Wonderful Copenhagen

A Dane on display

This is what everybody looks like in Cophenhagen (where I blog, awaiting a flight to Helsinki). And I think it is true. Or maybe it is the surprise of seeing so many young people in the cafes, on bikes, walking in the park.

Following lunch I go for a seven mile run around 'the lakes', a row of three rectangular lakes curving around the western margin of the City Centre, forming one of the oldest and most distinctive features of the city's topography. I have done this loop many times now. What is different: construction. There is a new, narrow, walkway and (soon) public area.  The students, strollers and sunshine seekers remain unchanged.

Istanbul Was Constantinople

Bosphorus, 1997

We are in Waybridge to watch Eitan battle Fleet in the Surrey Cup quarter finals - the farthest the lads have gone in this tournament. After an exciting win, 2-1, Sonnet takes Eitan to the first weekend of the Surreys swimming championships where the boy has qualified for nine events. Today he competes the 400 individual medley, only Sonnet gets the start time wrong and Eitan yelled at by Coach for failing to register on time. The boy allowed to swim in the first heat and gets DQ'd on the butterfly as his legs separate into a crawl-like kick. Sonnet says: "A bad day at the office."

Despite it all, Eitan comes home in a good mood, finishes off some homework, reads the Sunday sports and now both kids watch Harry Potter, which is like some soothing drug.

Me: "Have you ever had a detention?"
Madeleine: "If you're going to get a detention it better be for something worthwhile. Like carving your name into the wall."
Me: "That would probably get you  more than a detention."
Madeleine: "Yeah, but it would still be worthwhile, better than getting three spelling words wrong."
Me:
Madeleine: "Everyone would know that Madeleine Orenstein went to Emanuel School."

Rusty's Got Nose

Bonkers

After school, before swimming

Yep - Friday.

The EU announces a bonus cap on bankers at €1 million which is like chump change to a Master of the Universe. Further, it is not clear if employees of British banks stationed abroad are on the cap. Without question it will play into the hands of London's overseas rivals while undermining support in Britain for the EU.

"This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman empire." 
--Boris Johnson compares the EU to Roman emperor Diocletian who introduced an cap on food prices across the Roman empire in AD 301.

Eitan: "We got free cheese on toast at school today."

Me:

Eitan: "Because it's Saints David's Day, I think."

Me: "What's that?"

Eitan: "I don't know."

Sonnet: "Madeleine put your book away and join us. We are having dinner."

Madeleine: "What about Eitan? He is watching TV."

Sonnet: "But he is not having dinner."

Madeleine: "Well he should have to join us."

Me: "Do you really want your brother at the dinner table?"

Madeleine: "No!"

Me:
Madeleine: "I am just saying."

On PE

Eitan reads 'Charub'

I am back to London with a pocket full of business cards.  A highlight of my trip, somehow, was jogging by the start - and finish- of the '09 Berlin Marathon.

The private equity industry going through a structural change as fundraising in the worst post-peak trough the industry has known (fundraising levels at 40% of 2007/08 levels).  There are still Big Dollars flowing in but now going to fewer managers, including Astorg, who receive bigger checks.  "Bifurcated market" is a popular expression.

Meanwhile returns have fallen as plenty of capital competes for limited auctioned deals and leverage paired back : recall the famous KKR takeover of RJR Nabisco in '88 (at $25 billion, the largest ever at the time). The deal financed with 95% debt.  Today, equity accounts for 43% of all buyout transactions.  This doesn't help IRRs (but allows people to sleep at night).

Ours a mature industry which is obvious from the number of minorities (almost nil) and women (very few). Who is going against the grain to make the over-size returns? Who is allowed to do so by their institutional backers ?

West Berlin

Brandenburg Gate

Last time I was here it was not so nice.

I join the good and the great for the Super Return conference and shuffle about seeing familiar faces and catching up with friends.  The conference attracts over 1,400 "senior private equity professionals" (the website tells us) and is the largest private equity conference in the world. I would not doubt it. A highlight is Frank, who I have dinner with - Frank from Berlin and recalls the wall coming down; after that he involved himself in privatising German industry and now works for Deutsche Bank pe in Manhattan.

Sunday Night At The Movies

T-800

We are about to call it a night but then 'The Terminator' on television and who can resist that?  The indiscriminate killing of the innocent and police irresponsible but, boy, it is entertaining.

The 1980s glorified firearms - those stupid films like 48 hours and Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon and Tango And Cash or Tequila Sunrise - which showed machine gun spray as part of the buddy-buddy bonding experience.  The violence, already insinuated into the American psyche, morphed into video games and glocs and Bushmasters. Only now, like never before, the violence is for real.

"It's a hyper-alloy combat chassis - micro processor-controlled, fully armoured. Very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs...The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new, they look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot."

--Reese

"I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told she was here. Could I see her please?"
--The Terminator

Haiti Visit

Chaîne de la Selle, Haiti, 1997; 2,680m

Me: "How did Ava play ?"
Madeleine: "She's really good."
Eitan: "I think she was a bit nervous, having all of us around."
Me: "And you want to play at Old Trafford.  Do you think the crowds would effect you there??
Eitan: "No, because I wouldn't know anybody in the stands."
Me: "If you or Madeleine play in the Premiere League I will drop everything and follow you around to all your games. .. ."
Eitan, Madeleine:
Me: ". .. putting up a big banner: 'Go Madeleine!' "
Madeleine: "I would so kill you."
Me: "Or 'Eitan's Dad.' I am sure you wouldn't mind that, would you?"
Eitan:

One More From The City

Queen Victoria St and Cannon St

Sonnet back from Devon and not without drama as she has to add oil to the car en route. I take her through the steps to open the hood.  We re-union with hugs and kisses and my peaceful long week end comes to an end (I would be lying if I told you, dear reader, that I did not enjoy it. Madeleine: "Nice, Dad.").

Simon, the father of Billy, in Los Angeles to win an Oscar for the sound work to 'Les Mis.'  He has already won the BAFTA.

Fauja Singh, age 101, completes his last race, the Hong Kong 10K, in 1:32; in 2011 he celebrated 100 by running the Toronto Marathon (his eighth since turning 90).  Says he: "I am happy that I am retiring at the top of the game."  And there is hope for us all.

Cityline

From Oxo Wharf

Wheels

I miss my stop and end up at Ladywell and have 30 minutes before my return train so I chat up three local kids who goof about on their four-wheeler. Their thick accents difficult to understand but I enjoy the conversation about go-carts and mini motorcycles.  They are up for it.  Grandma watches in the doorway, cigarette hanging from lip, baby cradled in arm.

Me And St P

At St Paul's

Since by myself I (re)watch "The Wall", which has been on my list for some time now.  It does not disappoint, either.  Rock and roller goes insane following wife's infidelity and drugs plus a fatherless childhood and cruel teachers; he becomes a Nazi and rapes and plunders before becoming completely isolated then finally exposed before peers. At least that is what I understood.

Big Build

I check out the Shard, Europe's tallest building, that opened to the public a couple of weeks ago. At 95 stories it is pretty God damn impressive.

Across London there is work, work, work. Saturday no exception.  The Walkie Talkie near completion and, behind it, two more towers going up. At the Cannon St station an entire city block gone replaced by a dig hole for, presumably, another skyscraper. Blackfriars Bridge seems strange and I realise it is covered with solar panels.  And to think I recall a Second World War bomb site on Ludgate Hill now long gone replaced by office space.

This is a city on the move.

Cow Gal

Colorado

Ah, yes, Friday evening.

Until six or seven years ago I was a committed b and w photographer holding out from digital as long as I could then I couldn't.  In part (mostly) it is a time thing : spending the day in a dark room playing with chemicals an unaffordable luxury with the kids and work and everything.

I once developed film at the Battersea Arts Centre in an attic studio so cold in the winter I could see my breath. Still, it was tidy and surrounded by students and creative types. Good vibe. When that closed I found Photofusion in Brixton - London's largest not-for-profit photography centre funded by the Arts Council.  

My fellow developers at Photofusion all a bit odd - the elderly couple who made 1000s of theatre prints for professional purposes; the obese lady and her nudes.  Then there was the guy who took photographs of human bones.  We sometimes compared our work but usually it was an in-and-out affair. The result: seven prints worth keeping. Maybe.

Good Bet

Sonnet and the kids in Devon with Halley.  I take advantage of the evening to do some work, blog, watch TV .. .usual stuff.

On the walk home I pass Ladbrokes, a bright and vacuous gambling storefront with multi media showing the horses or dogs, a cash counter+betting papers to keep track of the action. A radio's broadcast incongruent with the sports screens.  Always there are middle aged men betting nickles and pounds. The enticement ads have not changed in 15 years (Andre Agassi with hair; some ancient rugby match). I imagine sitting in a KFC for five hours. This is what these guys do.

Ladbrokes the largest betting company in the UK and largest retail bookmaker in the world with 2,400 retail betting shops in the UK, Spain and Belgium.

So Preciousss

Mila Kunis, Gemfield's 'global brand ambassador'

Gemfield emerald mine, Zambia

Mark Eitzel

Sonnet and I see Mark Eitzel at the wonderful Bush Hall in Sheperds Bush with its red velvet curtains, long crooked mirrors and ancient feeling.  I have known Eitzel's music since '96 and his seriously depressing yet beautiful album '60 Watt Silver Lining" where he covers depression, heroine .. AIDS and loss.  And last night he is in no mood to pander to his audience who, BTW, look exactly like him : almost entirely middle age male, scruffy .. a lot of beards and plaid and stuff.  Eitzel asks us, his fans, for forgiveness yet fails to play his best songs , willfully ending on perhaps one of his worst and loudest.  So an interesting experience but, then again, Eitzel is from the East Bay so what should I expect ?

Sonnet sees Pipa Middleton in a South Ken sushi restaurant .. .with a boy .. .and me not there with my camera !

On The Pyroclastic Flow

Eitan and Shaheen

Walking with Rusty. Me: "Did you know a meteor hit the earth over the weekend in Russia? 1200 people were injured."
Madeleine: "Whoa. How big was it?"
Me: "15 meters. A bigger one hit Siberia in 1908 - maybe 100 meters. A large meteorite strikes earth every 10,000 years or so .. . the good news: you would go quickly."
Madeleine: "At least it is not a pyroclastic flow. That is the worst way to die."
Me: "What's that?"
Madeleine: "It's a fast moving river of lava and rocks. It would drag you along and crush you to death."
Me: "Would your eyeballs be squished out of your skull?"
Madeleine: "That would only be the beginning."
Me: "What else?"
Madeleine: "Your bones would snap and and your brains squished."
Me: "Sounds gruesome."
Madeleine: "Yep."

Party 11

Madeleine, Alex, Billy, Ollie, Molly, Maddy, Marcus, Zac

Madeleine's 11 party kinetic: nine screamers pumped on sugar race down the block with the dog barking like mad.  Sonnet and I roll our eyes and promise ourselves: "never again."

From lunch to the cinema and the "The Hobbit" (or, as I like to call it, "The-Never-Ending-Hobbit").  Who can tell the difference between Bilbo Baggins, Narnia and Harry Potter? It's all got the same wizard and evil orcs and spiders .. . good vs. evil and some precocious boy figure and so on and so forth.  By the half way point I stop trying to tell the orcs from the goblins (Zac, helpfully: "The Orcs are large and scary and the goblins are short.  And scary.")  After three hours I am orced out.

Watching the Hobbit like a zombie gore-soaked video game which loses all its impact mid-way through.  And I loved the book, which I found more interesting than "The Rings" trilogy. Shorter.  Recall the Star Wars battle b/t the Millenium Falcon and the tie fighers - there were only five tie fighters and it was, like, the most exciting thing ever put to screen. There are millions of orcs and after 15 minutes - who cares?

Zac: "That wasn't very realistic, Mr Orenstein."
Me: "I mean, why do trolls turn to stone in the sunlight? Nobody would buy that."
Zac: "And when the dwarves fell off the cliff, on that wood thing, and nobody killed... . "
Me: "Or when the Orc King landed on them and not a scratch .. ."
Molly: "It is not meant to be real. Just realistic."
Me: 'So you believe in an orc?"
Molly: "I didn't say I believed in that stuff. .. "
Me: "I'm with Zac.  Let's just say those dwarves and Bilbo Baggins are inside the mountain .. ."
Molly:
Me: "No way they could kill as many orcs as they did without a dwarf being taken out."
Zac: "Yeah!"
Me: "Stick with me on these things, Zac. I l know what I'm talking about."

Dana

Near Sheen Gate

Eitan non-communicative the past month giving up the occasional grunt to confirm or deny something and Sonnet and I wonder : is there a teenager in the house? Mostly his free time spent in front of the TV and a request for chores gets a simple "no."

I take the boy to football practise in Weybridge, Surrey.  We have learned Eitan's coach Marc will take a lesser role in the club next season after seven years.  Marc the reason we drive the distance for the All Stars, and the best coach Eitan has enjoyed in any sport (my opinion).  Marc committed to his boys and the football before the results (though Elm Grove in first place in their division and in the quarter-final of the Surrey Cup).

Madeleine not selected for a drama scholarship. She is disappointed but shrugs it off - there will other opportunities and she is committed.

Friday Night Lights

Madeleine in my office

Friday again. As with everybody in the UK, I and we are preoccupied with beef and whether it is, well, beef, so I am not chuffed when my friend tells me he is looking at buying a global German sausages company (his advice: "never eat a sausage"). I learn that the casings come in varied multiple sizes one mile long and look exactly like a (one-mile long) condom.  The casings no longer made with the intestine, either - far too inefficient - but rather paper or plastic.  US hot dogs have their own particular wrap : Americans like it to be "crunchy" or, at least, some texture; Europeans don't want to know it is there.  Did I mention that a hot dog can be up to 30% fat and a further 3% "unknowable" ?

Me: "Let's watch television. And Madeleine can do the dishes."
Madeleine: "Gee, thanks a lot Dad."
Sonnet: "Friday night family dinner."
Madeleine: "It's an original."

Madeleine: "Can I watch a wee bit of TV?"
Me: "Did you just say 'wee'?"
Madeleine: "It's Scottish, Dad. Not that you would know."

Got Beef?

2000

It seems like only yesterday that England faced Mad Cow disease and images of 100s of thousands of cattle being burned or stiff-legged spread around the world.  But those memories come back with the horse meat scandal (horse meat labeled 'beef') which has moved from budget chains like Icelands, Asda and (gasp) Tescos and packaged foods like Findus lasagnas (unit price £1.60) to upper-end groceries including Waitrose and even, gasp, our restaurant's beef burgers.  While not a health threat, it is mislabelling fraud and a criminal scandal of real scale, connecting low practises in France, Roumania, Wales, Northern Island and, in the end, England.  It is the most basic thing : can we trust what we eat and who serves it ?

Our butcher tells me that imported beef can be called British beef, if it remains in cold storage for one month or more.

Sonnet: "We should all be vegetarians."

Rusty Takes A Leak

The dog mostly compensates for himself.

Photo from Sonnet as I blog from Montreal (or "monreal" as the canucks say).  Yesterday it was Toronto.  I travel with my friend Thierry who is a sophisticated parisienne and we laugh at the underground food mart where we have sandwich 'wraps' for lunch - it is not the 8e. but at least it's not the Boston Chicken Market.

Barn Elms

At Barn Elms

The Eagles play at Barn Elms, in Barnes, a fifty-two acre greenfield with football pitches, tennis courts and a quarter-mile track that I use on occasion for the hell of it. It is next to the Wetland Center.  

The grounds once part of a manor house owned by the Archbishop of Cantebury and, before that, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's; it once hosted the Fulham FC and the Ham polo club.  The Vice Chancellor of London lived here for a while and Queen Elizabeth would visit her Spymaster on the grounds.  

By 1954, the manor was burnt out and so demolished. Developers circled but the community petitioned the Richmond Borough of London to take control of the grounds. Control granted, and Barnes created the Barn Elms Sports Trust to ensure its future.

"I walked the length of the Elmes, and with great pleasure saw some gallant ladies and people come with their bottles, and basket, and chairs, and form, to sup under the trees, by the water-side, which was mighty pleasant"

--Samuel Pepys

Evening Wear

Sonnet and I to James and Emily's 15th anniversary party where we see new friends from their son's summer Bar Mitzvah.  We are unprepared with a lyric, as required, and listen with delight to others  which are genuinely touching or hilarious or both. Since dress meant to be "somewhat OTT", I drape myself in Katie's African wrap.

Sonnet wears Silver's dress, a 1985 Norma Camali. Out of the picture are her gold slippers.

FB Sunday

Half-time pep talk

It is one cold morning to be on the pitch but the Barnes Eagles shrug off the weather and draw 1-1 with the Colne Valley Ladies FC, scoring the equaliser mid-way through the second half.  Madeleine almost knocks in the winner and there are several further chances for the victory. In the end, both sides celebrate a hard-fought competition and the Eagles rejoice against a team that beat them 2-nil when last time together.

Greyhound

Madeleine tries Vodka

And it's TGIF.  I return from Paris for a Friday night with my ladies while Eitan at swimming practice.  We have dinner and discuss stuff : Sonnet's run-through of the objects in La Moda, Madeleine's birthday gifts from school friends, the week end and so on and so forth.  I have been waiting for this evening all week and here it is.

Me: "So would you like to have Daniel over for a play .. . oh, shit, I'm not supposed suggest those things."
Madeleine: "Dad! It's OK anyway. I want to have Daniel, Peter and Sidique over."
Me: "Cool.  Can I wear my cow suit?"
Madeleine: "Oh, my God, Dad - you are not wearing a cow suit. I will rugby tackle you if you do."
Me: "How about vampire teeth. And red blood?"
Madeleine: "I am changing this conversation."
Me: "Next week then? It's all set."
Sonnet: "Don't listen to your Dad, Madeleine, he's just being silly."
Madeleine: "That's exactly what I am afraid of."

Paris Wheel

Place de la Concorde

When the conditions good, the camera disappears- this one with my mobile and it wouldn't be much better with the DSLR. The shot from Tuileries garden next to the Jeu de Paume, now closed for renovations; it is otherwise one of my favorite museums as it shows photographs and photographers and conveniently convenient to where I stay in the 8e. Also in the the Tuileries is the Musée de l'Orangerie which displays Claude Monet's large water lily paintings.

I contemplate a ride on the ferris wheel but decide it is equally pleasant in my sunset vista. Besides Sonnet not here so what's the fun in that ?

Madeleine Turns 11

Madeleine turns a year and we celebrate at Cool Sushi.  Her gift: A remote-control glider (when it arrives, I tell her it is a vacuum cleaner for her chores).  Madeleine is the love of my heart and the daughter I could only dream of.  I can never so 'no' to her.

Madeleine puts candles on a triple layer cake that is two layers since the dog got the middle layer

Deb And Dave

45 York Ave

Me: "Anything going on at school?"

Madeleine: "No."

Me: "More, please."

Madeleine: "Well, there are the cool kids in my class. .. "

Me: "Oh?"

Madeleine: "It's really annoying. Like, Eric, he is always playing with the year-sevens.  And all the girls are, like, in love with him."

Me: "He must be dreamy."

Madeleine: "I don't think so."

Me: "Are you one of the 'cool kids'"

Me: "There are the 'cool kids' and the 'uncool kids.'  I'm definitely not with the 'cool kids."

Me: "So you're with the 'uncool kids?'"

Madeleine: "Yeah, but we are the cool ones of the 'uncool kids'."

Me: "What about the uncool kids in the cool gang? Could they be one of the cool kids in the uncool gang?"

Madeleine: "We would never let them in. Fred wants to be in our gang but he's uncool and he hit me on the head with his backpack."

Sonnet: "I hope your not excluding anybody from something, are you Madeleine?"

Madeleine: "The cool kids are called 'the tree gang' because they are always lounging about in a tree."

Me:

Madeleine: "But they can't go too high because then they will get a signature."

Me: "That must be pretty cool."

Madeleine: "Yeah, unless you fall and break your arm or something."

Me: "Good point."

The Programmer

Dave with a ball chucker

Dave and Deb, who I have know since 7th grade, with us this week.  Dave a programmer for Intuit where he has been since '99. His skill rewarded with Intuit's mobile payment platform which may be the company's future. When not cracking code, he is doing Tai Chi - 1.5 hours every morning.  He is a calm dude who absorbs information - nothing goes by him.

Last night we see Mr Bean, otherwise known as Roan Atkinson, in the play 'Quartermaine's Terms' (Playbill: "a tragicomic play, humorous but ultimately moving account, of several years in the lives of seven teachers.")  I can see why Atkinson chose the part following Bean and Bond spoof "Johnny English" - Quartermaine allows him to be subtle.  Deb an actress and in seventh heaven.

Richmond Park, Mid Day

Pen Pond

Belly Laugh

Both kids have a wonderful sense of humor and it does not take much to get a laugh out of either. All the easier if it includes something gross but sometimes my subtle touch breaks through. Not. It's one of the most enjoyable things about their age.

School Work

Madeleine does her homework

The weekend rule, often forgotten or dismissed, is homework before television. Eitan uses homework to escape chores but then cedes the battle over Match Of The Day.  His choice.  Madeleine less interested in the boob tube preferring Harry Potter by Stephen Fry instead.  Hundreds of hours, all in. Will she or they ever outgrow the wizard's hold?

Amazon.co.uk: "How long does a Harry Potter recording take to make?"
Stephen Fry: "It tears the arse out of three days really."

Burns Supper

Lars multi tasks 

We join Mitch and Rachel who host a Scot themed party (Burns day, at our around 25 January, celebrates the Scottish poet) and hagus with whisky duly served to the guests. Today Scotland v. England in Six Nations rugby (England wins).

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,    (hurdies = buttocks)
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
--Robert Burns

All In The Gang

San Ramon ca. '72

This photo on my parent's grand piano in Berkeley.  Johnny in the middle with the patches on his knees (his nick-name, from his sailor Dad, was 'bony nogg'n" since he fell down a lot as a kid; we collected salamanders and stole a shopping cart for the wheels).  Behind Johnny, his sister Rosy (white roller skates) and to the left, Vicky, whose father was the Chief of the Berkeley Fire Dept.  On the tricycle is Eric. I ate ant poison outside Eric's house and rushed to the hospital; his parent's never apologised nor said a word.

I am liking my style (far right) : over sized striped sweater, polo (fresh collar) and slightly baggy trousers+trainers.  It was all Grace.

The Hillbilly Cat

Katie sends a post card from Graceland, Tennessee.

Elvis's final years not pretty and I am glad to have missed his decline. The sheer wackiness of his final Southern style make him a curio in 2013 and yet the music remains killer. From '54's "That's All Right" (which still jams by today's standards) to '72's "Burning Love" with its boogie piano, horn-laden chorus and the final "hunka hunka burning love" - no wonder it went no. 2 on the Billboards (Elvis, BTW, had 18 no. 1 singles, tied for second with Mariah Carey, and behind the Beatles' 20).  By his death, The King had sold more than 600 million singles and albums (source: IMDb).

Elvis as far out on the edge as one could be. I wonder if people would notice him in today's over-exposed porno saturated world ? How fanciful his hips censored on the Ed Sullivan show.

"I'm no hillbilly singer."

--Elvis Presley

Weird Times

Here's one from business school - I'm not really sure what happened to this guy.  I do recall he wrote a weekly for the "Bottom Line" newspaper where yours, truly, the Chief Editor, a title I shared with two others, in our spare time.  The paper took in money from i banks and consultants who advertised jobs to the graduate students. I decided we, the editors, should get paid and so negotiated a contract with the Dean's office which gave us a healthy cut of the profits; I then raised the ad rates and we did something like $80K net, which covered most of our trip to Central Asia.

Me: "How was school today."
Eitan: "Fine, we are doing the planets."
Me: "Fun."
Eitan: "When the teacher said 'Uranus' every one was trying hard not to laugh."
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "He said, 'and since 2001 we've seen Uranus 200 times.' Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Me:
Eitan: "You must admit, it's pretty funny Dad."

Go, Man, Go

Richmond Park near the Ballet School, 2005

I make the blunder of suggesting a running date for Eitan with Zeno, the kid who won the borough x country championships and a footballer in the Surrey League who Eitan sees from time to time (Zeno's mom and I in a communication over a photo I took of the boys racing).  Eitan aghast : "Dad! I cannot believe you did that." I recognise immediately my mistake having been in 7th grade once myself. The two will pair off tomorrow in the Middlesex cross country finals. 

For the first time, last year, the number of world tourists surpassed one billion (says the OMT).  By 2030, it may be 1.8 B.  Europe is the most popular destination ttracting 537 million guests in 2012.  We are One Big Museum.

Belshazzar

Madeleine and Sonnet

I sit next to Madeleine in the living room and blog while she does her homework, which is a review of Belshazzar's Feast.  Before, Madeleine and I have dinner together as Eitan at swimming and Sonnet in Italy scouting for La Moda.  Madeleine and I talk about the usual stuff - school, lunch, friends - and somehow it has snuck up on me that this kid is becoming a young woman. 

Balshazzar's feast BTW a painting by Rembrandt that I have seen on many occasions at the National Gallery: Its source taken from the story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall of in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (mildly terrifying).  Madeleine meanwhile examines the choral work on the same subject composed by Englishman William Walton in 1931.  My 6th grade, at Longfellow in Berkeley, we were counting our fingers.

Madeleine: "I never get why these old fashioned pieces have a long name so they torture you when you have to write it in class."

Mad Men

Lars and Puk last night

Madeleine's drama try-out goes well and she is satisfied with her performance. From there, it is Alex's birthday party - Madeleine reconnects with her Sheen Mount gang as though no time passed.  I know she misses her final year at SM but she also enjoys Emanuel and the initial shock-transition behind her.

Eitan bakes a banana raisin cake to sell to the neighbourhood.  Lars points out that he, and other neighbourhood Danes, unable to find a certain type of Danish whole grain bread - a hole in the market ? Eitan, for now, focuses on the sensuals.

Me: "How can you listen to that stuff on the radio? It's terrible."
Eitan: "No it's not."
Me, singing something I heard on Capital FM : "I know by your look that you gotta little crush.  The bulge in your pants it makes me wanna blush."
Eitan: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Me: "How can you stand it?"
Eitan: "I dunno. It's just good."

Annie Hall

Annie Hall, which I watched for the first time in jr. high, provided the first insights into an adult relationship. I saw it next at the Avon Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island (Midnight showing) and then again this afternoon with Eitan.  Annie's growth (contrasted to Alvy's stagnation) presents the movie's tension - she moves on leaving Alvy stricken.  I love California portrayed as a cultural wasteland ( yet such an inviting contrast to Manhattan).

The best scene in the movie BTW when Alvy and Annie Hall at a deli and she orders a pastrami on white bread with mayonnaise and tomato and lettuce. Woody Allen's eyes roll (my photo from the TV)

Alvy is invited to try cocaine.
Alvy: "I don't want to put a wad of white powder in my nose. There's the nasal membrane..."
Annie Hall: "You never want to try anything new, Alvy."
Alvy: "How can you say that? Whose idea was it? I said that you, I and that girl from your acting class should sleep together in a threesome."
Annie Hall: "Well, that's sick."
Alvy: "Yeah, I know it's sick, but it's new. You didn't say it couldn't be sick."

Czech Invasion

Kamila in town to see "the monuments" which means Top Shop, H&M, River Island - in short, Oxford Street to Westfield.

Madeleine tries out for a school scholarship in drama :  She must act a passage from The Dawn Treader in the The Chronicles of Narnia.  I ask if she is nervous? "My goal is not to throw up on stage" (she tells Sonnet).  Madeleine selected, with 19 children, from an applicant pool of 100 ; the top three earn the honors.

Sonnet: "Say 'break a leg' "
Kamila: "Why say that?"
Sonnet: "It is meant to bring good luck."
Kamila: "I hope you break both your legs."
Madeleine:

Lucerne

The Church of St. Leodega (completed 1639)

Friday, Friday, Friday.  Madeleine and I catch the bus, 6:50AM, to her school and I attire myself in running lycra to make good use of the return journey.  Unfortunately this includes about two miles via Wandsworth and grinding morning traffic and exhaust fumes; I seek relief on the Thames path and enjoy the last four miles in peace - a different world.

Madeleine and I always go for the upper deck (Silver's favorite).  This morning a young couple join the front row - he in a track suit+trainers;  she, perky and made up. My guess, : early 20s and first relationship. They are comfortable with each other, despite the hour : he makes silly statements and she provides comfort support.  It is this way the world round.

Me: "Why do kids hate museums?"
Madeleine: "I don't hate museums. I just don't like some of them."
Me: "Which ones do you like?"
Madeleine: "The V and A."
Me: "I hope so."
Madeleine:  "I like paintings with lots of color. Like David Hockney."
Sonnet: "Excellent."
Madeleine: "I don't like old fashioned paintings that are kind of dark and faded."
Sonnet: "Well, Madeleine, what will probably happen .. ."
Madeleine: "I know, I know - my tastes will change."
Sonnet: "Yes, they will."

Beecher Stanfill, September 7, 1937 - January 19, 2013

Sonnet's beloved Aunt Beecher has passed away. I remember her most for the gleam in her eye, always awaiting the next laugh, and with a touch of mischief. She was bigger than life. Beecher welcomed us into her homes in Denver and Cuchara, Colorado. She adored Eitan and Madeleine and shared with them her enthusiasm for society and the arts, introducing the children to the Egyptians and the Denver museum. Her life was well lived without a moment lost.

Up Or Down

As David Cameron goes for broke on the European Union - Britain up or down vote by 2017 (the clever bastard vitually ensures his continuation as the PM of the Tory party) - let us consider what is at stake.  Britain habitually plays the role of the fence sitter, weighing in when it makes sense to do so, pulling back at other times and forming alliances as need be.  The EU has handicapped some of that, for sure, and Britain the second largest contributor to the fiscal agendas (ie, Greece and other bailouts) following Germany. I have heard we contribute somewhere between £180 and £200 billion pounds annually.

On the flip side, the UK is Germany's largest trading partner (greater than China, greater than the US) and about half British exports go the continent. But that really underweights the situation: the City is the world's financial centre strengthened by common form cross border regulation. And let's face it : without the square mile this country falls pretty quickly into second tier (London the sixth largest city in the world by economy, led by finance and professional services).   London exports £20B to the rest of Britain (despite the most  transportation congestion, hospital wait times, school rankings. .. ).  Without the Union (corrupt, inept and it all) this is an island for tourists and Russians.

So should we, the people, vote? Yes. Britain's Democracy not as ancient as Greece nor as large as India but it dates back to principals suggested in the Magna Charta.  A decision by Britain may forces others (the givers; Germany) to consider their involvement in the EU 'project'. And should they go, will civil unrest result  on the periphery and evolve into open conflict?  Europe did an atrocious job handling the Balkins.

So Cameron plays a dangerous game.

PhDs

These fellows work away in the sculpture wing of the V & A underneath the marble Jason.  They seem to enjoy what they are doing, chatting and happy to spend a moment with me discussing their job : filling cracks.  Afterwards I meet Jane, who heads corporate development, about various financial support of the museum.

Keep On Toking

Obama in college

President Obama's second inauguration takes place, fittingly, on a national holiday honouring MLK.

Visitor Pass

Eitan lies on the sofa watching The Simpsons: "I seriously hope they cancel school tomorrow."
Me: "Every day is an opportunity. Unless, that is, you are lying in bed."

Eitan: "Unless the opportunity is to lie in bed."
Me: "Touché."