Ruby's Passport

It's been a very eventful week for our family. Ruby received her first passport and as a fully fledged, official, British passport bearer, she's now entitled, 'in the name of Her Majesty', to 'pass freely, without let or hindrance and be afforded such assistance and protection as may be necessary'. Ibolya got her first, undisturbed, full night's sleep in over 8 months and I watched, with Stephen and Mark, the final, brilliant, 3 episodes, of series 3 of the Wire.

Other important family events this week included; Beatrice's 2nd birthday, Hugo cycled without stabilisers, for the first time, the Bennetts have had chicks and the mallards have returned to my Mum and Dad's back garden.

Gerhard Richter Portraits

The exhibition of Gerhard Richter portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery, is in it's final days and I finally got to see it yesterday. It's a beautiful and haunting show, further confirming, if needed, his position as our greatest living painter.

Other Bits of our Weekend

Ruby's got a real taste for beetroot. It turns everything red.

One of our honeymoon, Austrian, gnomes

Ibolya fbought a new egg container from the market

Friday night's tea, ribeye steak, spinach, with dauphinoise potatoes

Sunbathing in the garden

Duck eggs and sausages for breakfast, from the butchers in Hampton

and the hedge got it's first trim of the year

Tanfield Avenue

It was a glorious hot day on Sunday and we were invited to Kate's birthday barbecue. That's a whole lamb, spit roasted, in the garden, using a length of scaffold and a cement mixer!

The Cat in the Hat

We picked up a number of books for Ruby in Hampton including The Cat in the Hat. I didn't realise, until I started reading it to Ruby that night, that I'd read it many times before when I was a very young. I loved reading it again, as every detail in the book became so familiar. And one of the best thing about it was, the strange and bizarre appearance of Thing 1 and Thing 2, who I hand't thought about since I was about 6.

Molesey

On Saturday, Ibolya, Ruby, Stephen and I went to Molesey to meet Sarah and have a wander around Molesey and Hampton's antique shops and have lunch. There were deers in the park, a fantastic butchers, amazing carrot cake and I'm in awe of Sarah's garden.

Portobello

The weather was 'fine' on Friday so first thing, Ruby and I popped to Goldbourne Road for a coffee and cake at the Porto and then popped into Bob Books to say hello to Ibolya, Kylie and Sasha.

Our local barbers
Goldbourne road, one of my most favourite views in London

Inside the Porto

Portobello local

Ladbroke Grove bridge

Sasha

Knock2bag is 2

Rupert's Knock2bag comedy club was 2 years old on Wednesday night. It's a fantastic achievement and going from strength to strength.
Wednesday's line up was Trevor Lock, Tom Meeten, Will Andrews, Gerry Howell and Alex Maple.
But the headline and star of the show was Ivan Brackenbury, 'bonkers' presenter on Chesterfield And North Derbyshire Hospital radio. He made me weep.

Also on was Knock2bag's resident (and comedy genius) Brian Gittins. He owns a roadside cafe on the A23, near Pycombe.

Ruby Rolls

Ruby did her first, unassisted, roll today. Ibolya left her on the spare room bed, went out for a moment and when she came back in, Ruby was on her front. It's one of the great landmark events in a baby's life, the first stage in her developing motor skills that will lead to her crawling and then on to, standing, walking, running and jumping.

Drifting, Dreaming

In 1978, after sitting in the waiting room at Dick Miller's, our family dentist, my Dad was inspired to write a lyric to Erik Satie’s 'Gymnopedie No1'.
It was eventually recorded by Cleo Laine and James Galway and featured on their album 'Sometimes When We Touch', released as a single and made it to number 1 in the Classical singles chart.
You can now download the song and album on itunes or hear it for free on Spotify, just type 'Cleo Laine Drifting Dreaming' into the search box.

James Mason

I'm a huge James Mason fan, absolutely one of my all time favourite actors and he was born, in Huddersfield, 100 years ago today. For me, there's no other actor who embodies such noble dignity and pathos.


Here's a lovely tribute from David Thomson in today's Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/15/james-mason

There are so performances of his I love, in films like; 'Odd Man Out', 'A Star is Born', 'North By North West' , 'Cross of Iron' and 'Murder by Decree'. But tonight we've decided our tribute screening will be his beautiful, heart rending role as Nabokov's Humbert Humbert in 'Lolita'

Ruby's Week

It's been Ruby's first week with 3 days at Mary's, the childminders, and Ibolya's first, back at work for 4 days. And my first week, looking after Ruby on Fridays.
It's a week we were very anxious about and weren't at all looking forward to.
But at the end of the first week of the new regime, Ruby, Ibolya, Mary and I are all very happy and very pleased with how it's all gone.
We've all a few treats too.

Ruby's had a Barbapapa spoon and dish

Ibolya's work bought these gorgeous flowers, from her favourite florist , Scarlet and Violet.

We harvested our rubarb and made crumble

Ruby received these clothes, all the way from Australia, from our friend Joanna. She knitted the tunic, herself!
and I had a bite to eat at Ed's Easy Diner