4th July - Fr Siren

US Independence Day is something else altogether in Britain so no need to belabour the point. It is work as usual for these Brits who otherwise let America celebrate in peace. I am in Paris anyway and, while I miss the BBQ and fireworks, it is not so bad either. The Tenth amendment BTW my favorite : it allows that, unless prevented by the constitution or the state, people free to do whatever they wish. Highly unusual this. Extraordinary, really.

Sitting in my corner office in Paris, 12 noon, a siren wails and I think : lunch (some blue collar cities in the US do this, like Warren, RI, where I once painted a few houses. Real dump, smelled like fish, but I loved the small movie theatre and legit burger joint).  Strangely, another sounds at 12:10.  Catherine at Astorg tells me : "it happens on the first-Wednesday of every month since the Second World War. It is a test to make sure the alert system is working across France. I can remember it all my life." And what happens if the alarm for real? Catherine: "I have no idea."

All England

While we wait for the dry, an official stops by to chat and provide encouragement about the weather : "there is plenty of good tennis left", he winks.  And what does one do with one's ticket should it rain (a one-day debenture allowing access to the grounds goes for a cool £1,200) ? If two-hours play, no refund. One-hour, and it is a 50% refund.  With the strawberries and cream, the climate part of the charm.

Maria

Sonnet and I have excellent seats at Wimbledon thanks to neighbors Helen and Martin, whose mother Kitty Godfree won Wimbledon in '24 and '26. We watch maria sharapova, pictured, upset by Sabine Lisicki of Germany in two sets (Lisicki laughs as tears stream down her face) followed by Andy Murray vs. Marin Cilic until the damp delays play. At one point we are told, helpfully, that the court "still a bit slippy". 

Tennis sure is different today : the men  average over 6-foot and serve at 130mph. The women not far off : Lisicki clocking first-serves at 118mph .  There is limited net-play and the baseline pounded until exhaustion or error occurs.  How different from the '70s and '80s when McE , Connors, Borg et al wore tighty-shorts, played with wood, and finessed the ball in imaginative ways; each came with different personalities adding to the game's entertainment.  We all tuned in. Since "Pistol" Pete Sampras, it is about the Big Man, which I find less compelling .  The women's game still tops, though - somehow their play at human scale. 

"Do you have any problems, other than that you're unemployed, a moron, and a dork?"
--John McEnroe

Sonnet Works

Sonnet multi-tasks with her various multiple devices.

Given the USA shut down for the all-important Fourth of July weekend when Americans were, by today's standards, terrorists in 1776, it feels, well, a bit like a holiday though I have plenty to do and tomorrow Paris. Today, though, should it stop raining, we will be on No. 1 Court watching Murray chasing the All England glory.

Tomato Sunset

My tomatoes, my babies.

Jim and Peri and Simon and Sabi to dinner representing Turkey, Tanzania, Wales, Washington DC, California and Alaska now all in London , go figure. Jim once advised me, when I was five years into our re-location, that "something changes around year seven." He may be right and I pass along these bon mots to the younger expats I know. But for this evening nobody in England for less than 15 years though Jim spends a good amount of time in Redwood City as he is the Global Head of distribution for Google . He notes : America has become conservative.

Eitan, looking at the Roehamtpon council estate: "Why did they have to build that there?"
Me: "Do you want the long answer?"
Eitan: "No."
Me: "Le Cobusier the architect .. . "
Eitan: "Dad I am not interested."
Me: "He had a vision of grand boulevards and massive highrises. Roehamption the only place in Europe where his ideas put to work."
Eitan: "La la li la li la . .. "

Digital

Eitan inhales the new technologies swirling around him ( for an 11-year old, there is no  "new" technology).  For instance he easily outpaces me on the once-so-simple television remote control as today's standard includes a pre-record and stop-motion and mode and source control and red, green,  yellow and blue  buttons each doing something presumably. There is a media.p button, subt. , TTX/MIX, pre-ch., tools and ten other things I cannot use. Today's viewer, excluding over-40s, can go inter-active or surf the web from the TV. I can watch my images and digital video if I knew how.  All I want, really, is 'Law And Order" re-runs and maybe some sport or the occasional 'Mad Men" DVD but even this makes me a dinosaur : the modern family stores its content on a communal hard drive while "films" accessed from the cloud. In a couple years Eitan will own us.  Mind you, I founded an Internet company.

Summertime - Dirty Banks - Madeleine Quotes

Photo from about this time of year, 2004, in Richmond Park.

The school has their sports day (Madeleine explains) " there are color teams, and each team has to sprint and do obstacles and stuff.  Long jump, vortex, and stuff like that.  In the end, the team with the most points, for individual races, wins.   The color teams are red, green blue and yellow, for years three, four, five and six."

By happy coincidence Eitan and Madeleine on the red team, which was last one year ago but first today (Eitan co-captain).  Madeleine and Eitan contribute with wins in the "long distance" or six laps around the school's grass fields.  Afterwards Sonnet rewards the kiddies with a treat at The Victoria.

Barclays fined £290 million for manipulating libor (the London inter-bank borrowing rate) for years including the financial crisis when banks almost burned the house down (dirtbag traders - we've seen them at Enron. We know them from Wall St).  But why stop there ? The FSA also announces this week that the same banks have mis-sold complex derivatives to SMEs. The prospect of a Levenson-like inquiry floated in the commons; a criminal investigation proceeds.  And one must ask : how did we get here ?

Madeleine raises her hand at the dinner table: "I have a random fact."
Me: "Oh?"
Madeleine: "Do you know why they call the Oscar "Oscar"? "
Me: "No."
Madeleine: "Because the person who made the trophy thought that it looked like her Uncle Oscar."
Eitan: "That's not so."
Madeleine: "Is so. I read it in a book. At school."
Me: "Thank you Madeleine, it makes sense to me."

Kamila: "What's the capital of Germany?"
Madeleine: "Helsinki?"
Me:
Madeleine: "No, wait, it's Switzerland . .."
Me: "That's it. Atlas. Now."

Later, me: "Madeleine, where is Helsinki please?"

Madeleine: "I can never remember that one .. ."

Me: "You have to know the capitals kiddo."

Madeleine: "Oh, wait, once you gave me a postcard from Helsinki and it said 'Finland' on the back. It's Finland!"

Me: "Excellent, nice work."

Madeleine: "Thank goodness for my memory."

Lamp Shade And Davy

Sonnet this morning.  We are up late with guests of Dafna and Charles, who host the perfect dinner party on a lovely London evening, cocktails beforehand on the patio while Dafna's children do cartwheels on the lawn.

Madeleine has Year 5 performance so I walk over to the school and take a seat (school chairs all the same - stackable).  The dears perform a long poem with each child from two classes participating once or twice (I can't follow a thing) then a rousing medley of Davy Jones, RIP, which reminds me of my love of the Monkees and classics like "Daydream Believer", "I'm A Believer" and of course the theme from The Monkees show, which I once watched between episodes of Giligan's Island and the Brady Bunch on any school day afternoon at a friend's house since we had a strict no-TV on any school day afternoon. I recall like yesterday Davy guest starring on the Brady Bunch fulfilling Marcia's teen crush. So innocent. So groovy.

I whip back to the now.  Madeleine has another five or six years until she plays Marcia Brady but here she is now, singing away, next to Marcus, Alex and Niki, having a great time in front of the other children and us adults.

"It's so beneficial for me to be away from those children in junior high and to be with people of my own mature growth. I'm looking forward to the intellectual stimulation. Nice meeting you boys. Bye."

--Marcia Brady, The Brady Bunch

DE Baldy

Dave in town with his family and last night he, and his precocious daughter 'bella, join us for dinner.  I have known him since the 7th grade when he took King Jr High by storm singing Steve Wonder's "Happy Birthday" in honour of Martin Luther King day.  Many of us who were there still talk about it now.  Dave's music has always inspired : by 9th grade he was in The Uptowns, a band that was covered on Rolling Stone magazine; post college it was The Charlie Hunter Trio which sold-out the SF's Elbow Room and where I took Sonnet to impress her ; then a #1 jazz billboard album ("State Of Mind" in 2006), record deals with Blue Note and Fantasy .. . and of course Donny Osmond.

Dave a natural instructor and listens to Madeleine's trumpet, tapping a tempo and correcting a few notes. He gives advise on the dangerous first note (breath in twice then out once); Madeleine totally comfortable and Sonnet remarks privately : "I've never heard her play like that."


Of all my friends, Dave shares my temperament the most.  When together we act, well, like 15 year-olds giggling away.  A mention of "Purple Rain" gets a chuckle while "Lake Minnetonka" a belly roll : recall Prince plays, simply, "The Kid", who woos Appolonia, famously getting her to skinny dip in Minnetonka before he teases her with his purple motorcycle. Loving 1984. Dave had the poster on his wall.  Madeleine and Sonnet bemused as we trade insults.

The Kid:  "Come on, let's go."
Apollonia: "I'm not going anywhere, that was a rotten thing to do."
The Kid: "I'm sorry. I tried to stop you."
[She looks at him]
Apollonia: " I must have looked pretty ridiculous."
The Kid: "No, no! You looked great. That took some nerve, I wouldn't have got in that water. Come on."
[She attempts to get on the motorcycle, he drives away]
Apollonia: "Hey!"
The Kid: " Come on."
[She attempts to get on the motorcycle again, he drives away again]
Appolonia: "COME ON!"
The Kid: "OK, ok."
[She gets on]
The Kid: "Don't get my seat all wet."

--Prince and Apollonia Kotero try to act in Purple Rain

Whatzit

This what-ever-it-is found in Eitan's classroom. I never built such cool stuff in sixth grade.

Madeleine at a swimming gala today and swims six events covering front-crawl, relay, backstroke, breast stroke and butterfly (she tells me). Her favourite race : 66 meters backstroke (Dad's note: many London pools 33-meters), where she comes in third of "quite a lot" and brings home a bronze medal; our gal also collects four ribbons for her superior efforts.  Regarding goals, "I want to get a PB of ten seconds in two lengths front-crawl" ; she is otherwise bashful about posting her times on my blog.

Subway And Hampton

I love this girl, who flops down across from me, adjusts herself, and dives into a book on the philosophy of ethics.

Eitan and I attend the Hampton school welcoming morning. The Head Master tells us 470 boys sat the entrance exam and 120 accepted; he also notes that 57 primary and preparatory schools represented with 28 supplying one child (Sheen Mount sends five).  The boys encouraged to throw themselves into arts, music, drama and the many clubs : Eitan sits at rapt attention.  Hampton organised around twenty academic departments covering maths to government: Eitan will study Spanish and Latin along with everything else. There are 18 sports teams including football, which won the Independent Schools U18 finals in March. Homework to be one hour a night with two "homework holidays" each year to chill or catch up.  Oh, boy, it is going to be great.  Eitan may enjoy it, too.

City's Edge

I have visited the top floor of this building , pictured, which is also Henderson Asset Mgmt hq and the eastern edge of The City, London's financial centre. Liverpool station, London's Grand Central station, a few blocks away.  The area between here and Canary Wharf to the south and the Olympic village to the north (both about five miles) is mostly derelict and here lies the potential : link the East End to London's centre via new transportation and, voila, housing shortage solved.  Something to consider when, as reported on BBC4 this morning, London expects to gain 1 million residents in twenty-five years.

The amount of new development across London staggering. There is barely a block unloved by developers who add sleek new urban architecture like the the Shard. The last time the city saw this sort of build up was the '60s post Second World War construction surge leaving us with concrete and asbestos edifices that mold away unloved or torn down.

My first London job, with buyout firm Botts & Co., in Lintas House , EC4A, once cutting edge and now simply gone : replaced by the sharp angles, black granite glass metal sky-rises+trendy sushi-coffee expresses of New Fetter Place. Also gone is the sun and any sense of humour.

And The World Goes Round

Shoe Shop

Shoreditch

"On the map, Shoreditch looks pretty much like everywhere else in the great stew of London. But behind the mild-mannered street plaan lies a raving exhibitionist. Shoreditch has more in common with Brooklyn than it does with Islington. It's been dropped here from the planet me, me, me. It's so cool, so vain, so self-obsessed that it's twinned with itself. Shoreditch is granny's knick-knack cabinet of china ornaments, all of them reborn as irony."

AA Gill's description Shoreditch pretty much nails it. Sonnet and I check out antique furniture from the 1950s to modern household trotchkees. I buy a Finnish-design staple remover and the bearded cashier in espadrilles tells me: "good purchase" without showing an emotion. His co-cashier dressed exactly the same in a Chinese modernist kind of style. I take note.

From there we hang out in Hoxton Sq, which is filled with lush trees and surrounded by bars, coffee houses and companies called "M2".  Hoxton become Übercool when the gays moved in probably about the time we arrived in London. It was urban, cheep and accepting; now it is expensive: a 2 bedroom flat goes for at least £1 million and loft-like accommodations up to £3M. Since the afternoon sunny, the square filled with loungers and nappers and for an instant I can picture myself living here. Then I can't.

.

Dave Ellis arrives from the US with his family

Forty-Five 45 XLV 3^2*5

Another day, another year . Yes, 45 which I  suppose a milestone since it is on a sequence of fives.  Usually I am rather melancholy on my birthday but today different : first off, it is sunny for  the first time in, like, months. My morning begins in Eitan's classroom helping friend Lorena teach a business module on starting and financing a company (I am the venture capitalist which means Eitan's group chooses the bank loan ...). From there I meet Sonnet for lunch at hole-in-the-wall Viet Namese in East London ; we have soft shelled crabs and other unrecognisable things that are delicious. Then we explore Hoxton and Shoreditch, where Sonnet takes this photo.

Chas's Wedding - 1996

All Stars

Eitan's All Stars win their home tournament, including 120 teams covering all ages, in fine fashion going 3-1-1 in the qualifying rounds followed by tight games in the quarter and semi-finals against Staines Albion and Carshalton.  The tension elevates as the boys progress - at least, elevates on the sidelines. The oos and ahs fairly contained compared to Brixham but then, this is Surrey, one of the civilised 'home counties'.  The final against Cheam, a good team with an oversized goalie who dwarfs the net and,  despite his extra weight, leaps into the air to make several spectacular, game changing, saves.  Our boys go up 1-nil but the equaliser falls shortly after the half (in the back of my mind I think : PKs and poor Eitan. No kid wants this kind of drama).  Coach yells at our strikers to hit low and hard and Rob puts one in for the 2-1 victory. Elm Grove hang on to the last three minutes including a sure-goal by Cheam which clanks off the post. The cup ours.

Bob

Bob the father-in-law of Elm Grove coach Marc and Grandfather of Denise, a fiery midfielder.  Bob also a retired postman who walked the beat for 30 years, rain or shine.

On the football pitch.
Phil: "When I was police we used to see all kinds of horrible things with drink and driving. I was called out to 34 fatalities around here.  You don't forget that sort of thing."
Bob: "When they made drink and drive illegal, the coppers got quite particular about things, pulling people over, giving them a warning. I couldn't be bothered."
Me: "When was that ? "
Bob: "1966. So I quit driving."
Phil: "You gave up your license ?"
Bob: "Of course I didn't. I keep it right here in me pocket."
Phil: "That expired . .. 45 years ago."
Bob: "It's still a license though isn't it ?"
Me: "Have you had a drink since then?"
Bob: "Oh heavens me yes. Why do you think I stopped driving ?"

Bob: "I see you enjoy reading there."
Me, reading 'War and Peace":
Bob: "I read a good one once. 'The Worm That Forgave The Plow.'"
Me: "The Worm That Forgave The Plow' ? "
Bob: " The Worm That Forgave The Plow.' "
Me: "I've not heard of it."
Bob: "It's a story about the Second World War, written in 1939 .. ."
Me: "So when England declares war on Germany then?"
Bob: "It's a real corker. About how a farmer learns how to forgive his enemy.. ."
Me:
Bob: "Of course we bombed Germany like nobody's business. .."

Chocolate Pie

Eitan loves to cook. It is has been a passion, right up there with football, for as long as I can remember (Sonnet recalls baking pancakes with Eitan who would stand on a chair to reach the counter. He was two).  Now the boy makes a chocolate pie, pictured. I ask why he enjoys cooking ? "I like everyone's reaction if they like it."

Madeleine shops with Sonnet: "Can I get dad a present? "
Sonnet: "For Father's Day? Of course.. ."
Madeleine: "I am going to get him this bag of Coca Cola gummy bears. .. "

Madeleine enters my bedroom as I read:  "Dad, I got you a present a day early. Do, you want to open it now ?"
Me: "Sure, honey, that was nice of you."
Madeleine: "You might not like it though. It's Coca Cola gummy bears."
Me:
Madeleine: "Do you like it?"
Me: "I like that you got me a gift, which was very thoughtful of you." 
Madeleine: "So you don't like Coca Cola gummy bears."
Me: "They are not my favourite."
Madeleine: "Well if you don't like them, I can always have them."
Me: "Good idea. Why don't you take them."
Madeleine: "OK."
Me: "And thank you again for my gift."
Madeleine: "You are welcome."
Me to Sonnet: "That one was win-win."
Sonnet: "That kid is more clever than we give her credit for."