Says Tolii, while sitting on the top bunk beside Autumn, who was visiting for the Pumpkin Party: “Why don’t apples have bones?”.
Queried I right back: “Why do some people call tomatoes ‘meaty‘?”
How quick the topic turned to other things…

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We threw a small pumpkin party this evening ~ some of our good friends came by to enjoy the festivities, which included pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin soup.
Tosha’s friend Tristan came as Spiderman; his sister, Autumn, Tolii’s friend, came dressed as Harry Potter (and mum Carole was a very convincing Mrs. McGonagal); their father, Richard, “Coops” [...]

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Today, I took the day off work to spend with Tolii, on his last day of half-term break.
We went to Brooklands Museum and Mercedes-Benz World just inside the M25, about an hour’s drive away from Whitchurch (or 1.5 hours returning during rush hour on a Friday! Luckily, we got home just in time for the [...]

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Not even granny would remember the last time it snowed in October in England.  Sure, it was only a dusting, but it still was around in some parts even at lunch. Temperatures this morning when leaving for work were about -1C.
Luckily, Grandpa had brought over some Canadian ice scrapers in one of his visits.  They [...]

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Tolii has all this week off from school for mid-term break.  He is not pleased.
Katya took Monday and Tuesday off to spend time with him (actually, to do many urgent household chores which were moderately entertaining for Tolii).
But now he is heading into days with Baba, and neither can speak each other’s language well.  Worse, [...]

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We went to Portsmouth this morning, expecting to park right near the Historical Dockyard.  We got to within a half of a mile of it.  Then the traffic jam began.  I even was able to turn off the car’s engine for a bit as we watched the clash of old and new building styles from [...]

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This afternoon, and again this evening over dinner with Baba and Granny, Tolii demonstrated his newly developed skill: whistling!
He is either really, really talented at minamalism or he only just knows the one note.
Meanwhile, Tosha demonstrated that he was a devout carnivore.

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Finally, an understandable description of the sub-prime crisis that preceeded the (likely) recession. Enjoy the “Two Johns”, John Bird and John Fortune as they clarify the details of the whole mess (if you like it, then there are many more on YouTube):

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Tolii, inspired by Katie, has conquered the challenge of swinging across all the monkey bars at the playground.
His friends were watching, too.
This victory, though, came at a price: a blister on his left hand. Why not the right, too? Who knows!

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Today, we went to Paultons Park for the first time. We had been meaning to go there all this summer but never got around to it - maybe because of the grey, cool weather? Or we just didn’t know how wonderfully it would surprise us.
The park’s lovely grounds are a mixture of plants, [...]

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Both our boys are really growing up now…perhaps the transition to school for Tolii has benefited him and Tosha.  I guess Tosha now considers himself the big cheese at nursery and Tolii is being challenged along with the Year 1 pupils in his classroom.
The conversations with Tolii are becoming much more rich in description and [...]

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I had to travel to my company’s headquarters in Munich, Germany this past Thursday and Friday.  I get over there a fair amount, but this was the first time that I had travelled through the infamous Heathrow terminal 5. The horror stories of its opening days earlier this year have now subsided in the media.  [...]

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Baba arrived on Saturday - its been about a year and a half since she’s been over to visit.  The boys sure missed her!  First thing on the agenda?  To show her their swing in the Meadow!

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There seems to be a lot of 40th birthday parties in our circle of friends this year.
However, last night’s party was a bit different…it was for Coops’ Citroen H-Van (aka fire truck).
The truck opened up its tail to reveal a cosy bar, complete with many festive drinks.
People from far and wide came to celebrate into [...]

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Tolii went out with mummy last night to see “Tasher Desh: The Land of Cards” at the Haymarket theatre in Basingstoke, leaving Tosha with me.  Tosha was quite upset that he wasn’t yet old enough to go out on the town  - however, he did keep asking “Is Tolii in Basingstoke now?”.  I heard from [...]

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