Little (boy) Kickers

So, there's an organisation in the UK called 'Little Kickers', which teaches football (soccer) skills to children age 18 months - 7 years. It's less about bootcamp and creating mini-Beckhams, and more geared towards using football "as a fun forum to instil our growing squad with a little extra confidence, co-ordination, control and sense of camaraderie; which we feel will stand them in very good stead for the future."


Paige is pretty active, and certainly loves kicking the football around -- so this seemed like a great opportunity to let her burn off some energy in a fun and friendly environment. And with the sessions conveniently timed on a Saturday morning, do a little Daddy-Paigey bonding while Mommy sleeps in (or, more likely, cleans the bathroom...)


Anyway, we took her for her first class yesterday, and she seemed to really enjoy it -- following the leader's instructions intently, running around the cones, kicking the ball, and generally having a great time. And she asked to go again -- so a success, right?


Well, for now. Because I was disappointed to see that she was the ONLY girl in the class of about 10 children. And at under 3 years, that doesn't bother her... but it will do soon. And it's a shame. It's a shame that in this country from what I can tell, girls are barely encouraged to participate in sports, which becomes a vicious cycle of no girls in sports, so no girls wanting to join, and so on. 


And from what I can tell, it's a parental thing -- because again, at the age of 3, I don't think children really care what's a 'girls' activity' (dance) or a 'boys' activity' (sports) -- they just want to have fun. So clearly, it's the parents -- like one mother I know who said 'oh, I wouldn't want to send my [3-year-old] daughter to Little Kickers. She likes to run around, but I don't want her to be the only girl!"  Well, she wouldn't be the only girl if more parents were a bit more open minded.  This is definitely one area where the US is light-years ahead!


Now, I'm not fixated on football (or even sports) -- but I do think getting involved early, when they really are just for fun, and making physical activity just a regular part of life, can only be a good thing for boys *and* girls alike. And sure, we'll take her to dance classes as well, and check out the V&A art packs, add to her Monkey Music sing-alongs, to let her experience as wide a variety of activities and make her own mind up.   I just hope it's Paige making the decision for herself -- not the narrow attitudes of other parents doing it for her.

An afternoon with an editor

If you know me, you know I love magazines. So I was thrilled to be able to hear the “grande dame from Derbyshire”, Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey, speak at the V&A today, to an audience of 100-or-so about her 10 years at the magazine. Held as part of London Fashion Week and in conjunction with a new exhibition and book, Harper's Bazaar: Greatest Hits, it was less a structured lecture and more chatty slide show, with Bailey giving behind-the-scenes commentary on some of the publication’s most striking images from the past decade, all in her lilting Derbyshire-meets-Manhattan accent (with a touch of California in her upward inflection at the end of many sentences).

Looking suitably fashion-editor-esque, in a black shift dress with bold single flower print and (possibly – it was hard to tell from my distance) long leather sleeves, with bright red lipstick (natch), she told amusing stories of how some of the photos came about (Kate Winslet looking like she was hanging off high rise scaffolding... but only three feet off the ground), interspersed with industry tidbits (such as British editors priding themselves on ‘selling on the newstand’ – making them experts at the coverline).


In addition to highlighting a several collaborations with filmmakers and designers (Tim Burton, Pedro Almodovar for example), she spoke of her sometimes outrageous visions – one year Alexander McQueen’s animal prints led her to see Demi Moore in ‘something out of Dali... a spiral staircase on a beach, a giraffe...’ with of course the legendary armadillo shoes.


She also answered questions from the audience – not surprisingly a few touched on the emergence of digital and especially social media, and how monthly fashion magazines can compete in the rapid online world where runway shows hit the blogs in near real time. As to be expected from someone who’s turned around not one but two fashion mags (she was at US Marie Claire before Harper’s), she still has great faith in print (well, what else could she say), speaking of its greater ‘intimacy’ through its tactile nature, and how she would always love to curl up with a great magazine. At the same time, though, she was ‘thrilled’ about the rise of online media, with its immediacy and ability to provide her with feedback and dialogue with readers, as well as the fact it ‘pushes you to create things in the magazine you can’t produce online’ – putting even more positive creative pressure on the magazine to be original, and to make readers feel that it’s a ‘vital’ part of their life – that they don’t want to miss an issue and ‘miss something fun.’


More than the individual stories, however, what struck – and inspired – me most was her clear passion and excitement and flat out enjoyment for what she’s doing. She didn’t seem to be ‘ooh- scary fashion editor’-type (but hey, I don’t have to work for her, who knows?!), but rather someone having a great time, as she said, ‘create[ing] a party everyone is invited to’, able to maintain not only creative flair and drive for excellence (I think 'tenacity' was a word used to describe her) but also a sense of humour throughout.

Vermont Diary - Part 1 - Enter Irene

This year’s Vermont vacation at Camp Nana (and Poppy) started off uneventfully enough... flight ok (Paige even managed to sleep), manageable jetlag (if you don’t include Paige waking up at 2 a.m. the first morning, me thinking it was 5, and getting up with her for an hour or so until we realised it was going to be a long-haul ‘til sunrise and eventually getting back to sleep), and general relaxation in the August sunshine. Oh, and a cycling fall on Ashley’s part necessitating a trip to Dartmouth Medical Center (thanks for the drive, Dad), where the diagnosis was sprain, resulting in a support wrap + no driving or cycling for a while.

Relaxing on the deck

Enjoying Farmer's Diner breakfast



Bubble time

 But still and all, relatively chilled first couple of days’ holiday – punctuated, however, by incessant shots on the 24-hour news channels of reporters predicting how, when, and where Hurricane Irene would hit, and how hard she would do it. Breathless stories told of Lower Manhattan buildings being evacuated and subways shut, suburban Boston shops being stripped of supplies, New Jersey shores being washed away, FEMA standing by. But not much about Vermont. How could a hurricane hitting the coast really bother inland Vermont?

High rise water - already receding



A little wind damage

 Hmm... guess no one considered the rain. And more rain. And then some more. I think it rained steadily from Saturday evening through to the early hours of Monday morning, flooding rivers and destroying homes and businesses throughout the state, including in little harder-than-we-expected-to-be-hit Woodstock.

Fortunately for our family, CN(AP) is at the top of a hill and then some, so all we suffered was a day stuck inside, trying to keep a near-three-year-old entertained. Many in the area weren’t so lucky, however. According to Sustainable Woodstock, up to 150 homes were ‘severely compromised’, with 20 – 25 being completely uninhabitable. And statistics like these were brought home a few days later, walking through the harder-hit riverside parts of the town. At one home, sadly representative of many, we passed piles of mud-covered appliances on top of soggy carpeting and unrecognisable household artefacts, while volunteers painstakingly separated and towelled off stacks of old photographs and books, laying out pictures and paintings to dry in the sun to the soundtrack of heavy duty generators powering fans and pumps in an effort to get things back to normal.

The still near overflowing Ottauquechee, days later

Woodstock businesses were similarly hard hit – in particular by power and water outages, meaning several shops were forced to close for a number of critical tourist-filled days in that last week of summer. For nearly a week walking down Main Street was like being on a movie set or ghost town, eerily quiet especially for that time of year.

Definitely puts the annoying-but-manageable power cuts we suffered through the week in perspective...