Monday, July 24, 2006

Björn the sportsman - still at it!

Golf
Björn's school (which will be Torvy's too, from September) has a wonderful tradition of ending every school year with three activity days. The kids get to choose from an enormous range of activities from free basketball coaching to very expensive trips to theme parks. Some spend the three days designing and making garments, others record their own music in a studio, some go horse-riding. Björn chose to play golf, as he did last year.

They spend the first two days undergoing coaching in the various skills and then, on the third day, they play a round. For beginners, there is the 9 hole par 3 "family" course. For those with more experience, there is the full18 hole course. Last year, he broke his putter, so he caddied for a friend on day 3. This year, he was offered the chance to play the full 18 holes. He completed the course in 99. I understand (ignoramus that I am) that this is a Good Score for a first time out.

So here we have yet another sport at which he shows promise. His father's child indeed!

Cricket
On Sunday, Björn played cricket for the village social side again. He took a wicket, too! Not his first, since a victim was caught off his bowling on a previous occasion, but this time he clean bowled someone, so that was far more kudos. He also made his first foray into double figures on his runs scored for a men's team, with 13, which included a decent 4.

This time he managed to come home in one piece - no more black eyes.

Torvy's earring

On Friday, Torvy had his ear pierced. He has been wanting to have it done for years, but we said he had to wait until he turned 13. We brought it forward by a few weeks so that it has healed enough for him to take the earring out for PE come September. Of course, gender equality being what it is, there is no more problem with boys wearing earrings than girls, but they all have to remove jewellery for PE. He was determined to have the caritilege pierced and there was a moment's worry when the first place we tried wasn't prepared to do that for anyone under 16. As you can see, however, we found someone who was prepared to do the honours, as long as I signed a parental consent form.

He plans to replace the stud with a ring in due course.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

A Black-eyed B

On Sunday, Björn took a cricket ball in the eye. He was bowling and one of his team-mates threw the ball back to him. He caught it in front of his face, it popped through his hands, hit his eye and sent him flying. Apparently he rolled three times before coming to a stop and very nearly got fined for language, as he gave voice to his pain. The captain decided to be merciful since the lad was obviously in agony, but he was cautioned. This is how he looked when I collected him from the cricket ground:And this is how he looked a day or so later when the swelling had gone down and the colour had come up:
He is very proud of his shiner - it's his first.

But who would be a teenager today? On Monday, as he walked home from school, he passed a woman walking with a much younger child who turned to his mother and stage-whispered, "Mummy, what happened to that boy's eye?" The mother's reply? "He's been fighting dear." When my son related this to me, my blood positively boiled. By and large (the swearing incident notwithstanding) he is a good kid, and he gained his black eye in the honest pursuit of a wholesome pastime. He didn't rise to the bait, which shows more maturity than I would have! I would have taken issue with the woman had I been with him, or even in his shoes.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Wahey - the video clip

I have had no joy with trying to post a clip of Torvy being a rock star on this blog, so I created another blog where I knew I could do it, and hey presto:

Click here.

I think I might switch to using the elgg blog permanently, actually, it's far more versatile and idiot-proof! I'll let you know, though.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Our son the rock star

We have just come back from Torvy's "school concert". What a blast! School concert is a total misnomer, conjuring up, as it does, visions of the sort of things we used to do. This was such a far cry from the sort of concerts we used to put on. The kids did most of the stuff themselves - choreography, musical arrangements, magic acts, poetry recitations (their own poetry), raps. One of the songs Torvy played with two of his mates was an original as well: Fabulously Lazy written by the kid on lead vocals. I have tried desperately to post a clip from it here, but can't figure out how to edit it down from its current size of 23MB (and that's not even the whole song!) and I can't find a place place to store anything bigger than 5MB. I'll keep looking into it, but not now - I have to drive down to Reading tomorrow for a 9am meeting, which means leaving really early, so I had best get my tail to bed!

I was blown away by how much of a natural Torvy was with that bass guitar, even the overlong hair worked. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to a dinky little guy aged 22 (but looking 15 and almost indistinguishable from the kids) - a teaching assistant at the school called Mr Webb. He looks to be a bit of a rocker himself and is very versatile. The fact that he is also "well cool" doesn't hurt, because it has raised the profile and the street cred of music among the boys, and Torvy has greatly benefitted from that.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

A hectic week

This week, John has been at a church leaders' conference in Brighton, so I have been playing single parent. I haven't been doing it very well, mind, because I have had to do a lot of travelling myself, and have been late home almost every night. I have started a new project at work and it has incredibly tight time frames, so I've been running around like a headless chicken trying to meet all the SMEs (subject matter experts, not small-to-medium enterprises) and stakeholders, so that I can get started with the design and build. It's a bit like herding cats, because there is a very large group of people to be interviewed and they're all busy with more work than they can handle.

Torvy was away on a school outing for two days, and has returned to attend a two day familiarisation at the high school he will atend with Björn from September. I had to ask someone I have only just met to collect him from his current school when he returned from the trip, because I was in Reading and everyone we know well enough to ask was away at the conference in Brighton. Then I had to get him to hang around at the school for half an hour after today's session, so that Björn could walk him home, because I was in Reading again. Tomorrow he will have to go in with Björn and wait for an hour until his session starts (fortunately several of his friends are in the same boat) and then wait again at the end of his session for Björn to finish up half an hour later. This time it's because I am going to a conference on e-learning games and simulations in London.

For my trips to Reading, I got the office manager to get me a hire car. When I got to Reading, I discovered the road tax disc was out of date, and I ran the risk of having the car clamped and getting stranded. For the past two days, I have had the "privilege" of experience first hand, just how severe inefficiency can be in the service industry, as the office manager and I have both tried to get the matter resolved. Heaven help me: I have three trips down there again next week, for which I will again require a hire car, and we have a contract with this supplier. Oh joy.

I was hoping Torvy would be all enthusiasm at the prospect of high school, never having quite taken to primary, but sadly his response is a non-committal shrug. "Yeah, it was okay." Considering that they pull out all the stops to make these days as exciting as possible, this is not a hopeful start!

In the middle of this week of absentee Dad, over-busy mother and attention-grabbing-scheduled brother, Björn quietly went and won another 200m event, knocking .9s off his previous best time. I am so proud of him, I could fly. This was the district event this time. He has obviously suddenly figured it out, this sprinting lark, and he's loving it.

He's so self-sufficient, it's easy just to let him get on with it, and focus on the things that aren't going well, but that wouldn't be in his best interests. We have to discipline ourselves not just to focus where remedial action is required.

John should be back by the time the kids get back from school tomorrow, which they will enjoy.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

A half empty house

Björn and I are alone at home this evening. John is at a church leaders' conference in Brighton this week, while Torvy has gone off for two days on a school trip.

John seems to be enjoying his outing - he said the first seminar was really good. I really hope he is able to recharge his batteries. He has been spread thin lately, and has to go back to New York next week.

Torvy, on the other hand, just texted me to say he's bored out of his mind. After a series of the hottest, sunniest days this yeaar, we now have thunder storms, so he and his classmates are stuck indoors watching what he called a "crappy movie". I have yet to learn what movie earns this description. Sad - I hate thought they would be having an action packed couple of days.

Björn and I have just been out for a frescato, after which he bought himself two CDs on a sale. He is now ensconced in the study listening to it. I guess this is the sort of preparation one gets for the empty nest syndrome.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Torvy's year end concert

Torvy is gearing up for the Y7 extravaganza - their big end of year, end of school concert before they leave for high school. He is playing bass guitar for a band consisting of two of his friends and the teacher on the drums. My son the boy band member! They're performing a few numbers, one of which they wrote themselves. Sadly John will be in New York (again) on The Night. Of course, with the child protection laws being what they are, I won't be able to video it, either!

And again...!

Björn played cricket for the village (men's) team on Sunday, and helped them to victory. He didn't get to bat, but wasn't needed - they made 312 runs in their 40 overs! He took an easy catch at point to see off their No. 3 batsman, and then had a catch taken off his own bowling to see of the last man. They won by 150 or so runs. Björn's bowling figures were a little pricy (1 for 32 in 4 overs), but some of that was to do with the field placing - the batsman kept sweeping behind him to the leg side boundary, where there was a monster gap - but he didn't disgrace himself.

The other team members are so encouraging - it's really lovely to see. They talk him up with every ball, keeping him positive. His nickname with the team is Encore (since they pronounce his name to rhyme with yawn, rather than yearn, it's play on Björn again).