Family Blog

Accident

in front of our house today. I called the police and ambulance. The driver at fault was injured [no blood], she and her 2 kids on the back seat were crying. Her father and her husband arrived at the scene and angrily examined the damage to the car. It took some time untill her father took over from me to hold the umbrella over her head and to comfort her. The police were mainly concerned with moving the car from the middle of the road and inorder to get to the handbreak and gearstick shifted the woman from being diagonally draped over the front seats to an upright position, which I thought unwise. [It's ok to shut down the centre of London and Sedgefield for a greedy, heartless cheat and criminal to ponce around, but by god, you wouldn't want a traffic situation in Wrottesley Road]

She was later put in a neck and back brace by ambulance staff and cut out of the car by firepolice. She cried in shock and fear. I hope she's going to be ok. I also hope that her dad and her husband were acting seemingly heartless, because they felt helpless.
The accident reminded me, how quickly life can take an unexpected turn. As Richard puts it: We must laugh and love and feel whilst we can. ... Make every second count.

Our Leni today

She is an eater and dancer and an all around funny monkey. She laughs aloud with the big kids, giggles and gives big kisses.
Knuffig.
Good news: Oma Heidi and Onkel Ube will spend Christmas here, Petra maybe too.

So, what are you going to do?

Stop Bu$h
“Thursday 20th November
Assemble 2pm at Malet Street, Central London (nearest tubes: Goodge Street, Russell Square and Euston/Euston Sq). March to Trafalgar Square where a statue of George Bush will be pulled down. This event will continue until 7pm to allow for people coming from work.
If there is only one STOP BU$H event that you can make - this is the one.”
We'll try to be there.

Nasty Bugs

Marla has been ill for the last 5 days. High fevers, dry cough, earache, sore tonsils, sore tummy, diarrhea and a lot of whining. Today we've had a doctor and an homeopath appointment. We've got the obligatory antibiotic perscription from the first and the £50 fee for half an hour consultation from the latter.
Marla has actually cheered up considerably in the last couple of hours. But what a stinker of a bug. Or was it the sun explosions?

Marla draws her family

Leni kann gehen

Leni can walk her trolli up and down the livingroom now. And she's got 3 teeth at the bottom and two cutting through at the top.

Download file 'leni_walking'.

Marlas Work at Nursery

Birthday Party

This was the only picture I managed to take at the party. Apart from Marla being a bit whingy-whiney (until she did a poo - she relaxed enormously after that), catering etc, I also had to celebrate a little, ergo no time for camera work. Thanks everybody for coming, thank you
Penny and Tim for the delicious coconut cake,
Michael and Fi for the M. Moore book,
Emma clan for smelly candles,
Dana clan for other smelly stuff,
Tiger clan for Elvis encyclopedia,
Jonathan for a 'weekend-pass' and being an all around top bloke,
and all of you, for being you.

Michael, Marla does the Winnie the Poo puzzle in 12 seconds flat.
'Gute Besserung' für Amely.

Guy Fawkes Fireworks at Roundwood Park.

Returning from the park.
Marla was fine with the noise this year. No tears. 'It's like popcorn, mami!'.

Pretzels and Beer

at our house. Friday 7/11 from 5pm. It's my birthday. Coming?

Grace

Jonathans gran, Marlas and Lenis great grandmother Grace had to be admitted to hospital with kidney failure last Saturday. She has recovered and will be going home again by the end of the week. Our love goes out to her and the Brennans on the other side of the world.
(The picture with her and Marla was taken on our last visit too long ago - March 2001)

Double Glazing

3 hours of 'proactive' sales spiel by a demonstration executive of a superior doubleglazing firm. 'Glenngary Glenn Ross' comes to mind. To the disappointment of the representative (and dozens of head office staff she had on the mobile throughout the show) we didn't sign on the dotted line. Proactive my arse...
Anyway, if I remember correctly PVC windows suck environmentally speaking.

Finding Nemo

Marlas first cinema experience. Jonathan took her and Russel and Jude to see 'Finding Nemo'. They enjoyed it and managed to sit still for at least half the movie. Until the itch for a pint became too strong for the dads.

Halloween

Tilly, Jane and Chris threw a halloween party with fireworks, apple bobbing, treat-or-treat (we didn't have any tricks up our sleeves), lovely food, a lot of spiderwebs (one would hope they were halloween decoration) and plenty of dancing. Marla was definately the dancing champion. In vigour and originality. She stopped at one point coming over to whisper in my ear: 'I'm the best dancer, aren't I?'
Leni loves parties and crawled around, bobbing and laughing until she fell asleep in Jonas arms, to be taken home to bed.