An anecdote from childhood

John Grayson, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I just put this on another blog of mine.
My father was a fine sportsman. His main sports were soccer, (British) baseball and swimming. I never saw him play soccer but I did see him play baseball on the winning side in a final in 1965. I also remember watching him swimming once. It was at Maindee swimming baths in Newport and the annual Girlings swimming Gala (which we all pronounced Gayler) again some time around 1965. I can see my dad now in his green bathers lining up for the obstacle race. He was 6' 2" and had perfected an amazing racing dive so when they were started he went straight into the lead and I was sure he would win. But my mother knew better and tried to prepare me. One of the obstacles was to bite through balloons and she knew that with his false dentures (which he had from the age of 21) he wouldn't be able to go on as fast as the younger men. And so it proved. He came in third and won a set of three decorated chalice style beer glasses, which we had for years and almost never used.
(By 1965 my dad was 36).

London Holiday

Due to unforeseen circumstances we have been spending a few unexpected days in London. It's a nice place to holiday in. Apart from catching up with things and that sort of thing we have been out a little. On Tuesday, as mentioned, we went to see Wall-e.

On Wednesday some headed off to Camden Market. I went to see Burgh House and the Freud Museum in Hampstead. All very interesting. Burgh House houses the local free museum. Freud lived the last year of his life at 2o Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, where you can see the actual couch on which his victims lay. I remember reading about Freud in a book called Seven men who rule the world from the grave. The others were Darwin, Marx, Wellhausen, Kierkegaard, John Dewey and J M Keynes.

Yesterday four of us went by bus down to Battersea Park. We hired cycles of various sorts and some good fun. Sadly, I bust my camera though. That's a blow. Dylan spent the day with friends following his interim GCSE results plus completed GCSEs in Welsh (A*) and French (B). Well done Dylan! I should have mentioned before that Rhodri and Sibyl both did well at 'A' level and will be going to my alma mata Aberystwyth University, God willing, in 2009. More news on them to follow.

Thursday evening I watched a film with Eleri. "Because I said so" was not my cup of tea (it's a mother daughter film which is part of the reason). The cinematography was great, the cast okay, the plot poor, the dialogue average.

Today we ended up being in for most of the time but then later I took the three youngest to Finchley Lido Leisure Centre for a swim. That cost a small fortune tempered only by some vouchers Kelloggs are doing at present.