Oh Oh Oh, Oh - there's trouble in america

we've had americans staying over for the last two weekends, and it's been very pleasant. sarah's mum was down last weekend, and jamie and roz popped by too to see how michael (and sarah and i) were doing. this weekend, sarah's trainer from irelend, lili is in country for a while and came by as well. nice people americans. it seems strange to think that michael is technically 1/8th american. on my side, from the geneology (i am not really doing it) i seem to remember someone called gustav adolf (not the popular name it used to be) popping up. i suppose that could be polish, scandanavian or german. sarah and i were discussing whether michael would be able to play football for america. he qualifies for scotland, and qualifies for england having been born in royal ascot.

as you can see from the picture, michael was involved in a bit of gardening last week. he didn't really get involved in the nitty-gritty of putting out the compost, but i like to think that he had some "creative input and management" to give to the process.

michael's hair colour has changed a lot since birth. it's no longer the blackish brown it first was, and has slowly moved towards my hair colour (dishwasher blonde, as my mum once called it). it's currently showing early signs of moving in the red direction. this is something i was thinking about the other day when i was listening to radio 4 (very high-brow i know) and there was a discussion against gingerism. it was all very serious and thought provoking, and i was doing well until they interviewed a 12 year old boy about him getting bullied at school. my heart went out to him, and as much as any form of bullying is completely unacceptable, it's even more so if it's based on a physical or mental attribute. unfortunately, the reporter asked the boy what insults were thrown at him at school, and in a really whiny voice he said "they call me the ginger ninja". I'd kept it together until then, but couldn't stop laughing at that point, as it brought back memories of childhood. i'm sure we used to call scott (my brother) that, but as a term of affection, and it brought back a flood of good memories. i love michael to bits just as he is at the moment, but cannot deny that a part of me hopes that his hair will continue in the red direction.