Christmas 2012

Happy Christmas everyone!











Some photos, starting with Liam's disbelieving excitement that Santa had clearly visited as he'd drunk the milk and Rudolph had indeed tucked into the Italian cake we left for him the night before...













... then his amazement (and probably relief) at seeing the gigantic box under the tree which, in size and shape, matched the expected dimensions of what he had asked for from Santa...




... and then the frenzied unwrapping of various prezzies, including a pocket microscope, a Beano annual, some welly socks, a dinosaur kit, sweeties, and of course plenty of Lego...!













































... and, finally, a great video of the moment he realised, perhaps unexpectedly (!) that Santa had indeed judged him to have been, on balance, a "good boy" this year...



Plus, here is Mummy getting her voucher entitling her to a smartphone in the sales...!



































We then went round to our neighbours and good friends, the Wheelhouses, for an astounding Christmas dinner, and rounded it off making the LEGO Ninjago Fire Dragon in front of "The Gruffalo's Child".

Accies in Cantoria, Almeria, Espana...

In October 2011, the Effra Academicals travelled out to southern Spain to take on a couple of teams known to the O.A. ('Original Accie'), Ian 'The Gaffer' Holmes who lives out there in a lovely village called Cantoria.





You can see the picturesque setting amid the moody Andalucian mountains for yourselves.



We had a great weekend, even if the football din't exactly go as dreamt the night before in various bedrooms in and around London - and one in Durham.

We got beat a couple of times, and drew once, scoring only once too (I missed some presentable chances I have to admit, but laid on the pass for our only goal, thus missing out on thr honour of scoring for the Accies in a third country...)


Here is some footage, such as it is. Andrea has many, many qualities but cinematography remains elusive! ;-)




But the night out afterwards was top, starting in one of Ian's favourite bars with a pool table (Yedra). Ian and Andrea's wonderful daughter Bella did the honours admirably and adorably with the cue chalk and triangle - then made us all feel sore and old with an eye-watering splits...!







Full marks to the English chef at the Cafe Bar Cantaria for some yum tapas on the Saturday night:



We then continued on into the night, at various other bars (for a small village they've kept their bar culture alive better than most English equivalents):

































































The day after, I stayed on and Ian and Andrea and Bella took me down to the coast to a couple of great villages, where we watched the already-legendary '1-6', and immortalised this great moment for all posterity - or until the tide came in, or the wind picked up, whichever came first...


... and Bella came to enjoy the 'Dietz flip', already a firm favourite with The Monkey, and now a cross-cultural phenomenon:

Lumiere Lights Festival, Durham 2011

Some pictures from the splendid Lumiere lights festival in Durham 2011.

I'm not from the city, of course, but my heart nevertheless swelled with pride for the place to see it rammed with people meandering around its lovely centre in search of public art: hat duly doffed to Jacques Rival for the 'I Love Durham' Snow Ball thing in Market Place, and Cedric Le Bourgne for the eerie flying figures over the South Bailey...