Good eating

Good eating, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

Good eating at @BrockleyMarket

My son will be happier than I am

… A tall order perhaps but if I don’t at least aim for that what’s the point, eh?

So, I am now a father. I should really be posting more frequently. Time goes by in a blur of commuting, late night squats (baby in arms), and soon-forgotten wisdom.

… But this one I wanted to note.

I can’t swim. I get a bit better as years go by. At least I’m less fearful of the water. So I can now enjoy tropical holidays and appreciate, if not fully partake in, the calming magnificence of a Thai beach hut just for the two of you (not that I’ll be in that situation anytime soon). But, ultimately I can barely thread water. I’ve tried to learn several times as an adult but just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I jump in full of gusto, relish the sensation of a few kicks, and emerge coughing and gasping a few seconds later.

It doesn’t bother me as much add it once did but growing up it had a real impact. Holidays away, moments of silly fun… Just confidence and such, all took their knocks.

But today I held my son, four months old, in the warm water of a pool and he laughed and gurgled and tried to break free from my hands to glide along the water. He’ll have his first lesson next week. Babies swim beneath the surface apparently and take to it as readily as, well, a duck to water.

I don’t expect him to win a badge at a year old nor to dive at two. But BUT he’ll be free where as I was not and, in a small way, happy where I was not.

I hope he laughs in the water when a toddler. Flirts as a teen. Skinny dips in some dark pool with a girl that takes a fancy to him. I hope he travels and leaps from boats in Halong Bay and dives in the Australian reef.

He’ll have something I didn’t and that’s wonderful. What more could I ask for my son.

Misty Mountain Hop

Misty Mountain Hop, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

View from the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu

With fatherhood a week away

Hospital’s aren’t nice places no one but brave staff go there by choice. I hate them. l hate the smell. I hate the labyrinthine corridors. I hate cold colours and the insipid art.  They’re nasty cruel places. No matter what we do to make it otherwise. I’ve been anxious at the thought of going to one for the delivery.

But.. but the anxiety of the hospital time is replaced by a growing unjustified certainty that things are going the right way. That fatherhood is a good thing…

… Which is damned lucky I guess all things considered.

Books not to buy when a baby is due

My choice of books is perhaps telling… Browsing about a local second hand store I scored these classics for a quid a pop.

… It wasn’t until I arrived back home I noticed a theme had emerged.

Peru Ja!

DSC_0714_DxO, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

Long days spent wandering the small(ish) town of Cuenca recovering from an explosive illness and dealing with frequent power outages (and truly astounding coffee from a weird little dude with permanently dilated pupils).

I want one of these…

… but I fear it’ll be vetoed.

Posted by Wordmobi

Garlic beer… Yes. Yes. Yes.

Posted by Wordmobi

Perito Moreno Glacier

Perito Moreno Glacier, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

The colours are actually as they were (though I admit I’ve boosted the levels a little, though not a lot). The glacier was truly breathtaking. It’s a surreal experience, otherworldly, to walk across the ice and see nothing but a literally frozen waste as far as the horizon.

The glacier itself is surprisingly dynamic. I expected a dead slab of flat ice but instead was amazing by a landscape of rolling dunes, waterfalls, lakes and weird little rocky mounds.

Painter in Florence

Painter in Florence, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

Bit overprocessed but hey… I was in a “kill it with photoshop” kinda mood . I kinda like it all the same.