My repeated failings in updating this site, and the now almost prerequisite apologies, have become a Catholic confession of sorts. Except without the good bits that a Catholic priest (assumedly) bears audio witness to.
Since the last post, Luca has now passed his 27th birthday and begins his fourth anniversary as CEO of Apple Industries, having become bored of life as a World Cup winning Nuclear Physicist.
Luca is actually a healthy little chap, of sorts, just now. My revamp of his dietary intake is nearing completion, and I'm quite pleased with the healthiness and variety now involved. Instead of chocolate bars he now eats natural fruit bars (prune, coconut, etc), some made from scratch by me. Crisps have been eradicated completely. Dinner varies nightly, and is no longer as concentrated on the old "favourites" of fish fingers, sausages and beans.
Thankfully.
The change to his diet has been necessitated, I felt, by his ill behaviour. Most notable has been complaints from school about his cheekiness, chattiness and disobedience. The headmasters office is not an alien environment to him.
As we, as parents, can't affect his behaviour during school hours, all we can do is attempt general life improvements in an attempt to rectify matters. On top of the diet change (something I feel to be a key factor), he's also faced lengthy bans on the activities he enjoys. Computer games and television have been most prominent of those removed from his daily life as punishment (and as a precursor as reward for good behaviour).
Do these changes make a difference? Undoubtedly. The complaints from school have ceased, and just as importantly it hasn't adversely affected Luca either. He's quite happy to exist without TV (etc) and is becoming more creative as well as better behaved. He draws constantly now, completing at least 10 pictures daily - some are really very good too.
Contrarily, I do feel the issues at school have been exaggerated. Until his long term teacher left recently on maternity leave we'd faced few issues. I'd probe her at every parents evening for details of misbehaviour, all the while receiving positive reports. However, the school appears to have been ill prepared for her departure, and after 6 months have still not appointed a permanent replacement, instead bouncing 2 part timers around his class. Is it too coincidental to notice the "issues" have only began since this endless disruption with the teachers began?
Have I bored you stupid yet?
Shall I move onto the pictures before I lose you completely?
Guess where we are here? That's right, the "Aberdeen Maritime Museum". Again. I genuinely can't understand his fascination, yet can't consciously deny him the cultural learning experience that such premises offer. At least, on this occasion, our visit followed a cinema trip, where Luca and I watched new animated movie "Free Birds"
Which was ace
We've been to a wedding too. How good does he look in a kilt? Luca was page boy at my cousin Kieran's wedding a week ago. An initially shy child dived (dove?) into his responsibilities, to such an extent that the best man in his speech paid heed to Luca "photo bombing" every time a camera appeared.
And he wasn't kidding either. I'd be surprised if the happy couple have a single picture without that Luca grin being present somewhere.
He's been good over the last couple of weeks now though, so earns his rewards. Here we are in one of his favourite places, the Inverurie Garden Centre Cafe. Each to their own I guess.
And above, crossing a rail line bridge. Luca is of course terrified, my transmitted fear of heights still to leave him.
The above is a "Where's Wally" moment. We were snapped by the official photographer before the start of the recent Fraserburgh Half Marathon. I'm obviously easily visible. But that blue coat is Carole's. And you win a banana if you can spot Luca.
Having been injured lately I'd decided to take this race easy. However, despite sensibly starting the race near the back of the field I quickly bored of this plan and instead made my way rapidly through the field. The above was taken near the start as my lanky legs took me past a hundred or so bodies.
Bizarrely I ended up running a personal best (by 4 minutes) finishing in 1 hour and 33 minutes. I actually felt strong throughout and was never in trouble until the end. The last half mile was seriously painful and my infamous sprint finish was nowhere to be seen on this occasion as I stumbled over the finish line. The picture above was taken yards from the end, and the pain is demonstrably palpable.
I don't always run to my best though. I had a cross country race (I hate cross country races. Why do I do them?) yesterday, but hadn't accounted for feeling quite as bad as I did. A tip kids - never race with a hangover. Carole and I had been at a farmers dinner dance the night before (I now know A LOT about pig farming) and I rather over consumed on the vodkas. Wanting to throw up continually throughout a 10k race whilst sinking in mud is not what a good Sunday is all about.
But it was worth it, of course, for the night out with my wife.
Speaking of whom, we have been horse hunting together. Rather a rarity, and although neither horse is (likely) to be the one eventually purchased as Harvey's replacement the experience was invaluable. To be around horses and horse people was an education, and learning is always desirable.
More on this to follow soon. For now my stomach rumbles and, as always, is overruling my every other impulse.
**Useless fact of the day - there are about 75 million horses in the world**
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