Month: October 2014

AJ

Brunch…

brunch

The things with kids – at least non-Nigerian ones, if my experience was indicative – is that they do not hesitate to call BS-ing adults out. In a moment of subtle pressure – and not for the first time – the unofficial God daughter got me to agree to take them for a meal to the Frankie & Benny’s across the road from mine. At the time, I was only slightly worried – it was late August, and the school holidays were not till October. I assumed that the kids, being kids, would have forgotten by the time October rolled along. My bunch didn’t, which was how I ended up dragging two children – with a third, the chief instigator, planning to arrive after a birthday party – through the doors at just past 12.30 on a Saturday afternoon; as far removed from my typical Saturday as could be. No gym, or light cleaning or an early Cineworld movie to look forward to.

Having managed to get everyone seated, and settled in at our assigned table which thankfully was tucked away from the hustle and bustle, we ordered our drinks – a diet Pepsi for me, a Tango for their father, fruit shoots for them; and then food. The peace and quiet that came with their intense concentration on food lasted no more than a few minutes, the first toilet break the precursor to a game of me too in which both V and M alternated toilet breaks. It didn’t help that the adjoining table was chock full of excitable children either, whose craned necks and general restiveness captured the attention of my crowd, once they had downed their meal.

F, who has evolved into a precociously talented – not young, her words not mine – nine year old, joined us an hour later. Being the bundle of energy she is, she lit the place up like a banshee, getting her usually more reserved baby sister a lot more agitated in the process. I think we did OK – between her father and I – also managing to catch up a few key issues deferred from our last proper catch up a couple of months ago. All told, we were pretty much done in two hours flat, bar last minutes requests for ice cream instigated by F, and channeled through her baby sister. In fairness to her, she did pick up toilet escorting duties after she’d downed her meal, allowing the adults a bit more catch up time.

Plenty of positives all round, if I say so myself, not least of which was my Favourite Uncle creds surviving in tact for another season. Labouring up the stairs to my house having bade all and sundry goodbye, with my jacket fitting a bit too snugly from all the food, the one niggle at the back of my mind was a sense of slight unease. If the strategic five year plan comes together, this – without the get away clause and with the potential for diapers and late nights – could be my life. That, is still more than a wee bit scary.

AJ

Finally, Fall…

autumn-in-madeira jacek yerka

Only a few days ago, the sun was out – weakly warm but out regardless, even though the first day of autumn was officially past. As I made my daily lunch time walk from the office to the Boots Store at the back end of Union Square, the sense was one of making hay whilst the sun still shone, enjoying the final blast of warmth, before Autumn took hold. An old lady, bless her heart, bumped into me as we waited for the little green man before crossing the road into the parking lot adjacent to work. In fairness to her I had my nose in my phone – make of that what you will – but that little bump did create the context for a short quick chat whilst we waited. Not so long ago, the arrival of spring,  and the warmth it portended was the focus.

Summer ended up a damp squib of sorts, bifurcated as it was by the events of last July – that made July pretty much a month to forget. August fared little better, the bright spots in an otherwise dreary existence being a milestone birthday and B’s first hop into Aberdeen. September and October fared slightly better with four books downed in quick succession, the kid brother completing his MSc in and then preparing to take the next steps on the journey to his Canadian dream with his first job. As I found out, impromptu trips are more than a little expensive, my bank balance doesn’t look like it will recover from this summer any time soon, with the prospect of a quick hop into Canada to come. Comfort eating returned also – Pizzas, Nandos, and the odd KFC providing sustenance to the detriment of all the weight lost from last year.

These days, leaves litter the ground, a carpet of glowing reds and golden browns a reminder that Summer is well and truly a thing of the past for yet another season. The last brush with Summer too has faded,  leaving us with the far more typical wet, cold and windy weather that is our lot up here. There is a very real counting-down-to-the-end-of-the-year feel to everything, not helped by the spate of Christmas party invites  which kick off the Christmas Party silly season. In a sense, the change in the weather feels like a beginning in reverse; an opportunity to,  like the trees shedding their leaves, hunker down, shed the excesses and focus on the key things through the coming winter months. In the end, change is the only constant they say – birth, growth, spawning new life and death continuing in an infinite loop, like the seasons change, and yet stay the same. Not there yet then – with respect to finding a new normal – but a large part of the journey feels complete. Progress then, if slow and steady rather than quick and painless…

AJ

Links 04.10.2014

A few of the interesting bits and bobs I’ve stumbled on over the last few days

  1. Hope for a cleaner, cheaper, oil less future just became a wee stronger. Nigeria beware?
  2. @forakin on why we should all blog. For a more in depth analysis, Andrew Sullivan’s seminal piece from 2008 offers a longer read.
  3. The £11bn conundrum. The scale of the problem or an opportunity?
  4. Khoi on the design of the iPhone 6. Unimpressed is the word
  5. Education as a tool for disrupting and challenge paradigms – the NY Times weighs in.
  6. Ebola contained.. Phew –
  7. Elon Musk, on Mars
  8. On lightning, and being struck by it.
  9. On Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Modern Novel.
  10. Pay and gender gaps, closing?