Have patience.  was in Florida keys (not v impressed - way over-developed) and now fly to UK for US Visa medical etc).  I will try and catch up soon.

Off to the pub tonight with one of the neighbours, William, married to Pia, a German lady.  There is also Regina from Germany in another house on the street.  And a French woman and some Scottish bloke.  So quite a cosmopolitan street.  It is a pity that the French couple moved away from next door.

Started life as a volunteer for the St Michael Preserve today.  Couple of hours of fresh air and company.  Dug holes for some 20 tree houses on posts.  Designed for bluebirds, we planted them in pairs.  Tree swallows are likely to take the first one, and then chase off other tree swallows from taking the second one but allowing bluebirds to stay.  Very cunning.  Using a mechanical auger.  Took four of us to lug the heavy, awkward thing around and use it.  We were only putting in pieces of 4 x 2 to a depth of about 2 feet.  I am sure that it would have been easier using the sort of manual augers that we had on the ranch.  And far better environmentally.

Another few good days, sun is shining, kids in good form and all is well.  Finally some movement on the US visa front, so we can start getting required docs together.  I'll be travelling over the next few days so won't be many posts, if any, for a while.

On a more serious note, Joey also went to his first session with a child therapist here yesterday.  Dr Michael Boyle, family originally from Donegal.  Highly recommended by some other parents whose kids have been seen by him.  We checked before we booked to make sure that he was not one of those doctors who believe in medicating kids, something that is so very and depressingly prevalent here, even with otherwise very sensible and intelligent parents.  Including some friends of Anne.  Anyway, we shall see if he can help Joey to deal with some of his anger issues.

Joey and I had our first joint workout this morning.  A 20 minute jog to the barn in the Preserve and back, a few sets of push-ups and crunches, practised our guard positioning and movement and then some work on jabs and crosses.  Not bad at all.

Joey had a great first boxing session yesterday.  We chose Shraim's club in Bridgewater, about 30 mins from here.  Run by Ahmed, a Palestinian whose been in the US about 12 years.  In a strip mall, club is tidy and well-run.  Ahmed is a nice bloke and great with the kids. http://www.shraimsboxing.com/

Joey has been excited about doing boxing for some time and we felt it would be good for him - not a bad idea for all kids to be able to look after themselves, especially when they are small with a big mouth, like Joey!  We also felt it would help his discipline, concentration etc.

The session lasted and hour and was a great success.  Ahmed first looked to see what Joey's fitness and strength was like and Joey did all that was necessary and was quite impressive.  His coordination, which has not been good in the past, has much improved and he was able to do well in the jump-rope session and in doing other exercises.

Then we put on the gloves, which I have to say look rather enormous on Joey!  Surprisingly, Joey has quite large hands compared to the rest of him (his Grandma had already commented on that, suggesting that Joey should try the piano!).  Ahmed took him through the basics - keeping up the guard, basic foot movements and then the jab and cross.  Joey listened, focussed and did really well.  He thoroughly enjoyed it and was nicely tired at the end!

Good, short, trip to London at end of last week.  Met some old colleagues for a few beers and had lunch with major accountancy/consultancy firm re possible work.  Also met with Imperial College contact re possible collaboration.  Nothing concrete yet but all quite positive.

Good to land at LHR and hear English accents.  Read the Guardian in paper.  Drink ale!  See family.  Will have to do it mire often.

The cops here clearly have very little to do.  Whenever there are roadworks, you see policemen directing traffic.  For major roadworks, that can mean two cars, one at each end with lights flashing.  You wonder what would happen if they got called away to an emergency.  That, however, is unlikely.  As local stats show (see http://www.city-data.com/city/Hopewell-New-Jersey.html), Hopewell's crime rate is much less than the US average.

There were a total of 12 crimes in 2010, including one car theft, 4 burglaries, 1 assault and 6 thefts.  No murders, rapes etc.  Weekly news carries round-up of police activity which includes, for example, mail-box damaged by car.  The crime index is 40, compared to a US average of 319.  Not surprisingly, it is not unusual to see  bikes left out unchained, cars with doors unlocked and engine running whilst owner pops into a shop, to hear of people leaving houses unlocked etc.  We do lock ours but don't worry if we pop out and forget.

It has to be said, of course, that this is small town America - about 2,000 people in the borough, as it is called.   About 95% white and with a median household income of some $118,000 per year, as opposed to $69,000 for New Jersey as a whole.  It is heavily Democratic, with 68% having voted for Obama and, surprisingly, quite Catholic - 61%.

It would appear that there are about 30 police for the town.  Seems a lot for such an oasis of tranquility.  Or maybe it is such an oasis because of the number of cops?

Must go now - signing Joey up for boxing.

Joey had to go and see the Headmaster yesterday!  Not that his behaviour or performance is generally bad.  Indeed, academically he is making great progress and his first report was very positive about his progress and his behaviour.

But he and another kid in class are butting heads.  Ryan is the 'alpha male' in the class and he and Joey just do not get on.  Joey has some responsibility for this - he still does not always pick up on social cues and in his enthusiasm wants to be involved eg in games during breaks.  When that is rebuffed, as it has been by Ryan and the 'cool' kids, he does not react well and can get very upset.

This all blew up Monday and there was a major row, which left Joey very upset at the end of the school.  Ms Hoffman said that the two boys were equally to blame and would be seeing the Headmaster the following day.

The school's solution is that they both have to spend recess and lunch together in the Hm's office!  With no other kids.  Dividing them up in such a small school would not be the answer - there would be two camps and they would be unequal.  So they are being made to find a way to live together.  It seems that it went well and they played noughts and crosses yesterday.

Joey is still rather fragile and, sometimes, volatile.  Not at school, of course, but with us.  It isn't pleasant and it is not fair on Izzy, and very hard to deal with as we want to avoid being constantly on his back or over-reacting ourselves, whilst at the same time he can't be allowed to get away with it.

We have come to the view that Joey, in addition to dyslexia, has Attention Deficit Disorder.  His behaviour certainly fits that pattern.  Full of energy but not always able to focus.  Over-reaction, sensitivity, difficulty in following instructions sometimes, off in his own world etc etc.  But there are also positive aspects - the energy and enthusiasm, intelligence, creativity, imagination etc.  Key to success is to help Joey deal with the negative aspects without losing the positive.  So we are starting him with a child therapist next week, again.  But we checked first that he is not one that reached for the prescription pad to give to Joey drugs, like so many do here.  That would deal with the negative aspects but also affect the positive and it just does not seem right to give kids what are essentially amphetamines.    By all accounts, he is very good.

You have to love Izzy, and the way she stands up for her big brother.  A couple of days ago, Joey was having a strop in the car and Anne and I were telling him off.  'Now, Mummy', piped up Izzy, in a very authoritive way, 'You must just calm down.  Now.  And don't be so mean to Joey.  That's enough'.  She wiggles her finger whilst saying this, with a very serious look on her face.

This morning, as Joey was going out the door, she hugged him, gave him a kiss and said 'Have a good day, big, handsome boy.'

I have volunteered to help with the St Michael's Preserve, very close to us.  340 acres, it used to be owned by the Catholic Church who had an orphanage there.  That was closed down in the 1970's and, according to some ex-pupils, it was 'not a happy place'.
But we, the new volunteers, had a good walk around with Bill Flemer who is the site manager, and learned about the seed plans, the problems with deer (too many of the buggers), the plans for clearing away invasive vegetation, the difficulties with dealing with bureaucrats and managers, and our role in helping with all that.  Starting on 15 March, working every Thursday morning under Bill's supervision.  I have also offered to help out on an ad-hoc basis if he needs to do something that requires two men.

Whilst we were there, a flock of a couple of hundred geese rose into the sky, honking away.  Unusually, they were a mixture of Snow and Canadian geese and it was fascinating to see the flock break up into small groups and head off in different directions, only broadly northwards.

Joey had a great day Friday after all the emotion of the Thursday.  Both his teachers said he had a good day - and that he made the maths teacher happy!  Which, given that he almost has a phobia over maths, is quite something.  He was also asked, again, to come up and show the other kids how to do proper press-ups. At home he read 3 books.  He still needs some help and the standard is still well below what a non-dyslexic child would manage.  But it is a vast improvement, both in what he can do and his attitude.

Then he had a really good swim lesson and one of his wee friends from school, Bruce, came over with younger brother and parents.  They had a great time.

As did we with Lorna and Bruce senior.  She is great, and we had a blast, and did some damage to our new wine bill!   What is really helpful is to talk with other parents of dyslexic kids as they understand in a way that others cannot.

Wine bill was a bit higher than we anticipated.  Bit scary!

Speaking of wine. Jim told me that we will get our bill in the next day or so.  Will be the first time that we will be able to see exactly how much we have drunk at home over the month.  Should be interesting!

Another annoying battle with the ice witch from Sweden.  I am clearly a selfish, unthinking bastard who doesn't care what Alexander wants.  Very wearying.  Time to open the wine.

Need to get bloody spellcheck working on this new computor!

Despite all the progress, Joey still has his moments when the pressure and anxiety bursts out.  As it did today on returning home from school and then after returning from a pizza.  Usually something very minir starts it but Joey will not back donw and it then becomes a majot outburst.  We all get angry and then Joey gets very, very uopset and we feel very bad.  Joey needs support and encouragement but he also needs clear boundaries and discipline and it is not always easy to get the baalance right.  Anne and I are broaadly in agreement but there are also subtle differences with, I am sure, me having less patience and more insistance on firmness.  But it is a matter of degree rather than anything else.  Ah well, it wwas never going to be easy and, on the whole, Joey is coming along great.