An ancestral centenary

On this day in 1910 my grandparents on my mother's side were married. See the photo below. He looks a rather handsome devil and the ladies were clearly into big hats even then.



The couple were Joseph and Margaret and he was the eldest son of another Joseph. The Josephs are clearly hard to get away from. That my second name is Joseph and that my son is Joseph rather reinforces that impression. And my convict ancestor was Joseph too.

Maybe I should make a donation to the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. It is an Australian order, after all. And my son Joseph went to a school named after their founder.

Like father like son

Most of us manage to get on well with all sorts of people. It's a mark of maturity to do so. But it also sometimes helps to be among people to whom you are genetically related. Joe and I are a good example of that. People often remark how much of me they see in him. And it's behavior rather than looks that they are talking about. Luckily for him, he's got his mother's looks rather than mine.

And it does get amusing at times. When he did his first university course he went to lectures in the same building where I went for most of my lectures and probably in fact sat in a classroom that I had sat in 40 years before.

And driving home from university one night during that time he had his first car accident: Of roughly the same sort and in roughly the same spot where I had had my second car accident whilst also driving home from university. So he got amusement rather than criticism over that.

And today he drove up in his Toyota Corolla with a noticeable scratch along the rear of one side of it. Since I had bought him the car, one might have expected me to be peeved -- but not so. I pointed out that I had scratched my car in roughly the same way in roughly the same spot on the car. Resemblances can get a bit eerie at times.

June's birthday

Anne's sister June has just had a birthday and we foregathered to celebrate it on Sunday evening, starting at 5pm, rather to my surprise. Anne cooked up a big leg of lamb and we had it with the usual gravy, mint sauce, potatoes etc. It went down very well. I was on the wagon and Anne's sister Merle is teetotal but the others had white wine with the dinner.

Present were Anne and myself, June and Colin and Merle and Ralph. The discussion was lively and at one stage I even recited some Chaucer -- in Middle English, of course. That always leaves everyone rather stunned but I have to be in a certain mood to do it. Jovial company helps.

Baby Sahara in her walker

She clearly loves her walker. All kids do.

The do-gooders rail against them as "unsafe" and the like but don't the kid's feelings count for anything?

Both Joey and Davey fell down flights of stairs in their walkers but babies are pretty rubbery so they came to no harm. I think it shows that parents like to please their children if they give their kid a walker.

Where I grew up it was almost a rite of passage for teenagers and young men to fall off a motorbike and break a leg. I did so myself. But the fun of riding motorbikes was worth it. I see falling down stairs in a walker in a similar light.

But there are no stairs where Sahara lives so there will be no problems for her.