March 2006

March 31, 2006

Woke up at 6am… Fired up my computer and checked that the guidance had launched according to schedule. A couple of things hadn’t gone live, and I was able to fix them before many people should have noticed…Still not feeling great, but dragged myself into the office. Just walking up that stupid hill was too much for me. I had to rest at the top before carrying on to the tube. Fortunately I got a seat, or it would likely have been a repeat of Monday’s performance. My coughing seems worse again — I don’t think amoxycillin is any match for this bug.

There was a launch breakfast for the Comms team, with Buck’s fizz and Krispy Kreme doughnuts (just bucks for me). Louise made a speech about what a great job we’d done, and the chief exec and chair both went out of their way to congratulate us.

Tina and I took the team out for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. I didn’t go back to the office afterwards. I am now officially sick. When I got home, I climbed straight into bed with my clothes on and slept for a couple of hours.

Felt much better when I woke up… It’s sinking in what we’ve managed to achieve, launching the site on schedule. It’s what I was hired to do, and I think we’ve proved ourselves now. The site looks really good, such an improvement on before. As Adam says, it’s gone from amateurish to professional.

Had a bowl of yogurt for dinner, counteracting the big breakfast and lunch, and I hope replacing some of the intestinal flora and fauna the antibiotics must be wiping out.

Finally finished the Fog of War. I can’t help liking McNamara and feeling that he’s been unfairly treated by history.

March 30, 2006

Woke up at 4am. I had a strange dream about mom. She was living on her own in a little flat, and I kept visiting her with odd presents. She’d meet me at the door and we’d chat, but I never went inside. I felt a bit worried about her, she didn’t seem herself, and I wondered where dad was…After trying and failing to get back to sleep, I got up and made a batch of brownies for Nova’s class bake sale. Managed to mess up the recipe by putting in 1 1/2 cups of flour instead of 1/2 a cup, and I was already short on the cocoa powder. Chucked in various things, a couple more eggs, some Nestlé Quick, more baking powder and hoped for the best. They were alright — a little cakey and kind of pale looking, but I slathered them with butter icing and stuck smarties on top, and think they’ll do.

Watched a French film while they were baking, called Comme Un Image (Look at Me), about an arrogant successful author, and his relationships with the people around him, especially his mousy, overweight daughter. I thought it was excellent.

All that exertions set off a major coughing fit. I’m not sure that the amoxycillin is having much effect…

Worked from bed again. The website is live already, but the official launch is tomorrow when the Institute publishes its first ever public health guidance, and there is plenty to do before then. Broke off to attend Nova’s ballet recital, which just about finished me off.

Crawled back into bed and worked until about 8pm, when I just ran out of steam…

March 29, 2006

Another day working from bed… The website went live about 11am! There were a few tense moments when nothing appeared, and it was very slow for the first little while. (I so glad the whole senior management team is on an away day).Worked until 6pm, then went next door to pick up Nova from Etta’s. That’s the most exercise I’ve had in the last couple of days, and I had to lie on the couch to recover afterwards. Any exertion completely wipes me out. I think it’s because my lungs are cemented shut and I’m not getting enough oxygen.

Rocket and smoked salmon salad for dinner. Watched the Biggest Loser finale with Pasc, while scoffing an entire box of chocolates. People watch sports instead of playing them, why not dieting as a spectator sport?

March 28, 2006

Spent the day working from bed, like some tubercular Victorian poet. Propped up on pillows, I set up my laptop on the little cedar table from my Vancouver flat. Ideally, I would have been watching daytime TV chat shows…;-), but that wasn’t an option. The website goes live tomorrow, and there were a million and one things to sort out first.In the afternoon, Nova was home, but Simonia kept her occupied upstairs. I got up when she left, and spent an hour with Nova before bed. She’s decided to write her autobiography (working title: The Adventures of Nova, by Andrea and Adam living in a house in London), and has carefully lettered a table of contents at the start of her notebook:

Contents
The new baby
Nova’s birthday
Nova’s new school
Evelyn’s 5th birthday
It’s not fair
Morocco
The wedding

She writes a story at the top, then illustrates it, incorporating some pressed flowers. So far, she’s completed one story…

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful lady called Andrea. And she had a husband called Adam. And she was going to have a baby. And she thought she would call her Nova.

Suddenly she spotted a snowdrop. “Adam! Adam!” called Andrea. “I found a snowdrop! Shall we use it and make a hairclip with that?”

They went to a church and had a wedding. As they walked home, Andrea’s tummy got fatter and fatter. “The baby is coming!” said Andrea. “We shall go to the hospital.”

They went off to the car and they drove to the hospital. Andrea laid in a bed and the baby went plop! And everybody in the hospital was smiling. Even if they weren’t in the room, they still smiled.

I went straight to bed once Nova was down, and worked until about 10pm.

March 27, 2006

Went into work this morning, though I wasn’t feeling great. The train was packed, and I couldn’t even get near a pole to hold onto. I had to hold one of the bars overhead. Even that amount of exertion proved too much for me, and I started feeling sick and dizzy. I staggered off the train at Euston and collapsed on a bench.After a few minutes I was feeling a bit better. The platform guard came over to enquire if I needed first aid or an ambulance, but I told him I was alright. I waited until an emptyish train came along so I could have a seat, and completed my journey.

I soldiered through most of the day, though I left a bit early to go to the doctor. After listening to my chest and taking my history, the doctor diagnosed acute bronchitis. She prescribed antibiotics, scheduled a chest x-ray, and told me to take a few days off work. “You don’t realise how sick you are,” she told me. It’s funny how a pronouncement like that is both satisfying and worrying at the same time. Sort of like Spike Milligan’s epitaph, “I told you I was sick!”

In spite of the doctor’s advice, I followed through on my theatre plans with Jemima. It had been arranged for a while, and she’s feeling quite low, so I didn’t want to cancel on her. We saw Blackbird at the Albery. I quite enjoyed the play, though I was a bit distracted by the ministrations necessary to keep me from coughing. Home about 10:30.

March 26, 2006

Mother’s day in the UK… When Nova came creeping in to our room about 5am, I nudged Adam awake and got him to head her off at the pass. He gave up after her third return, and went upstairs to make my breakfast in bed. The clocks went forward this morning, so it wasn’t actually as obscenely early as it would have been.They returned about 6:45 with a breakfast tray and a sheaf of mother’s day cards. (That’s what Nova and Fay had been up to when they were holed up in her room.) After breakfast, Adam took Nova swimming, and I lay about nursing my cold.

Went for a Garfunkel family lunch at Papadels (except for Freddy who’s in Scandinavia on business). I’d brought crayons for Nova, and she started drawing away in my notebook. I offered Oliver a piece of paper, but he wasn’t interested in colouring. He scrunched it up, and focussed his energies on threatening to scribble on Nova’s picture. When she asked for her blue crayon back, he dropped it on the floor and stamped on it. He stamped on my fingers as I was rescuing the crayon, and the look on his face when I told him to stop it was quite unnerving. He can be very hard work…

Sausages and mustard mash for dinner. Had a phone call from Greg and Wendy, who’d remembered it was mother’s day. Feeling pretty grotty by the evening. Bath and an early night…

March 25, 2006

There was no way I was going for a run this morning. I’m feeling too grotty. Anyway, Pasc is away for the weekend and Alicia is leaving on her skiing holiday later today, so they weren’t planning to go either. Our last fat club weigh in is using the honor system. Allowing for differences between scales and the flexibility involved in choice of running clothes, I’d say I’m about the same…;-)After lunch, Adam headed off to prepare for his starring role at the Easter party. Nova and I had fun making her a beautiful Easter bonnet, then headed off to the party ourselves.

The party was held in a converted church on Talbot Road. There must have been about forty kids there, tearing about, colouring pictures, or sticking bunny ears onto headbands. Adam dressed in a fluffy white rabbit suit, was supervising a ball tossing game. The kids were quite taken with him, and several came running up to Nova to tell her that her dad was the Easter bunny.

There was beer and wine for the adults, and I knocked back a couple of drinks while chatting with the other parents, and pitching in where needed. The alcohol and walking home in the drizzle seemed to finish me off. I took to bed with a hot water bottle on my chest. Soup for dinner and a quiet night in.

March 24, 2006

Although I could have worked, I thought I needed a day off. My cold is worsening daily, and has settled in my chest now.I did my BodyPump class, as it isn’t particularly aerobic, and I need to get back on track for this week’s (final) weigh in. Hard to lose weight when you eat out twice in the week.

Fay came round to play after school. They holed up in Nova’s bedroom, and posted a “Do not come in!” sign outside the door. I left Adam to supervise, and went off to do the Waitrose shop. Quiet night in on my own, while Adam babysat for Rob and Jemima.

March 23, 2006

Although it’s Thurday, I went in to work. I think it helps keep the team on track when I’m there. Simonia took Nova to ballet for the first time ever. Nova wasn’t too keen on the idea. She’s not a big fan of variety. I think that’s quite common among the under five set.Met Gail and Bruce at Belgos for dinner. I haven’t been there for years, and think the food has slipped a bit. (Adam says that it’s just that we eat at better places now…) The service wasn’t great either, althought the made amends with a free round of shots.

I’m losing my voice a bit, and developing a nasty cough again. I kitted myself out for the theatre with cough candies, water and tissues. We saw Embers, with Jeremy Irons and Patrick Malahide, which we all thought was terrific. I’m glad I’d read the book, as it’s basically two old guys sitting in armchairs talking. Actually Jeremy Irons’ character does almost all the talking. Patrick Malahide had about six lines. He’s got great reviews for his part, and you can see why. It’s a challenge to hold your own on stage with Jeremy Irons, especially without any lines to deliver. Home about 10pm.

March 22, 2006

My life being taken over by this bloody website project. I’m lousy with cold, but need to push through the next two weeks before I can take the time to rest up.This is such a high profile project… The new website must be ready to launch our first ever public health guidance in nine days time, and traffic will likely spike to about 100,000 visits on that day. The chief exec is keeping a close eye on our progress. He’s actually come and hung about my desk twice this week to see how things are going…

Pasc came round to watch the Biggest Loser this evening. It’s the penultimate week, when all the runners up returned to show how they’ve got on. There were some amazing transformations. Pete, the guy who won, has gone from 400 to 200 pounds.

March 21, 2006

Back to reality…A long slog of a day at the office. Snatched an egg sandwich and a cold cup of tea for lunch while juggling jello, herding cats, being nibbled to death by ducks — all those clichés apply to this amorphous monster of a project…

March 20, 2006

Happy birthday, Adam!
Nova came in about 6am, raring to serve Adam breakfast in bed. I steered her upstairs, and managed to distract her in various ways until the more civilised hour of 7am. Ate toast, juice and coffee in bed, while Adam opened his presents: the shirt (It’s Paul Smith, dad! said our four-year-old fashionista) and posh chocolate bar from me; and a “magazine like grown ups like to read” from Nova.I’ve taken today off, so once I dropped Nova and school, Adam and I had the whole day to play with. Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and checked out the 20th century design section, as well as an exhibit on the graphic art from 2005.

Treated Adam to lunch at Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. There were three menus on offer: a three course set menu (£35); three course a la cart (£70); or a nine course taster menu (£90). After consideration, we opted for the set menu (as Adam said, “Like it’s not going to be delicious?) Started with a glass of champagne, then ordered wine by the glass to match our food. They snuck a couple of amuse bouches in as well, and we added a cheese course, so it was about six courses in the end…

We started with pumpkin soup, served with a Parmesan twist “spoon” with herbed butter to stir in. I had seafood risotto to start, while Adam had a complicated arrangement of foie gras and various bits. My main course was roast chicken breast, studded with truffle and served with potato and leek. Adam had a gorgeous piece of slow cooked salmon. Another amuse bouche of canteloupe sorbet with creme fraiche followed, then the amazing cheese course, and then pudding, coffee and chocolates.

We lingered over our coffees, and got chatting with a couple of young guys who’d also eaten lunch. One was a chef from New Zealand, who’d been treated to lunch by his City friend. They’d gone for the nine course taster menu, and we happily dissected the various dishes we’d eaten.

Back home at 5:30, just in time for Nova’s little local birthday party. Pete, Pasc, Sid and Fay came round, Gail and Bruce made the journey upstairs from the flat, and Simonia joined us as well, for a glass of champagne and piece of chocolate birthday cake. Didn’t bother with dinner this evening…;-)

March 19, 2006

Felt a bit groggy this morning — the head cold/hangover double whammy…Mooched around the house taking care of things I’d let slide during the week, and did some cooking with Nova: chicken rice soup for dinner and a double decker chocolate birthday cake for Adam. Nova is very good at cracking eggs — with her little fingers, she’s better at it than I am. Her sprinkling’s not so hot yet. She dumped the whole container of hundreds and thousands in the centre of the cake, right on top of my carefully written birthday greeting. It was impossible to spread them once they’d come into contact with the frosting. As Adam always says, “it’s about process, not product.”

March 18, 2006

Went for my weekly run and fat club weigh-in. We all lost weight again, so no money in the kitty yet. When we started doing this in September, Pasc and I were 25lb apart, and as of today I’ve narrowed that gap to 10lb. She tends to lose more than I do when we’re doing fat club, but fluctuates more between times.Jemima took Nova off to TopsyTurvy Land with Ruby after breakfast, and it was late afternoon by the time they returned her. Adam was off trying to sort out his sick computer, and I put in a day’s work editing content for the website. I’m accumulating a fair amount of TOIL these days, which may be enough to cover the Morocco holiday.

“Why is the sky looking old?” Nova asked this evening, looking out at the wrinkly gray clouds gathered above the rooftops.

Went round to Alicia and Paul’s for dinner. They’d invited Rob and Jemima as well, and it was a very nice evening. Foie gras and toast; roast lamb, peas with rocket, roast new potatoes, shallots and garlic; cheese and fruit; and chocolates. I feel like I’m singlehandedly decimating the British lamb population these days…

March 17, 2006

Even though it’s Friday, I went into work. Louise is off for a week from tomorrow, and I had a number of things I wanted to discuss with her. I’d completely forgotten it was St Patrick’s Day, until I noticed the local newspaper seller was wearing an oversized velvet top hat, designed to look like a pint of Guinness.Swung by Selfridges on the way home, looking for some inspiration for Adam’s birthday present. Eventually found a gorgeous Paul Smith shirt on the half price rack. Not exactly cheap yet, but at least they allow you twenty-eight days to return sale goods, so I went for it. I’m pretty sure he’s going to like it…

Messed up my tube journey — basically, I confused the lines at Bond Street with the ones at Oxford Circus — which added a half hour to the trip, and involved a certain amount of mucking around at Baker Street. I was feeling pretty ropey by the time I got home.

Crashed out after a lousy dinner of leftovers, and was dozing on the couch by 9:30pm. I’ve perfected my technique for transferring from couch to bed. The trick is to take as little time as possible, keep my eyes closed except when walking, and not allow myself to get cold (I manage this by changing into my pajamas straight after dinner).

March 16, 2006

Work from home today. I’m editing the top three levels of the website, and there are less interruptions away from the office. The website content has been written piecemeal by a whole range of staff, none of whom has the first idea of how to write for the web. It’s very satisfying to be doing something I’m actually good at for a change. So much of this year has been spent managing change and firefighting, and it’s a nice change to get stuck into some real work. Content — planning it, structuring it, writing it, editing it — is what I do best.Took a break for my spinning class. I’d just finished setting up my bike, and was climbing up when I happened to glance over a the woman next to me. What a blast from the past… It was Susie, a friend from when I worked at Dorling Kindersley. I wasn’t certain it was her for a few seconds, as she’s gained about fifty pounds in the eight years since I’ve seen her. She obviously felt embarrassed about the meeting. You want to be at your best when you run into old friends, not red faced and sweaty in laddered Lycra.

March 15, 2006

Went into the office to work today. It’s just easier to keep the project on track when I’m in the office…Tonight was the first meeting of Alicia’s In and Out club. It was held at Jemima’s. Each of the nine women brought a snack and a bottle of wine. I brought a bag of almonds, Pasc brought a pineapple, but some people went all out. There were a couple of plates of cheeses, and two of the women had baked bread.

We talked about what we might like to do. The idea is we’ll meet once a month, alternating evenings in at someone’s house, and evenings out. Suggestions for going out included: dancing, opera, live music, and theatre. On the evenings in, people thought we might do life drawing, have a night analysing crap TV, have a careers brainstorm, hire a male stripper… From my point of view, I’d just as soon sit around drinking wine and chatting, but we’ll see how it goes…

March 14, 2006

This damn cold has a real grip on me. I haven’t been able to hear properly in over a week… I keep dragging myself to work, which doesn’t help. With the website launching in only two weeks, I don’t really have a choice. I veer regularly between confidence and despair that we’ll have something to launch on the 29th.Adam cooked tofu miso broth for dinner. Watched the first four lessons from Robert McNamara’s Fog of War, but my brain was a bit too foggy to give it proper attention.

March 13, 2006

A hectic morning at home…
Mondays are always busy. Monday is the day the cleaner comes, which involves a lot of pre-cleaning and tidying. Then there’s the usual school stuff — uniforms, packed lunch, book bag. There’s Simonia to organise, work clothes to press, my lunch to make, papers to round up. And this morning, we got an unexpected call from Gail and Bruce Fraser asking if they could come and stay in the flat this afternoon, as the blizzard in Scotland had disrupted their travel plans. It was a relief to immerse myself in the relative calm of work…;-)Met Lynn and Alan for dinner at Eriki in Swiss Cottage — a local Indian restaurant that has been getting some good reviews. The food was very nice. Lynn and Adam used to work together at C21, and she had some news about their former boss Rebecca. Sadly, her ex-husband George has died recently. He developed a serious drink problem in the 90s, which eventually brought about the end of the marriage, and more or less drank himself to death.

Rebecca and George had a son called Oscar, who was an objectionable little beast — arrogant, bad tempered, rude, disobedient. We always thought he’d be either a ruthless business man or a sociopath we he grew up, or maybe both. Apparently, he was eating lunch in Crouch End a couple of months ago when he was “discovered” by a modelling agency. He’s since appeared on the cover of id magazine (usually reserved for the likes of Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue and Courtney Love) and is now modelling for Prada in Milan… Makes you doubt the concept of karma…

March 12, 2006

My usual 6am start in spite of going to bed at 1:30am…
After breakfast, Nova announced she was going to put on a play of Goldilocks. She assembled bears, dishes, and made up a little bed with a cushion and meggy. “I just need to make a sign,” she said, trotting off downstairs. I assumed it would be something introducing the show. But ten minutes later she returned with a carefully printed sign that said, “Turn your mobile phones off!”We had Freddy and Beulah round for dinner. I roasted a leg of lamb rubbed with a cumin-garlic-paprika paste, and served it with chickpea mash and peas. Made a treacle tart for dessert.

March 11, 2006

Went for my weekly run with Pasc and Alicia. My legs were terribly stiff from Body Pump — all those lunges Howard gets us to do…After Evelyn’s birthday party, Nova and I headed off to Waitrose. She’s a good little helper now, reading the list and crossing things off when I put them in the trolley, and loading groceries at the checkout. We made up silly little songs as we wheeled round the aisles — things like, “Snickerdoodle, lemon poodle, eating a chocolate ice.” (Sung to the tune of the “westward leading, still proceeding” of We Three Kings.)

Adam spent half the day arranging our spring break holiday. We’ve gone off the idea of Petra, but had a brief flirtation with Cuba. Adam even made some tentative bookings on Cubana Airlines to Havana. “Cubana Airlines?” I said, when he told me, “What is their safety record like?”

Not very good, as it turns out… In fact, it’s the worst airline in the world. Planes that Aeroflot think are too decrepit to fly are shipped off to join the Cuban fleet. There used to be a website called amigoingdown.com that calculated your chances of dying on any given flight. Flying London-Sydney on BA your chances of crashing are something like 1 in 450,000,000. flying London-Havana with Cubana they are 1 in 60,000. Adam discovered found an article about one man’s experience of Cubana Airlines. Very amusing, but it knocked Havana off the list.

So we’ve settled on Morocco. We’re flying Royal Air Maroc to Marrakesh, spending four days there, then heading to Essouira on the coast for another four nights. Very exciting (in a good way)!

Nova told me the story of her life this evening. “Once upon a time,” she started, “there were two people called Adam and Andrea who were very happy except for two regrets. They didn’t have enough food, and the didn’t have any children. One day a doctor came to their house. ‘Andrea, I have good news! Tonight you are going to have a baby!’ ‘Oh, good! Can I go to the hospital straight away?'” It went through her birth, and how we chose her name — “‘We can’t call her Evelyn. There’s already a girl called Evelyn.'” When she was one she was very sweet, when she was two she was a bit naughty, and when she was three she went to nursery. This was my favourite bit, “The teachers were called Audrey and Pat. They were a bit wobbly, but they weren’t dead yet.”

Went round to Nick and Jane’s for dinner. Jane is expecting a baby, which has Nova very excited. She drew a terrific picture of them holding a new baby, and wrote, “Dear Jane, I wonder what your baby is called? love Nova” without any help.

March 10, 2006

I’d be surprised if I got three hours sleep last night…
Adam woke me up when he returned drunk from the pub at 12:30am. I’d been asleep an hour, and found it impossible to settle again. I tossed and turned, thinking about work. My mind was racing with all the things I need to do on the website.Made bag lunches for Adam and Nova and waved them off on the school trip. Nova concerned that she was the only child with a daddy going — she’s such a little conformist. She was also concerned about Adam’s goatee, as none of the other dads have beards.

Headed off to Brent Cross to buy a birthday present for Evelyn. I wasn’t my most alert behind the wheel, and knocked over a pylon some workmen had sete up in the road while they were trimming trees.

Bought Evelyn a ballet jumper, and myself a new (smaller!) pair of jeans, as all my others are getting a bit saggy in the butt. Headed to the gym afterward for my body pump class. I didn’t really feel up to it, but I actually gained energy from it, as is often the case.

It sounds like the Luton airport trip was a success, though Nova was very disappointed in the coach. She’d thought they’d be travelling up the motorway in a horse drawn coach like in Cinderella, bless…

Had dinner at Giraffe with Evelyn’s family to celebrate her birthday. The girls got on well, and ate up nicely. My glass of white wine just about finished me off though. Asleep by 8pm…

March 9, 2006

Happy third birthday, Liam!
I did an extra day’s work today. I meant to do a half day, but there’s just so much to do, that I blew off my grocery shopping and kept at it until it was time to pick up Nova for ballet.Once she was dressed and settled in her class, I dashed out to the shops. The minute I stepped outside, it started pouring with rain and I got completely soaked.

Nova’s going out a class outing to Luton airport tomorrow. She’s mainly focussed on the coach trip and eating her lunch from a plastic bag instead of her lunch box.

Once Nova was down for the night, Adam headed off to our class drinks at the Wrestlers, and I carried on working. We’ve created a site map for the new website, and now I’m going through and editing the key content. As is often the case with site maps, you find that you’ve included intermediary pages that aren’t necessary, so I’ve been making changes to the site map as well.

March 8, 2006

I woke up in ratty mood this morning. My head feels stuffed with cotton wool, my neck was seized up on one side, and I’d only had about five hours of sleep…Got Nova off to school without incident. Had a busy home working day, half of which was spent in frustrating phone meetings. It’s maddening to spend time like that with so much real work to do. I’m planning to put in some extra days leading up to the launch, which I can take as TOIL in April.

Adam went to the Arsenal-Real Madrid game tonight. I was planning to go, but ended up giving the ticket to Doron. When Adam told me that tickets to the game were selling for £600 on the web, I thought he should flog his, watch the game at home on telly with beer and a pizza, and spend the money on a holiday. He thought I was a philistine for suggesting such a thing. So off he went to enjoy his nil-nil draw in the pouring rain.

I volunteered Adam to play the Easter bunny at the class party. They are hiring him a bunny suit and everything. He’s always up for that kind of thing…

March 7, 2006

My cold is worse, which is a real bugger, as I’ve got such a busy few weeks coming up… We’re overhauling and relaunching the website at work, which is over 10,000 pages. It’s not just a simple edit and redesign either — we’re also integrating our public health website into the main site, so the whole information architecture has been rethought and everything shuffled about. Fortunately the current site is so crappy, that I don’t see how we can fail to make it better, even if we don’t achieve everything we want by the 29th of March.Nova climbed in with us this morning, as usual. “Let me tell you my dream,” she said and launched into a fascinating hash of fairy tales mixed with her real life. It started out as Sleeping Beauty, but then the three bears came to the castle instead of a prince, and she ran away to the seven dwarves house. There was some Rumplestiltskin as well, but I can’t remember how that tied in… Really interesting to see the way her mind processes stuff.

According to the Foreign Office website,

“There is a high threat from terrorism in Jordan. Attacks could be indiscriminate and happen at any time and in any place. There have been a number of successful and attempted terrorist attacks in Jordan since 2001. On 9 November 2005, three suicide bombers killed 60 people and injured almost 100 in hotels in Amman. On 1 March 2006, the Jordanian authorities seized explosives and arrested three individuals suspected of planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Amman.”

So, we’re feeling a little less enthusiastic about Petra…;-) Of course, the Foreign Office is always going to be on the cautious side, and they haven’t added Jordan to their list of countries not to visit. It just seems too much like looking for trouble…

March 6, 2006

I’ve got another cold coming on. It seems I’ve enjoyed only two weeks of health since that nasty bronchitis finally cleared up. My ears are completely plugged up as if I’m wearing earplugs, though my nose isn’t too bad…We’re trying to figure out what to do over the spring break holiday plans. We’re veering between Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, though we’ve been flirting with the idea of Cuba as well. We’ve found a holiday company that arranges more adventurous trips for families with children. Currently, the trip to Petra and the Dead Sea is our first choice. We have it tentatively booked, but want to do a bit more research first.

March 5, 2006

Nova’s taken to composing riddles. I remember Ceinwen going through this phase. A couple of today’s efforts:

Why did the girl keep her trumpet in the fridge?
Because she liked fresh music.

What do you get when you cross a monkey and a bird?
A falling banana skin.

Quite Zen…

March 4, 2006

Happy birthday, Ceinwen!
Usual Saturday routine – neighbourly runs, blueberry bran muffins… And a birthday party for Nova. Adam drove her off to the Mallinson Centre, while I walked up to the village for the therapeutic massage he’d arranged for me as a little treat.The masseuse used powder instead of oil, and the effect was quite different. It felt brisker somehow, and it was kind of nice not being all greasy when you got dressed afterwards.

I was feeling pretty mellow after that, and we had quite a low-key day. Mooched about with Nova doing puzzles and reading stories. Went over to Pete and Pasc’s for a cup of tea in the afternoon.

We thought we were invited to Nick and Jane’s for dinner, but when Adam called to find out what kind of wine to bring, it turns out the invitation is for next week. Instead, we had a reservation at a restaurant in town called Eddalino. The food was very good, and they had the most amazing wine list, with loads of bottles costing hundreds of pounds. It seems a bit silly to me to spend loads of money when you don’t know anything about the particular wine, so I chose one of the less expensive barolos.

The waiter arrived at the table with an enormous decanter, and upended our bottle into it. “This is not a complicated barolo, but let’s see what I can do with it,” he said patronisingly. He proceeded to wave it around in great arcs. “Now it needs to sit a bit,” he said. In ten minutes, he returned with two enormous glasses, big enough to bath a baby in. The rim was sharply slanted, so you could bury your nose in the glass. He poured a bit for Adam with great ceremony, who swished it round a bit, tasted it and pronounced it nice. (For some reason, I usually find the site of people tasting wine a bit embarrassing – all that cork sniffing, swirling, holding the glass up to the light, swishing it around in the mouth – but this situation seemed to call for it.)

Hailed a black cab home. As soon as the guy opened his mouth, I knew I’d had a ride from him before. The minute the doors clicked shut, he launched into a monologue that lasted all the way to Highgate. Mobile phones (we all managed fine without them); restaurants (portions too small); and quite a bit on the subject of wives. At least it wasn’t the racist ranting you sometimes get…

March 3, 2006

Nova and I were playing “guess that tune” today. One person hums a song and the other one has to guess it. I started humming one. “Oh Sacred Heart, I Burn for Thee!” yelled Nova. “No, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” I said.We had a talk about believing in God. I told her that some people believe in god and Jesus, others believe in different gods, and some people don’t believe in any gods. “Do you believe in god?” I told her I didn’t. “Does daddy?” I said he doesn’t either. “I believe in god and Jesus,” she said firmly.

March 2, 2006

I’ve had that weird numb feeling in my cheeks since yesterday. It’s part of the migraine symptoms, and usually has to do with stress and too much coffee. Quite unpleasant…Christine came round with Evelyn and Tom, and we took turns watching the kids while the other went for a parent-teacher interview.

Mine didn’t get off to a great start. My main concern for Nova is around socialising. Being one of the youngest and an only child, I want to know how she’s interacting with the other children, and whether she plays with anyone other than Evelyn, as they’ve been inseparable since nursery. “Well,” said Miss Tait, “Nova seems to have struck up a friendship with Evelyn recently!”

The rest of it centred around Nova’s reading. She can read fluently now, and is working through the level five series, while the rest of the class is on level one/two. But Miss Tait’s main concern is that she’s not studying the pictures to guess what might happen next. I said once you knew how to read the words, wouldn’t that be rather redundant? but she didn’t agree. I imagine they’ve probably got some stupid form to fill in, and that’s one of the boxes that needs ticking.

Christine and the kids stayed for lunch before heading off. Tom decorated our couch with orange felt pen as a parting gift. I managed to get the worst of it off before collapsing on the couch to nurse my migraine symptoms. “Can I sing you a lullaby?” asked Nova. I told her that would be nice. “Would you like Rock-a-bye Baby or God is the Most Beautiful Person in the World?” I chose Rock-a-bye but she overruled my choice, and launched into the hymn. “Say amen if you believe,” she instructed. That must be what they say at school to accommodate the non-believers…

Taught Nova how to count by two’s this evening. By the time we’d finished dinner she could do three’s, four’s and five’s as well.

March 1, 2006

Another hectic day at work… barely made it home in time for a little visit with Nova before bed. Grilled a quick steak and broccoli for dinner, then headed off to the cinema with Jemima.We saw Capote. For some reason, I’d got it in my head that the movie was about Al Capone, so it was a bit of a surprise to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman mincing around when the film started.

The story was based around the period in Capote’s life when he wrote In Cold Blood. It explored celebrity and the artist’s responsibility to his sources. Also, I’d never considered what a small Kansas town in the 1950s would have made of someone like Truman Capote.

In Cold Blood is the only book of Capote’s I’ve read. I have the biography the film was based on, and a Capote reader, and this has piqued my interest in reading them.