But I do hate bloody video game and their ilk.  We did finally buy mindcraft for Joey, one of the milder ones we thought, for the I-pad.  It is not particularly harmful or violent and he does not get to use it much. But so much time is wasted on wanting to play the bloody thing, asking about it, discussing and having argument.  And now I am writing about the bloody thing.  Aaaahhhhhhh!

Another good week for Joey, albeit with its moments.  In particular, Joey was very upset coming out of school on Tuesday.  He had been sent to see the Deputy Head because he was over-excited in class and would not calm down.  This, it seems, was a great injustice and humiliating.  Long chats with which basically boiled down to two things that he has to learn - 'if you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime' and 'take it like a man'.

Izzy received her first 'report' from pre-school here.  All very positive.  Best quote was 'She is her own advocate when needed, and will let anyone know when she does not like something'.  Yep, that's Izzy.  Also 'Isabela is very generous with her hugs'.  Also very true.

We went o Princeton a week or two ago to meet Anne's niece, Christine.  Ended up strolling through the campus and then we came upon a fountain, with a pool.  You can see what happens next.

Speaking of cats, Cuddles went outside for the first sustained period yesterday.  He didn't like it much and  spent a couple of hours hiding under the decking.  He will have to get used to it as he will be spending more time outside.  He has taken to peeing on the spare bed which is NOT ACCEPTABLE!  I have warned him that I have had experience of drowning cats but he doesn't pay any attention.

Now I love birdsong as well as the best of them but there are limits.  0530 and one little tweeter emits a quick two-note salvo followed immediately bis friend (or rival) who emits a 7-note response.  In the same note.  After exactly the same amount of time.  Again and again.  Over and over.  Where are the  killer cats when you need them?

Off to Princeton Uni to help out with a class who are working on presenting renewable technology options to a pretend panel of politicians.  Should be interesting and fun, and gets my foot in the door and will hopefully lead to something more.  Vamos ver!

Another good session at the boxing club for Joey on Saturday.  A good hour with Coach Ahmed and then he was allowed to join a class for 30 mins.  He is a fit wee bugger and seems to have taken to boxing really well.  The coaches seem impressed by him - his fitness, strength for such a small guy, determination and, strangely, by his confident, fluent speaking skills.  The next Cassius Clay?

We did weaken in the end.  We had decided that our kids should not be poisoned by video games and the likes.  Much better for them to play healthy vigorous games and to rad.  But Joey can't really read by himself yet and it is also true that it keeps him a bit out of the loop when all his mates have it.  So, after a period of good behaviour, and him sort of playing it on Youtube, or at least becoming familiar with it, we bought Mindcraft for him and put it on the I-Pad.  He was delighted and agreed to certain conditions re the amount he can play.  It seems to work and he respects those limits - and is clearly motivated to stay in our good books to enable continued access!  Putting it on our I-Pad also means that it is not 100% 'his' and he knows that it can be deleted at any moment.  Fingers crossed.

On the positive side, he was really excited about going to school today, and in great form.  Why?  So that he could tell his mates all about it!  And not just his mates but also Ryan, his nemisis!

All is well - kids are happy so so are we.  Sun is shining.  Nice dinner last night with Grace and Bryce and Bryce's daughter and her husband.  V pleasant, good food, good wine and good company at the Eno terra in nearby Kingston.  Bryce told us of when it was a tavern with a certain amount of ill-repute and a night when his brother got into a fight over his bad guitar playing.  Very different now. Anne looked particularly lovely although she has been suffering from some cold thing recently.

Joey had another boxing session today and really does look pretty good.  After his hour with coach Ahmed, he joined the kids for the second half of their session.  And he still looked good.  Although his tendency to lose focus and chat to the other kids whilst the coach is talking will get him into trouble.  

We are quite the social butterflies these days.  Dinner this evening with Grace and Bryce and another couple. I was at a talk on local water use over wine and canapes in somebodies house last night, dinner at Princeton Uni Tuesday, we have been invited out Saturday, couple of meetings over coffee with some interesting folk earlier on in the week and Anne has had a couple of similar social meetings.  Bit of an improvement on Oxshott!

Now. I feel that I am a reasonably intelligent man but I have to admit that I was struggling this week when I attended a conference held by the Princeton Uni Climate Mitigation Initiative.  Some extremely bright people there.  But very interesting and I was able to follow/contribute something when it was not too technical.  Made some good contacts and will follow up.

O)h, and my teacher sent around Jenn to show me how to use my new Lightroom software yesterday.  She was pretty good but I can see that it will be a while before I can really use it to its maximum potential!  I am just too old.

picked up my first photo to be exhibited.  Through the Princeton Photograph Club at the Arbor Glen Centre.  On the advice of my teacher, I chose 'London; old and new'.  I will have to drop it off later this evening.  I attach the photo.  It does look more impressive framed!  We shall see if I sell any!

Speaking of climate change, I will be up early tomorrow to spend the day at Princeton Uni attending the Climate Mitigation Initiative with a bunch of Princeton and other US Uni profs and some of the top technical guys from BP.  Should be a fascinating, albeit long day.  Good networking possibilities and chance to gently push the bioeconomy platform that Mark and the Imperial College guys want to do.  Will be good to really use my brain for the first time really since finishing work.

Put on the sprinkler and the kids spent an hour messing about in swimming gear.  Hard to believe it is mid-April.  It was due to be 88 degrees today.  Not sure if it reached that but it is certainly in the 80s.  I know that you cannot pin short-term weather variations on climate change but, pleeeeeease, give me a break those who deny it after the last decade.

Another good day.  Took Joey to boxing and I think that he might do well.  Ahmed, the coach, is brilliant with kids.  He put Joey through a pretty tough hour session, conditioning and some boxing practice.  Joey - despite his diminutive stature - has the strength and the fitness. But he also shos good technique, determination and an ability to remember what he has learned.  Which is quite new for Joey, as is the focus that he brings to it.  A new Barry McGuigan?

Then to Princeton and some kids event there, which was good fun.  What was better, though, was the messing around in the fountain and water feature at the University.  It was almost 70 degrees so the kids stripped down to underpants and off they went.  Some good photos at;
http://family.webshots.com/album/582645253qvKzuL

The home and they must have spent almost 2 hours on the trampoline with neighbourhood kids, Chris and Gabe.  Good dinner, Izzy is already in the bath and Joey will head up soon.  They should both sleep well tonight.

Anne dropped a bombshell on me yesterday.  After I had managed to really get attached to this wee town, Hopewell, had managed to invest myself emotionally in it, had started to meet folk and feel like we could be part of the community, she tells me that we might have to move out.

There are reasons, and good ones.  Mainly, there are very few houses to buy in Hopewell and none that we have seen that real match what we want.  Pennington, on the other hand, where Joey goes to school does have some really nice houses which would seem to fit our needs.  And the kids would be able to walk/cycle to school which a) is good for them and b) saves us a lot of wasted time doing the school run.  Particularly important if I go back to working.  And it seems to be a nice town as well. So Anne is right to look at that option.

But I was sooooo getting to like Hopewell!

'Nipped' into NYC yesterday so see old friend Irane for tea and Aideen and Frank for dinner.  Worth doing and a lovely evening - and it was great just to feel the atmosphere and walk through the buzz of the Big Apple.  But it is a good 90 minutes each way, so not something that I can do too often.  Especially as I have to drive from Princeton Junction train station to home and therefore can't have much to drink.

There are good days and bad days - and the way you feel can change quickly.  Wednesday morning, I woke up grumpy and that descended into something more akin to a Black Dog depression after Joey had been a brat on the way to school and I had lost my temper with him.  Which, of course, makes me feel tremendously guilty afterwards.  More so in the light of hearing what Philip Schulz had to say about his experience with dyslexia only hours before-hand.

So I want home and laid it all out on the table;  I had no job and not much prospects, no role, no mates closer than a few thousand miles, a dyslexic son who is able to drive me nuts, another son thousands of miles way who is monosyllabic, rarely answers the phone and who has a nightmare for a mother, a daughter who is doing fine but who I know will drive me to distraction when she is a teenager, and so on and sop forth.  You get the picture.

Just getting it off my chest helped and the nAnne and I were able to spend some quality time together, which also helped.

Thursday morning.  Woke up feeling good.  Joey was in brilliant form; funny, affectionate, cheerful, energetic, bright as a button.  Had really good chat on way to school, and he went in without any problems - which is not always the case.  One of his teachers was there (young one with really nice, all-American smile - Briana I think) and Joey immediately told her that a) it was our anniversary that day (it was, 9 years and maybe another reason for first feeling a bit down and then feeling very good?) and b) we had squashed a squirrel on the way to school.  Wasn't my fault, silly thing got half-way across and then decided to turn back into my path at the last moment.

Then I spent 3 hrs at the St Michael's Preserve as a volunteer, weeding and hoeing. Killed my back but fresh air and exercise did mer good, as no doubt did the feeling of doing something concrete amongst some good folk.  Bill Flemer, the site manager then invited us for coffee/tea at the excellent Boro Bean on Main Street, with pretty servers and Barry's Irish Tea.

Finally, went up to Princeton for meeting with Professor Rob Socolow.  I had asked for the meeting to discuss possible collaboration with Imperial College on the Bioeconomy Platform, details of which I will not bore you with.   Suffice to say that we had a very productive and enjoyable hour-long meeting, by the end of which I had been invited to an important conference next week at the Uni and Rob had intimated that he saw the potential for a role for me with some of the work that they are doing and that we should get to know each other better, I needed to meet more people etc and see where that takes us.  Couldn't really have asked for more.

So ended up feeling much better by close of play Thursday!

You have to hand it to Izzy.  On the trampoline for an hour with three boys, the smallest of whom was Joey.  She really gets stuck in.  Her coordination is great - good enough to be commented on by others.  She also has a great physique - albeit with rather stocky thighs!  Anne bought her some skinny jeans.  Rather over-optimistic!

We went to a talk yesterday at Joey's school yesterday give by Phillip Schulz, Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry.  He couldn't read until he was 11 yrs old, always had difficulties in reading easily and was only realised he was dyslexic when his son was diagnosed when Schulz was 58 years old.  Very moving.  Tears in the eyes stuff.  It reminded us both how challenging it can be to be dyslexic but also how it can be overcome and how it can bring gifts with it - verbal skills, imagination, energy, and creativity amongst others.

He also - almost as an aside - suggested writing in the 3rd person when writing about yourself.  So I will try that and see how it goes!

Sunday morning and a wee bit of time now.  I have said it before, but how did I ever get the time to actually go to work?
The Florida Keys was OK.  Must have been lovely 50 years ago but a bit too developed for my liking now.  Kids enjoyed it, which is the main thing.
We did treat ourselves by hiring a Chevie Camaro convertible.  We imagined ourselves driving down the highway, shades on, wind in our hair, the feeling of freedom on the road etc.  But we hadn't reckoned on Izzy and her lovely, thick, long hair which whipped in to her face at anything above 20 mph.  We tried everything; a dozen hair-clips, bands and even a swimming cap but nothing really worked.  Won'ty bother with that again for a while.

Anne sang to Izzy as she carried her upstairs.

"I don't want singing, Mummy.'
'Why not, I though you liked singing?'
'No.  I only want to whine.'

At least she is honest.

Back again, after a week in Florida and then in the UK for my US visa medical.  As long as the blood test doesn't show me as having syphilis, I have passed that.  Why only test for syphilis?  No idea.