Monkeys!

Paul and Lorena join us in Cardiff to see the Arctic Monkeys thanks to Christian Wright, who supplies us tickets God Bless Him to the sold-out concert. The Monkeys are a Sheffield phenom whose second album recently put 17 tracks in the Billboard Top 100 - the Beatles did not do that. The performance arena feels like a high school gym and is jammed with young people milling about drinking beer and smoking fags. The lads have perfectly mussed hair and stripy shirts while the girls are tarty- average age must be 22 or same as the band. The music is loud, fast and thumping and there is a crush towards the center stage when it starts. Sonnet and I dance wildly, looking at our youth.

What to do?

Bonus photo

Eitan loves the slide and with his pals makes um-teen runs down the shoot gleeful and vocal all the way.

Little Dancers

Our Fair earns about £16,000 ($32,000) which goes straight to the school. The community turns out in force and everybody seems to have a good time. At one point, I lead a parade of cowpokes and Indians on a rousing victory lap around the school grounds (oh, pied-piper I) then tell an on-the-fly story of Kit Kat Cowboy and Jesse James indoors as the rain falls. We have the fancy dress competition which goes to two well costumed and wide-eyed five year olds. Personally I am exhausted by day's end and glad it is done with so that I may now concentrate my time on .... work!

Cotton

Sonnet and the kids arrive at the fair and go straight for the junk food. They also pick up some junk including a bike, green stuffed turtle, hand-held pinball, tea cups (which Madeleine hides under her bed), and other various treasures. Overall and despite the weather we have a great turnout and good spirit- when the torrential rains arrive nobody bails (sorry). There is a scramble to the indoors school hall and me shutting down the sounding and electrics ordering the surprised kids to drop their electric guitars and other accoustics. Of all British stereotypes this one true: summer fair - England - June - RAIN.

Octopus

Worker bees arrive at 0700 yesterday morning to set up for the fair. On offer is one large bouncy castle, space-ball, cotton candy, shoot-the-goalie, jousting, 15 stalls, make-up, open bar, tambolee, BBQ, prizes, cakes, candies, good humour, various activities and this here two story giant octopus slide - pictured. Hanging over us are enormous grey clouds floating across the sky. We discuss the weather and everyone positive "no rain". The fate is opened at 12noon by Angie Best, who tells me she spent the better part of her life in Malibu. She speaks. It rains.

Fair Tomorrow

The Summer Fair which I am organising, is nigh and tomorrow represents three months hard-work by the school community. The mums, and some dads, are out in full force today setting up and installing their stalls, shows, dances, parades, games, stages and other activities. Angie Best will open the grounds at 12 noon Saturday and then it's a free-for-all. Today, in preparation, is a strangely named "Muftie" which is an English thing where the children don't have to wear their school kit. Instead, the kids arrive in cowboy and cowgirl outfits (some Indians too). Madeleine shows off her pink cowboy boots and pink western shirt from Colorado (all the mums coo over the boots) and wears her red bandanna train-robber style - I tell her she looks like Jesse James which she does not like (He's a BOY, dad!). Eitan sports his red cowboy hat and we all look fab. The program cover pictured selected from a school competition.

The Duck

Today I listen to a program on BBC Radio 4 about ducks. I learn that the fowl is considered the most amusing in Britain. Of all animals, mind you. Supporting the BBC is a scientific survey of 46,000 because this is Britain, after all. We love, for instance, Donald and Daffy while Jamima Puddle Duck has been a bed-time companion for many generations including Eitan and Madeleine. The favoritism, apparently, stems from the word: "duck" or "quack." When said, one is forced to smile. Try it. The sounds are forceful and resounding and quite silly and so suited for comedy the experts say. No other culture BTW values a duck.

Yoga

Here's Madeleine at Yoga Bugs, which she enjoys several early mornings a week before school. The class is led by local mum Peggy and attracts some dedicated yoga die hards - who bring along their kids. For the most part it is easy fun and requires Madeleine to concentrate for 45 minutes on herself, which I like. Usually I or Sonnet sit on the side-line reading a book or whispering to the other parents.

The Hague

I have dinner in Rijswijk (about 20km from Rotterdam) with Jos van Gisbergen who in 2000 founded MN Services which administers the pensions of more than a million people in the Netherlands with assets of €33 billion as at now. Jos and MN are some of the largest private equity investors in Europe. We share notes on the market and people and discuss how things have changed these last ten years (more money!). We also compare funds and talk about US venture and why it does not seem to work in Europe. An enjoyable evening spent.

Summer Fair

I am responsible for the school's summer fair, which is the largest money raiser of the year (in 2006 it netted $25,000). Our theme is Wild Wild West and the kids will celebrate with a Western-style dance, parade and costume competition while us dads drink Pimms at the bar (fully licensed, thank you). The Class Reps and volunteers have come out in full force and have done a marvelous job collecting prizes, selling raffle tickets and finding sponsorship from the high street. Angie Best, wife of now deceased football legend George Best, will open the fairgrounds. The neighborhood now anxiously watches the weather forecast as there is no Plan B.

Barney

My friend Barney Pell invites me to screen-test his company Powerset, which provides internet search using natural language algorithms. Barney is a former NASA scientist and entrepreneur who I know from London though he now lives in SV. If anybody were to take on Google, he's your guy. Barney recently raised $12.5MM from Esther Dyson and the founders of Paypal and other investors.

Biotech

Today Mathieu and I model a life sciences portfolio that we may bid for Friday. The value of the thing is around €30MM give-or-take and we are trying to get it on the cheap - but value is in the eye of the owner. Biotech has been a terrible place to be an investor the last seven years and Europe can count on two hands its successful IPOs. M&A, while also limited, has been more robust. Nobody doubts Europe has its share of brains. What it lacks is a vibrant entrepreneurial attitude and one big public market like NASDAQ providing liquidity. The two of course go together: it is much easier to start a company if the road is riches.

Tomorrow I fly to Amsterdam to see several pension fund investors in The Hague.

Mike

Mike is an American in London as long as us - 1997 a.d. We met at the Columbia business school and our families began at around same time: his oldest is seven. Mike will leave London 16 June for Minneapolis-St. Paul where a house with front porch and oak tree awaits on a quiet neighborly street nearby family. In other words, an easy transition. Photo before Kensington Palace just off Kensington High Street.

Busker

I walk the neighborhood with Eitan and Madeleine selling raffle tickets for the school fair. The kids get their pitch down and avoid the temptation to bolt after the hard-sell. Tickets are 50p and prizes include a weekend at Glenn Eagles home of the last European summit, theatre, bikes and other enticements. Most people buy one or two, digging deeep into their pockets for the change. Still, it is a good lesson for the kids I think.

Madeleine at dinner asks very seriously: "do people hurt penguins mum?" When Sonnet says perhaps and asks ways how, Madeleine says: "kill them!" Eitan weighs in: "they chop of their beaks and head!" and finally Madeleine: "make them into coats." (photo from US govt antarctic library)

I ask Madeleine for a favorite hobby and she says the "flower store" (she loves choosing). When asked why she replies "because they don't have to work."

Saturday

Here's Sonnet in 2003 during Eitan's infamous Hollywood try-out. Sonnet tells me just now that she does not like this photo: "I look tired" she says. I tell her she was tired - the kids were one and two.

This morning begins with wild parrots who perch in a nearby aspen . Eitan and I consider this from his bed while thinking about our day beginning with football. Both kids play hard and during a game Eitan makes a terrific cross-pitch pass to team mate Harry who thumps in a goal. Bravo! us dads cheer. Madeleine's side fairs less well: 1-5 against us. Oh well. Everybody in good spirits and we celebrate with Cokes and crisps.

From football the kids help me with yard-work then Sonnet takes Madeleine for some chores while the boy and I go to the dump to recycle our earthens and wash the car. Finding ourselves with time to spare, we go to the neighborhood common to practice football. I must admit my frailty: after an hour in the muggy heat my shirt is soaked and I am easy prey.

Seizures

Adding to the absurdity of the London 2012 brand, The Times reports that the logo may cause epileptic seizures. My complaint is that it is miserable. This brain lateral cross section taken from neurology.edu. In approximation, the more dense a material is, the whiter a volume of it will appear on the scan (just as in the more familiar "flat" X-rays). CT scans are primarily used for evaluating swelling from tissue damage in the brain and in assessment of ventricle size. Modern CT scanning can provide reasonably good images in a matter of minutes, like this one.

“The price of your hat isn't the measure of your brain.”
African-American proverb

Selfish Gene

Emily Kasriel invites me to the BBC World Services Book Club at Bush House to hear Richard Dawkins speak about his evolutionary theory: "all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities" most famously put forward in The Selfish Gene" in 1971. I happily agree as Arthur Garrison and I read the book in 2003 which we discussed on one of our many London walks. The show will broadcast 29 July and to reach 60 million; I ask a question: "how does the selfish gene reconcile non-propagating traits like homosexuality." Woo-hoo! Following Dawkins, I jump a taxi and tell the driver I have seen the world-famous writer. His reply: "He can't be fuck'n famous, mate, cuz I've never heard of 'im". We then have a rousing conversation about England football, project houses and the troubles with Britain. At the end he shakes my hand as I receive my change which is something quite extraordinary, really.

After Dawkins, Sonnet and I say goodbye to Mike and Gretchen Bransford, who have a going away party in South Kensington Mike is a friend from business school and the Bransfords are our longest-held American friends in London. It is sad for us to see them go.

Cemetary

Katie and grace in front of tombs in new Orleans' St Louis #1 cemetery. In the background is the tombof Marie Laveaux, the famous voodoo queen. According to Katie, "you make an offering to the queen of one penny and three marks on her tomb. In return, Laveaux might do some black magic and grant your wish. The tomb is covered in marks."

Madeleine contemplates Santa Clause this morning, noting that St Nick "doesn't know everything." I ask Madeleine if Claus knows whether she has shouted, cried or pouted and she replies: "of course dad, that's his job." I push a little further to see what happens if there is a fire in the fireplace? "Well" says Madeleine, "first he would try another chimney and then he would knock on the front door. Or go through an open window." And there, I might add, you have it.