Holidays and Jumping

These first two videos are Ruby telling me all about what she's looking forward to about our holidays, on Saturday afternoon, with Lookie muscling in on the action.
The third is Lookie doing what he loves and jumping of chairs - just watch him go!

Vittoriano's 40th

It seems an age ago now but way back on January 28th we had a fantastic night out celebrating Vittoriano's 40th birthday at the Sartori restaurant near Leicester Square.

Birthdays

Well that weekend was a vast improvement on its predecessor, lots of good sleep (by our standards) and two delightful children, who it was a joy to be with and receive some lovely comments about from other people.
A quick run down of what we did.Friday night: Chinese, a movie (The Fighter), asleep on the sofa by 10.00. Saturday morning; ballet followed by Roundwood Park, bit of rest after lunch but no sleep from Lucas. Denis and Thomas arrived. Linda and Levan came round for a play, late afternoon. Lookie pulled Levan's hair, frightening him enough not be able to be in the same room as him. Birthday dinner with Denis and Thomas. Watched Borgen and quite enjoyed it. Sunday morning, big breakfast for everyone then train to Hamstead Heath with Ruby and Lucas. Had a great time at the playground. Early afternoon sleeps, homework with Ruby, cake and tea for Denis and Thomas (celebrating their 50th and 10th birthdays, respectively). Dinner at Kate and Dan's.

Finn

We met Robyn and Alex's new baby boy Finn on Saturday and it was lovely to see them all. But this was a highlight in an otherwise not very good weekend. Very rude awakenings from Ruby and Lucas, a missed opportunity for a long overdue walk to Golborne Road, a car breakdown, missed sleeps, tantrums and too much to do. I fully intend though to ensure this weekend coming, makes up for last.

Homework

Ruby started her new school on Tuesday 3rd January. She's in the nursery class of Leopold School and we are immensely lucky and grateful for her place and really hope she'll be there until she's 10. So this weekend we had to help her with her very first homework. This involved getting her read and describe what happens in a book about a visit to the hairdressers and cutting out and sticking 3 segments of a picture of a car. This was marked by the teacher and she did really well.
I worked on Saturday morning while the others went to ballet and then cooked and relaxed in the afternoon. On Sunday morning we went to Golders Hill and checked out all the animals and had a lovely time. We also listened to lots of David Bowie to celebrate his birthday and Lucas indulged his passion for playing with the microwave and pressing any buttons he can get hold of.

Happy Birthday David Bowie

Here's a few of my favourite David Bowie videos to help celebrate his 65th birthday

We've been playing back to back tracks, in the house today and even got to see quite a bit of The Man Who Fell to Earth, while Ruby slept on the sofa this afternoon.
Really hope the old fella will get back in the studio soon and tour again.

Beard

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I made a bit of an attempt to grow a beard over Christmas but was very happy to shave it off just before going back to work. Here's a gif of a satisfying but tricky shave.

Christmas Week

These are a few bits from the sublime week we had at home between the 28th December and 2nd January. I honestly can't tell you just how good it was, because it was so darn good. Just to be home, together as a family and not having to do anything in particular or anything to ambitious was just what we all needed. We did a few little outings in the morning like going to Hamstead Heath, Brent Bunny Park and Gambado's at Imperial Warf and then did creative stuff in the afternoons like painting, drawing and baking with Ruby and Lucas. When they were asleep in the afternoons; Ibolya and I got in some phenomenal naps and some great movies (which felt utterly luxurious). We watched, the very powerful and moving documentary 'Senna', the flawed yet cosmic 'Tree of Life', another great doco 'Inside Job', rewatched (still magnificent after all these years) Koyaanisqatsi half of 'Citizen Kane' and a quarter of 'Andre Rublev'.