I bought a plectrum

God it was embarrasing. The wife kindly got me a guitar for my birthday so I thought I'd better get the bits n'bobs to go with. Trouble is it's just so intimidating - strolling into a guitar shop in London's Trendy West End and saying "I need a plectrum. Or is it a pick. Erm..." The guy said "help yourself", I said "what would you recommend" him: "they're all the same, just different colours" me "ok, two grey ones please, bye". None too rock n' roll...

Pride, Joy

A man who has 'learned' social confidence in adultood, and whose blood runs cold at the thought of audience participation has no right to expect his child to be a bold-as-brass 'pick me!' merchant. And indeed B is not that, and is quite often as shy and watchful as his Dad was and sometimes still is. So I practically burst with pride when he bounced up and down, paw aloft, volunteering to help in a bubble-making demonstration at the Science Museum. Took it all very seriously and remembers every detail of the experience including the name of the older girl he shared the stage with. S and I were both momentarily stricken by the whole thing. Our boy. Sigh...

And he followed it up at the lovely oval paddling pool in the courtyard of the V&A by stripping down to his Spiderman and Friends pants and marching around the perimiter, dipping his feet in and out to make prints on the stone surround, weaving carelessly in and out of other picnicers and paddlers, singing a little song to himself.

And much needed too. Horrible shit keeps happening to my friends. FF is off the chemo because there's no hope left anymore.

Playmobil Babylon

A four year old son enriches your life in many ways, but surely the pick of the bunch is providing a great excuse to play with quality toys. Anyone who tells you that toys are just plastic rubbish these days is nuts. Leave the arty wooden farm animals to the wankers and get stuck in to Lego and Playmobil, that's my tip.

Playmobil is well designed, durable, and ... well, actually a bit weird on occasion. Here's my (ahem) Playm-odd-bil top three:



1) BOY WITH SINK "Only 5 in stock - order soon!" says Amazon. Erm, maybe.



2) DOCTOR WITH BABY INCUBATOR - Surely that's Alex from A Clockwork Orange?



3) LAUNDRY SET - Strike a blow for the sisters.


And a close runner-up:



Deer.

Pea on a Fork

... is the joyous description our friend W gave to the sleeping pose of a baby - arms thrown up either side of head. Makes me smile every time I think of it.

Spinning

It's true. I take part in the least heterosexual form of exercise on the planet. You sit on a static bike in a classful of others. To your front is a staggeringly fit instructor wearing a Britney-mic, yelling commands and encouragement as you pretend to climb hills and sprint along flat bits, using resistance on the bike's wheel, to the accompaniment of loud music. Sound a bit silly? It certainly is.

But then it's the best exercise I've ever done. I begin to match the dark red studio wall behind me within 5 mins and at the end of the session I'm saturated with sweat. A few other observations:

1) By god the music helps. Cheesy euro house does the job fine, but I always find a bit extra for that drum n'bass remix of Outer Spaced by The Prodigy.

2) It can chafe.

3) The Friday instructor, despite being about 5'3" is so fiercely fit (and in fact simply fierce) that she actually gets the back of the heavier-than-me bike to hop up when she accelerates.