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!"