The agony & the ecstasy

This picture just about sums up the family fairground experience I think. It's all here: one child ecstatic while the other teeters on the edge of a nervous breakdown, garish colours, confusion, needless and excessive expenditure... What more could a parent want? I'd like to add that no child was psychologically or physically harmed in the making of this picture. If only I could be certain that were the case...

Neglect is a terrible thing

Perhaps that's not the wisest title to use for a post about a picture of ones daughter, but it's not her who's being neglected, it's this blog. It's suffering for a variety of dreary reasons that don't deserve the time of day but rest assured, army of loyal readers, it won't always be this way.

This shot was taken at my nephew Tom's 18th birthday celebration (strictly speaking, I think it was about the 18th celebration he'd taken part in but let's cut the lad some slack for crying out loud). In every single shot of Tom that I've taken he's pulling this ridiculous cheesy grin face - the sort of face you wouldn't want to inflict on anyone without fair warning, so I'm not going to give it any webspace this time. Let's focus instead on the delightful Marni, resplendent in Oliver! outfit, as she eats something or other in front of a mirror.

Extreme reading

Schools these days! What are they like? Marni was asked to come into school tomorrow with photographic evidence that she had practised 'extreme reading' over the weekend. So of course I parked her in the middle of a usually-busy road and snapped furiously for a second or two before yanking her out of harm's way. I shudder to think what less responsible parents might have encouraged their children to do. Reading on the railway? On that death-defying up 'n' over ride at the end of the pier? In the sea? Outside some dodgy nightclub at chucking out time?

I wonder if we've misunderstood the brief...

Mischievous girl

Honestly, this girl will be the death of us. The other day she went ominously quiet for a few minutes - just a few minutes is all it took. Next thing you know she's administered a DIY haircut on her fringe with a pair of nail scissors. The following day we receive an emergency walkie-talkie call from Oskar around bedtime. He reports that she's sitting in bed eating a pack of his M&Ms, bold as brass! When challenged she said she didn't know they were Oskar's. Oh well that's alright then...

These are just a couple of several minor irritations for which she's been responsible over the past week or so and to be honest the temperature was rising a bit. So it was kind of timely that there was a gas leak at her school two days ago and we ended up spending a day together, just the two of us. There was a gorgeous sun-kissed break in the horrible weather (don't get me started on the weather), so we headed for the seafront with bike, picnic and camera.

We had a great time and are now officially best mates again. I'm going to miss these days when she grows up.

Busker Marni

Marni is currently obsessed with 'African drums', which I think is a good thing on balance - at least for as long as we don't actually have any in the house. I think she saw a demonstration of some sort at school and is now convinced it is her mission in life to drum sense into the world.

So it was with no small measure of delight that she spotted this busker on our way to the Pavilion for a sound recording school assignment of Oskar's (which is another story entirely). After staring rather rudely at the chap for a good five minutes, Marni was asked to join him for a ... what? a duet? a jam? I don't know what you'd call it but I do know how much she enjoyed it. Needless to say, the busker assured me she's a natural - but I had just given him a quid.

Post-Christmas family lunch

I wasn't paying an awful lot of photographic attention when we spent the day with my brother and his family and my sister with hers on 2 January. I think we were having too much fun. But I did take a few photos and I think this one's my favourite - mainly from a compositional point of view. I like the symmetry created by Marni and Amanda's body angles and the snacks/drinks they're holding. I kind of wish one of them was in focus but hey, we can't have everything we want in life.

It's also a nice reminder that Marni has enthusiastically embraced the idea of dressing up for special occasions. She spent most of the Christmas season in this suit, handed down by her brother last year. When she goes out she adds a rather fetching cap - one of those rather blousey flat caps, if you get my drift. It makes her look like something out of Oliver! and is unspeakably endearing.

Another Marni injury

Not content with splitting her head open a few months back, then breaking her arm, then getting run over by a massive piece of farmyard equipment on a steeply sloping field when we were camping, Marni has added another injury to her increasingly impressive collection. This time she fell over a chair at school and landed awkwardly. It could have been worse by all accounts (well, hers anyway): her fall was broken by Morgan, a classmate who's so robust and plucky that I didn't even think to ask how he was after the incident. Needless to say, Marni's delighted to have a proper shiner to show off. If it gets any more spectacular over the coming days I'll take another shot of it (for her you understand...)

Hasn't she got beautiful eyes though?

Marni bounces back

Just eight weeks after breaking her arm in a nasty fall from this very trampoline - and six weeks after it was reset rather excruciatingly - Marni is back doing what she does best: risking life and limb. We waited three hours for the privilege of seeing a consultant for all of five minutes yesterday. It was infuriating but there's no point in complaining is there? Or maybe there is...perhaps I should fire off a stroppy letter for a change. Do you know what? I think I will!

Superman saves the day

Superman fearlessly rushed to the assistance of a lady in distress while the lady's over-heated looking dog watched proceedings with a somewhat supercilious air from the comfort of her bike rack. The lady in question had been multi-tasking furiously: talking into her phone, balancing the top-heavy bike and negotiating her way across a busy bike lane (it was the London to Brighton ride yesterday - there were more cyclists around than you could shake a stick at). It went wrong when the back of the bike started going over. Reluctant to allow her idle dog to be injured in the fall, the noble lady allowed her phone to drop instead as she made a grab for the handlebars. Alas, the phone was trashed, but Superman helped her pick up the pieces and gave her a little pep talk on health and safety issues before flying off to the next crisis.

Birthday girl

The blog pic choice was a no brainer today: it's Marni's sixth birthday! So of course we had waffles and strawberries for breakfast, and to be frank I wouldn't recommend them. It was a very sickly and insubstantial meal and I felt both hungry and bloated about ten minutes after I'd finished. Nothing wrong with the strawberries, obviously, and I'm sure there'd be nothing wrong with top notch waffles either, but these were Bird's Eye. Nuff said there I think.

There are plenty more photos of the happy event on my Flickr pages in case you're interested. But in a nutshell, it was a lovely day, Marni was happy as Larry with her gifts, and one of them - a hamster who was originally going to be called Hovis but who is unfortunately now more likely to end up being called Georgina or Gizmo - is curled up in a rather cute little ball downstairs as I type. Happy days.

Bubble burst moment

I was aiming for a good bubble image with this and about 100 other shots today but it just didn't happen. If you click on this one and view it full size, though, you'll see from the hundreds of tiny droplets that I've luckily caught the moment a bubble burst. Thankfully, Marni has a vaguely suitable expression on her face too. So this one will do I think.

Panda girl

Given that the vast majority of the several thousand pictures I've taken with digital cameras have been of my family - and most of those of my kids - I'm slightly surprised to note that this is only the second one I've used on the blog. I suppose I've been sensitive to the notion that any photographer parent is going to like pictures of their kids more than most other people will, irrespective of how good they are (the pictures I mean - there's obviously a limit to the fondness one can have for disobedient kids). The assumption is that eyebrows will immediately go skyward, and fingers will automatically drum on tables at the first sight of a sentimental family portrait. But dammit I don't care - this is a photograph of my beautiful five (very nearly six) year-old daughter Marni. And I think it rocks.

Marni on the rocks

Marni and I had some good father/daughter time today. It probably doesn't happen as often as it should but we always enjoy it when it does. Oskar was playing football at Hove Rec and we were getting cold watching him so we cycled off to Hove Park, which is about 590 metres away, according to a sign I remember seeing today. When we got there we did our usual thing of cycling around the edge of the park, then swooping down a grassy hill at speeds that probably feel like they're on the very edge of what's possible to her (says the fearless downhiller...). Then we decided to clamber onto the climbing rock for a bit. I took some pictures of her climbing - including this one - then decided I should be participating, not recording, so I put the camera away and climbed up after her. I suppose I would say this wouldn't I, but she's good! Really! She was picking her hand- and foot-holds and facing the rock all the time. She was basically fearless (which is what we've come to expect from her) but also careful. Suddenly I feel we may have a climber in our midst. How weird is that?

I'm tired and a bit drunk now so I'm not going to explore our relationship here and now. It would be a mistake I think. Suffice it to say we're in good shape at the moment, my daughter and me :)