Fear factor

Today, while watching his favourite show, In the Night Garden, Sam suddenly became afraid of the Haahoos, and required elevation into his daddy's arms. Since his general development has taken a quantum leap in the past month or two, with the long-awaited talking phase finally becoming an explosive reality, I assume this newfound fear is a by-product of the newfound sophistication - tree of knowledge, and all that. Whatever the reason, watching a human being assemble itself is without doubt the most fascinating show on earth.*

Update: today it was the Pinky Ponk !

Update 2: and today it was laughter suddenly replacing fear ! Another first.

* And with the highest level of audience participation.

Consuming passions

I'm an Amazon addict .. and that's not even counting my Kindle obsession (see earlier post). Amazon's consumer product reviews and corresponding rating system are  pure genius. Like many men, I always hated "shopping" but Amazon has totally changed that. I don't feel like I'm schlepping around with a dreary to-do list and a probably pointless series of physical journeys from A to B to C to Z. Now it's more like hunting, which we males are supposed to prefer: stalking your prey, assessing your chances and then - attack ! Shoot that poison arrow. Often at night and from the comfort of one's own cave. I'm about to capture some sticky-backed cork tiles, which is a deeply satisfying feeling. But even better when you then stumble across a product review like this one. Shopping and anti-shopping all delightfully gift-wrapped in one seamless experience. It doesn't get any better than that.

Happy Birthday

Dear Grandma, in less than two hours you will be 94. You died on July 25th, just after midnight. I wasnt very good at remembering your birthday but you always remembered mine, even the one in July. Rest in peace Grandma.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

Let's take a little drive into the future.

Safe as BRICS

Article in Daily Telegraph on Brazil's overhyped and dangerously bubbly economy ... catching up with what this blog was saying a year ago. Interesting readers' comments too.

Finally !

Received an email from the lawyer this morning and once again braced for more unpleasant news: more bureaucratic madness, more twists and turns in a long and winding road to nowhere. But what I actually got this time was the unbelievably good news that P is now able to stay longterm in the UK, and to stay without feeling like a prisoner devoid of rights and status. Ten months after our visa application nightmare began and eight months after entering the UK (an entry fraught with anxiety and so nearly denied to P and Sam), it looks like we can finally breathe out and inch closer to the kind of normality that most people take for granted - especially me before all this happened. Many thanks to our lawyer Philip, to my MP and his right-hand woman, Simon Hughes and Magali, and above all to my parents for supporting us every step of the way in this trip through hell.

Car crash

Eike Batista has been bragging about his vast wealth and its inexorable rise. Hubris swiftly followed by nemesis, as his son is all over the headlines - international as well as Brazilian - for killing a cyclist while driving daddy's supercar. An unfortunate accident ? Of course. Always, when you're part of Brazil's elite class. I was drawn to the second-most popular readers' comment in the Daily Mail coverage:

Big Brother v. mugger brother

At my grandma's the other day, where once again she received cold calls from faceless salesmen. The first claimed to be from her phone and internet provider, TalkTalk. Acting as her call screener, I had my doubts about this man's credentials: why was he bothering a 93-year-old, whose telephone and internet use are extremely uninteresting, with go-faster products ? Not nice ... even if he was an actual TalkTalk employee.

Dark carnival

"In Salvador and the rest of Brazil's northeast, the economic progress has brought an unwelcome consequence - skyrocketing crime. Fueled by a growing drug trade, an inflow of poor migrants and still lingering inequality between the region's haves and have-nots, northeastern cities regularly rank among the most violent in Brazil. "The management of public security there is a failure," Jose Vicente da Silva, a retired police colonel and former national security secretary, said in a televised interview on Tuesday."

The value of nothing

We have a new neighbour: the White Cube gallery on Bermondsey Street. It's a sort of out of town superstore version of the other White Cubes dotted around London. Except that it's not out of town; it's in Zone 1, SE1, Bermondsey Street, aka the "new Notting Hill". Etc.

Big Brother v. little sis

Two decades ago, as a rookie journalist working for a UK marketing magazine, I drew the short straw and found myself with the slightly indecent-sounding job title of "below-the-line editor". Above the line is where you wanted to be. It meant you were privvy to the glamorous, overpaid world of advertising. Below was all the detritus: low-status stuff like direct marketing ("Don't call it junk mail !"), sales promotion and PR.

Stranger Lands

Lech l'cha. Arise and go. Move yourself.

We first leave womb when we are exiled from the home, but just in time since we would have died in Eden. Seek pastures new. Over yonder, under horizon, left at rainbow. Earth flying at 66,000 miles an hour, there's no being, only becoming. I am what I will be.

Kosher snake oil

Once upon a time, many centuries ago, one Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Girondi left his home town of Girona and travelled to the big city of Barcelona, where he engaged in a now-famous public debate. A former fellow Jew who'd converted to Christianity and become the King's right-hand spiritual advisor wanted to "prove" that Judaism was the theologically inferior religion.

Laughter and forgetting

I know I must be a parent because there's a nagging guilt that followed my "what a squeam" post and has made me worry I was too negative. So let me salve my conscience by hereby stating: I may have laughed more in recent times than ever before in my 44 years. Thanks to the sproglet.

Poverty of imagination

Another in the endless parade of Brazilian tackiness. The "rich" lifestyle in Brazil leaves me cold - or cringing.