Love,

Andy, Hazel & Adam

Adam and I, filled with xmas spirit, get down and groove to the Spector xmas album…you also get to see Penny mauling the xmas tree in the background.

Belle & Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister was released at the tail end of 1996 but all its memories for me surround the couple of months after Adam was born in May 1997. Adam came as a bit of a shock for a couple of lazy people resigned to not having children (probably because we thought it would be scary and hard work)…it was a good shock (and one we probably needed!) but a shock all the same.

The first few months were utterly exhausting, particularly for Hazel who had to spend the days (and nights) trying to deal with getting the reluctant little beggar to feed and to stop crying because he was hungry. I’d come home from work and retrieve Adam so that Hazel could get some shut-eye. So…many of my evenings (and nights, and early mornings) that summer, were spent walking up and down the living room trying to get him to sleep. Accompanying me on that walk were Belle & Sebastian.

I don’t think the album was chosen because it was necessarily an appropriate one for the job, just that it was an album that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to (and singing along to!). It was (and still is) a beautifully effortless listen. Coincidentally it turns out that it probably was an appropriate album for the job, perfect for a rocking, swaying walk and gentle singing along, no shocks or jars…sweet sounds and clever and funny lyrics.

At some point Adam started eating better and consequently sleeping better and I listened to the album less and less – I still dig it out periodically but this week was probably the first time for a few months that I gave it a spin. All those memories can’t help but give the album a nostalgic and slightly dated feel – more about me than about the music. None of B&S subsequent albums had the same impact but I have them all, and there are bits of all of them that I love (although not a lot of Dear Catastrophe Waitress) – but If You’re Feeling Sinister has nothing that has me reaching to skip a track or turn it down. It’s pretty close to perfect…and with the glory of hindsight I can forget the crying and the utter exhaustion and just remember my tiny little boy nestled in my arms listening to me singing “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying”…

There was a Far Side cartoon from way back when showing parents reading a newspaper where all the ads for jobs were along the lines of “Expert Super Mario player required, 23k plus benefits”.

As a parent now I do genuinely dream that the many hours Adam spends playing World of Warcraft will prepare him well for the future and news stories such as this one are a reassurance…

The formidable organisational skills needed to run a game team or guild, organise raids involving perhaps 40 people and co-ordinate their different abilities to defeat a game’s strongest foes are all relevant to work.

I’m not convinced that the many many hours of text adventures prepared me for anything…

I wish I could find that Larson cartoon online but he threatens (albeit so sweetly) anyone who posts his cartoons on websites – silly man.

So Everything’s Swirling gets a long overdue overhaul – and a new URL (feel free to update your bookmarks, blogrolls and RSS feeds – although the old ones will probably keep working)

Hazel’s blog Let’s Fold Scarves has also had a refit and is whipping my sorry arse in the who’s-blog-is-more-popular competition…if, of course, we cared about anything as trite as popularity. Just like with music – the more obscure the better!

The music lessons when I was at school involved sitting in a portakabin “playing” tiny cardboard keyboards. We’d only get the opportunity of playing one of the five real home-made two octave keyboards if we showed a proficiency on the cardboard ones…I also remember getting told off for improvising a little during one piece…improvising on cardboard keyboards should surely have been praised and encouraged…

Hazel, Adam and I took our first tour around one of the local secondary schools (they call them high schools now) that Adam may go to and I found the experience by turns moving and depressing. The school looked great, the staff were so enthusiastic (and young), the classrooms seemed comfortable and appropriate, they had a drama studio, two music rooms, rehearsal rooms, computers and “interactive whiteboards” in (as far as I could tell) every room. The students who showed us around and spoke seemed to genuinely enjoy being a part of the school…and they did appear to be a part of the school – not just there to be taught at.

I HATED school, it was something I just couldn’t wait to get through, the teachers, for the most part, also seemed to hate school. School failed me or I failed school, either way looking around Elthorne Park High School yesterday only made me sad that I couldn’t have loved school. I’m sure that given the facilities and enthusiasm and a bit of encouragement, given teachers who seemed to be enthused by their subject matter and with the ability to make what you learn seem real and useful, I might not feel like I wasted those years…and I certainly did waste them.

I reached 43 today. When I hit 40 I rattled off some words that convinced me that I’m not too old really…pointing out the rock stars that are older than me and (surprise, surprise) they’re all still older than me – and if Kim Gordon can behave like this on stage at her age then I guess there’s a bit of life left in me yet.

This year I have probably noticed my age more than before – stupid things that pop into my head remind me that I’m getting on a bit things like…

• my wonderful son will turn 10 in a couple of weeks
• my beautiful partner and I have been together for 16 or 17 years
• I’ve been working for the BBC for more than half my life
• the life expectancy of a man in the UK is 76.9 years – that’s not so far away
• Getting out of bed seems so much harder these days
• Staying at home and browsing the Internet is often a much more attractive proposition than going to a gig!

I am scared of death, but then I think I probably should be because life is so bloody good at the moment I don’t want that to end! OK work’s a pain in the arse but everything else probably couldn’t be better.

Almost a month in coming but today saw our first Wii related injury when Adam got a bonk on the bonce playing Wii Tennis with a school friend. For his pains he received this classic comedy bump.

We went to Tate Modern just after xmas – we’d planned to go to the British Library but it was closed. Tate Modern was an awful experience, it was packed and there’s no way you can even begin to appreciate art when there are people shoving and milling around (and screaming kids running around waiting their turn on the slides). We all came out tired and grumpy and only chocolate could revive us.

A couple of days later we managed to get into the British Library – the London maps exhibition was fascinating even if we couldn’t help but spend time looking for Hanwell (or Hanuell) on the maps that reached as far west as us. The permanent exhibition was really interesting as well (although I can only cope with so many illuminated manuscripts! The whole atmosphere was so much more pleasant than the nightmare of the Tate!

This is one of our new cats “Wash” – we picked him and “Tara” up from the RSPCA on Saturday afternoon and since then the pair of them have been holed up behind the sofa. We haven’t heard a peep from either of them. They sneak out and eat/poo while we’re asleep and are probably having a little party now while we’re at work.

No decent picture of Tara as yet as she just backs away anytime anyone comes close to her. I suspect it’ll be a day or two before we see anything of either of them