The Paternal Optimist

Je vous fais une farce ou vous payez la tournée

I just got trick-or-treated for the first time in seven years living in Switzerland ! The only problem was that when I opened my front door, the young gentleman standing there - in a sheet into which two holes had been hastily cut a few minutes before his appearance on my doorstep, I suspect - did not know what to say !

T'as pas quelque chose à dire ? asked his father, standing behind him, providing moral support and gamely trying to keep a set of plastic fangs in his mouth as he spoke.

Silence.

Trick or treat, par exemple ? quoth the PO.

Silence.

Oui, c'est ça, replied the father eventually. Mais on ne sait pas comment le dire en français.

Once I had seen the nervous ghost off on his way with a couple of chocolate madeleines - fortunately, I had not eaten the whole packet in one sitting as is my usual Sunday wont - I dashed naturally straight to Google for illumination. And sure enough, I was directed straightaway to this site, which provides all of the seasonal vocabulary you could wish for - other than a cast-iron equivalent of trick or treat.

By the way, the Boy Wonder had better bone up on all this - there'll be a test when I see him next week.

Almost Winter

During the sometimes long periods between my visits to the UK to see the Boy Wonder, it is good to know that plans for the coming months exist.

Next Friday I'll be heading back to England for a long weekend, the central focus of which will be the BW's first concert with the Hogwarts school orchestra. The Principal, the Recluse and I will all be attending, and I'll be sure to report back here afterwards.

The Third Blog

Last night, one of my colleagues invited me to join her at a dinner at the Rajpoute, just across the border in Ornex, which is reputed to be the best Indian restaurant in the region. The dinner was in honour of one of her friends, a corporate banker and keen photographer, whose most recent photographs are currently on show in the restaurant. While the subject matter - sailing, details of boats and all things maritime - did not inspire me particularly, with the exception of some fabulous portraits, I was certainly impressed by the technical expertise.

Come on in, the water's fine !

And so it goes on... The irresistible force that is the blogosphere has lured another victim : the newly-remonikered Recluse (aka the artist formerly known as Grandad) has posted his first comment. Not only that, but he has threatened to rummage ruthlessly in the family cupboards and to put on public display - on this very blog - any skeletons he might find there. It would be presumptuous to speak for everyone, but the Paternal Optimist is thrilled by the prospect.

Who will be next ? Really, there's nothing to be afraid of...

De This and von That

I mentioned the other day, as I was proposing to put together some sort of genealogical chart to help the readers of this blog to understand who is being referred to how, not to mention how the various whos are related to each other (if at all), that I was most grateful to have a small extended family of relatively humble origins.

My good fortune appears even greater if I consider what might have been, had circumstances been different - had I been born, for example, into one of the families of two of the members of my team at work.

We have a winner !

Congratulations to The Principal, who has successfully posted the first comment on this site ! And only one spelling mistake - don't worry, it's already corrected - we have the highest editorial standards here !

As a reward for this brave performance the PO will be making an extra special effort over the next few days to find her a new moniker more attuned with her technological prowess and youthful vigour !

(Note from the PO on October 28th : as you may have noticed, this change has been made and applied throughout the site.)

Welcome to the Boy Wonder !

A phone call from the Boy Wonder's mother this afternoon brought not one, but TWO pieces of great news.

The first is that the Boy Wonder has visited (albeit briefly) this site for the first time. His verdict : he likes it !! Phew !

Apparently he had a good rummage among the photo albums, which he liked very much. He was surprised to learn that he was the Best Boy, as for him this moniker applied to his little brother Schmoo. His mother explained to him that he was the original Best Boy, and is, of course, still the PO's Best Boy.

A rose by any other name

When you launch a new blog, and more particularly when you decide to create an intimate blog whose essential purpose is not to communicate to an unlimited global audience, but rather a restricted group of friends and relations, certain decisions must be taken.

Some decisions can wait - they can be addressed on a suck it and see basis, at least as long as the blog remains of a manageable size, working on the principle that if it is necessary to change tack it's relatively easy to do so. For example, thanks to the wonder of tools such as Typepad, most layout and many design features can be tweaked and modified pretty much at the blogger's whim. Similarly, if that witty title for a posting, a blogroll or a category doesn't come swiftly to mind, then hell, you can just go with something totally bland at first, then go back and change it later when inspiration suddenly strikes. This is the approach I have adopted, in case you were wondering.

Mixed news from the Home Front

The Boy Wonder called this afternoon - he got back last night from a week in Cornwall with his Mum, sister and little brother Schmoo. It seems they had a fabulous week staying in a cottage (No. 1, Watergate), visiting the Eden Project (where apparently the BW's recent Asian experiences enabled him to identify some of the more exotic flora), Looe, Truro and St Ives, as well as going on walks on the beach and in the countryside.

Astonishingly, especially for the PO, as he pays the BW's school fees, he now has another week off, presumably to recover from the stress and exertions of the first. Still, at least it will give him time to catch up on his piano practice.

Dazzled by the Headlights

Running down my list of Favourites in Internet Explorer this evening, looking for links I might want to add to this site, I came to the category Pop & Rock. First in the list, of course, was the site of Cousin T's band Absinthe Blind, who I had the privilege of hearing live in Chicago back in 2001. Naturally, I added the link to the Treasure Trove (see the right-hand side of this page), then went to the site to check out the latest news - I was vaguely aware that discussions were ongoing about disbanding AB, but I wasn't sure where things currently stood.

Well, the great news is that Cousin T, along with three former AB members, Brett, Seth and Erin, have launched their new project under the name Headlights.