Dan Germain

some important things

I have had a short blog holiday. It lasted about a month. And now it's done.

In that time many things have changed in the world.

The tankard has returned. It's going to travel once again.

Violet celebrated her first birthday. We wore hats and erected a tent in the living room to celebrate.

And my granddad died.

Morris was a champ. The kindest, most generous man you could ever care to meet. He loved his children and his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. He defeated the Germans by himself (allegedly) and never had a bad word to say about anyone, ever. I've always been so proud to be related to him, and I always will be. I couldn't have had a greater example of how a man should lead his life.

Onward.

get milk

I didn't have to teach her to drink the milk that's left at the bottom of the cereal bowl. She just started doing it on her own. Very proud.

on holiday

I'm on holiday in Devon. So far I have eaten crab, whitebait and some Cheerios. My knees are a bit sunburned too.

I won't be posting properly for a couple of weeks. Back on 30th June.

back like burt bacharach

Thanks to Paul for looking after the place while I was away. It was good to have him blogging again. His posts are all here. I liked the one about the train station best, and am full of admiration for him and Russell climbing that mountain like they did.

I was away due to the birth of my/our second child, Violet. She's pretty small and smiles when milk-drunk. Our older daughter Ruby has got a new mask (above). She thinks it's a crocodile but it is clearly a dinosaur.

Anyway, this is a baton change of a post. More searing insights coming up very soon. Just wanted to say hello, I'm back.

violet

We are four.

goodbye for a short while

I'm about to enter a world without blogging. Our second child arrives next week so I won't be spending too much time with Typepad.

I just wanted to leave you with one thought before I disappear for a few weeks. Rap Snacks. Why don't we have them in the UK? Some smart entrepreneurial street kid'd better be reading.

photo from TheeErin's flickr

number two

Ruby's going to have to start sharing her Crayolas.

country hazards, part 1

Mice live in the country, and so if you move to the country you should expect a visit from the odd mouse. This one was found in our kitchen one morning, in the humane trap that I set for him the night before. For anyone looking to trap a mouse, I can inform you that our bait of choice was not cheese, but actually a small piece of Galaxy chocolate.

Under strict orders from my co-pilot, I released the mouse about a mile from our house, where the road meets The Ridgeway. The mouse has set up camp there and is plotting his comeback with the help of other beasts of the field, who will probably break down my door pretty soon and wreak furious revenge. It's not going to be pretty.

in the country

Keen readers may be bored of the fact that I moved out of London a little while ago. Although the early mornings are a bit of a pain (up at 6, in at work by 7.30), I am enjoying the fact that we now have a garden. We've planted courgettes, lettuces, runner beans and this morning potted some tomato seedlings. It was a pretty fine way to start a Sunday.

Gardening seems to be one of those mindless things that helps your brain fly off in all sorts of directions (a bit like running or driving), so I find myself having all sorts of ideas about work and writing and creativity and all of that rubbish while I'm doing it. I guess this is a good thing.

PS for those of you who heard about the floods and then immediately thought "I wonder if Dan is OK in the countryside?" don't worry. The garage flooded a bit and we had to chuck a couple of boxes of junk away, but there was no indoor carpet damage.

holidays at home

I really want to write some proper stuff about moving out of London. But I'm on holiday (one of those holidays where you stay at home and just faff about) so I'm still on a sort of blogging sabbatical.

The concept of a holiday at home is good though. We've only lived here for a couple of weeks, so it still feels like a holiday. We keep meeting new people from the village, so they are my new holiday friends. We went for a big family bike ride today, with Ruby in the little seat on the back of my bike, and that felt like a proper holiday too.

Then we got home and made a real fire in the fireplace, which was slightly unnecessary, as the house is pretty warm and has radiators, but again, it felt like the holiday thing to do.

And now I'll go to bed and get up tomorrow and perhaps go and do a bit of tourist stuff in one of the funny little towns near here. Maybe Dorchester-on-Thames or its neighbour Wallingford. I think they have old crumbling walls and perhaps an abbey. That'll definitely feel like a holiday.

I wrote about taking holidays at home in a thing I wrote for howies recently. And the concept seems to be working out well. So I'd better get back to it.

See you when I'm done holidaying.

PS camera battery has run out and charger is at work. No holiday pictures to speak of. So you will have to make do with this recent photo of a baby in sunglasses. Works every time.