Lucas' first birthday party

I think he was a bit bemused and nonplussed about the whole thing to be honest!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas turned one this week. The family travelled to London last weekend to help him celebrate. Nat went to see Janice's local production of 'The Boyfriend', which was a show Nat was a part of back her high school days. Nat enjoyed a night out on the town, whilst I stayed back at Janice's and babysat.

The next day we had planned to meet up with friends at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The London Marathon was on that morning, but we presumed that it wouldn't cause too much trouble for us as it started at 9:00 am, and we weren't planning on arriving at Greenwhich until after 12:00 pm.

We left Edgeware just after 10 am. We had checked ahead and although a section of the Northern Line was closed for upgrades, we still had plenty of time up our sleeve. That changed once we arrived at Bank to get on the DLR (Docklands Light Rail). This is a brand new overland rail that winds its way through Canary Warf and the new areas of London.

Unfortunately an incident on the line meant that it was stopping about 4 stations short of Greenwich. Instead, we were deposited at Crossharbour station at about 11:30 am, smack bang in the middle of the London Marathon.



We continued to head south along the closed DLR line, heading towards the Greenwich foot tunnel to get us under the Thames. At one point we all had to cross the race.. quite a feat considering we had Lucas with us! We just waited for a break in the race and went for it. And before you ask, we did ask a bobby's permission first. Upon arrival at the Greenwich tunnel, we found that it was closed to all south-bound 'traffic', in order to clear the spectator congestion near the starting sections of the race. So we took the opportunity to take a break and feed Lucas.











Greenwich itself is a lovely part of London, with very much a 'village' feel.



The park surrounding the observatory was packed with people enjoying the warm spring weather, apparently it has been the warmest April ever on record.. which is about 350 years in England. Don't worry Dad, I'm sure its just a co-incidence and climate change/global warming is just a big conspiracy ;)



































For those of you who don't know, Greenwich was founded by King Charles the II, who appointed John Flamsteed to make observations of the heavens to perfect the art of sea-faring navigation (ie solve the longitude problem). The construction of accurate clocks (or chronometers), in conjunction with the accurate observations that he recorded, enabled to British Navy and Merchant Fleet to dominate the world.

Flamsteed's work was also used by Isaac Newton verify his theories on gravitation. In fact, Newton managed to obtain an early draft of Flamsteed's work and published it without his permission. Over time, Flamsteed managed to buy back almost every one of the draft copies and burnt them all in front of the Royal Obsevatory! Academics eh?

Flamsteed published his full works about a few years later.

A fantastic historical novel detailing the origins of the Royal Society and the birth of modern science (with much focus on Flamsteed) is Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle consisting of the books; Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of The World.

The Confusion in particular is one of the most amazing books I have ever read and I strongly recommend the entire series.

Lucas at Easter

Lucas enjoyed his first Easter. Our friend Nicole once again joined us from London, and we spent Easter Sunday at one of our favourite pubs, The Black Prince in Woodstock. They had an easter egg hunt, as well as a 'name the bunny' competition. We chose (on behalf of Lucas) 'Dylan' (Bugs and various other more appropriate names were already taken). Well, Lucas must have charmed the young ladies in charge of the contest (who were probably the daughters of the owners) and they awarded him the bunny!





Naturally, he was very happy.

We went for an afternoon stroll through the grounds of our local Palace, Bleheim. We took a different route this time, taking advantage of the firm ground underfoot to go cross country and around the far side of the lake, giving us spectacular views.

Bletchley Park

We visited Bletchley Park over the Easter break. For those of you who don't know, Bletchley was the centre of all signal intelligence and code breaking during WW2 in England. It was the place where they decrypted all the German messages and then sent the intelligence back into the field. It was also the place where the world's first programmable computer was born.

There wasn't much to see in Bletchley, a few old manor houses and lots of run-down barracks. However, the guided tour was great and the man in charge (a real boffin in a bad suit) certainly knew his stuff and told a great story.

Anyone with a remote interest in WW2, or computing, or anything nerdy or geeky or boffiny should give it a look.

A great read of fiction/non-fiction which deals a lot with the work carried out at Bletchley is Neal Stephenson's 'Cryptinomicron'.



They had a replica of the U-boat from which they stole a working enigma machine. The Harrier GR8 is real though ;)

Here is what the world's first progammable computer looked like. They have rebuilt a replica based on the original photos and drawings. Naturally, it was called 'Colossus'!

FA Cup Semi-Final 2007

In case you didn't know (and I'm presuming that most of you didn't) this year's FA Cup Semi-Final was between my beloved Blackburn Rovers and some poncy London club called Chelsea.

So thanks to Janice, I managed to get tickets for the big game. It was held on Sunday at the famous home of the Red Scum, a.k.a. Manure a.k.a. Manchester United at Old Trafford, Manchester (the semi finals are always held on neutral ground).

We were treated to driving up on the M40 battling football traffic, surrounded by truckloads of people movers stuffed full of Chelsea fans, as well as the ubiquitous Chelsea tractor of two.

The streets of Manchester were also lined with pasty white Londoners consuming vast amounts of Carling and Fosters, quite a sight let me tell you.







For the record, Rovers lost 2-1 in the 2nd half of extra-time. It was one of the best games of football I have ever seen... it was end-to-end stuff for most of the 2nd half, during which Rovers had Chelsea on toast. Sadly we couldn't make the most of our chances however, but that's football for you.

But at least the atmosphere was great. The Rovers fan were superb all afternoon, and my ears were ringing for hours after the game... similar to a rock concert. Old Trafford certainly has great acoustics.

Windsor castle

With friends in town we decided to take a day off and visit Windsor Castle. Thankfully the weather held out and we got to see one of the world's greatest castles with no queues..hurrah!

Windsor Castle is the world's oldest continually habitable castle. People have been living in it since about 900 AD.











The highlight of the trip was State Apartments. Sadly you were not allowed to take pictures inside the apartments, but they truly have to be seen to be believed. I've never seen so much gold used as an interior decorative trim.

At one state, we arrived at one of the huge dining rooms (I think it was the King George room from memory) and Lucas was greeted without 100 metres of royal carpet. I was quite tired from holding him throughout the apartments (no strollers were allowed inside) so I just let him loose and he crawled around.. much to the amusement of the staff members!







Note the huge crowds present on a Thursday afternoon ;)

I even managed to get some footage of one of the guards stretching his legs.

Lucas is officially a toddler now

And he is 'toddling' away.. climbing up things, standing up... but no walking yet. He still has the occasional tumble, although he has now learnt to fall on his bottom.

Stow on the Wold

We travelled to Stow on the Wold the other day. This is the 'Daylesford' of the Cotwsolds.. ie the ultimate summer tourist trap. Row upon row of Devonshire tea houses, antique stores and a few pubs.. but that's about it. Not sure what the locals do for groceries.





Honestly, unless you are seriously into antiques I'd give it a miss. I can think of a several other nicer villages with nicer surrounds, prettier buildings and far less crowded.