Anto

"Uncle" Anthony has been a part of our house since we worked together at my Internet company eZoka.com during Web 1.0. Anto is from Australia, has an Italian passport, and lives in the cool part of Islington with three other lads. He splits between the nightlife and adulthood, and recently joined a software company for the entertainment industry and is proudly employee Number One in the UK. When with us, the kids have a run around and burn off some energy. On this particular occasion, Anthony bravely joins us for the school's Christmas Fair complete with Santa's Grotto, mold wine, and a thousand reved up mums including Sonnet who volunteer their afternoon to the holiday affair.

Xmas List

Eitan pastes his Christmas List above the fireplace. He has written the selection himself- see if you can match his words with his wants:

1. camr not toy
2. thunbrds
3. gardnign cit
4. sord and sheeld
5. pantign cit
6. u wokign santclos
7. bunch uv rings for magnomen
8. u wotargun
9.a cumputar
10. set uf ces

a. set of keys for the house
b. a computer
c. a water gun
d. bunch of rings for Madeleine
e. a walking Santa Claus
f. painting kit
g. sword and shield
h. gardening kit
i. Thunderbirds
j. camera (not a toy)

Answers: 1j, 2i, 3h, 4g, 5f, 6e, 7d, 8c, 9b, 10a

Postcard story

Grandma Silver sends Madeleine this post-card, and challenges her to turn the photo into a story. Here she goes:

It.... is.... the.... Eiffel Tower, and the windows are made of glass with snow on the top. And the blue thing coming down is an arrow dragon. The arrow dragon goes side-to-side on the windows and snow. The black things are cannon. The arrow dragon burrows down under the snow to find beatles to eat. If he's unlucky, the beatles will pinch him. The little lines on the 'X' are a cut in the building from the snow dragon. The other lines are for the snow dragon's house. The little black mark is the path the mommy dragon takes to work. The blue dragon knows his mommy because of those lines. The gap means that they are in danger from a grizzly bear. The bottom black line means the snow and the snowflake are friends.

Hot

This year 2006 is proving to be the hottest in England since record keeping began 350 years ago.

The summer saw near-record breaking temperatures that, while not surpassing 2004, were sustained over unusually long periods of time. Further, it has been the warmest extended summer period on record, according to the Met Office - and temperatures look likely to remain unseasonably high for the rest of autumn and early winter. Gardeners have seen their summer flowering plants lasting longer, late migrating birds are feeding up on bumper numbers of insects, and Mediterranean moths and butterflies are heading to Britain. According to Met Office figures, between May and September the average temperature was 16.2C. That is 2C warmer than in any year between 1961 and 1990. July was also the warmest month ever, September hit record temperatures, and now the first half of autumn has seen temperatures about 3C above average.

Kyoto, Mr. Bush?

Early days

Here's Eitan at less then three months. From the start he has been a happy personality and pleasure, including his big smiles which instantly bond him to us and, more pragmatically, to Sonnet's boob.

Last night we have dinner at the River Cafe in Hammersmith and one of London's finest. The restaurant, adored by foodies of all shapes and sizes, was opened by Chefs Rose Grey and Ruth Rogers, and has trained up many culinary stars most famously Jaimie Oliver. We join friends Dave and Tabitha Claydon for a four course Italian meal - the food is as simple and unpretentious as Italian should be, with great kicks of lemon, parmesan, tomato or chili. Tabitha and Sonnet became friends around babies in North London, and our paths nearly crossed at Columbia where Tabatha was a TA for Jimmy Rogers popular class on value-investing. Jimmy and Tabitha travelled together on a pair of BMW motorcycle, visiting 180 countries in their trek to establish a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, which they did. Rogers wrote a book, "The Investment Biker," which can be found on most MBA book shelves, though I don't have one. Today, Tabitha and Dave have three children, a house in St John's Wood, and a country home in Bath where Sonnet and I have visited with the children on a number of warm occasions.

The Moon And The Sky

Madeleine and Eitan display their own interpretations of the world surrounding them. These paintings created yesterday, Sunday, during a rainy day inside. Madeleine's painture above presents the moon-lit sky with stars and street lamps on our block. She cuts off the corner edges for some reason. Eitan shows the night-time sun in the upper left corner, a smiling earth and the Milky Way on the bottom right. The blotches of blue-black and red are stars, and the wiggly lines and pointy dots gravity. These treasure now hanging in my offices.

Sunday Chatter Boxes

Madeleine, talking to (grandma) Gracie in California this evening, asks to speak to "the cat," also known as "Sweetie Pie," which she does for several moments then promises to draw the cat some pictures.

On our Sunday afternoon drive in Richmond Park we pass a buck mounting a doe. Madeleine pipes up from the back seat: "Look! The deer are hugging!"

Eitan, drawing quietly at the dining room table, starts: "Aw, man- I peed in my pants!"

Madeleine: "Daddy will you have square eyes forever?"
Me: "What are square eyes?"
Madeleine: "Square eyes are when your brain goes mush, you can't think properly, and you have to wear glasses."

Me (to kids arguing about some toy): "Stop fighting - we share everything in this household."
Eitan: "Well, you don't share your computer!"
Me: "That's because you don't know how to use it."
He, storming off, slamming door: "I do know how to use it. I use it at the library where I play catching-parcels!"

And it continues....

Eitan to Madeleine: "You don't know how to play the computer."
Madeleine, indignant: "I do to!"
Eitan, matter-of-factly: "No, you don't Madeleine."
She: "Yes- when you are at school, I played with Aggie's six times."

Madeleine at the table playing with her waffles: "Look mum, I've made a boat with people on it."

Eitan's favorite story: 'There is a bear in the woods having a poo. He is standing next to a rabbit. The bear says to the rabbit "does poo stick to your fur?" The rabbit says no, so the bear wipes his bottom with the rabbit.' This gets the usual guffaw, and especially effective when told at a dinner party to our older guests like last night's Thanksgiving. Another funny I have taught him is to break a rubber band, wrap each end around a finger, and pretend sneeze separating hands quickly so rubber looks like snot.

Wet

We endure a rain-soaked, and cold morning of football at Palewell common. What starts out as a lovely clear morning turns sour - and we are stuck on the pitch with little more than an umbrella and good cheer (mostly). Madeleine scores four goals - two actually legitimate - as her side triumphs in the pee-wee division. She is the largest kid in the group and, I'm proud to say, the most nimble on her feet though she can bludgeon the ball on occasion. Eitan is slippery, and has mastered the "tackle" - he slides onto his knee, other leg fully extended, and strips the ball from an attacker. As the kids play at different hours, Madeleine and her friend Wylfie entertain themselves by climbing a tree.

On the walk home: "Madeleine, what is one plus one?"
She:"Eight?"
"No."
"Nine?"
"No"
Ten?
No
Eleven
No
Twelve
No
Thirteen?
No, you're guessing.
Dad! you always ask me the hard ones!

Rana and Kambiz, Darya and baby Alexander, and Rana's mom Ann join us for a belated Thanksgiving dinner (it's Saturday). Sonnet and Rana prepare an 18 lb. turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas and of course pumpkin pie. We drink champagne and talk about the war, babies and the good 'ol U.S. of A. (Ann is visiting from Indiana, and in London until January). The only thing missing is eight hours of (American) football. Afterwards, Eitan and Madeleine stay up late watching Ice Age 2, a reward for helping me rake up the leaves in the back-yard.

Gomez

I return to London yesterday on the red-eye. After a quick nap (Madeleine I find staring at me at some point), I visit my office and organise myself and make a few semi-coherent Skype calls. Sonnet and I meet for dinner (she looks fabulous) and then see Gomez at the Hammersmith theatre in London. Gomez is a British band formed in 1996, who signed their first album with Virgin Records in 1997. In 1998 they won the Mercury Prize for 'Best Album', and have continued to produce interesting alternative rock ever since. They remind me of Pearl Jam. Eric Price introduced me to the group, and while not to everyone's taste including Sonnet (we leave after one hour) I like the sound. It's groovy.

Bring it on, make it right
Bring it on into the light
Pick me up satellite
If its wrong, make it right

I drop the kids off at school , and Madeleine and I practice our West Coast slang. I tell her to ask Aggie if her lunch today is "righteous" , or "totally gnarly." She tells me matter-of-factly that she does not want to be a surfer when she grows up. I ask why? and she says "because there are Tiger Sharks, and they will eat you." This is a fair point. Eitan chimes in that "Tiger sharks are the most dangerous shark there is, but only found in Hawaii."

Park Ave.

I see Mary for breakfast this morning at The Brasserie, just across Park Avenue from Park Avenue Plaza where I worked at First Boston as a Finanacial Analyst - my first job out of college. The Brasserie used to be open 24 hours, and always a good option when pulling an all-nighter for a next-day-pitch for some high-demand-client at who-knows-where. Mary is vibrant as usual, and on her way down-town to the NASDAQ, meeting a friend who is ringing the closing bell and is the CEO of the national food bank network called Second Harvest (Mary drops this in as we separate). Otherwise, she and her family are well and educated or educating on the Upper West Side, and her career marches forward at The Boston Consulting Group.

Letty, our former nanny and beloved by the kids and Madeleine especially, stays the night with us (she now lives in Norfolk). To their delight, Letty picks the children up from school, spends the afternoon with them at the park and elsewhere, then takes them to a special dinner at Pizza Express (their choice!). Madeleine and Eitan set up a military style sleeping camp in their room, and insist that Letty is there for the sleep-over.

NYC

This photograph taken in the middle of Park Avenue and 47th, at 2300. New York has changed since I lived here last in 1997. It is clean- I mean, really clean. I have yet to see graffiti of any sort, trash or even the occasional chewing gum wrapper on the sidewalk. There is always a manic vibe, and this time no different as the Christmas lights go up on Madison Avenue and the shoppers arrive for Thanksgiving weekend. Katie and I have a late lunch and coffee at the Rockefeller Cafe next to the ice rink. We are seated by a window and can watch people smack the ground. I arrived yesterday, and will see a few more friends tomorrow before returning to London for our own Thanksgiving, which we will host this year as in the past.

MoMA

Katie and I meet today at the MoMA in Midtown to spend some time with Pablo, Eugene Delacroix, Van Gaugh, Jackson Pollack, Seurat, Monet (of course) and other friends. My favorite is Picasso's 'boy leading a horse' which I remember seeing vividly for the first time in 1991.

Katie tells me that her favorite is the Joseph Cornell box with the doll and twigs, which she likes because it reminds her of Edward Gorey's children's (sort of) book, the Gashleycrumb alphabet (especially "N is for Neville who died of ennui").


We also visit photographers Jonathan Monk, Barbara Probst, Jules Spinatsch. Probst has an interesting approach of training four cameras on her at different angles and wired to take a picture at precisely the same moment. The result is disorienting and forces the viewer to consider how the environment forces Probst's reflection.

Tonight Katie and I have dinner in the Village with long ago First Boston colleague and friend J. Kelly Flynn and his fiancee of three weeks Christine, Tim Larrison and his girlfriend Kitty (whose father has published a book on his experience of the Holocaust in Poland), Jim Ledbetter and his friend Anne, who I learn is the Senior Editor for the New York Times Book Review, and a bunch of Kelly's friends including Mike who generously provide us with wine from his collection covering many vintage years and locations. Well done.

LA Coleseum

This is the L.A. Coliseum where the Bears got trounced yesterday by USC 23-9. The first half looked promising for us and we went into the half-time break leading 9-6. It all went pear shaped however, when Cal was outdone by superior size and bad reffing. Adding to the injury were the loud-mouthed 'SC fans who didn't let up throughout. On the positive side, I stayed with Berkeley friends Christian Wright and Mike Schrag at The Roosevelt hotel in Hollywood (as a side bar, Burt Reynolds was there and I overheard two teenagers: "who is Burt Reynolds?" Have I become so ancient, I wonder?) while Matty and Daniel Price join us for the tail-gating and game. Christian and I nurse our spirits and hang-overs with an upward run into the Hollywood hills on Runyun Canyon trail, which eventually presents us with a spectacular panorama of Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The temperature presses against 90 degrees and it is easy to understand why, despite it all, people love this place.

Sloan

Thursday I have dinner and spend the night with the Rob and Sloan Klein family in Mill Valley. Sloan founded Sextant Search three years ago, informing me casually that she was going to start a business as we swam across Lake Alpine in the Sierras. Today, Sextant is one of the leading executive placement and advisories to private equity and finance companies in the United States, and many of Sloan's clients are the most recognisable in their particular expertise. After founding her company with several partners, and reaching a point where the business is now stable and profitable, Sloan has stepped back to find professional balance and focus her spirit on her two children Sophie and Jaimes. She still keeps a client or two, but now her time is spent where it counts, and it shows during my visit.

CW 'SC

Here I am at the Cal-USC football game (thank you Christian Wright). Otherwise, the hype this weekend is about the #1 Ohio State v. #2 Michigan in Columbus, Ohio. The two teams are both undefeated, only the third time they have met unblemmished in their 103 rivalry and first time both ranked so highly. The winner will take the Big Ten title, and go on to the BCS championship bowl for a shot at the national title. If not for Cal's maddening defeat by Arizona last weekend, our game in L.A. would have enjoyed similar attention.

I meet with the fellow who is opening investor Fondinvest's US offices. Fondinvest manages money for CDC and the French postal service and so an important private equity player. At a cool bar, we converse in french receiving quite a few bemused glances. This makes me feel pretty good. Pardieu!

Traffico

At 0630 this morning I drive across the Bay Bridge to avoid rush-hour traffic (I don't) and am welcomed by an orange and pink sunrise pointed by the Campanile on the UC Berkeley campus with the North Berkeley seismic hills in the background.

I admit that it feels a bit like 1999 all over again, and I am happy to see companies like Squidoo, Bebo and Moblabber get funded. As one entrepreneur says to the Times: "We lose money on every transaction, but we'll make it up in volume."

AOL announces a new business mode: 100% free! America, unlike Britain, is a can-do country and California is the heart. Why Silicon Valley exists must date back to the earliest 49ers, when people crossed the country at their peril to find gold and re-create themselves. This continues onward today, and Californians are special in their spiritual outlook.

Where else can blowing millions of dollars of venture funding be viewed as part of the learning experience? Those who do overcome the J-curve want the rush again - retirement is not an option for those under the age of, well, never. Along with Industry Ventures and Walden Venture Capital, I will meet the founders of PayPal tomorrow.

These guys made their money when they sold to Ebay in 2002, and now they have launched new companies Friendster, LinkedIn, Slide, Facebook and others.

Maples

Another photograph from last weekend, this shot taken in Green Park at the Canadian Memorial.

Today I arrive in California to spend the night in my old bedroom in Berkeley. Tomorrow I will be with our fund Industry Ventures in San Francisco, then the Cal-USC football game on Saturday in Los Angeles. The Bears loss to Arizona last weekend dropped a sure top-5 ranking and a shot at the championship bowl series in January. Still, if we defeat the Trojans, now ranked third in the country, we will go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959.

While driving from the airport this afternoon, I listen to Henry Waxman on NPR. Waxmen will soon chair the House Government Reform Committee and drew a funny reminder that the Republicans investigated Clinton for sending Christmas cards, and failed to look into Iraqi contracts, wire tapping, the war.... Ah, it's good to be in the Bay Area!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

This photo of Catherine taken on the morning of her wedding to Peter Shiao, July 22, 2006 at the Ritz Pasadena. Sonnet, the Maid of Honour, is in the background (probably calling me to make sure the kids are ok). This photograph taken by Scott Lightner.

Lions

I ask Madeleine, sitting next to me now, what she was thinking about when I took this photo. She: "I was thinking about a baby lion when the hunters killed the baby lion (Madeleine makes a growling face). The baby lion then stood up on her hind legs. Then the hunters killed her again. The hunters killed the lion because they didn't have anything to eat, and that was not a way to respect the baby lion. The owner of the baby lion and the woods was angry at the hunter. The next morning, brown smoke cleared up the air. A horse came by and saw the meat . He ate the meat. And then he ran away because the hunters came. He was shot because the horse bent down. the owner thought she was dead, so the owner put him in prison. Then a man from a station came, with a crocodile. And a phone. He said to the hunter: 'are you dragging him away to jail? You will not be a hunter if you go to jail.' "

Green Park

Madeleine gets a free ride in The Green Park, which is one of the Royal Parks of London. 

Covering an area of about 53 acres, GP was originally a swampy burial ground for lepers from the nearby hospital at Saint James's. It was also a favorite spot for Mayfair dandies to have a duel. The park was first enclosed in the 16th cnetury by Henry VIII. In 1668 Charles II made it a Royal Park, laying out the park's main walks. The park lies between Hyde Park and St. James's Park. Together with Kensington Gardens and Buckingham Palace, these parks form an almost unbroken stretch of open land reaching from Whitehall and Victoria Station to Kensington and Notting Hill. 

By contrast with its neighbours, Green Park has no lakes nor any statues or fountains (except for Canada Memorial), but consists entirely of wooded meadows. The park is bounded on the south by Constitution Hill, on the east by the pedestrian Queen's Walk, and on the north by Piccadilly. It meets St. James's Park at Queen's Gardens with the Victoria Memorial at its centre, opposite the entrance to Buckingham Palace. To the south is the ceremonial avenue of The Mall, and the buildings of St James's Palace and Clarence House overlook the park to the east.

I tell Madeleine that a boullion cube is a caramel. She stuffs it into her mouth, grimaces and spits into the sink. Eitan and I have a hardy laugh; Sonnet rolls her eyes.

The Friends

Bruce and Diane Friend visit London on their return trip to Berkeley from India. I have known the Friends since the early 1970s when our families and others celebrated the Jewish Cedar. I am happy to report that they are vibrant and remain true to their liberal roots. After breakfast at The Wolseley in Mayfair, we walk through Green Park on our way to Trafalgar Square to pay tribute to the fallen soldier. Today, and the same every November 11, 1100 hour, since 1919 England stands still for two minutes to honor wartime dead. The somber moment begins with a fly-over by six Royal Navy carrier helicopters as the St. Martin's bells clang. Precisely two minutes later four Harrier jets pass overhead. After saying our good-byes to Bruce and Diane, Sonnet and I walk The Mall towards Buckingham Palace and the kids stop to build a fortress in Geeen Park. On our return to the car, we pass by the New Zealand War memorial in Grosvenor Square, to be opened today by Queen Elisabeth II. Madeleine takes a nap in the back seat on the drive home.

Eitan to me this morning, very seriously: "Do not come into my room. It's booby-trapped."

Elections '06

The world is righting itself, following Virginia who gives us a Democratic Senator with the slimmest of margins or less than 8,000 votes from 2.3 million cast (surely a recount) following Montana and so the Senate. We also gave the Republicans a "thumping" in the House. The times they are a' changing.

Tuesday’s election was an overwhelming victory for us Democrats. Candidates planning to caucus with the Democrats took 24 of the 33 Senate seats at stake this year, winning seven million more votes than Republicans. In House races, Democrats received about 53 percent of the two-party vote, giving them a margin more than twice as large as the 2.5-percentage-point lead that Mr. Bush claimed as a “mandate” two years ago — and the margin would have been even bigger if many Democrats hadn’t been running unopposed.

I do the school drop-off this morning, wearing my running kit for a loop in Richmond Park afterwards. I've not worn these togs before, so I'm not surprised when I get several unusual looks from the mums. Yes, I am American and eccentric. Madeleine, in the school line-up pulls me close and asks "why is everybody looking at you dad?" Me: "because I'm wearing my running outfit." She: "No, it's because you've got that paper on your chin." Gasp: I had cut myself shaving and forgot to remove the toilet paper.

Here is a cool new word I learned today from my friend Dale West:
Solipsism - 1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.; 2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.

Ava

Halley and Ava spend the night with us, as Ava must renew her American passport. We last saw Halley at Catherine Majkut's June wedding in Southern California, so we have a chance to do a re-cap and relive the affair, including the Madeleine Episode when she pulled a runner (broadcast announcement moments before the ceremony: "has anyone seen a little girl in a blue dress?"). Ava is in year 1 at the St Leanard's school in Exeter where, she informs me, she has "lots of friends" and is having fun. Together with Madeleine and Eitan, the kids run wild and I have to take them for a cool-down walk and some 'time-trials' (running up and down the block so they can burn off energy). Following dinner, the kids plop themselves down in front of The Muppets, while the adults drink a glass of wine. Bedtime antics keep the house up well past bedtime for everybody.

Football

Eitan takes his sport seriously, and this afternoon Sunday we head for the the common to practice some ball skills. I no longer handicap myself when playing with him - Eitan is quick, and agile. We first practice run-and-shoot drills, then ball control and finally the two of us square off for a one-on-one, which he wins 4-3 (okay, I let the last goal slip through as I wanted to leave). Eitan plays Saturday mornings as always, and Monday afternoons with his school club. And his favorite premiership team? Could be Arsenal, could be 'spurs, could be Chelsea... we will see which way the wind blows regarding this all-important, life time commitment.

Spy state

Food for thought in Britain:

-there is one CCTV camera for every 14 people. On average, a citizen is caught on camera more than 300 times, or once every five minutes

-there are 5,000 speed cameras and 8,000 automatic plate recognition devices. London's Metropolitan police have introduced "eye in the sky" cameras attached to helicopters that can read numberplates on the ground.

-a mobile phone stores information, and in 2002 law enforcement made more than 400,000 requests for data from mobile network operators

-all UK Internet service providers must monitor the websites British users visit, and pass the information to MI5 under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill

-Loyalty Management UK, the private company that operates the Nectar loyalty card, has over 50% of the UK population holding one of their cards

Chores

There's a bit of a grumble this morning when I ask the kids if they wish to accompany me on my Sunday chores run. Eitan rejects the idea out-right, so on the fly I promise ice cream. Madeleine jumps on the opportunity, but Eitan, alas, must learn the hard way not to commit himself until all the facts are on the table. Madeleine and I go to Homebase for some household stuff including a potted flower she picks for Sonnet. Already Christmas is here, and a large area offers various holiday lights (on Oxford Street the other day I note that the decorations are way on). Following a few more stops, we visit the local ice cream parlor and not surprisingly given the temperature (8 degrees Celsius), we are the only customers. Madeleine is unperturbed and gets her favorite always - strawberry.

Halley, one of Sonnet's closest friends from Smith and now in Exeter, and her daughter Ava will spend the night as Ava must renew her passport tomorrow at the US Embassy on Grosvenor Square.

The Grill Is "On"

This evening I oversee the Guy Fawkes BBQ. I bring home 800 frozen beef burgers, 500 hot dogs and the equivalents in buns. Eitan re the BBQ: "are you going to be the only one?"
FYI this is the poster I drummed up for the bbq, where I managed to sucker seven volunteers to flip burgers and sausages which, by the way, contain "53% pork fat." Otherwise, the Sheen Mount fireworks celebrating the quartering of Guy Fawkes are impressive and culminate with a bon fire spectacular that lights up the sky. Madeleine is, frankly, terrified and Sonnet takes her into the school for comfort. In all, we, the PTA, sell over 1,400 tickets making the evening one of our top yearly fundraisers.

Eitan, last night, being ordered to bed: "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's all so boring."

Madeleine this morning on scoring a goal during football: "My coach was really happy, but he did not give me any gold."

Me, discovering the kitchen dishes in the backyard filled with mud: "what kind of a mess is this!?" 
Madeleine, matter-of-fact: "It's not a mess, dad - it's a mud stew."

Trick-or-treat

The Big Day arrives Tuesday, equally anticipated to a birthday or even Christmas. Eitan and Madeleine, costumes on and raring to go, bolt out the door and down the block to Andrew and Karen Pickup's house to meet them and one other family. On the way we pass pumpkins and Eitan amps out: "DAD WE'RE GOING TO MISS EVERYTHING!" Things settle down, and several bags of candy are collected by each child. The neighborhood turns out for the evening, including haunted-houses complete with faux spider webs, a stereo blasting spooky sounds and carved pumpkins. Two hours later, satiated, we return home and Eitan and Madeleine race upstairs to regard their loot. After hours, I foolishly nick a piece of candy not anticipating the boy to count each piece of his hard-earned stash. The next morning, half-asleep, I am accused of pilfering the treasure. No white lie on this one, and when I come clean the response is to be expected. Beyond tears and rage, Eitan marches into his room to hide the candy, and never to trust his paw again.

Lacroix

Natalie and I see Christian Lacroix at the V&A, definately a sexy affair. Sonnet has been working hard on this installment of Fashion In Motion, which takes place in the Raphael cartoon gallery at the museum. There are five shows today, culminating in a party for the French embassy and various members of the society enchanté.

Natalie and I met in 1997, when she was the Director of Strategy at Excite.com, her first job after Harvard Business School. Since, she has had a number of Managing Director roles in media companies including Discovery, Fox Kids and most recently Freemantle, where she oversaw the investment progam. When not in the board room or Executive Suite, Natalie can be found with her three children in St John's Wood, the youngest we met several weeks ago at his bris. Today she darts off early to host a Hallowe'en party for twenty trick-or-treaters. I stick around to look at Sixties Fashion, which is on display to February 2007.

Blustery Halloween

It is a blustery fall day in London and just perfect for Hallowe'en. Last night I tell the kids a genuinely scary account of the haunted "Miller's Farm", which has on occassion before entered my bedtime storyline. The gist is two boys who walk across an empty field to explore a deserted wood house on the top of a hill. They see a candle faintly buring inside and then the house comes forward to take them, never to be seen again. Eitan is bug eyed, while Madeleine wales that she won't be able to sleep. Tough going for them!

This morning while walking to school and surrounded by other kids, Eitan (from corner of mouth) tells me to "stop singing dad!"

Putney

I have the kids today, Sunday, as Sonnet prepares for the Lacroix Fashion-In-Motion at the V&A. Eitan has a mid-day birthday party in Putney, so I take them early to the Putney piers where the rowing squads launch into the river. We find that the "tide is out" and Eitan and Madeleine collect smooth glass bits while avoiding the swans and geese who harass them for a snack. The Thames is clean and tidal, and smells of salt. Other treasures found by Madeleine include tiny shells and water snails and other creatures captured for the moment in puddles. We spend some time talking about the why and the how of the river's tides, but really this is lost against the excitement of exploring the bank side. Here they race towards me as the sun sets across London. The day drifts by slowly thanks to the warm weather and extra hour from day-light savings.

Nugget

Madeleine and I go to McDonald's in Putney while Eitan attends Elliot's birthday party at Eddie Katz. It's a warm October day, and plenty of people are about this Sunday. We don't often have one-on-one time like this, and I receive lots of approving stairs from curious strangers (wish I had this prop in college). I see that Madeleine lives her life from one treat to the next and we move down the high street from chicken nuggets to chocolate croissants, to lolly pops... each time she demands equal treatment to Eitan's party. Finally, I explode: "give it a rest!" I say. She: "Ok dad -- after I have a treat."

This game continues until I give in - again. "You can just call me a sucker" I tell her. It's pretty clear she has learned today's lesson.

Droog

Mickey Carroll, a small-time petty criminal of Norwich, East Anglia, won £9 million in the 2002 lottery. Doing what comes naturally, he bought a mansion in the genteel town of Swaffham, built a racing track in the grounds, and invited all his friends round for a non-stop, drug-fuelled orgy. "I would buy a kilo of coke, 500 ecstasy tabs, 200 LSD tabs and a pound of cannabis," he told the Independent. "This would last us five days." Not surprisingly, the neighbours loathed him. "The reason me and one neighbour fell out was, I was on my field with my mates this black 4X4 drove towards us. I grabbed a bat. My brother-in-law a blade. By the time I could see who it was, I was shouting: 'It's the neighbor! It's the neighbor!' bit it was too late. Someone had already punched him in the head." Things got worse when he set fire to a pile of cars and a mobile home and, as Mikey lovingly recalls, "and we had £10,000 of fireworks - the kind that are like, you know, mortars." The locals prayers were answered when he was jailed this year for terrorising a Christian disco.

Yesterday Eitan and I spent the day with Shai and Ada Weiss, and their children Yuval and Ynon. We visited the Natural History Museum to see the Giant Blue Whale and other acquatics, and learn that "whales have blubber and eat plankton." From there we all go to Carluccio's in South Kensington for lunch. Sonnet has Madeleine to herself, and the girls do some shopping errands and then lunch at The Victoria.

Summer re-visited

Yoga, anyone? Sonnet introduced me to meditation and yoga in San Francisco circa 1993 when I would do about anything for her love. Sonnet's favorite remains Bikram Yoga, known as the "hot" yoga and founded in Southern California by a sadist. The idea is to sweat your ass off in an over-heated room filled with mostly naked women (ok, this can be good) covered with industrial carpeting to best capture the smell of sweat and feet. We struggle with our bodies, and mental state for 90 minutes, especially the beginners who sometimes must leave to vomit and/or recover. Afterwards, one's skin feels like rubber and there is a natural "high" similar, I imagine, to an opium coma. I sleep well. My problem is, and always has been my flexibility which is below average. While Sonnet can hit the most challenging poses like the "downward dog" and the "camel," I struggle to keep my balance. Here I can be seen practising the "Triangle Pose" (I think) while in the Sierras.

Green

This is a painting by Eitan. The kids are into their arts and I will post something soon by Madeleine. Last night I return to a wild household, with Eitann and Madeleine dressed in their Hallowe'en costumes, purchased at Woolworths thank you. Madeleine has a grey-green wig and purple and very pointy hat. And of course a broom. Eitan's outfit is a bit more difficult. It is a rubber face mask complete with nose-warts, stringy hair and sagging skin. He wears his pj's so perhaps the full effect is a tad lost. Next Tuesday at dusk I will chaperone the kids around the neighborhood with their pillow cases to hand, and their eyes filled with greed. Eitan already hordes his valuable candy, and is well aware of the pay-day from next week.

Meanwhile and with the exception of some needed rain, we have had an unusually warm autumn with temperatures stuck in the 60s. More to season, the leaves are falling and we have lost sunlight due to our high latitude. Now all I need is (American) football, and Cal to the Rose Bowl.

Determined

Madeleine, it is fair to say, is a determined girl (some might argue stubborn). Sonnet and I marvel at this quality on the fooball pitch where she is one of a handfull of her sex, tree-climbing and her household chores (sometimes they get done, sometimmes they don't). Today I watch her set her sights on the jungle-rings, where an older child easily snakes her feet around the bar. Madeleine sets out to do the same, but this is a deceptively easy task. She must pull her weight up, while positioning her head down, to crook her legs in the right position. She makes at least 20 sorties, then takes a break. Looking at me nearby, she growls: "Don't help me dad!" Of course she is also frustrated, and to be sure this is hard work. After the umpteempth effort, she finally figures out the trick and pulls herself up and over to victory. My heart fills with pride, and all of us can relax, mission accomplished.

Cackle

Madeleine this morning is in a good mood after having an extra hour of sleep (this week is half-term, so no school). Aggie arrives, and Madeleine chatters away while Aggie and Sonnet plan the day. I sit in the living room with Eitan listening. He: "Those girls sure do talk a lot, dad." Unfortunately for the gang, it continues to rain and Madeleine's beloved Yoga-bugs is cancelled (yoga for kids) presenting an occupational hazard for our nanny. Adding to the bummer is our hard-worked rose petal perfume. Last night we strained the scented water (the petals had been soaking for several days), which I boil to form a concentrate (I explain this to Madeleine and Eitan as I go along: "what is happening when water boils?" I ask. The kids reply rapid fire: Gravity! photosynthesis! Energy! until finally arriving at evaporation.). So how does my perfume turn out in the end? Madeleine: "it smells like cheese pizza dad."

Madness

Our day starts at Kew Gardens, where we go to see the pumpkins and other autumnal fair. Eitan and Madeleine collect rose petals, to be turned into perfume (it continues to rain, so anything occupying is good). Katie and I once did this at the Berkeley Rose Garden. A highlight is King George the III's Kew palace, which has undergone a full refurbishment and is now open to the public. It is a dramatic red. We learn that King George, who was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1760 to 1801, sired 14 children, but enjoyed only one grand child. His wife loved him. Of course, he suffered from the blood disorder porphyria, which was mis-diagnosed as madness and so he became a recluse the later half of his life spending much of his remaining time at the Kew house. During this period, Britain lost many of its colonies including the one across the Atlantic.

Sonnet works away at her book, making last moment corrections before the plates go to print.

Kew Gardens photo from the web.

Power

Yesterday we check out the Battersea Power Station, which is open to the public for the "China Power" exhibition thru 5 Nov.

The BPS was completed in 1939 and the first in a series of very large coal-fired electrical generating facilities set up in England as part of the National Grid power distribution system. This sparked off protests from Londoners who felt the building was too large and and ugly, and from those who were worried about the pollution. When it first opened, the station had a 105 MW steam turbine, the largest in Europe, and expanded to 500 MW after WW II.

The turbines stopped turning in 1981 at around the time the BPS became a Grade 2 listed heritage site so saving it from the wrecking ball. In 1997, Parkside International purchased the BPS and its 38 acre lot to build a shopping mall and condo playground in around the building. So far, design delays and inadequate transportation links have prevented construction, but £1.1B has been ear-marked.

My photo BTW is taken from the southside of the BPS, facing North or towards the Thames and Pimlico on the other side of the river. To the left is the railway heading to Clapham Junction and outward South. Famously the BPS was photographed with a giant pig-shaped balloon floating gently above the smoke stacks for the cover of Pink Floyd's rock album "Animals".

Monkies

We visit the Battersea Zoo, immediately across the river from Chelsea. Sightings include monkies, lemurs, a goat, some otters, a Vietnamese pot bellied pig (remarkably clean despite the mud), an ecu (the fastest bird on the planet) and my personal favorite the African Giant Snail. To touch the snail, one must wet his hand so as not to make it uncomfortable. Hell, I was concerned about the thing going after my kids. After the zoo, we find a nearby park where Madeleine climbs a tree. We entertain ourselves with tackle-and-tickle as Eitan and Madeleine race between "homie", or two trees 50 meters apart. Eitan takes risks I have never seen when promised one pound for a successful crossing. He succeeds btw, to my surprise, applying new "moves". I will adjust of course, but hey that kid runs fast. We check out the Battersea Power Station then Tobias's birthday party. Sonnet finishes her book and all of us are glad to see her when she returns to us this evening.

Rainy day museum

On a wet Saturday morning reminding me of the Cat In The Hat, the kids scatter their junk, er toys, in the living room to create a museum (which I call "the Museum of Modern Junk"). First, the infrastructure is created with couch and other pillows, a blanket floor and of course the gates - 10 water bottles placed at the entrence. My two curators explain the items: scissors, spider man figure, six marbles, magic ink pen for drawing things, Action Man, a bread knife, a football, one slipper, the TV remote (damn- that's where it has been!), a tennis ball, one side of a walkie-talkie, some tape and other things. Eitan and Madeleine then get down to the busy work of labeling each item. Arts, you see, run in the family.

Arthur

Arthur is my first friend in London, whom I met and formed a warm friendship with around running until age and injury prevented this shared pastime. Then, Arthur was the project engineer at TRW (now Northrop Grumman) overseeing a joint venture with O2 to provide a closed wireless network to Britain's police force and ensuring 99% availability (consumer mobile is way less). Arthur today remains my go-to pal on anything geeky, and we often discuss the abstract on a good British ramble which we used to do quite regularly pre-kids (our last walk several years ago started at Waterloo station at 8PM, ending well after midnight. More recently we biked to Oxford). Arthur bikes everywhere on his 20 year-old trusty ten speed (geer shifts on bike frame), and has spent the past three years re-wiring his penthouse near Regent's Park, NW1. Recently I asked Arthur to describe electricity for Eitan, and his response:

"Two parts to the answer

1) ENERGY
Energy is a thing that makes things HAPPEN, MOVE OR CHANGE. Examples: toaster, when you run, growing plants, driving a car, heating the kettle, burning a candle, even light from a light bulb is energy, light from the sun.

Every now and then, point out examples of energy in action as you go through the day

Main types: HEAT, MOTION, LIGHT, ELECTRICITY,

Energy is conserved: it moves around between objects and changes type, but it never disappears. Examples:
a. The toaster turns electricity into heat
b. When you run, you turn energy in your food into movement AND HEAT (which is why you feel hot when you exercise)
c. Growing plants take light from the sun and make it into plant stuff (and we get the energy back when we run and "burn off" the plants we ate the day before
d. Motion of car comes from energy in gasoline
e. The kettle makes heat out of electricity
f. Candle makes light and heat out of the energy in the wax (which came from the bees which ate plants which got the energy from the sun)
g. A light bulb makes heat and light from electricity

SO ELECTRICITY IS ENERGY - IT MAKES THINGS HAPPEN

Part 2 ELECTRONS

First, rub two balloons with a piece of wool cloth and show that the balloons repel each other. Explain that there are tiny things called electrons that repel (very similar to little magnets) and that we've just put electrons on the balloons from the wool cloth.

Wires are full of electrons. There's a power plant where they have machines that push on electrons and because the electrons push on each other, a push at the power station appears as a push on the end of the wires in your house (demonstrate pushing electrons by putting Sonnet, Madeleine and Eitan side by side (not front to back) in a line pushing pushing against each other's hands. Then you as the power plant push at one end of the line. Your push should propagate through the line and appear at the other end).

Show wires by examining the plug and cords going to all the electrical devices in the house (including lamps in the ceiling)

So electricity is just pushing electrons. So a push at the power station is a push in your house. All your appliances turn the push into some other kind of energy that is useful. Heat from a kettle, the turning of an electric drill (or if you don't have one, show the motor in the vacuum cleaner turning)

Eitan may not get it all on the first pass, but the concepts of energy and electrons are worth getting used to from early on

Phew!"

Kick the dog when he's down

This cartoon was sent to me by Sonnet's mom Silver, and seeing how today I mailed my vote to the Montrose County Clerk & Recorder for the November 7 mid-term elections, I feel pretty good about this. Heck, if general incompentency and vacent policy can't get voters riled up, a nice scandel does the trick. No surprise here, I vote my party. And no, I do not wish the state to change its consitution to block same-sax marriage. And yes, soliders and ex-combatents should have special rights for access to housing. Furthermore, the minimum wage should go up a bit, and schools should be required to spend 65% of their budget on teaching. Aren't these things basics for a healthy-like society?

Sonnet jogs into work this morning, so the kids and I mess about before the school run. I make up a story on the fly about a talking owl named Sam, and how he meets the Queen. Eitan tells me I'm old, and when I ask him how he knows - he states: "you are losing your hair." Kick the dog when he's down, I say.

Celia and Ozzie

Ozzie Clark the designer has been in our house it seems like forever - at least since Sonnet curated an exhibition of his work in July '03. Ozzie dressed the rock stars, actors and celebs of the '70s, and his clothes are instantly recognizable to that era and more generally. Celia Bertwell, his wife and design partner, introduced the fabrics that made Ossie's work so distinguishable. Ozzie was gay and his life ended tragically with drugs and a knife in the stomach in '96; he was destitute. This painting which I saw yesterday, and perhaps David Hockney's most recognised, is on display with other works at the National Portrait Gallery in London until May '07. It shows Celia standing, with Ossie and their cat Percy - normally the woman is in the chair. Also the painting captures the separation between the couple, and indeed they split only weeks after Hockney's portrait of them completed.

Sonnet to Tate

Sonnet at the Tate Modern, which used to be the Bankside Power Station and was deceased in 1981, may she rip. The turbine hall, where Sonnet stands, once housed the electricity generators of the old power station, and is seven storeys tall with 3,400 square metres of floorspace. Now and thanks to Unilever, the Tate displays specially-commissioned work by contemporary artists and will continue to do so until 2008. A boat may take one from the Tate Britain, Britain's national museum, to the Tate Modern which we have done before and do again yesterday.

The fashion in London this season and the past is jeans tucked into knee-high boots. This look seems to be everywhere with the young people we see, and the museum is a magnet for the cool, bored and uncombed, as well as us older folks like us with kids (children, you see, can run around with impunity).

Centrifugal force

The Flying Steamroller: we stumble on this strange art-work, owned by a private collector and family in Switzerland. Designed by Chris Burden, the steamroller is a huge sculpture of a twelve ton steamroller that is attached to apivoting arm with a counterbalance weight. The streamroller is driven in a circle until its maximum speed is reached or about 15 mph. At the same time, a hydraulic piston is activated and pushes up the beam from which the steamroller is suspended, causing the steamroller to lift off the ground. Because of the combined weight of the steamroller and the counter-balance, which is approximately 48 tons, the steamroller, once lifted off the ground, contineus to spin, or "fly". On this evening Chris Burden "drives" the thing, and we chat with him afterwards. Neat.

Today we meet Mike & Gretchen Bransford with their kids William (3 mos.), Rose and Henry. After lunch, we go to their closed garden in Kensington where the boys make a "potion factory and a dirt factory" from water, dirt, sticks, rocks, leaves and berries. When asked what for: "you poor it on the badies - it will kill them" (duh).

That river

Madeleine and us find a stairway to the Thames embankment by the Shakespeare Globe Theatre and Bear Wharf.

From the web: the river's name appears always to have been pronounced with a simple "t" at the beginning; the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. The "th" lends an air of Greek to the name and was added during the Renaissance, possibly to reflect or support a belief that the name was derived from River Thyamis in the Epirus region of, whence early Celtic tribes are thought to have migrated. However, most scholars now believe Temese and Tamesis come from Celtic Tamesa , possibly meaning 'the dark one'.The name Isis is given to the part of the river running through Oxford, may have come from the Egypti an goddess of that name but is believed to be a contraction of Tamesis, the Latin (or pre-Roman Celtic) name. Richard Coates has recently suggested that the river was called the Thames upriver, where it was narrower and Plowonida down river, where it was too wide to ford. This gave the name to a settlement on its banks, which became known as Londinium from the original root Plowonida (derived from pre-celtic Old European 'plew' and 'nejd,' meaning something like the flowing river or the wide flowing unfordable river).

Slide

"Voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind" this quote by French writer Roger Caillois perhaps best sums up Carsten Höllers seven story slide at the Tate Modern. There are four of them, and impressive sculptures in their own right. To date Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting for his idea. Already there is talk of making this a permanent fixure, similar ot the London Eye. The line is murder and anyway, when asked if he wants to go down the thing Eitan replies "No-o-o way, dad!" Madeleine is a bit more open to the idea, but even she hesitates: "will I die?" she asks.

Tate

Today we went to the Tate Modern to see the Carsten Höller five-story slides, which have received a fair amount of attention since the opening this week. Following a foggy football morning, we drive to Chelsea and take the Tate-to-Tate boat, or aproximately 12 minutes East on the Thames. Favorite sightings are the London Eye, Big Ben (of course) and Parliament, Westminster Bridge and barges passed along the way. This photo taken in the turbine hall at the museum, while I chase the kids around while they dart between tourist and other visitors.

Art Yard

Madeleine, not to be out-done by Eitan below, shows us her best impressionism in a missive for Sonnet. Madeleine attends Art Yard once a week, where the kids make paper mache monsters, pictures from glue and sand, and finger paints and colourful drawings. Some time ago I introduced the kids to 'ooblix' - a home-made corn starch and water mixture which has the nifty property of being gooey and solid depending on hand pressure (Sonnet has put a ban on this, by the way). It's fun to watch the kids take in their surroundings and produce stuff that means something to them (and us).

Eric Connally, who lives in Somerville and teaches math at the Harvard extension school, has been writing a book for some many years (he is also a member of a group of authors of a series of math books used in high schools across the country). We have known each other from college, when we painted houses in Providence. Back to the story: Eric's book agent called today praising his work. Knowing Eric, a space will be made in our minds next to Pynchon and Vonnegut and others of same edgy and dogged style.