhaps, to his dislike of letting go of things from his past. I recall he sadness at the last game with Elm Grove or his tears leaving Sheen Mount.

Mostly Eitan has remained true to a first vision I had of him as an infant. He is cautious to jump into new things but when he moves, it is with well studied conviction. He wants to please those around him and so sets high goals for himself. We watch as external feedback becomes less important to the standards he sets for himself.  It is our joy be along for the ride, wherever it may be going.

Field Trip, WWI

Chateau Wood Ypres 1917 by Frank Hurley

Eitan up at 4AM (Sunday) for an over-night field trip to Belgium to trace the route taken by an Australian WWI platoon on their way to fight at Passchendele (near Ypres). Tomorrow the boys will drive to the Somme where the trenches have been preserved. This followed by a visit to the British memorial at Thiepval and a British Cemetary. 

The Battle of Passchendaele was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the British and their allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, between July and November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgiam city of Ypres in West Flanders , as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917.

 

Passchendael lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, five miles from a railway junction at Roeselare, which was a vital part of the supply system of the German Fourth Army. The next stage of the Allied strategy was an advance to Torhout-Couckelaere, to close the German-controlled railway running through Roeselare and Torhout, which did not take place until 1918. 

Further operations and a British supporting attack along the Belgian coast from Nieuwpoort, combined with an amphibious landing, were to have reached Bruges and then the Dutch frontier. The resistance of the German Fourth Army, unusually wet weather, the onset of winter and the diversion of British and French resources to Italy, following the Austro-German victory at the Battle of Caoretto (24 October – 19 November) allowed the Germans to avoid a general withdrawal, which had seemed inevitable to them in October. 

The campaign ended in November when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele. In 1918 the Battle of Lys and the Fifth Battle of Ypres were fought before the Allies occupied the Belgian coast and reached the Dutch frontier.

(source: Wiki)

Friday Night Scrabble

The Indian Summer continues which sees lovely autumnal weather, warm and friendly, easy to sit on a park bench and write some emails or in Green Park to make my calls.  In fact, this has been the driest September in 50 years.

I am with Madeleine for the club swimming sprint champs and our gal swims all the disciplines. Unfortunately no PBs but she is up for the task, swimming her little heart out (She says, "I didn't do that well but I don't think I could have swum any better"). I love the team camaraderie as the kids scream and wave their team mates along; from the stands, an occassional explosion from an enthusiastic parent livens things up.

Eitan seems to have let go of any feelings he had for swimming to concentrate on his football, athletics and school (update on Osgood Schlatter: Eitan back to training and hopes to play in the next week or two with his physio's permission).

Madeleine: "I tried to buy some spray paint with Williby but kids aren't allowed to buy spray paint. How come?"
Me: "Because they sniff it."
Madeleine: "Why do they do that?"
Me: "It makes them high."
Madeleine: "Doesn't it turn their nose all different sorts of colours like green and blue and red?"
Me: "Yes. It is one of the many hazards of sniffing paint."

Holocaust Memorial Museum

Riverside

Diana invites us to her home to meet Mike Abramowitz, who is the the Director of the Committee on Conscience, which conducts the genocide prevention efforts of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Diana and our friend Todd are on the museum's council. 

Before the Holocaust Museum, Mike was a reporter and editor for The Washington Post since 1985-06 and the White House correspondent for the Post from 2006-09 covering the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. No, I did not ask. 

I visited the Holocaust Museum in 1993 or 1994 around when it first opened, a truly moving experience. Of the many things I remember, the pile of discarded children's shoes remains in my mind's eye.

Madeleine: "What are you watching?"

Me: "The news."

Madeleine: "The news is boring."

Me: "I hope you didn't just say that."

Madeleine: "Can we watch something interesting like 'Modern Family' or something?"

Me: "You go, girl.'"

Adam 40

Madeleine, Dead Horse Point

We are at Adam's 40th birthday party last night in Notting Hill, which really is a lovely part of west London - in the 1980s it was run down and my friend Gilbert bought a house here for half a mil which is now worth maybe 20. Or 25. But I digress. 

Adam I met at Ben's bar mitzvah when he (Adam) had recently acquired Pushkin Press which publishes authors from around the world like Stefan Zweig, Marcel Ayme, Antal Szerb, Paul Moran and Yasushi Inoue (none of whom I have read dear reader). Often Adam translates these works into the English language for the first time. 

Before Pushkin, Adam was Publisher of Penguin Classics and best known perhaps for rediscovering the work of the German writer Hans Fallada, with the first English-language publication of Alone in Berlin. He is now excited about 'Fortune of France,' which chronicles over many fictional volumes the French religious wars in the age of the Tudors; it has sold more than five million copies but not in English. I immediately think of the Master And Commander series and may have to investigate.

For the record: Eitan is 5'7'' and Madeleine is 5'3''. I once took their height and weight every month or so up until 2010. I will plot it on a graph one day.

Football

I can't resist buying an American football.  It's been an unusual season - Eitan no football as he recovers from a growth spurt. He is being smart about it, resisting jumping into training or games that could set him back. It will come.

I reminisce of four or five years ago when went to the park at the crack of dawn to practise corner kicks and run drills. I worked him pretty hard, it was good for both of us.

Without afternoon swimming, I often come home to find him in the den, hunched over his books, intensely beavering away.

The Way Back Machine

Winter 2010

Yes, these kids grow up quickly and only yesterday it seems that Eitan and I played football together.

It is unseasonably warm for mid-September and tomorrow we may even have humidity and thundershowes.  Usually Indian Summer a bit later and a bit drier but I smile and sweat my way through it.  Sonnet meets me at my office and we walk home chit-chatting; at 45 we peek into the den to spy Eitan working away at his homework.

Bill and Martine arrive in London. Bill has cancer but nothing slows him down. He recently bought a condo in Arizona to play golf.  I love this about him.

Me: "How is Jack doing?" (Dad's note: Madeleine's friend Jack broke his femur playing rugby)
Madeleine: "We've had to move all our classes to the first floor since he can't climb the stairs."
Me: "Poor kid."
Madeleine: "It's like the second worse bone to break."
Me: "After your neck?"
Madeleine: "Your head. Or your back. Then you could be paralysed."
Me: "So true."

Berry Picking & Scotland

Sonnet, Madeleine and I head to Buckinghamshire to pick some fruit - mainly raspberries and plums but also sweet corn for corn chowder.  This is a nice family ritual.

Scotland's decision to leave the United Kingdom put to vote on Thursday and on every body's mind. The referendum question is rather simple, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", requires a rather simple 'yes' or 'no.'  All residents of Scotland 16 or over or about 4 million people can vote (about 800,000 Scots live in England and they largely won't participate nor the 6 million Scots who live in the US). Independence requires a simple majority.

Until last weekend, a yes-vote seemed improbable but then a poll put the majority at independent. Panic. David Cameron and Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband went north for the Hale Mary. Some open ended issues: currency, public expenditure, defence and North Sea oil.  It is a once in a lifetime, 100-year decision.

It would be shocking and tragic if Scotland broke from a union that has served Britain for 300 years.

Richmond Autumn

Everybody gets a little itch sometimes

We host a party for the Sheen Lions FB club and Sonnet makes several types of pasta while I handle the wine and beer (actually, Sonnet handles the wine and beer). The parents arrive first then the boys come stomping in, post practice, filled with energy and glee. Unfortunately Eitan has Osgood-Schlatter syndrome or when the bones growing faster than the muscles causing soreness in the knee and groin area. He is unable to play for now but things will take care of themselves in due course. No need to worry.

Sonnet asks me to tell the boys that dinner is ready and "to wash their hands." I deliver the message to blank or sniggering faces.

School Run

The train station to school

I suggest to Madeleine, on our walk to the train, that my blog might be coming to an end, but she is overwhelming in her support: "You've been doing it since we were kids!" Which makes me pause: are they not kids now? And that is the problem. Writing about them, which I always enjoy, is more complicated as, well, they are not just kids. Eitan and Madeleine's lives are filled, in a most favourable way, with friendships, relationships, embarrassments and the usual stuff of growing up. They would kill me if I wrote about it. 

Sonnet and I sit outside, Friday afternoon, in the South Kensington sunshine, scheming. 

Singapore

Skyline (photo from Planet Den)

I am in Singapore this week, flying out Sunday 11:30AM, arriving at the Changi Airport 7:20AM Monday morning. Brutal.

My day begins with a tour of Astorg-owned Linxens' manufacturing plant provided by the affable and knowledgable Ah-Ban, who has been with Lx for 20 years or from the company's earliest beginnings as Dupont Connector Systems.  Today, Linxens is the world's leading maker of connectors for smartcards with applications for your credit cards and the SIM cards connecting to your iPhone 6. The end product is shiny and industrial, covered in a plate of gold or platinum that you can see on your credit card chip, and delivered to OEMs in Asia and around the world. Linxens produces ca. 6 billion units a year with the Singapore plant accounting for about 4.5 billion. Talk about economies of scale.

Beyond the exhaustion of my flight, Singapore is a strange even surreal city which is perfectly manicured and organised like no other I have known. Unemployment is 2% and the skyline's growth, since my last visit in 2006, remarkable : it is literally a different place.

The skyscrapers have light displays. My hotel connects to an underground shopping mall complete with all the top glamour brands (jam packed at lunch, deserted by 7PM). The billboard ads are familiar: there's Charlise on Dior or Clooney for Nescafe and Kate doing Burberry.

It's a place where things are going on. Everyone wants to be rich and in a hurry to do so. So Western and so ... not.

Track Suit

I sit next to Madeleine, Saturday mid-day, and she looks over my shoulder as I write my blog. She tells me she is feeling "bored enough to be sitting here." Fair enough.  This morning she had a swimming workout and this afternoon she will hit Richmond with Marcus and maybe Molly. Madeleine says Richmond is about "food and shops. Whole Foods, Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Starbucks, Costa . .." She tells me it's easy to get to and fun.

Madeleine in her comfortable track bottoms which we Americans call "sweat pants". Of course, "pants' in England means nickers or underwear. I've gotten into trouble over that one.

On this photo Madeleine says "you can see my uneven toes."

Aneta Katie

Upper West Side

Well, the last we saw Aneta she was on her way to Western Mass to be a counsellor at a Jewish co-ed camp.  With mission accomplished, she now travels along the Eastern Seaboard visiting Washington DC and New York, or that's about as much as I can gather from my limited intel. Good times I'm sure. And to be young again.

Katie, meanwhile, goes strength to strength at the Op Ed Project. Here is a recent testimonial: "Before now, I never thought about becoming the CEO of a billion-dollar organization at 34. But here's to the OpEd Project and you, Michele, because--in this process--you've somehow taught me to become audacious and to stare down my own fears and go for it anyway."

Teenager In The House

So the kids are back to school.

Madeleine up this morning 5AM for swimming (dutiful mother Sonnet took her, then went back with a bacon-egg sandwich+juice box). Netball started yesterday. And Sonnet and I met her form teacher, Mr k, who has been teaching for 20 years and, prior, was a banker for which he apologises. Mr K seems pretty cool while Madeleine says he is slightly disorganised and often late. I note his hair uncombed and tie askew. We like him.

Meanwhile, Eitan refuses to tell us anything about his day. Par for the course I suppose. Unfortunately he has been sidelined from sports due to growth related injuries and pains so we are getting that checked out.  Yesterday, Eitan had an all-day team building exercise that would do any MBA program proud. Says Eitan, "whatever".

ND

Sunrise

I return to Paris Monday-Tuesday to catch up with l'equipe Astorg, who has had an active summer including three new investments before the August shut-down. The deals are interesting, too : Megadyne is the world's number-one manufacturer of polyurethane industrial belts; Sebia is the world leader in electrophoresis (a niche of in vitro diagnosis field) mainly for bone marrow cancers; and M7, a direct-to-home satellite Pay TV provider to almost three million households.

I do my usual early morning run which either goes Eiffel Tower (turn right) or Notre Dame (turn left). Both about 4 or 5 miles, 45 minutes. I then sit in the hotel lobby, drink coffee and read the newspapers (FT, Le Figaro). It is the quiet moment of my day.