First Frydman pop video

No, it wasn’t ours (or even Eric’s) – the award goes to Dan’s five-year-old cousin B.  We managed our big Frydman family gathering just before coming back up to Edinburgh after a few days in London.

B is fond of the 13-year-old Lil’ Chris (or is it Kris?) and his parents had managed to survive the journey from around Oban to London with Lil’ Chris on most of the time. Naturally we were allowed to hear some too…and as Dan is able to take some video on his camera, B didn’t take too much encouragement to play air guitar along to the first couple of tracks.

B took it all in earnest, and included dives onto the sofa, as well as pretty good lip-synch for the songwords.
Dan also showed some skill as a future pop video artist, as the footage included lots of sweeps, close-ups etc.

We’ll let you know if the video makes it on to YouTube.

Happy New Year!

So, time to put in another post, and make sure the blog continues into 2007, as we’ve promised.

Despite the usual large numbers of visitors to Edinburgh for the Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) celebrations, the night itself was not so great.  Heavy rain and very strong winds meant that outdoor celebrations were cancelled in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, and various other cities.

We had had thoughts of watching the fireworks from Inverleith Park, but hearing wind and rain get more extreme as the day wore on, we settled for staying put and having a roast chicken dinner.

I had planned that December 2006 would include making tarte tatin, s0 I felt duty bound to do so before midnight came – although it was quite a close thing!  A recipe that calls for 2kgs of apples means a lot of peeling.  As it was, the tatin was finished shortly before midnight, but eaten afterwards.

I remembered that tarte tatin is meant to be a speciality of Gordon Ramsay‘s restaurants.  I felt sorry for the comis chefs (or whatever the appropriate title is for apple peeler) that prepare them – there’s a lot of work involved.  Worth a try, though, and thankfully it was still good over the next two days, particularly with a cup of tea while looking at (yet more) rain.

Meanwhile, hope your New Year celebrations were good, and all the best for 2007…

The battle for G2

Back to work tomorrow…

It’s a consolation at least that there’ll be a chance to look at G2, the supplement to the Guardian.

Despite our loyalty to the Times on Saturdays, it’s fair to say that G2 has some of the best articles in the daily paper supplements.  Hence the battle for G2 – it’s the most popular section of the papers to read at breaktime or lunchtime.

So, in the spirit of celebrating writers for the Times, I should mention one or two for the Guardian as well.

Top of the list, although she has actually stopped writing a weekly column, is Maureen Lipman.  It doesn’t matter what she writes about, it’ll be funny – and there’ll often be good food mentioned as well as theatre, TV, or whatever she is up to at that point.

Part of her success is the way she writes about herself in a self-deprecating way – although someone managing to keep up all this activity must be doing something right.

The Guardian also has some other good options, including a very good longer-length film review (on Fridays), plus other more light-hearted sections.  Sometimes there are profiles where someone well-known puts in pictures of various things that are important to them – usually quite an interesting selection.

There is also a ‘head-to-toe’ of where a particular person gets their clothes from and why they make the choices they do.  This led to my discovery that Jon Snow, newsreader for Channel 4, always wears co-ordinated socks and ties.  You may think he’s made an effort for the suit and tie look onscreen, but the people in the studio get even more sartorial impact.

Sadly, that’s all the columnists’ names I can remember for now.  Better sharpen the elbows and get back to checking who’s who in the next issue.

Family focus

I’m told that I shouldn’t write too many posts, otherwise you lovely readers won’t be able to keep up.

However, we did manage a family get together recently, and have another one to come, so I think they’re worth a mention.

Last weekend saw us meeting up with my parents, plus my brother John and his girlfriend Sarah.  John and Sarah are both teachers in Leeds, and had just finished term, so were pretty weary on the Friday night.

However, they perked up a bit the next day, and we all headed into Edinburgh on the Saturday afternoon, including spending some time at the German Christmas Market in the centre of town.

The stall holders who sell Gluhwein (mulled wine) kindly use special mugs with Christmas scenes on, to get you in the mood.  As Friday was the first time it had stopped raining for a week, we attempted to feel more Christmassy…(Today, it’s been bright and also frosty in Edinburgh, so it does feel a bit more like December.)

We head down to London this Saturday (23rd), to spend time with Dan’s mum Jen and his granny.  Jen’s brother  family will also come to meet us a few days later.  We’ve not had a bigger Frydman gathering for a while, so it’s good to manage both sides of the family in the same month.

Chatting to friends, you become aware how we have a sense of a shared Christmas, yet people have such different experiences.  One of my former colleagues, from New Zealand but temping in Edinburgh, is part of a big family, and Christmas isn’t Christmas unless 30 people are sitting down together…

I don’t think we’ll ever emulate that, but it’s great to spend time withe people you love, however many of you there are together.

Dog and bone

A thought on phone calls this time.

We’ve had some special conversations recently with friends far and wide.  For all of the benefits of email etc, there is something about being able to chat to people too.

So it’s been great to catch up with:

K in the States
R who’s been teaching in Asia
and G and S in Musselburgh, up the road from Edinburgh!

I’m not very good at picking up the phone, I have to admit, so I’ve been grateful where others have pre-empted. It’s particularly good to chat near to Christmas time, and look at what’s been happening for each other over the year.

We noticed that some of the first people to respond to our email about the blog were those who were outside the UK, so there is something about keeping in touch long-distance.  We hope we can keep it up via the blog at least in the coming year, and hopefully add in some phone calls too.