Brains

At NYC hospital w/ Katie's friend, a neurosurgeon

Me: "How was the film? " [Dad's note: Madeleine and Molly sees  the movie 'After Earth'; the girls otherwise by themselves]
Madeleine: "It was so scary.  And you're never going to guess what Molly did."
Me: "Oh?"
Madeleine: "They, like, asked me my age and I said 12." [Dad's note: 'After Earth' an 12A, meaning a film-gover must be over 12 or accompanied by a parent. Madeleine is 11]
Me:
Madeleine: "And Molly said ten. Can you believe it?"
Me: "So how did you get in?"
Madeleine: "The ticket guy was quiting and so he didn't care about being fired."
Me: "Well done". I give Madeleine the Obama rock.

Me: "So how is my reputation around the house these days?"
Madeleine: "Um OK I guess. It could be better. "
Me: "Oh?"
Madeleine: "Like when you tell me to clean the front yard because I haven't talked to Eitan or something. "
Me: "Don't you realise it's part of a bigger plan?"
Madeleine: "How is sweeping the front yard a plan?  None of the other kids have to do chores like we do. "
Me: "I have two words to say to you. "
Madeleine:
Me: "Karate Kid."
Madeleine:
Me: "Miyagi-san knew what he was doing. "

Stamen & Stigma

Eitan and I check out a flower being pollinated by a bee. Since he does not know the mechanics, I ask him to investigate plant-reproduction on the web and report back to me. When he asks if he has a choice I tell him, sure, he can do the research or the backyard. He goes for the research.

Later, we sit around the living room and Eitan describes what he has learned to Madeleine (under threat of punishment). Who said learning isn't fun ?

I prepare to kill an insect in the kitchen. Madeleine: "All creatures great and small."
Me: "All creatures small and dead."
Madeleine: "Nice, dad."
Me: "It's a bug."
Madeleine: "Whatever."

Brilliant Green

Spring Celmatis, pre flower

Silver would exclaim, when visiting London, early summer, "The Green, Jeff, oh the green!" and so I look around with an extra appreciation, pointing out to Eitan how fabulously brilliant it all is. Tree crowns at maximum, grasses long and vines and bushes flush. Yeah, sure, I try to explain for the umpteenth time photosynthesis (collective groan from the Shakespeares) but even this does not spoil the joy.

Tesco

Carpenteria californica (I think)

Eitan thoughtfully munches on a custard filled, chocolate sprinkled, croissant : "You can get anything at Tesco." [Dad's note: Tesco is the third largest retailer in the world with ca $100bn of turnover from 6,351 stores]
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "Nutella. Pancake mix. Doritos. .."
Me: "Can you imagine the day when you aren't driven by your next sugar hit ?"
Eitan: "No."
Me: "Probably not."

CHiPS

Les flics

Cops on mopeds strap on their helmets, gun their small engines, and blitz into Place du Madeleine. Why is this amusing ?

Lights, Camera

Film crew, Gare du Nord

My day starts in Paris where I navigate the metro to Gare du Nord and the fast train to Brussels. The metro stressful, since rush hour, while my station (Gare du Nord) is marked (for some crazy reason) Magenta. But I digress.  I am in Brussels to entice a serious investor into a serious fund and, as I tell Sonnet, it is not every day one asks for 50M bucks.

Duty & Booze

 Madeleine plays it cool (Auntie Katie's sunglasses)

David an entrepreneur in the drinks business, introducing the UK's benighted and blinkered boozers to exotic imports like "Poison Brew" from Sweden. We have a case of "Carnaby Brown" coolers in the pantry.

Since cheer a big business here not surprisingly government wants a piece of the action.  The duty on beer, for instance, is £19.51 per hectolitre per alcohol content.  So 15 beers or 7.5 litres at 5.3%  would raise a tax of £7.75 (.1971 * 7.5 * 5.3).  The tax per bottle , then, is 51p  - interesting as I see a case of Becks (20 bottles) at Tesco going for £12, or 60p a bottle. Loss making and also cheaper than water.

Last year a movement towards a minimum price on liquor snuffed out by both parties afraid of losing, well, the entire voting public. Britain enjoys its bender.

Get Lucky

This cool kid reminds me of Daft Punk.

I lunch with T, who is in town to attend Hg Capital's AGM and to meet with some venture funds and tech guys, which is where his interests are since he is a "recycled entrepreneur", as he once liked to say.  Since 2000, his tech portfolio, which includes Benchmark, Index, Apax, BlueRun, Correlation and Industry Ventures, is 30% net IRR based, in part, on several early exits. We agree : the timing of cashflows has a mighty effect on performance - obvious, but nice to see it confirmed in real numbers (the median vc industry performance over this period 3%).

Sonnet and Madeleine make it home in one piece. Back to work and school tomorrow.

Bounce And SAT

Eitan takes a break from revisioning - tomorrow begins his exams, which last one-two hours per discipline, all day, all week.  Today he puts in six hours compared to six hours over the last seven days.  I try to stay out of it as, his teachers' tell us, part of the learning is learning how to learn.  This year for practice, a goof, but from year eight, it is a mark on the boy's permanent record.

US universities, unlike England, look for the fuller picture : grades, teacher recommendations, extra curriculars and, of course, test scores.  My second SAT exam, for instance, in '84 and I had the flu and did not want to go - Grace got me fed and into the car, which broke down four blocks from our house. She raced up Euclid, in the rain, and swapped for Moe's difficult-to-drive 544 and off we went to the test center, me arriving late but allowed access to the exam hall. I improved and got into college but, if this were the only data point, I would have been f***ed.

Big Tree

The tree out front that we hope won't fall on the house.  It has grown, like, 20% since we moved in.

Eitan and I have dinner at The Plough (fabulous local gastropub converted from the neighbourhood boozer for the over 50s) and discuss the usual stuff : school, sports, goals and expectations .. girls, though nothing new or on the horizon here - or that he would wish to share, anyway. He's never around the opposite sex as Hampton School all boys but (I learn) Joe and Shaheen have gone on a movie double date, while the counter parties unidentified. It still kinda counts.

Crazy Frankensteins

The backyard in first bloom and it is payback for the long winter, particularly hard this year as we adjust to the kids' early morning schedule. Can I take another? But for now the sunrise is 4:30AM and sunset at 9PM.  Amazing what a little extra light does.

Another reason to appreciate this time of year: Roland Garros. And soon, Wimbledon.

And The Chocolate Factory

New York Day

MOMA

Madeleine Katie

Central Park

Katie and Madeleine have an Upper West Side morning, starting off with a jog/walk around the reservoir followed by the Silver Moon Cafe for croissants and pastries. From there it is a smoothie then down town to Katie's offices and an afternoon at a chocolate factory in soho "that takes up an entire city block."  Sonnet visits the Met. Eitan does his revisions.

Me, on speaker phone: "So do you miss your brother?"

Madeleine: "Not really."

Me: "Guess who's right here?"

Madeleine: "Um, Eitan?"

Eitan: "Hi Madeleine!"

Manhattan

Sonnet takes Madeleine to Manhattan for half-term break to visit Auntie Katie.  Today Katie will take Madeleine to her offices.

Eitan and I were going to go to Thorp amusement park to ride "The Saw", "Swarm," "Stealth" and the "Nemesis Inferno" but foul weather keeps us home. Instead we watch "The Dictator" which seems about right for his age. Or ours.

Me: "How are the revisions going?"
Eitan: "Fine. I did Geography today."
Me: "Oh, what?"
Eitan: "Like how to take temperatures using a thermometer."
Me: "By sticking it up your ass?"
Eitan: "Ha ha! Dad!"

Conservatory

We get some w/e sun which means only one thing for the Shakespeares: chores. The front and backyard require weekly work and, since it has been two weeks, a job for idle hands (or, at least, two kids on half-term break).  They grumble but I hold a few cards in my pocket : Eitan wants to watch the men's EUFA Champions Final with Joe and Madeleine wants an iPad.  The work gets done.

Our conservatory painted inside black, a gutsy decision which somehow brings the garden closer.  Eric made the right call.

Ava

Ava is a crack footballer so no surprise she makes to trip from Devon to see the women's EUFA Champions League at Stamford Bridge.  The final between Lyon and Wolfsburg, who win 1-nil, preventing the defending champions from three in a row. I have known this kid her whole life and she is a good one.

Fondu Enchainé

A 'fondu enchainé  ' is when, in a movie, one image fades while the next one already appears.  This is often what I think, today, of Eitan and Madeleine - they are both still kids who want to climb things, sleep late and slack on their chores or homework. Watch television and eat a candy bar when the mood strikes them. Read comics. Yet, their bodies and personalities subtly shifting before us, in preparation for the next stage. Sonnet and I wonder : what ?

Disco Modern

Daft Punk is an electronica duo of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christon and Thomas Bangalter who hit the euro club scene in the 90s and came to popular attention from the soundtrack of the Tron remake in 2010.

I listen to a review of their new song 'Get Lucky' on Radio 4 - described as a disco retread, the equivalent of cat nip for the middle-age male, who make the tune No. 1 on the charts.  I would wish to report that I hate it but I love it.  Daft Punk nails the song, too - some KC And The Sunshine Band, a bit of Earth Wind And Fire and (of course) Donna Summer whose "I Feel Love" changed everything when it arrived in 1977.  I also hear shades of Cool And The Gang and the Gap Band. A fine vintage tune for the ages.

Bank Holiday Bunk

Eitan, Shaheen and Joe at Palewell Park

We head in to a 'bank' holiday weekend and that can mean only one thing: crap weather. It pisses down, too, and my friend Justin, in California, happily informs me "it's 45 degrees in London but feels like 39."  I wear  my winter coat.  Sonnet takes a hot shower to warm up, 8:40PM.  It is late May for Christ's sake.

"It gets your blood circulating."
--BBC presenter Steve Bradley psyches us up from the Chelsea Flower Show