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.

Gore

Katie crashes her rental bike in a trolley track and has to go to the emergency room. They glue her chin back together, instead of stitches. Research in the UK, based on hospital based samples, finds that 72% of cyclist accidents involved no other vehicle at all, and that 7% were claimed to be caused by motor vehicles. This contrasts with another analysis which found that between 60% and 85% of serious cyclist injuries are the result of negligence by a motor driver. A study conducted in 2000 by the Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands found that single bicycle accidents accounted for 47% of all bicycle accidents, collisions with obstacles and animals accounted for 12%, and collisions with other road users accounted for 40% (with the remaining 1% having unknown or unclassified cause).

New Orleans

The Orensteins in New Orleans doing construction work, painting and other like-related repair projects and to see again the city. Grace says: "We are on our way to a great restaurant, Matt and Naddie's, then to hear a jazz protoge' of Ellis Marsellas." Dad says: "great Creole food, hard work, lots of fun." Katie: "one of the rotary guys has nick named dad "mo-town."

Bubble

From Wolfram's MathWorld, a bubble is a minimal-energy surface of the type that is formed by soap film. The simplest bubble is a single sphere, illustrated above by J. M. Sullivan. More complicated forms occur when multiple bubbles are joined together. The simplest example is the double bubble, and beautiful configurations can occur when three or more bubbles are conjoined. An outstanding problem involving a bubble is the determination of the arrangements of bubbles with the smallest surface which enclose and separate n given volumes in space.

While on the subject, a one-bed flat is being marketed in Central London for £3 million or about $6 million. Guests presumably would sleep on a fold-out futon.

2012

This piece of shit is the Olympic brand for our 2012 games after £400,000 invested and 12 months of PR work. Unveiled yesterday by Olympian and Olympic custodian Seb Coe, the design has been called a "broken swastika", a "scribbled joke" and even a "toiletting monkey" by Fleet Street. When asked, London's communist mayor Ken Livingstone says he is not going to "get into a sub-orgasmic state over it." Amen. Already an online petition protesting the logo has attracted 10,000 signatures in 24 hours. Our original logo during the candidacy phase was brilliant:The ribbon of course represents the Thames and the downward loop the Isle of Dogs.

April 2003

Here's Madeleine on 21 April 2003, or when she was 14 months. Doggie of course is ever present. For those keeping score as at today, Eitan weighs 26.4kg and and is 132cm (58 lbs and 4 feet, 4 inches) and Madeleine is 22.5kg and 120cm (49.4 lbs and 3 feet 11 inches). This is a 3-4% increase across the board since January.

Katya

Here are Katie and Katya, a friend from Capoeira in New York and Berkeley. The two are in New Orleans and have finished painting one of the school rooms of Warren Eastern High School on Canal St, which was flooded by Katrina.

Richmond Park

We goof around in Richmond Park which is all fun and games until Eitan disobeys Sonnet and plays on a compost pile. That's it! - no ice cream. The rest of the afternoon we listen to winging, whining and even begging which desists only after Madeleine has finished her choice. At some point, both kids explore while Sonnet and I read the newspapers on our orange picnic blanket. Madeleine races up to announce: "rattle snakes!" When I ask where, she replies breathelessly "everywhere dad! They are guarding the forest!" Eitan tells me it is just like Terabithia.

Madeleine has a new mood ring and I ask her about the colours: Sad? "definitely blue." Happy? "that's a yellow one." How about excited? "well, when I'm excited its brown and all the colours mixed together!"

Rock Star

Madeleine has an imagination. When I tell her this photo will go on my blog she is momentarily silenced by the idea that anybody can see her. "Will I be famous?" she asks.

Diana playground

This photo by Madeleine. Today I take the kids to the Princess Diana playground in Hyde Park. After a few hours in the sand we go to the Iranian to have lamb shwarmas and carrot juice (the kids resist). I eat too many chilis and suffer for it now. In the park, we bump into neighbors Karen and Andrew and there three children including school chum Jackson. From Di we set up a make-shift football match with goal being two trees on the lawns next to Kensington Palace. Eitan choses to be Rinaldo "the best football player in the world" and I Steven Gerard who plays for England and Liverpool. Madeleine is Sam Robinson in goal. We end the day at the Richmond pool for some paddle time before home.

Blood moon

In Paris yesterday I jump into a taxi and hear a rip - of course my trousers torn up the back-side. Running late for meetings and with my summer intern, I make the rounds and a joke out of the circumstances. I'm not so worried about people seeing my boxer shorts - its the pink flesh of the leg that is rather unprofessional.

From Paris to Waterloo to the V&A where Sonnet meets me with a change of clothes. We head for Regent's Park where we visit Todd and Christine Fisher for an evening picnic and MacBeth at the out-door theatre. Todd is a partner at the buy-out firm KKR and his wife Christine is involved with Women-For-Women, which sponsors women survivors of war-torn regions. The Fishers have four kids at various stages of maturity from 12 years to 24 months and we are impressed by their organisation. Our warm evening is suited for the dramatic play, which is as bloody and bleak as I recall from a high school reading. With Othello, I have seen my share of gore this week and appropriately the moon is blood red, hanging over the horizon for our drive home.

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Macbeth Quote (Act V, Scene V).

Big Skies

Here's a photo from last summer in CO. We will return Out West in July and already Eitan and Madeleine are dreaming of Martine and Ray's friendly horses. Last night, Madeleine dresses up her elephant Babaar after an evening bath which leaves the stuffed animal soaked. She then wraps a plaster around his trunk to take care of a scrape and tucks him into a make-shift bed next to her own. Finally, Madeleine places an open book next to Babar so that he may read before sleep. I find the two happily asleep, side-by-side.

Marble

Sonnet in Berlin several weeks ago. On a lovely spring-summer day I am in Paris for some meetings and to see friends. It is a quick trip returning me to London tomorrow in time for Shakespeare in Regent's park with the Fishers. I watch the French Open as I work. Life is good.

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out”

Winston Churchill

Nathan

Nathan patiently listens to Madeleine, who may be describing her "worm house" which unfortunately was left uncovered and got flooded this week. The creepies seem to have survived and are set free by Sonnet not to be seen again by us let us hope. Nathan is an avid tri-athelete and may be found on his bike where he rolls 40 miles a day. He also surfs and plays a mean game of fooz ball. Nice rounding skills for the Oxford graduate that is he.

He Must Be A Republican

He sure is a retard. Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons announced a plan to turn coal into jet fuel to raise money for the state. Unfortunately for him and Nevada, Nevada has no coal. Jim also proposed paying for a $3.8 billion shortfall in highway construction money by selling water rights under state highways - it turns out (of course) the state does not actually own the rights. Jim then told a local editorial board he could not pronounce the name of his energy adviser because she was “Indian” — she is Turkish. He is also the subject of a FBI enquiry into whether he failed to report gifts from a military contractor while serving in Congress. The governor has denied wrongdoing and suggested (of course) that Democratic operatives might have paid off newspaper reporters who have written about his troubles with the F.B.I. There is more - like his threat to shut down the state budget unless he gets a security fortress in Carson City. Or his ambitious plan to cut taxes to small business by two one hundredths of a percent. He is indeed a Republican.

Still, Jim retains support from 28% of the state, or about the same crowd who now back our President Bush. These couldn't be the same voters, could they be?

Waterloo

Eitan at Waterloo station this weekend. We (I!) survive the bank holiday and Eitan begins a football clinic as there is no school (halt-term break). The clinic is three hours each morning beginning yesterday - Madeleine refuses - Eitan loves the footie practice. Today Aggie returns from Poland where she has been on holiday this past week. Eitan and Madeleine greet her with a home-made chocolate cake.

My intern from Columbia Business School begins today and most of the morning is spent getting him settled. Mathieu is from Paris and will cover several countries looking for secondary venture deals.

Pet Shop Boys

Sonnet and I re-live the 80s and 90s seeing the band which brought our culture "West End Girls", "It's A Sin" and "Suburbia" which they play to our great delight. Think synthesizers, bright neon and disco. Favorite baby-sitter Renata gives us her Sunday evening and with Eitan and Madeleine they watch a movie and eat pop-corn.

Trafalgar Sq

We end our morning at Nelson's column and Madeleine and the kids are drawn to the fountains (surprise). While the idea of wetting themselves attractive, the wishful coins awaiting their collection also tempting. The adults keep their eyes open for a splash or disappearance as the square is crowded on the weekend. Here Madeleine explains that that "money is free" after all and she will dry off "straight-away, dad."

"How poor are they that have not patience!" Othello. ACT II Scene 3

Gormley

We visit sculptor Antony Gormley at the Hayward Gallery on Saturday. Happily Emily has interviewed Gormley for the BBC and gives us the inside. Gormley is known for his fixation on the body, which he describes as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live." Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own, or "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside." Outside the gallery his statures are placed on 32 roof-tops visible from the museum's outdoors. Here I photograph one on the museum concrete.

Skate rats

As with so many Many Bank Holiday Weekends we have experienced in the UK, this one is wet and cold. Our first summer in London I recall a weekend-weather cycle which brought the fowl by Saturday clearing up for work. We use today to visit the Southbank Center with the Bilefield-Kasriel s - kids pictured. James Bilefield was an early fellow in Skype, which was sold to eBay for $4.3 billion last year. He is now looking into next start-up opportunities and not too surprisingly has a good selection. His wife Emily Kasriel is at the BBC and recently moved from the art's desk to oversee religion - an important assignment for them and her. This photo taken underneath the Elizabeth Hall - a typically terrible '60s design with an open, dark space perfect for riff-raff now fortunately occupied by skate-boarders.

Pineapple

Madeleine is up before Eitan and chomps some fruit. Eitan rolls downstairs rubbing the sleep from his eyes and the kids discuss the fact that Madeleine up before he. Eitan plays the Arctic Monkeys and blasts away - until Sonnet beseeches him to turn down the "noise." We wink at each other - damn the neighbors.

Thames

This is the Thames on a muggy afternoon where the river kinks at Mortlake famous for its cemeteries. It is also about where the Oxford-Cambridge boat race finishes at the Budweiser Brewery - smoke-stack pictured. Famously the Thames is tidal until the Teddington Lock or another two kilometres west, "down" stream. Many thousands of years ago the Thames was 10 km wide at this point forming an abundant marshland.

Jan Faber and I catch a matinee at The Globe seeing the bard's Othello. It was riveting through-and-through made graphic as Desdamona's death-bed is sprayed with hot blood. Bravo.

I ask Eitan what he will do with his stack of money accruing on his desk. He replies without hesitation: "save them until I have half a million pounds."

Madeleine fills a clear plastic container with dirt and makes a "warm farm" for a number of her pink friendlies. She fills the "trap" with apples, bananas, leaves and grass so the warms can eat. Sonnet puts her foot down when asked to bring them inside "so they can sleep."

Ludwig

After saying good-bye to Rob, I visit the modern art Museum Ludwig and see some old friends. Ludwig has the largest collection of Picasso's in Europe and also features works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichenstein.

I arrive home in time to join Sonnet to pick up the kids from school. Sonnet has taken the week off and today assists in Madeleine's class with bakery and other school-time activities. According to Sonnet, Madeleine was proud to show off her mum and introduce Sonnet to her friends. She squeels when she sees both of us at the pick-up point.

Dom

This remarkable cathedral in Koln I photograph at midnight. It is the city's center point and a magnet for young people and visitors.

Construction of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, more than 600 years to complete - it was finally finished in 1880, a national holiday celebrated across Germany. The two towers are 157 meters tall and 86 meters wide. At its completion, the Cologne cathedral was the world's largest building, losing the title to the Washington Monument in 1884. During WWII, the cathedral suffered 14 hits by aerial bombs but did not collapse; reconstruction was completed in 1956. In 1996, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List On. On August 18, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI visited the cathedral when an estimated 1 million pilgrims visited the Dom plaza during the festivities. Resting underneath one has an other-worldly sensation:
how could such a thing be built, by human beings, so long ago?

Köln

I'm in Cologne meeting with investors and Rob, who is here on business and me for business and a goof. We stay a the Dom-Hotel next to the Dom Cathedral, which is impressive. More on that later. I arrive after a short flight from London and look forward to a productive day and visits to several museums including Römisch Germanisches, which is about the Roman history.

Switching gears and since Labour came to power in 1997, Britain has granted citizenship to one million immigrants including us. The numbers have increasingly gone up from 37,010 in 1997 to 154,095 in 2006, according to the Home Office. British nationality is entrusted after five years in the country and under one or several continuous visas. It helps if you have have a transferable skill and are not a terrorist, which is asked on the application. When sworn, the soon-to-be citizen must pledge God or the Queen. Sonnet chose the former and I the latter.

Wilco

Sonnet and I see Wilco at the Shepard's Bush Empire last night (this the venue were The Who and Oasis first performed). The band is excellent and play super-intense alt-country tunes - nothing similar to current faves The Kooks or Arctic Monkeys. Lead singer Jeff Tweedy uses six or seven instruments but Nels Cline steals the show with his electric guitar that he pounds mercilessly for three hours. The audience and band have a love-in and Sonnet and I enjoy the music. My photo from a mobile.

Sonnet turns a year and we celebrate her birthday. The kids make a mural buy taping 12 blank pieces of typing paper than spend the morning colouring and gluing.

St James's Palace

Here is the image every American so cherishes and nets the UK £15 billion a year from tourist receipts (Office of National Statistics). In this case our valiant guard has to fend off - or rather ignore - a bus load of Japanese and Asian tourists who, rest assured dear reader, are queed up the Pall Mall for their chance to mug for photos and make the poor fellow blink. Or move. Or breathe even.

Kleiner

Rob is in town for business and Sunday we meet in Primrose Hill with Dana and Nathan. Already Rob's influence is having an effect on the boy. Rob's trade-finance company is growing and his trip to meet existing and new investors. From London he travels to Amsterdam and Cologne, where I will meet him tomorrow.

"When your back is against the wall, it is time you turn around and fight."
John Major, former Prime Minister of Britain

Afro

Eitan looks pretty good in his all-70s 'fro and shades. Costume from Paul.

As today is Sonnet's birthday, the kids great her with an early morning cheer then spend the morning crafting a "mural" to mark Sonnet's occassion. First they tape about 12 pieces of white paper together then begins the writing, gluing, coloring, smudging, irritating and fighting. Eitan: "No! Madeleine - that is not how you tape the papers!" Things calm down and a nice work vibe is reached pre-school drop.

Jerry's Girl

OK, we are all mourning Jerry Falwell's passing - may he go to where he deserves. With the living, religious tart Monica Goodling, a former top Alberto Gononzales aid who has pleaded her Fifth, received her law degree from Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law, formerly known as CBN University School of Law, after Christian Broadcasting Network. Regent's web site, as reported by The Boston Globe, boasts that "150 of our graduates were hired by the Bush administration." This despite a U.S. News & World Report ranking in the FOURTH QUARTILE. In Goodling's graduating class, 60% failed the bar exam on the first try. Whether the 150 working for Bush got there because of merit or insider dealings it makes one mad.

“AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”
-- Jerry Falwell

Fall sports

Cal shared a piece of the Pac-10 title last year but Jeff Tedford's squad wants nothing less than a BCS berth this time around. One of the nation's most electric players, DeSean Jackson, and very dangerous offense return to help the Golden Bears knock down that barrier. Christian Wright has purchased tickets for the USC game at Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, on November 11. I will do my best to to make the re-union. Photo from the Cal Athletics website.

Sunday mornings

Paul and I have entered a happy Sunday morning routine, taking our kids for a walk of Richmond Park often while Paul's wife Lorena and Sonnet jog the thing. In tow are Eitan and Madeleine and the lovely Camilla who ensemble take advantage of us dads - in this case, 11AM ice cream from the Ice Cream Truck at the park's gate. Paul lives in the neighborhood and the company he founded - ShipServ - provides e-commerce services to the maritime industry (Paul is HBS '97). Paul is otherwise a Dane from Copenhagen who met Lorena in San Francisco. Lorena is from Buenos Aires and together they are cosmopolitans par excellance. Note Madeleine's bird-spotters.

Happy Chappy

Joey Jr, son of Joe and my cousin Susan Schady, will shortly leave his Westchester roots for the green golf courses and warm clime of Charlotte, South Carolina, so Joe Sr. may run his family's business. Susan and Joe's new home has a big rap around porch to die for - good for sipping ice tea and watching the kids grow up. It also has a lovely yard filled with trees and flowers. Little traffic, no parental commute and sandy beaches will add to Joey Jr's pleasure. Life is good.

Friends United

Here's a photo from September 18, 2003. Madeleine still in diapers. Her haircut from the local barber-shop and I think the barber thought she a he. Saying Sonnet was upset would be an under-statement.

Sonnet asks Madeleine yesterday what we should give visiting Rob as a gift. Her reply: "How about that old doll that I don't like?"

At the dentist in the morning I ask Madeleine if she wants me to tell her a story. Her reply: "How about Rotten Teeth Jack?" (I may point out this straight from her head)

Eitan and I watch the FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea. He cries when Chelsea scores the winning goal in double-extra overage.

Madeleine at the dinner table: "Daddy, do you want me to fart?!"

Eitan rips "Stairway to Heaven"

Rock out

Yesterday I take Eitan and Madeleine to the Richmond Arts Centre to make music and choose an instrument. On offer are the majors: winds, strings, keyboards and of course drums. Both kids are drawn to the guitar - and Eitan goes electric. Long-haired rocker and instructor Gary strums Iggy Pop's "Free Bird" and the boy is committed. Madeleine takes her time and investigates the acoustic guitar, reeds and piano. She is also intrigued by the drums but that is a non-starter. Neither wants to leave which is a good sign - make them beg for their medicine, I say.

Madeleine and Eitan Swing

Duckie Brown

This is a photo of a Duckie Brown ensemble, taken by me at the V&A. According to Sonnet: "Duckie Brown is a joint venture, founded by Steven Cox, who had spent over a decade in New York designing for others, and Daniel Silver, who had worked as a glove designer and television producer. With no financial backer to satisfy, they design to please themselves, juxtaposing classic tailoring with whimsy. Thus, a conservative silhouette may come in unexpected colours or it may feature unusual textiles or embellishments." Friend Joseph Porterfield and I meet at the V&A to see the program. We then meet Ritesh at Aubaine nearby to have lunch. None of us dressed in colour.

Wagamama's

Madeleine weighs in with her chop-sticks Sunday afternoon. With interest I watch her technique: one in each fist gutting the target. When a gentle bit of instruction is offered she replies: "STOP IT! DADDY!" which turns a few heads and makes me blush. Eitan has a better outcome: "See Madeleine, this is just like a Chinese." Eitan and Madeleine still believe that Asians live upside-down as China is on the other side of the planet. Sonnet rolls her eyes and I do not correct the mis-perception: let them have fun with the idea, I say.

White Shirt Club

Here we are this evening at our favorite local which, conveniently, is two minutes from our house and has a play-area for the kids. There is a coal fireplace for the winter or grey London spring. Today I'm up at 0415 to catch the second flight out of Heathrow to Zurich. I have several meetings then catch the return arriving home by 1700. As I tell Sonnet: "at least I got to wear my new tie." I might also add snobbishly - at least it isn''t Cleveland.

Sonnet to Madeleine: "Do NOT shout out the window at the Tesco Man!" (Tesco being the grocery delivery).

Madeleine finds a slug: "Can we bring it home and keep it as a pet dad?"

Madeleine climbs to the top of a tree: "Woo-hoo! I'm on top of the world!"

He Must Be A Republican

Tommy Thompson, a presidential candidate from Wisconsin, sited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining why he said at a Republican presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker. Speaking to reporters after giving an address at the state Republican convention, Thompson also said Saturday that he had been suffering from the flu and bronchitis and had been admitted to a hospital emergency room three days prior to the May 3 debate. Photo of Butt Head (left, in AC-DC) from the WWW.

Chop-sticks

It's a rainy day yesterday and Eitan and Madeleine are cooped up in the house all morning. After a wind-fall two hours of cartoons, Sonnet and I motivate and take the kids to Wagamama's, pictured, and a movie - Road to Terebitha, which has a PG rating for scary scenes. Madeleine asks a lot of questions earning a turn-around glare (at a matinee!) while Eitan quietly absorbs the action. He then chooses a toilet-run at the key father-son reconciliation scene. Ah, well.

Beloved horse Charlie in Colorado passes away. Both kids wail real tears of anguish at the news. Madeleine asks if we can remember Charlie by bringing some grass, a few apples and a dandelion to the dinner table - I agree, of course. She also water-colours her friend and asks that we remember him in "horse heaven."

Zzz

Madeleine asleep. I often tease her that she snores - she doesn't - but this always gets a rise from her. I guess she views it as unladylike.

Yesterday, the family completes the school Fun Run of five miles in Richmond Park beginning at Richmond Gate. Both Eitan and Madeleine are up for the challenge and we join 500 or so runner-walkers on a bright, cloudy morning to complete the race. Eitan and I charge ahead and he does a great job jogging (most) of the course. During our breaks we discuss things like the circulatory system and why one's heart beats faster during exercise. At completion we rally at the school for a BBQ and make-shift game of footie where 30 or so kids joined in.

Story time

Madeleine during story-time. Photo is blurry as Madeleine is never still, even when transfixed. We are reading chapter books, like James And The Giant Peach, which offer complicated plots and emotional under-currents. Eitan's focus is laser beam while Madeleine drifts in and out with a question. Eitan has a 16 month advantage and the trick is to find a balance so I read a picture book or tell a home-spun story on alternate evenings. Sonnet logs plenty of time too.

Rave

London's late night dance scene is alive and kicking and rest assured that Sonnet and I are no part of it (photo www). The last time we disco'd was pre-kids so I'm guessing 1999 (excluding weddings, but that doesn't really count does it?)

Eitan, Madeleine and friend Jackson and I have dinner at Pizza Express to congratulate our week's survival without Sonnet, who returns today. Madeleine FYI loves salami and Eitan is going through a Margarita phase.

Skyline

Tony Blair gives his Bon Voyage in a brief emotional speech broadcast on all UK channels. He apologises for when he "fell short," and asks the nation to make their own decision on Iraq. He also notes that there are "more jobs, fewer unemployed, better health and education results, lower crime and economic growth in every quarter" since his arrival. Tony will remain in office until 27 June when, presumably, Gordon Brown will become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.

"The British are special - the world knows it, in our innermost thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth." Tony today

Zit

This morning Madeleine points at my chin and says "what's that daddy?" and I explain it is a zit. After a brief explanation of the zit, I tell her she can expect to have them when she is a teen-ager. She sobs.

Eitan and Madeleine had their Spanish lesson yesterday and were wiped out when I arrived home around 7PM. Madeleine adjusts to the full-day ending at 3:20PM and I remember Eitan being cranky when the hours were upped. Both kids making progress with their reading and writing - Eitan is working on "chapter books" while Madeleine completes sentences. We all look forward to Sonnet's return tomorrow. Hurray!

Franzosischer Dom / Luftangriff

This post-card photo from Berlin in 1944. It is a particularly chilling image of End Of Days.

Today, the cathedral remains, but gutted, on Gendermanmarkt. The first parts of the structure were built from 1701 to 1705 by the Huguenot community and was modelled after the destroyed Huguenot church in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France. In 1785 Carl von Gontard modified the cathedral and built the domed tower - pictured.

4X

This collage of Madeleine taken at Lego-land in, and I am guessing a bit, autumn 2004 making her under three. Flash forward to today, when she gives me a huge hug and says: "Dad you are the best!". She also tells me matter-of-factly on the school-run not to step on anything round because "it might be poo."

The most recently reviewed book in my book-club is Flaubert's Parrot, by Julian Barnes, chosen after we thoroughly enjoyed M Bovary earlier this year. (Retired Goldman Sachs partner) Erich remarks from the book he has learned that "parrot soup" in French means bread in red wine, that Nabokov supposedly gets the phonetics of the name "Lolita" wrong, that for a while one could rent a closed carriage by asking for a "Bovary", in reference to the famous scene of passion in one such, which we learn may have been quite cramped. "The whole parrot angle, starting with which stuffed version is the one that sat on Flaubert's desk, is not too interesting, really." It may explain why the Peter Seller's Pink Panther gets such an immediate, if mis-understood, guffaw.

Bath

We head West to Bath, where we stay with friends Dave and Tabitha and their children 'Netta, John and A-C for the bank holiday weekend. We have known them since Maida Vale when Tabitha and Sonnet shared notes on pregnancy and babies. Shortly after graduating Amherst, Tabitha biked around the world on a BMW motorcycle. Dave is a Managing Director on Morgan Stanley's emerging markets desk and his team of 70 is responsible for p&l of €1B - most productive at the firm. On the way home we visit the RAF airplane musuem and see the old spit-fires, Lancasters, mustangs, a euro-fighter and others. Fun!

On the weekend when asked to say one thing, Madeleine: "on holiday, me and 'netta had fun on the slide and we pushed our buddies in the wheel borough." The photo of 'netta during books-before-bed.