D.C. Diary

Going Home

It was a big day for the Littl'Un today as he left the hospital and made his first foray into the Big Wide World. He took his debut journey in a car, saw snow for the first time, explored his new home and met his cousins (via Skype). Their verdict: 'He's a big wriggly' and 'He looks like a dog'. They won't be saying that in years to come when their younger cousin stands a foot and a half taller than them.

We arrived home to find a number of birthday and Christmas cards awaiting our return, including one with seasonal greetings from my Church in London. It was a beautiful card entitled 'Unto Us a Child is Born', which I thought most apt - and almost as appropriate as the flyer inside offering a day of 'Healing from the Inside Out'. Given that I can hardly sit down at the moment, I am pretty tempted to sign up immediately.

It is wonderful to be home and enjoying our first few days together as a family - particularly as it is quite wintry outside here now, so it is lovely to be snuggled up inside in the warm. We seem to be doing fine so far, I think largely because Simon is taking care of everything other than feeding. It turns out that I am the Wayne Rooney of the Shercliff family (not a sentence I ever imagined myself writing) and, although I'm not sure I will be permitted to make it to the ten day mark, Simon seems pretty happy with the arrangement thus far, allowing him as it does a chance to use his relevant skills and experience. Apparently, he is good at 'judging people's hydration levels by their urine colour in the snow', a  technique he is now employing to monitor Alex's milk intake. Luckily, he has not yet made his son go outside to wee, satisfying himself with frequent close nappy inspections instead.

In fact, the only thing that has phased Simon so far was opening Alex's chest of drawers to be confronted by hundreds of white babygrows. The man who has crossed the Patagonian ice cap on foot, survived a 900 mile cycle ride to Indiana, scaled several 6000m mountains and witnessed an episiotomy has finally been felled by the sight of 'so many different piles of different sorts of babygrows'.

Several people have asked us about Alex's name. His full name is Alexander Francis George Shercliff - but we will call him Alex (unless of course we are in the presence of Persian friends in which case he will be referred to exclusively as Alexander). We actually named him after our wonderful Tanzanian friend, Alex. Francis is a name from the Shercliff side of the family (who coincidentally hail from Fressingfield, where Em went to primary school) and George is a Cole family name. So there you have it. It is a big responsibility naming a child, but Alex seems pretty happy with his name so far and we think it suits him perfectly. Although I still think that Simon Jr. would have been a better choice.

 

Day 3 begins...

I feel like I have been run over by a bus. Definitely no blogging today. But here is a cute photo to be going on with until normal service is resumed...

 

Now We Are Three

Introducing Alex Francis George Shercliff, born at 13.47 on 5th December 2009 at Sibley memorial hospital in Washington DC. Weight: 9lbs,5oz. Height: 22 inches. Hobbies: eating, sleeping, drinking champagne.

  

   

    

    

  

Early labour

It was my official due date yesterday and, contrary to my expectations, baby Shercs decided to shake at least a bit of a leg. Nothing very spectacular yet (and nothing I can write about without venturing into the icky world of 'mucous plugs' and 'bloody shows') but things are definitely moving along and I have a feeling that it won't be too long before we are finally able to meet the little person who is about to turn our lives upside-down. We spent last night watching a 'comfort breathing' video (which Simon found so relaxing that he fell asleep half-way through) and experimenting with a TENS machine that a friend has lent us. We hooked Simon up and his gasps of pain made me laugh so much that I started having contractions. Not sure that was the exact purpose of the machine, but it certainly has started something.

In the meantime, I took myself off yesterday afternoon to admire another example of early labour...the labour of 700,000 Chinese from 221 BC to be precise. The Terracotta Warriors exhibition is currently on display at the National Geographic Museum in Washington - and, short of visiting Xi'an myself, this seemed the closest I was going to get to the Warriors for a while. This was the same exhibition which sold out within hours at the British Museum last year and I'm so glad I made the effort to see it (even if I did have to visit the restroom four times during my 90 minute tour). Twenty of these 'Guardians of China's First Emperor' - who include archers, chariot drivers, musicians, grooms, strongmen and acrobats - have been transported to Washington and it was incredible to be able to stand right in front of the figures and stare into their eyes. I imagine that when one visits the Terracotta Army in situ the overwhelming impression is of just how many soldiers there are (I couldn't help thinking of how I felt when I first saw Antony Gormley's Field for the British Isles at the Hayward years ago). However, in a small exhibition such as this, one was able to note the distinct characteristics and personalities of each figure - which must leave the viewer with quite a different impression. It is incredible to think that each of these warriors was individually made, fired and hand-painted in unique colours. We are so used to thinking of them as 'terracotta' that it is hard to remember that that would not have been the original impression at all -just like the stone friezes at Persepolis, which also would have been brightly painted.

One of the things that amazed me most was that although a thousand or so figures (and their horses/chariots etc.) have been excavated so far, there remain an estimated 6000 additional soldiers buried in the surrounding area. And, even more tantalising, the tomb of the First Emperor itself is still intact. Legend (substantiated by historical accounts and recent testing of the area) has it that the Emperor recreated his entire empire in his tomb, including rivers made of mercury and a false sky full of stars. The tomb has not been excavated for fear that it will be damaged, so it will be for future generations to explore that particular find. But I consoled myself by thinking that you don't need to travel back 2000 years to find indoor rivers and a false sky: how fortunate we are to have had the privilege within our lifetime of admiring the wonder of the Piazza San Marco at The Venetian in Las Vegas...

War vs Woods

    

Of all the commentary following Obama's Afghanistan speech yesterday, this was my favourite piece - courtesy of the ever-amusing Borowitz Report: 

"The morning after President Obama laid out his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, media critics are expressing concern that the focus on Afghanistan could distract the media from getting to the bottom of the Tiger Woods story. With the budgets of media companies stretched to the limit, there are worries that most outlets do not have the capacity to cover both a major war and an alleged scandal involving a prominent golfer and slutty nightclub employees".

Certainly a consequence of Obama's speech that I imagine Simon has overlooked in his reports to the Foreign Office. Full story here.

Cyber Monday

We've had a very relaxing Thanksgiving break - which consisted mostly of eating, sleeping, watching movies and going for long walks. Nothing happening yet on the baby front yet, except that I have given myself serious indigestion from over-eating (my thinking being that as nothing else is working maybe I could squeeze baby out by gorging myself on turkey and pumpkin pie. Not my best idea).

Thanksgiving weekend is the time when Americans traditionally gear up for Christmas shopping - and Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is the biggest day of the year for retailers in the US. We, too, tried to get into the mood, but the thought of venturing into a crowded shopping mall was rather too daunting so we ended up ordering a few things 'for the baby' (I'm sure it will appreciate the new digital camera and hiking rucksack) online instead. It seems that millions of Americans are thinking like us, and the shift to online shopping has been so significant over the past few years that today is officially named 'Cyber Monday'. The name apparently dates from a few years ago when most people didn't have high speed internet at home so waited until they got back to the office after the Thanksgiving holiday to order their Christmas gifts online. Never ones to overlook an opportunity for shameless promotion, the National Retail Federation has really played up the idea of Cyber Monday, encouraging retailers to offer special deals online in an attempt to stimulate spending. It seems to be working - apparently over 87% of retailers will have special Cyber Monday promotions on their websites this year and the total cyber spend today is expected to be something above $850m, with an anticipated 96.5 million shoppers logging on to purchase pressies.

Top items on US retail websites this year include the Susan Boyle album, laptops and the Zhu Zhu Robot Hamsters - apparently this year's must have toy. 'Mr. Squiggles' is the most popular Zhu Zhu character - this 'modern day Houdini' is now sold out on Walmart.com, where it was on offer for $8, but available on Amazon for $51.94. Even more bizarre is the craze for the seriously uncool Snuggies - a sort of grandma shawl with sleeves which were apparently invented because 'blankets are ok but they can slip and slide, plus your hands are trapped inside'.

Top of my own Cyber wishlist is this necklace, available on Amazon for a mere $1.2million (plus free shipping). I am so tempted to try and buy this with 'One-Click'. Wonder what their returns policy is on this one?

  

(Simon has just read this and is seriously worried about the fact that I was browsing the million dollar jewellery on Amazon...I think he may have a point).

Falnama: Forecasting the Future

    

We were invited last night to a gala dinner to celebrate an exhibition that is currently taking place at the Sackler Gallery in Washington. Falnama: Book of Omens brings together illustrated texts created in Iran and Turkey in the 16th and 17th centuries which were used to divine the future. The craftsmanship within the illustrations is incredible - and this is the first time that so many of the texts have been brought together in a single location. The idea behind the four books which comprise the Falnama was that you opened a book to a page at random, asked a question and then looked at the text on the facing page for your answer.

The only question that I was interested in posing to these magical folios was to ask when our baby is going to arrive. Unfortunately this seemed rather too precise a prediction for the Book of Omens. The pages I consulted showed me the death of Alexander the Great's half-brother Dara, Four Lions devouring Zaynab, and a five-armed Mars riding a mythical beast and carrying a sword, a decapitated head, fire, a black scorpion and a crown. All rather gruesome and difficult to interpret - particularly as all the text was rather unhelpfully in Arabic script. The closest I could get was that a friend from my yoga class called Zainab was due to give birth this week so maybe she's in labour and therefore feeling as if she's being devoured by lions. But that didn't really help me with divining how much longer we have to wait for Baby Shercs to arrive.

It seems that the team at Saturday Night Live has also been busy predicting the future. This is their Palin-related prophesy for 2012, a dire warning indeed for all American voters. To invoke the Falnama, "Beware, a thousand times beware":

(If you can't see the video above, click here and forward to 1.23)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...and Ricky the Singing Cab Driver

I went last night to hear David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, speak at the Smithsonian Institute. This novel, published in hardback last year, pretty much tops the charts of anything I've read over the past few months and I was really keen to hear the author speak, particularly as I really enjoyed an interview with him I'd heard on the Diane Rehm show some time ago. To try to even describe the novel is a challenge, although the Smithsonian website does a pretty good job:

        "It comprises elements of Shakespearean tragedy, the intrinsic connection between humans and dogs, the power—and limitations— of language, and the turbulent emotions that link families or tear them apart."

In twenty words or less, it's basically the story of a mute boy and his family who raise dogs in rural Wisconsin, set loosely around the plot of Hamlet. It's wonderful. And I don't even particularly like dogs.

One of the things I enjoyed most about Wroblewski's comments was that he is a software engineer by training and therefore the way in which he talked about drafting and re-drafting the novel - which took him ten years to complete - was quite unlike the normal insights one hears from authors. Wroblewski likened each new draft of the manuscript to a new release of a software programme - Version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0 etc. and therefore rather than frustrating him, each version was just part of the evolutionary process of improving the book.

Wroblewski was extremely modest, despite the enormous success of debut novel, and it was fascinating to hear him admit that there were some things about the book for which he could have taken credit, but which were actually just coincidence. For example, the name 'Sawtelle' can be broken into the constituent parts 'saw' and 'tell' - which is exactly what the mute Edgar does through various dramatic devices within the novel. Wroblewski says that this was not deliberate, he 'just liked the sound of the name'. Nor did the inclusion of a dog named 'Forte' who lurks around the edges of the novel, apparently biding his time until the right moment for him to return, have anything to do with the Shakespearean character of Fortinbras in inspiration. This is a valuable lesson for those of us (myself included) who have a tendency to approach a book like this as if it were written for the purposes of literary criticism, rather than just as a ripping good read - and of how one can over-analyse the text and project meanings onto a novel that were never intended by the author. 

And now for an update on another epic tale - that of Ricky, the Singing Cab Driver. Last March, we had the pleasure of being driven to a ball by this Karaoke cabbie (blog entry here), who provided us with a thoroughly entertaining ride.

By chance, Ricky turned up to take me downtown this evening, so I was able to catch up with his news. It's been quite a year for the motoring maestro: the economy has taken its toll on the poor guy, so he has sold his karaoke cab and is now planning to retire next year (he is 68) and emigrate to the Philippines. He has written a song about his plans ('Searching for My Queen in the Philippines') which I had the pleasure of being treated to this evening, and he showed me a photo of one of the beautiful ladies who is apparently eagerly awaiting his arrival. Washington's loss will be certainly Manila's gain. I just hope Ricky's story has a happy ending...

Three Pregnant Squaws...

The annual Shercliff Shindig took place on Saturday night - when the Wild West came to Washington. This is my favourite photo of the evening:

Closely followed by these:

           
  

A Military Mugging

A heartwarming story for Veterans Day, courtesy of NPR's Morning Edition:

Four men stopped a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student at gunpoint Tuesday and grabbed his wallet. When one of them took a moment to look through the wallet, he found a military ID. The student was an Army reservist. The muggers apologized, and thanked the reservist for his service. They returned the wallet and gave the man a fist bump.

Sounds like an ideal method of preventing crime. I'm going to get a fake military ID made up for my wallet immediately...