Holiday Dad

I have not considered London nor work since leaving, well, London and work. Sure I have a few telephone calls to make and some emails to answer but it is mostly hard to be overly concerned. Europe, we know, shuts down for summer from about now: for the Nordics , it is July while everyone else, August. Not a bad life for them and us , for sure, but we are falling behind in the global league tables : difficult to compete with China given a 1% eurozone GDP growth and Greece. Still, Germany tries. And Britain pulls her weight. Italy has lovely pizza and Ireland - well, she pays us with Guinness.

Me: "What do you think of our parenting?"

Madeleine: "Parenting?"

Me: "Yeah, like how are mom and I doing ? What can we do better?"

Madeleine: "I don't know.. ."

Me: "What are some things that I have done well?"

Madeleine: "Hamster. Fish. Dog."

Me: "Is there anything else I can do?"

Madeleine: "Gecko."

Me: "Got that. Do you think I'm too strict?"

Madeleine: "Yes, like, all the time."

Me: "Oh, really? Give me an example."

Madeleine: "Like when I spilled powder on the floor and you sent me to bed. Without dinner."

Me: "I did?"

Madeleine: "And I was only five."

Richie @ Laguna Beach

Richie shreds it up, pictured. We were the two Californian odd balls at Brown - I was a swimmer and he played water polo. Why on earth we went to the East Coast for college who knows ? Richie, at least, returned to his heritage and now, when not making films, finds himself inside the bowl or on the big wave.

"All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine. "
--Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Katie ~ Eitan Falls From The Bunk Bed

Auntie Katie on the way to Lake Emerald, Vermont.

3AM: Sonnet and I awaken to a loud "thump". Eitan, who is on top of the bunk bed, falls out. Sonnet moves like greased lightening to find our hero dazed but in one piece. He is sleep-walking, Dear Reader, and unable to grasp what has happened nor the dead of night. It has happened before, on occasion, and I recall the night when Sonnet home late from work to find Eitan missing and his bedroom window open. She f-r-e-a-k-s, dials the police and reports "kidnapped child", and generally goes into hysterics. Who can blame her? Me, I walk downstairs to find the boy curled up on the coach peacefully asleep. The cops understanding and everybody grateful for the conclusion. Thank, God, really.

Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness.

--Wiki

Eitan: "You're not actually writing on your blog. That's a miracle."

Me: "A miracle, indeed."

Kristy McN

I first met Kristy McNichol in "Little Darlings" where she and Tatum O'Neal, both 15 but from different sides of the tracks, compete to lose their virginity. While at summer camp, of course. This 1980 so I am about 12 and duly impressionable. The film undoubtedly rated "PG" since I cannot imagine watching it with my mother. McNichol (who wins the bet BTW) a teen sensation, winning two Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in TV weekly "Family," which aired from '76 to '80; she also appeared in Starsky & Hutch, Bionic Women and Love Boat and recorded Christmas specials with The Carpenters. Her re-doing of The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" hit #70 on the billboards. She had Sean Cassidy hair. Do not doubt, Dear Reader, that Kristy McNichol had my attention.

Sadly, McNichol's acting career petered out by the mid-1980s as erratic on-set behavior caused the studios to lose confidence. Making movies like "The Pirate Movie" and "Just The Way You Are" didn't help, either. In '92 she was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and disappeared from public life more-or-less completely.

Today, McNichol lives in LA, California, where (according to the NYT), she has taught acting at a private school and devoted much of her time to charity work.

"You're supposed to get turned on, stupid, not pass out. "

--Angel, played by Kristy McNichol, in Little Darlings, 1980

Three D

Madeleine picks up a "3-D" puzzle at the "awesome" local book shop : "So I have to describe it? It was very hard to build. It's yellow. It's delicate. When you rub your finger down it, it feels like brick." She gets everybody hooked on "Mad Libs" and we spend an afternoon filling story-lines with adjectives, nouns, verbs, pronouns &c. I have to remind myself what these things are

"Every morning they spend 253 hours stretching their tits and touching their bums."

--Mad Libs

Mt Equinox And A Bit Of The Revolutionary War

Sonnet, Katie, Eitan and I go for a "gentle walk" and end up climbing 3,800 ft Equinox Mountain instead. Equinox the highest peak of the Taconic Range. Starting from Manchester, it is straight up followed by straight down , leaving us perspired, exhausted and achy - the downward trek taxes muscles I knew not of. The peak marked by an ancient hotel which, Larry tells me, closed 15 years ago. On a winter's day it might be the Overlook Hotel. Me, I follow up with a three-hour nap (not 30 anymore dude) and go to bed at 9PM which vexes Sonnet at 4AM as I wake her to discuss house-design. Instead of fighting me, we go for a sunrise walk.

A signage at the trail head in Manchester:

"The Revolutionary War. Ethan Allen crossed Lake Champlain to capture Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775 for "America's First Victory." Allen's expedition passed through here on May 5, 1775. Nathan Beman from Manchester guided the expedition into the fort: John Roberts of Manchester was the head of the expedition's largest immediate family. In 1777, after evacuating Ft. Ti and Mount Independence, Gen. Arthur St Claire traveled to the Saratoga area via Manchester. The first meeting of the council of Safety (Vermont's initial government) were at the original Marsh Tavern (on site of the south wing of the Equinox). In Manchester, Gen. John Stark declined orders from Gen. Benjamin Lincoln and opted to go to Bennington. Stark's NH troops and Seth Warner's "Green Mountain Boys" camped in Manchester prior to the battle of Bennington victory on August 16, 1777.

--Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, 2011

Chillax

Madeleine requests a few photos for her "summer journal", as required for school. This replaces the usual cajoling or bribing now the norm when my camera trained on the Shakespeares.

VT

The Orenstein family circus arrives in NY where we meet Gracie and Moe at Herz and load up an SUV that stretches across the inter-state. Yep, holiday in America. We spend our first night in Bronxville (joined by Auntie Katie) and a day in New York , where Sonnet takes Madeleine to Alexander McQueen at the Met - Sonnet tells me that it is the most popular exhibition in the museum's history. I see a few friends, and now Vermont with Marcia and Larry and Susan and Joey and Julia. The last time our together ensemble was Diane's wedding two years ago.

Madeleine: "Dad can I sit in the back seat?"

Gracie: "I want to sit in the back with Madeleine."

Eitan: "Can I sit in the back seat, too?"

Sonnet: "I think you have to climb over the middle seat, Grace."

Eitan: "Why does Madeleine get the back seat with Gracie?"

Sonnet: "Maybe we can turn one of the seats back so Gracie can get in. .."

Madeleine: "I asked first, Eitan, and besides there is only room for me and Gracie."

Sonnet: "I am sure there is plenty of room."

Grace: "Can you move the seat back so I can get in?"

Me: "Get. In. The. Car."

Grace: "Jesus."

Electrics

Enrico, pictured, lives the Dolce Vita in Southwest London. He is father of KPR's Jean Luca, a serious threat from anywhere on the pitch with style and flair one expects from an Italian striker. Enrico rips up the house to rewire the everything.

tesco

We say "Farewell, Aneta!" who returns to Czech then Europe and eventually University. She contemplates a summer job and what the future may hold but who knows? The joy of 21. Her childhood friend, Camilla, will join us in August. Aneta and Madeleine have a last go at Ludo, a board-game that has occupied them at the kitchen table. Eitan refuses a hug but he will miss her, too.

Eric Reunion

Eric : from Chicago : college friend : recognised interior designer : working on 1 Hyde Park : lives in Milano : Italian citizenship soon : following ambitions : a brave heart

Rusty Gets A Bone

And it's just as well as Aneta and I drop him at the kennel for a month.

All Nighter

Sonnet writes a chapter for a book on ball gowns which will also be a major exposition at the V&A. Her deadline is, well, now since we leave tomorrow for America. Just like freshman year, I tease her. Note the bare walls in our dining room which will, inshallah, be a library upon our return. The builders, electricians, painters, carpenters and workers descend upon our house as we leave. We take advantage of the away.

Gayle Hunnicutt

Sonnet meets Gayle Hunnicutt, an American actress whose design donation will be used in the V&A's ballgowns show.

Sooo . .. Hunnicutt born in Fort Worth, Texas, attended UCLA which we don't hold against her. She was married from 1968 to 1975 to the actor David Hemmings and later, the journalist Sir Simon Jenkins (they divorced in '08).

During her brief Hollywood career, Hunnicutt was typecast as a brunette sexpot. She co-starred with James Garner in the 1969 film Marlowe, the character she played being a glamorous Hollywood actress. After she moved to England with Hemmings in 1970, however, the finer range of her acting emerged. A notable role was that of Charlotte Stant, in the critically acclaimed Jack Pulman television adaptation (1972) of Henry James's The Golden Bowl. She went on to play Lionel's wife in The Legend of Hell House in 1973, and Tsarina Alexandra in Fall of Eagles in 1974. In 1984, she appeared as Irene Adler opposite Jeremy Brett in the very first episode ("A Scandal in Bohemia") of the series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Hunnicutt returned to America to play the role of Vanessa Beaumont in Dallas from 1989 to 1991.

Photo from Hunnicutt to Sonnet, presumably in item to be exhibited.

Kojo

Kojo, a friend from graduate school, founded Ghana's largest home mortgage services company accounting for >60% of all new mortgage applications in his country. Kojo tells me that Ghana needs 1 M houses for the growing middle class - the population there 24 M and GDP, in PPP, is about $72 B. There is some considerable opportunity; Arnaud , who we are with this morning, investigates.

"This is the most humble day of my life."

--Rupert Murdoch before British Parliament

Birthday, 1985

My mother's birthday letter, 18 years old :

"Dear Jeff -

We've said goodbye before, not too long ago, it seems, when you were off to Switzerland. And on your 18th birthday, I'm thinking of the goodbye ahead of us, in August when you take off for Brown.

You've learned a lot about the world and about the people in it - and about who you are and how you fit in. And now you're on your own. Seems unreal, doesn't it?

I haven't any words of wisdom. You've lived your life with gusto and humor and purpose. You've taken yourself seriously, and in the process have taught me. I'm proud to have participated in your growing-up. It has been a wonderful, unbeatable experience in all its parts , for which I feel especially blessed.

Happy 18th!

Love,

Mom

"

Photo source? 1985, 1530 Euclid Ave.

Rabbit Ears

Eitan plays his last game with the KPR Blues, winning the "plate", or runner's up, trophy at the Abby Rangers tournament in Surrey. From September, Eitan joins Elm Grove in the Premiere Elite league. I try to take it all in stride, not being too much a part of his (or Madeleine's) decision making though Sonnet much better, here, than I. The big question soon : swimming or football? But that is for another day. After the pitch, Eitan to Luke's b'day paintball party followed by a highly-unusual sleep-over on a Sunday night.

A re-cap of the news for posterity : Rebekah Brooks , former Chief Exec of News International, arrested. Met Chief Sir Paul Stephenson resigns siting the NoW scandal. USA loses to Japan on PKs in the women's World Cup final. Daren Clarke wins the British Open - the third Northern Irishman to win a major in the last six tournaments. Tour de France begins.

Madeleine: "Sometimes you freak me out, Dad."

That Girl

Me and Grace, September 17, 1967.

Sonnet And Her Brood

Eitan: "Do you like paint ball?"

Me: "Not really. You know how you feel when you watch war movies and you think : 'I would never get shot?' Well, I got shot in like two minutes the one time I've played."

Eitan: "Did it hurt?"

Me: "Maybe my pride."

Eitan: "I sort of like it if it hurts. It makes it more real."

Madeleine: "Oh, really, Eitan."

Eitan: "Yeah, so?"

Madeleine: "Would you like it if someone stabbed you? And you were like, 'oh, that feels reeaallly good.'"

Me: "She's got a point, you know."

Eitan: "I'm just saying, that's all."

Eitan, in the back of the car, holding a new football: "This ball feels so lovely."

Me, driving: "Hurry up, Grandma."

Madeleine: "Shush, Dad! She can hear you!"

Me: "No she can't."

Madeleine: "She can read your lips: Hur-ree up Gr-ran-dma."

Cloudy Richmond

Eitan and Sonnet do an aquathalon (500 m swim and 2 km run) and Eitan set to win his age-group until he takes a wrong turn. He is crushed afterwards. Meanwhile Madeleine and I go for a walk in Richmond Park. Now it rains and everybody in the kitchen and I build the Mercury Redstone Ant-scale model rocket and Madeleine does her homework:

Madeleine: "How many five centimeter lengths can I make from a 40 centimeter rope?"

Me: "How many times does five go into 40?"

Madeleine: "Why couldn't they just say that?"

Madeleine: "Is 87 cm tall or not?"

Me: "It is all relative."

Madeleine: "What does that mean?"

Me: "If it was an 87 cm lizard, that would be pretty tall. Or long anyway. If it was an 87 cm house, that would be pretty small."

Madeleine: "Can you please stop the logic, Dad?"

Madeleine: "Here's a quiz, Mom. What is 200 divided by 25?"

Sonnet: "Madeleine do your homework please."