Pica Pica » family

Recent birthday boy!

Alex — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:38:00 +0000

Robert – hope you had a good day!

Yet more congratulations

Alex — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:41:00 +0000

I don’t know! All these youngsters doing well and outshing me! Pisses me right off! This time it’s Nick, also known as “My son” or “Oh him”:

…who has just achieved Qualified Teacher Status from Bristol. Rumour has it he also has a hot g/f.

Well done! I’m really pleased, if the truth be told.

Congratulations Polly

Alex — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Otherwise known as “Dr. Wilding”, “my daughter” or “Oh, her”, she recently won a permanent position at POLIS, Leeds University.

Here she is as shown on her page at POLIS:

Well done!

Greek Orthodox christening

Alex — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Yesterday we went to the christening of Zachary, who is Sarah’s father Les’ late wife Cherie’s brother Bob’s son Matthew’s son. Pictures include angelic participants:

key moment:

and keepsake boat with good-luck almonds:

Like most of the pictures here, you can click for a closer look.

Free lunch on the Arcadia

Alex — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:24:00 +0000

Thanks to a series of coincidences we got invited to a free lunch on the Arcadia. (I suppose P&O are still trying to improve their image after the sorry Dianne Brimble story). A tour of the ship followed. I was a barnacle in tow with Sarah who was there as the daughter of her father, Les, who had very fond memories of a trip many years ago with some of the other friends at our table.

The name of the ship was historically important to Australia – I think quite a number of the Ten Pound Poms, for instance, came on an earlier bearer of the name. To be sure there are a lot of people with better reasons to have been there, but that was the luck of the draw. Note the cameras and media presence in the slide show!

Facit: food not at all bad, service excellent. What would those Victorian gentlemen who amused themselves dreaming up plurals call a large assembly of waiters? A canteen?

Birthday parade continues

Alex — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Today’s Birthday boy is Sarah’s dad:

Have a good day Les!

Another birthday!

Alex — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Have a great day Nick!

Trifecta

Alex — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:14:00 +0000

What’s a trifecta? It’s an Australian word, thought by Australians to be English. It means three things happening at once. So today, we start with happy birthday to Sarah:

Then we remember it is also Australia Day and Chinese new year. So now you know what a trifecta is.

Talking of Australia, you might not know that there is something here called a “Freedom of Information Act”, which means that you can pay a lot of money and wait quite long before being told officially and in writing (that’s the benefit to us) that – for reasons it has no need to explain and is not required to disclose – the government doesn’t want to give you the information you requested.

You’ll all remember the Ministry of Truth? And the Ministry for Public Enlightenment?

Birthday girl!

Alex — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:38:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Caitlin – 6 today!

Christmas day

Alex — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 01:37:00 +0000

The now traditional trip on the ferry…