I am the Lizard King!

It's Lizard Week here and Kai and I are spending a lot of time discovering more about reptiles. So much that I didn't know! For example, there's an amazing clip on Yooftube of a basilisk running on water.

There is an ulterior motive. Kai has decided that he wants a pet and has asked for a Komodo Dragon for Xmas. And you know that we just hate to disappoint him!

Wordy

Kai asked me the very pertinent question at the weekend: how many words do I know?

According to Wikipedia a 6 year-old English speaker knows 10,000 - 14,000 words and learns 5 - 10 new words a day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_development_stages#Language_4


So, as a bilingual 7 year old he's probably well up to this level. Sadly most the new words he learns are the names of obscure lizards and profanities.

Scotland's finest!

The magnificent Teenage Fanclub with my song of the week. If this doesn't brighten your day, you should contact an undertaker!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6UuoS7kd-g

On heat

She's on heat. So she just lies there on the floor all morning with those big sad eyes gazing at the door, giving me a bad conscience. There's clearly only one thought on her mind: walkies.

Yes, today, we are dog-sitting Nikki, Gitte's pooch, for the day.

Can't really decide whether I'm more a mogger or a dogger. It's certainly fun to go for walkies with a creature who gets so much pleasure out of using their nose.

One thing this week has taught me: don't mess with the Cat People. That stupid woman in Coventry now has a catwa on her head. Hard-core Miaowists make Al Quaeda seem positively laid back.

Pooh sticky!

Talk about literary appreciation! Kai was listening to a CD of Wiinie the Pooh and the Heffalump in bed last night (Stephen Fry as Pooh) and he laughed so hard that he peed himself and soaked the bedclothes.

A damp and rather smelly tribute to Milne's comic genius.

Disney's Pooh is one of the worst acts of cultural vandalism of our time. Grrrr!

The politics of patience

We have an election here in a month's time and the Social Democrats seem to have had some help from Kai with the their campaign. Their slogan? We don't want to wait. Our son in a nutshell! Mr Ants in his Pants wants everything at once.

Patience? Not in his vocabulary.

I've started so I'll finish

Reading and greatly enjoying David Nicholl's debut novel, Starter for Ten. His One Day is already one of my favourite novels of the year and here's another cracking read. 99p from the Oxfam shop in Wembley High Street.

Hilarious reading in particular for anyone who's been to a UK university but I can't imagine anyone not enjoying it. A Bildungsroman about a young working class guy at university is not perhaps the most original topic in the world. But the dialogue and the descriptions of the characters are so good that it really doesn't matter.

I've even bought the DVD from Amazon. Second hand (no VAT to pay!) it came to a princely SEK 24.

Rewiring the brain

Today's kids are amazing at multi-tasking. Kai can eat breakfast, surf Internet shops,have a bath and play Playstation all at the same time.

But is it a good thing?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/20/internet-altering-your-mind?CMP=NECNETTXT1349

Thought-provoking stuff for all of us who spend far too much time in front of a computer screen!

Winter drawers on!

Our kitchen constantly fills up with sluggish wasps who seem to be aware that summer is on its way out. Dan and I had an outdoor beer at Mosebacke last night and by 23.00it was decidedly chilly. The balmy summer evenings are over.

Nine months of winter await!

Way down on the Klara River

Very funny article about a rafting holiday in Sweden that Maria Tychomum sent me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3663059/Hell-and-high-water.html

Makes Deliverance seem like a picnic!

Punk mutates into Nazi Piranha!

Instead of going to school, Kai has spent his day softing out and watching a TV show about a trio of chickens who are Kung Fu masters. Co-produced by Aardman so I snapped it up when I was in London.

I was amused by the voice talent of the actor playing the baddie, a futuristic Nazi piranha, so of course I had to learn more. Turns out it's Paul Kaye who used to be Dennis Pennis. Well I never!

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4673381.ece

Educational

Well the new school year got off to a cracking start today. All the kids were to gather in the schoolyard to hear words of inspiration from the headmistress. About three minutes after he'd got to the classroom, Kai told Ulrika that he wanted to puke. So he came home and has been lounging on sofa all day watching Kung Fu Chicken films. Probably not malingering this time but I wouldn't put it past him!

Come all you fair folkies!

Jon sent me this link which contains a large dollop of delicious folk music from Cropredy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0098pzx/Fairports_Cropredy_Convention_14_08_2010/


Enjoy!

Cropredy - Quo Vadis?

Last weekend, various pals of mine were at some fab festivals that I would dearly liked to have joined them for. Now, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I can get some idea what it was like and get a close look at the back of the head of members of the audience!

Jon and Jan enjoyed the rustic pleasures of Cropredy and saw a blistering 3 hours set by the Fairports.

Here's Dave Swarbrick dropping in unexpectedly to join them for Sir Patrick Spens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6UM8F78_yE

The Cropredy line up was full of wonderful folk acts. I'm told that Welsh singer song-writer Martyn Joseph was marvelous and I'd have loved to see Bellowhead again. I was a bit surprised though to see Pauline Black and the Selector, Rick Wakeman and Status Quo on the bill.

I mentioned this to Nisse who argued rather convincingly that the Quo and Steeleye Span sound remarkably similar. These music journalists notice things that escape us ordinary moshers.

Meanwhile in Helsinki, those bad boys of Brighton, Steve and Pete, aided and augmented by Juha and Wolfgang, were enjoying the Flow Festival which also had a marvelous line up.

Wolfgang raved about Owen Pallett so here he is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXxHQJVq1ws

I should point out that when Wolfgang is enthusiastic about something he doesn't do things by half measures. If he tells me a gig was very good I know it was probably rather so so.

Long live enthusiastic pals!

It ain't over till...

An unexpected twist in the tail to our visit to England. My poor brother, Don, arrived at Heathrow to be declared unfit to fly due to an ear infection. Quite right too! Thank heavens for Maison Grunewald where he is now recuperating. His luggage is somewhere in the bowels of Heathrow. The best laid planes....

Ymerodraeth state of mind!

Here's a real treat from the Land of Song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4NeFo7zkfk&feature=related

Love, hate and arson - a typical day in Scotland?

Home again in Stockholm. I haven't had decent internet access for an eternity and there is, to put it midly, a lot to write about!

Alasdair Roberts is a great favourite in these parts.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/08/alasdair-roberts-interview-tim-adams

Now how on earth did the Scots get a reputation for being dour and gloomy?