See, I told you

A day later than anticipated, but I'm back again with another journal detailing Luca's misadventures. A question always preys on my mind though. For how much longer will the Internet remain a dominant constant in our lives in its current format?

I only ask as a key reason for doing this is to allow Luca to rediscover himself when he becomes an adult. Will this blog survive the decades? How will Luca remember his childhood? Indeed, how will we?

A minor annal was added today with his appearance at his schools Christmas Play, his 2nd in two days. Othello, however, this isn't. Essentially they send up each class (20 or 30 kids) who'll do a "turn". Luca's class sang two songs. It was riveting. Or perhaps just the exact opposite.

Luca himself yawned through the performance, albeit likely down to tiredness from the previous evening. To explain, they have 2 performances of the play, one on a Wednesday night, the other on a Thursday afternoon. Obviously, my preference was for the evening performance, but as the parents on the parents council snapped up all the tickets BEFORE the performances were even announced I never stood a chance.

You really do appreciate how self serving people are as you grow older. Cynicism is as natural to me nowadays as farting in bed.

To briefly continue non-Luca related information, Carole got herself a new job this week - the one she'd already been doing for years. To explain, with the massive cuts across council services all employees have had to re-apply in order to continue their employment. Huge numbers have been made redundant so as perverse as it sounds this status quo was actually excellent news. Carole hasn't quite got her head around it all yet, but she will. Of course it's easy to comment when you weren't the one in that situation.

And me? Little of note with few issues. Granted, with certainty I am in need of a break in the sun, and from previously being dubious of its existence I'm now a firm believer in S.A.D. In the interim, however, running is keeping me sane. Even with the absence of competitive runs (why are there so few over the winter? Are we all really so soft in Scotland?) training runs are becoming ever more pleasing. I'm starting to up my pace over distance, with the health benefits proving a bonus. Back problems, an issue since my teens, have disappeared entirely. My former smokers wheeze has gone as my lungs expand, and I no longer even remotely crave cigarettes.

Actually, scratch the last statement. The psychology of suggestion.

Photo and video time now:-



The above was Luca's first ever taste of Red Bull. Someone call social services.




Carole and Luca fell asleep after his bedtime story. Oedipus anyone?




You'd never know he was actually innately evil

As we weren't allowed to photograph or video the School play (sigh, from so many different perspectives) Luca instead gave a solo performance of both. My fatherly bias dictates my opinion that he has, of course, the voice of Cliff Richard gargling flowers. Unfortunately, the blog account clearly disagrees and refuses to save the videos tonight. I promise, however, they'll be on he next.

**Useless fact of the day - Owls are not actually nocturnal, despite popular opinion. It's just that their favourite food generally comes out after dark**

Location:Rae Circle,Inverurie,United Kingdom

No excuses

I deleted my Facebook account a few weeks ago. I'm certain this is of little interest but please bear with me. The reason was twofold. Firstly (and primarily) I discovered someone with access to my Facebook profile (a Facebook "friend") was a suspected paedophile. Naturally this brought home, like a punch to the face, the issues with e-privacy in the modern age.

There was a secondary reason however. I came to the realisation that my blog output since joining Facebook had decreased dramatically. Although both formats share a similar purpose - to report the vagaries of daily life and post pictures - my personal preference is for the blog. Facebook is a medium viewed by many, yet digested by few. The blog, however, is aimed directly only at those you wish to target. Your family.

Additionally, my general opine is that my life is too workaday, and (frankly) boring to report widely. What do I do? I spend most of my life working. With what I do for a living being of little interest even to me I rather suspect the more intricate details of my dealings within an office in an airport industrial estate would, perhaps, be just enough to make you pull the socket from the back of your PC and hurl it unceremoniously out the window.

With this said, I can now unapologetically concentrate more on Luca. Who creates a new story seemingly every minute.

Since returning from Edinburgh (my last post), we've since witnessed him terrorise his visiting Grandma Liz, discover that his best friend (Tyler) is moving away from Inverurie after Christmas as well as attempt to combat his more "careful" tendencies. 

As anyone who has regular contact with Luca already realises, he isn't the most bold of children, from all angles. From an unwillingness to try new foods or eat any food he conclusively knows that he likes (I've had near 2 hour dinners with him before) through to a nervousness at the thought of getting hurt.

The latter issue has proved an issue at his football training of late. It was exacerbated recently when during a training exercise he dribbled past an opponent who unceremoniously kicked him to the ground. As sore as it appeared, during the sessions since that incident it has caused a noticeable change - he no longer tackles or dribbles during games, and generally stands away from the ball.

Handling the issue has proven difficult, as you'd expect. As mature as he is for a 5 year old, there's still a lot he doesn't understand, or can't comprehend. It left me with a difficult task - I had to take him out to a park and toughen him up. I explained what (and why) we were going to do before we started (basically, I was going to trip, push and kick him continuously while he ran around with the ball at his feet), and gave him the choice whether he was willing to do this or not.

Surprisingly, he was willing, and the big test came less than a minute later when I tripped him, resulting in him falling flat on his face. I picked him up and watched his lip quiver. "Are you good?" I enquired. "I'm ready", he replied, holding back the tears, "lets go again". He then put his foot on the ball and turned to face me again.

I have to say, I was as proud as I was surprised. There's been a marked improvement since then, and at one point during his game on Saturday he dribbled past 3 opponents, using his body to hold them off. He finished the game with blood puring off a cut in his right ear, with no complaints. Progress.

With this being a "comeback" blog of sorts, I shan't overdo the Luca details (I'm certain even grandparents have a limit). Instead I'll briefly describe the (depressingly few) photo's I've taken of late instead.

 

Terrible photo, but at least evidence of Carole's first horsey event on Harvey, a recent "dressage" competition. Initially there were more of us there to support her than there were other eventers.

 

Here's the judges marks for Carole's ride, where she came a creditable 2nd place. I won't, for the sake of my health, mention how many competitors there were in her group however.

 

Luca with the 2nd place rosette. He's becoming ever more like his Mum, insofar that he's proving difficult to catch willingly on camera.

 

Although having said that, here's an exceedingly rare picture of his Mum actually posing. The last time Carole posed for a photograph must have been the wedding.

 

The above was taken this morning, when we visited Cove Harbour on a depressingly cold, windy and wet North Eastern day. It was, however, more pleasurable than the movie we'd visited the cinema to see just before this - the remake of "The 3 Stooges". Bleakly depressing.

 

Luca looks cold here, and rightly so. We'd just been hit by the spray from a massive wave hitting the wall.

 

He loved it though, as demonstrated by the smiles above and below. "This is one of my favourite things ever" he surprisingly crowed as a soaked father and son climbed back into our car to be greeted with sodden and squealchy car mats to accompany our sodden and squealchy shoes and socks.

**Conundrum of the day - Luca and I spotted an ex of mine in Aberdeen this morning at Starbucks. What do you do? Do you be polite and say hello, introducing the fruit of your loins and "enjoy" that infamously awkward ex chat? Or do you pull your hat over your eyes, raise the collar of your coat and avoid eye contact just like I did?**

Edinburgh!

With little time for conjecture or indeed pleasantries, I'll instead dive straight into my account of our "Edinburgh Adventure" last week. With Luca on school holidays I took a week off myself, not realising what I was letting myself in for.........

 

 

This is Stonehaven Train Station at 0730am in the morning. An appallingly early hour to begin our travels, but begin in earnest it did nonetheless.

On the train now. Locomotive travel is a genuine treat for our easily pleased 5 year old.

In Edinburgh now, at the "Butterfly and Inspect World". Thankfully I quickly convinced him that the object of the centre was to view the creepy crawlies and not stamp on them. Though it was a close call.......

Now at Edinburgh's Discovery Centre, a scientific education for the young chap.

It rained A LOT during our visit.

Edinburgh Zoo now, and for Luca the real deal. This is what he'd been anxiously anticipating for weeks, and he almost exploded with excitement as we walked through the gates. I think these are pelicans. I really should have paid greater attention. Let's call them "big birds" just to be safe.

Panda's! We had to queue for nearly half an hour to see the panda's. Rather underwhelmed to be perfectly frank.

For Mum, Dad and Lucy's benefit (Kelly being perhaps a little young to recall), above is our first picture taken in Balerno, where we lived between 1979 and 1983. Or in literal terms 27 years "BL" (Before Luca).

Outside our old house in Cherry Tree Loan now. Luca actually hugged the house! "It grew you Dad!"

Of course he found a poor animal to attach himself to. It's a gift.

Luca atop "Big Rock", where Lucy and I spent many hours, days, years playing. We were easily amused in those days.

Luca took this picture. He's a better photographer than me already.......

In Edinburgh City Centre now. We have many such pictures, as Luca took every opportunity to climb and pose.

Edinburgh Castle now (this is becoming exhausting now). The drop behind this small wall is around 100ft. With my fear of heights I found it almost unbearable every time Luca peered over the edge.

Action pose below the gun turrets!

Crazy mirrors and a hilarity infected child make easy bed fellows.

Edinburgh Museum. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.............

And finally the journey home, exhausted. The one and only time during the entire trip he stopped talking. I'm honestly not joking. I wish I was.

**Useless fact of the day - JK Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter books, wrote her first novel 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in a café in Edinburgh**

I commonly look for alternative angles from which to approach each blog post, but more frequently the entries are becoming more formulaic. Granted, part of the fault lies with my ever diminishing grey matter (what's my name again?) but Luca's preferences are also a cause. Why? Because his fascination with Scotland's national sport has reached fever pitch.

Is he improving however? Slowly. He suffers from the same unfortunate lack of balance as his Dad, and hasn't grown much of late either - he's now one of the smaller boys in his year at school. However, at least now he is one of the elder members of his current Saturday coaching sessions which is proving beneficial to his confidence.

He does still often compete against older boys however. I've been taking a number of holiday days lately (I'm utterly determined to use my entire years allowance for once) which has allowed me to collect him from school very often. As gratifying as this is, a permanent bruise has now formed on my thigh from his "greetings" - he rather overenthusiastically sprints from the school door to his waiting Dad, and hasn't quite perfected the stopping part yet. His concrete-esque skull seems unaffected by it's contact with my upper leg, but I'm having to work hard to stay on my feet and suppress my "Oooofff" noise as he pummels into me. He may still be small, but is becoming more powerful by the day.

I digressed again didn't I? The point I was going to make was that on each day I pick him up he begs for a game of football in the park before we go anywhere else. No problem there, but as my appearances in the schoolyard become more common, as has the begging of other boys from various years to their parents/guardians to follow us to the park and join in our footy related shenanigans.

Luca, of course, prefers the rare occasions when it's just he and I, but has shown diligence when playing against boys 2/3/4 years older than him, and (so far) has only flounced off in frustration once. He's very quick which is to his advantage, but we're still working on the bravery. Will that come? I have my doubts (he is the worlds most "careful" child) but hope springs eternal.

Perhaps, however, the beatings he's receiving at school will toughen him up. Yes, he's had a couple so far. A common "game" that seems to be becoming more frequent is play fights, where his "gang" take on other gangs. Worryingly, it seems to be older kids they're taking on, and Luca has been sent to the headmaster once so far for walloping one of them. Because of his lack of size it appears he ends on the ground more often than most, yet keeps coming back for more.

I am suspecting this aspect of his personality originated more from his Mother than his Father.

On the subject of gangs, one of his closest friends is Sky, who you may recall has been his girlfriend for years. This, however, is now past tense. Luca was dumped a couple of weeks ago. Sky is now Tyler's girlfriend. You may also recall Tyler's name - he's Luca's best friend. It was actually quite sad when he told me on the way to school one morning. I stopped the car to give him my attention, and at the end he muttered "I don't know what to do" and lent his head against my own. One day they'll write an opera based on his tragic story.

Some pictures would be good now wouldn't they?

Chocolate ice cream. I'm quite unsure as to how he's procured this without the intervention of a hungry Dad (perhaps my absence from this trip played a part). Carole emailed this to me on the insistence I add it to the blog simply to make Liz jealous that the chocolatey goodness was being consumed by her grandson rather than herself. There's a look of torment on his face in this picture too, so perhaps he was already aware of the pictures future teasing purpose.

"Luca, who's your favourite - Mummy or Daddy?" "Yoda!!!" His love for that poor little dog really does grow by the day.

The finish line of my recent 10K. More amusing would have been a picture taken once I'd stopped. I was so dehydrated by the boiling hot day (combined with the fact I had never ran that distance in my entire life - not even on a training run!) that I contradictorily couldn't find a way to get any fluid down my throat. I've rarely been that knackered in my whole life, but it's a wholly satisfactory experience. I returned to a shorter race on Saturday (a 5K) in which I finished 10th out of around 200 runners which was highly surprising to say the least. The standard of the runners that day was poor and the race was slow, but I do admit to feeling a little proud of myself for that one. Next up is another upcoming 10K, followed by a 3K competitive sprint against a "friend", who is an extremely quick and experienced runner. My dodgy knee (as you'll see in the picture above is strapped up as always) is already gulping in fear.

This is better, back to Luca again, albeit accompanied by a horses a*se (no obvious jokes please). He's really enjoying his farm visits with his Mum, and with there being other children his age commonly in attendance the benefits are clear. Mum and son really, really stink on their returns however. I almost wish Carole would take up smoking again to mask the smells somewhat. Almost.

Almost as large as Harvey is the latest love of his life, big Lion. Purchased by friends for Luca online for (allegedly) a mere £4. Pound for pound you won't find better value than that - other than the cheap, raggedy Tessy Bear he's had since the day he was born and still carries everywhere in the house. It's now so worn that it can't have more than a few more months before it finally disintegrates. It will be a genuinely downbeat day when the inevitable occurs.

**Useless fact of the day - On top of the physical challenges during Lucy/Scott/Kelly/Chris' visit next Christmas there will now also be an event day at Lochters - see link for the events (http://www.lochter.co.uk/page.cfm?main_ID=2), and may the the most competitive Scot/Englishwoman/American/Aussie win!**

If it tastes good don't eat it

A brief entry tonight, as my legs continue their recovery from their first 10K run on Saturday. I say run, but it was more of an amble. And I say recover, but I'm actually completely fine. I like to pretend I need time to recover as it gives me the excuse to sit on my backside, watch TV and eat Smarties Ice Cream. Self delusion, where would we be without it.

 

Of course, not all types of kidology are delusional. For example, where would we be without the wide eyed excitement of a 5-year-old? Pictured above, Luca adoringly hangs onto the arm of a robot at one of the science exhibitions held in Aberdeen this past weekend. This Robbie-The-Robot-alike was functional and intriguingly operated by remote control by a chap in Yorkshire. The latter information remains a mystery to young Luca however, who is convinced he conversed and played with a real life robot. I will never quash his glorious fantasy.

The (very young) staff were all REALLY good, incredibly lively and helpful, completely dispelling the myth of sulky teenagers. The Daily Mails reactionary stance has a lot to answer for. That, and it's innumerable typo's. Honestly. Pick it up in the newsagent tomorrow and have a flick through. It's almost like they're trying to make mistakes.

A rubbish picture granted, but a millisecond before this Luca was encased inside a giant bubble. So if I'd been quicker off the mark you'd be looking at a rubbish picture with the addition of a bit of washing up liquid.

A better image is that of Luca lying exhausted on the grass outside after his football training on Saturday, during which he won "King of the Ring" for the first time. This competition, entirely unrelated to a similarly named game commonly played in Manchester's Canal Street, involves every player (usually 12-14 of them) entering a circled enclosure in the sports hall. Each player is given a ball and has to dribble, defend and shield his ball while simultaneously kicking his opponents out of the enclosure. An excitable Luca then took the confidence gained from this victory into the actual match at the end of the training session, and produced his most dominant performance in some time. A clever dribble and goal by our scruffy rapscallion won the game for his team (1-0), and he almost topped it with a rasping shot just before the final whistle too. "I'm so getting a bag of sweeties now Dad, aren't I?" was his chortled question as we walked out together at the sessions end.

To finish tonight we have more pictures of Luca atop Harvey. There will be many more of these to come I feel. Until he falls off. Then Yoda will regain her position as favourite pet.

**Useless fact of the day - The common horses ancestor was called a Hyracothrium. Curiously, it had toes**

Luca's retirement party

Referring to the title of the post, it may well be closer than jested if I don't publish this latest entry soon. I don't know why I've struggled so much in my attempts to keep this web log updated over past 6 months. The old work/life balance is a struggle, granted, but when is it not? I'll mark my own report card "Must Do Better"

 

 

 

Yesterday, at Duthie Park, Aberdeen. He'd never set foot in a boat until now, having previously only eyed everything from canoes to full blown vessels with fascination and awe - from afar. I'm not sure what bolstered his courage, but quickly removed the fiver from my wallet (£5! Bah humbug) and sat our be-helmeted hero at the boats bow. "Faster Dad!" he squealed as I sweatily powered the oars through the lake, through circuit after circuit after circuit. Little *******.

 

Of course, no weekend would be complete without me being called into the office. Our on-call facility is seemingly determined not to let me reduce this stress knot in my neck. Luca, however, loves the experience curiously, and sees is as a treat to visit Dad's office. I took him into our warehouse before he left which left him even more giddy. X-Ray machines and forklift trucks - what more does a 5 year old boy want?

 

Before work called we'd also visited the cinema (Tintin - not bad) and the Maritime Museum too. amongst the many naval/oil wares Luca somehow located a pirate hat. Photo opportunity ahoy indeed.

Thankfully my hangover from 2 days previously had pretty much dissipated before the "Luca And Dad Day of Chaos". I'd enjoyed one of my ever more rare excursions into Aberdeen for a Friday night out with a couple of chums, primarily to see The Charlatans play the Music Hall. However, the evening turned into such a hoot we ended up turning up late for the gig. So late in fact the final song of the encore was already underway! Best value ever. No regrets.

Forest walks have been the activity of choice for our intrepid shorts-wearer over the summer months. Squint and you'll see Luca, Isis and Yoda scarper ahead. Every time I took out the camera he took off.

 

The Scottish Road Runner. You could hear his squeals for miles after I took off after him, Wile-E-Coyote style, seconds after this picture was taken.

 

Another weekend, enjoying a healthy lunch. I haven't told him what's in a hot dog yet. I'm not sure I should.

 

You spot a digger, and Luca will pose.

 

Funfair again. "I bet you're more scared than me Dad!". I bet you're right son.....

 

Lower league football, and a rare weekend away from Luca. This was Forfar Athletic V Partick Thistle. The mighty Jags are currently on an 8 game wining streak. I'm actually giddy.

 

Nottingham, a few weeks ago. Cousin Max and Luca are permanently attached when they're together.

Not a photo the Armstrongs will treasure I feel.......

The best bit of our recent visit to Nottingham/Lincoln. Mike and I visited Nottingham Forests City Ground to watch Mexico and Japan's Olympic football teams square off in a pre-tournament friendly. Mexico went on to win the Olympic gold, while Japan reached the semi's. An inarguably worthwhile trip. The local pub, naturally, wasn't too shabby either.

**Useless fact of the day - Mexico are ranked 18th in FIFA's current ranking system**