Posts By Chris
Weapons of Childhood
These perfectly crafted weapons of childhood were purchased from the very best Portuguese Art & Craft store in Lisbon. I’m told the man who makes them spends his days finding the best branches from a very special tree and is the best maker of Fisgars in Portugal (translation: ging).
They were not cheap! They can only be improved by some quarter inch jelly rubber …
Lisboa (two CAPITALS to go)
This may be the most awesome city so far … we are loving it: he food (ahhh); the SHOES, (Josie and Chris set a record Day 1). We are reliving the age of discovery. Very cheap and most definitely, quaintly, yeh old school – almost eastern bloc slash Paris. All with a little guilt as the locals are doing it harder here than in most parts and the government is keen on AUSTERITY.
Where are we going?
Mei’s Dreams
Dream 1. Mei and the Giant Fruit Bowl.
I dreamt that I was in a fruit bowl. I was really small. I climbed up a banana and slid down it. I saw this tomato. I thought it was an exercise ball so I jumped on it, but it popped. Then I realised it was a huge tomato and I was like, ‘huh?’ I was very curious about it. Then I realised I was in a fruit bowl.
Dream 2. The Big Pork Bun.
In my dream I woke in a very white place. I found this huge pork bun.
Then I saw this big person sitting right next to it. I looked up and the bun was bigger than my eyeball. The big person said, ‘How big are the bites that you take on a pork bun?’ So I tried to do a huge bite. Then I realised my bites were so small. I said to myself, ‘Oh, now I get it. I am very small.’
Dream 3. The Lonesome Donkey.
In my dream I lived on a farm. I had lots of animals on my farm. I had one special animal separate to all the others. It was a donkey. Since he was the only donkey all the other animals used to tease him. He felt upset that he was the only donkey. The others animals saw that he was upset that he was the only donkey.
Three weeks went past. The animals became nice to the donkey. I watched the animals play together. I felt good that the donkey wasn’t lonely anymore.
Dream 4. My Dragon Friend
I had a dream that I woke up in a room with a dragon lying beside me. The dragon was still asleep. I had no idea what the dragon was doing there. The dragon looked a bit Chinese, like my toy dragon. I thought he was just a fake dragon but he had real teeth. They looked sharp. So I went outside and found the dragon just standing beside me. The dragon would always follow me wherever I went. Then I met this man who owned the dragon. He said the dragon’s name was Timothy. He said he was a friendly little dragon. He told me why the dragon kept following me. It was because this dragon did not like staying by himself, so he follows people. The man said I could have a little ride. I was delighted to go on him. So off I went. He showed me the world where I was. The world looked like a picture of a dragon from a distance. It looked beautiful. The green was the colour of the dragon. I realised I was in a dragon world. Then the dragon took me back to the man.
In London we saw the Great Auk
For Christmas the ‘family’ gave Josie a hand-painted copy of a Great Auk egg especially imported from an eccentric gentleman in UK … so we all rejoiced when we finally set eyes on the real thing … dead and extinct: a simple observation suggests why this might be the case. Josie has rebuffed my aesthetic darwinian interpretation, but hey, it couldn’t run fast or fly far enough to withstand the onslaught of humanity (said Josie).
Teddy Time (BERTRAND LAVIER, DEPUIS 1969)
Those eyes … this work ‘spoke’ to Meiduo and suggested some of her ‘soft guys’, as she calls them, may have an alternate future. On the other hand … this wreck in the next room, provided some contrast …
Arc de Triomphe (new content!)
I posted the film of the first time we set our eyes on the Mona Lisa the other day, and then we saw it again with the kids. The crowd was four times as big on the Monday, than on the Sunday. Somehow we discovered that the average time each person actually gazes on ‘IT’ is 15 seconds … hmmm, and it’s warped a little over time. Now it’s behind bullet proof glass etc etc and in a climatically controlled space (hell, as you would expect !).
Yesterday we walked up the Arc de Triomphe. I was NOT HAPPY as, after having a generational dispute with son over navigation he called me ‘POPS’ (with some spite). Now I call him JUNIOR and have asked him to find a new partner for Europe’s highest and fastest roller coaster, which awaits me just outside Barcelona. Last night Meiduo asked, ‘What’s wrong old man?’ as she stole my dessert.
She is now BUBS.
Anyway, yesterday we went to the The Arc de Triomphe. I had no real sense of what it actually was, except something for the cyclists to enjoy as they finished le Tour. Now I know it is a war memorial in the world weary sense of the words – it honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. It is also a great place to view the Haussmann layout … the l’Étoile … for this magnificent city.
It is impressive in all its physical and cultural dimensions … and like many great monuments, I discovered you can actually climb over the thing. And like all really great monuments, that does entail a rather arduous set of steps … though post-India, the family cruise up these no worries. Meiduo actually scampers and counts at the same time.
You can share some of the experience …
http://youtu.be/TIQohjOeCKU
From THE WIKI:
The Arc de Triomphe is the linchpin of the historic axis (Axe historique) – a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre, to the Grande Arche de la Défense. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages.
The monument stands 50 metres in height, 45 m wide and 22 m deep. The large vault is 29.19 m high and 14.62 m wide. The small vault is 18.68 m high and 8.44 m wide. It was the largest triumphal arch in existence until the construction of the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, in 1982. Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, (marking the end of hostilities in World War I), Charles Godefroyflew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.
Couldn’t resist this:
Archive: Himalayan Pony Time
At Tso Moriri we walked up to 5500M with a local horseman. Xavier and Meiduo were remarkably relaxed and proficient on the horses – just like their mum – and not like their dad, who preferred walking. Meiduo even survived a rather snappy bite to her thigh by her trusty steed and rode most of the way, while Xavier walked a fair bit, giving the horses a relax. There were many breathless views across the lake to the ‘unclimbed’ (by Chris) 6600M Chamsa Kangri. High up we had a great cook-up on the MSR XKG … how I love the sound of my petrol jets igniting in the thin air. All around were high peaks and rocky crags.
A great family picnic!
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