De Efteling

De Efteling, in the Netherlands, claims to be one of the oldest theme parks in the world. Hard to resist a visit, when it’s a public holiday, the weather’s fine, and you have three children to entertain. The entrance hall is suitable spooky and impressive. Equally impressive is the interior of the construction. This “flying” [...]

Toy Story

The Nostalgia Toy Museum in the town of Godshill on the Isle of Wight was quite a trip down memory lane for me. I already knew about their impressive selection of Star Wars memorabilia. Look, the Cantina Playset (lightsaber-severed limbs not included)! Look, both versions of Snaggletooth! (I used to have the red one, myself). [...]

Good old-fashioned entertainment

I recently introduced my children to Star Wars. All three enjoyed it, although my eldest daughter took to it most enthusiastically, bombarding me with questions and spending every spare moment with her nose buried in the Star Wars Visual Dictionary. So far the only criticism they’ve voiced is that there’s only one female character. Strangely [...]

Drink your milk

“Then there was the matter of the milk, a drink I detested however it was served, and at whatever temperature. It made me gag. There was no allowance for such distastes in the home’s régime. This resulted in a great deal of time spent in the dining room, with its sour odours of curds and [...]

Vogels en bijen

Warning for the faint-hearted: this post is mostly about laughing at cartoon willies. The title means “the birds and bees” in Dutch. Why? Well, this past weekend we went to a local science and technology museum called Technopolis. We’ve been many times before and our kids always enjoy the many hands-on demonstrations, games and toys. [...]

Joke

I used to share a bedroom with my brother, who was (and still is) 11 years my senior. He liked to share his taste in music on his gramophone, so I was exposed at an early age to the likes of Earth Wind and Fire and Level 42. But in addition to music he had [...]

Booksmarts

Reading has been on my mind recently, both because our eldest child is starting to learn to read and because recent TV documentaries and newspaper articles have revealed how poorly (if at all) British children read. Now I’ve always loved reading, and found it difficult to comprehend why others didn’t. I was puzzled during a [...]

PG

I was initially looking forward to Disney’s Rapunzel movie. One of their most respected animators, Glen Keane, was finally being given the chance to direct, and he was developing an innovative technique whereby the images would be three-dimensional and yet have the texture of an oil painting. Then they fired him and brought in another [...]

Abandoned at ballet

As we entered the ballet school with our two daughters, we noticed a small (about 4 years old) girl in the regulation pink dress and tutu, lurking in the hall, crying. Obviously there for the same class as our daughters, we tried to coax her up the stairs to the class, but she refused to [...]

Georgia on my mind

I’m sure you’ve all been there: someone you were at school with but haven’t heard from since then gets in touch via Facebook. You exchange pleasantries, a few reminisences, discover that you still have some things in common (an office job, marriage, kids, but probably not much else), and then it all goes quiet. But [...]