Okay, so I've not posted for an age again. I'm a terrible, terrible commentator!
So what's been going on? Well let's pick up with my Dad. I'll say it now, it always needs saying no matter how obvious it is, cancer sucks. He's just finished some more chemo and we're now in the waiting period before another scan. He's not been as sick this time around, but they have reduced the dosage. So we all have fingers crossed, prayers said and good thoughts thought. One of the most uplifting things I think my Dad got was a letter from one of my old school friends. He also felt my Dad looked a bit like Nigel Mansell (the racing driver) and, seventeen years ago, he incorporated this into his Best Man's speech at my wedding. The letter he sent was generally daft, funny and caring at the same time. A timely reminder that the power of words should never be forgotten.
On a lighter note I had a father/son weekend with the boy recently. We travelled down to London for a weekend and enjoyed some shopping, museums and, the highlight, to see the NFL game staged in Wembley for the fourth year. This year we got the 49ers and the Broncos. Hopes for a great game were not high plus the knowledge that sitting through the scores coming up and seeing the Cowboys get an unexpected hammering much to the delight of much of the crowd were prevalent in my mind. However, only one out of two of these things came true. Whilst it was true that the first half was a little dull it seemed that both teams fetched completely different teams out in the second half! Both teams played well and scored well taking the game down until the last minute or so. The boy loved it! It was his first time at a major sporting event.
I know there is always some consternation from the other side of the pond about this event but for us fans of the NFL it's a fantastic treat. Saturday saw a fan rally in Trafalgar Square in the heart of London.
This was attended by many fans supporting many teams. There were Hall of Famers interviewed (including the great Jerry Rice), the Niner Noise drumline, the Gold Rush and a variety of celebs.
Game day saw a big pre-game tailgate with thousands of people passing through before entering the stadium. Once inside we were part of the huge 86,000 crowd. After the player warm-ups we were treated to My Chemical Romance playing a couple of numbers, Michelle Williams sang the American national anthem whilst Jeff Beck guitar screamed his way through God Save the Queen.
As the 49ers were the home team so there were 49er flags on every seat to wave (I must admit to cheering on the Broncos though). As the home team came out there was the fantastic sight of a stadium of people waving the red flags and cheering. A pretty impressive sight.
The boy enjoyed himself immensely. I didn't have to spend too long explaining various rules to him. He did pick it up pretty quicky and was caught up in the excitement. We stayed until the end then rushed off to get back into central London. We struck it lucky and managed to get out fast and back to the Youth hostel we were staying at within the hour.
The following day, after some shopping and eating we went to visit the
Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. The boy, being eleven, is at that stage where tanks and stuff are cool. So we spent a while in there, walking around the various exhibits. We saw a photograph on a video feed that, somewhere on it, would have been Sarah grandfather whilst he was serving on the HMS Prince of Wales. However to put it into context I took him up to the Holocaust exhibition. There was someone at the entrance advising that it has a 14 year old discressionary age limit. We went into what I can only describe as one of the best and most harrowing museum exhibits I've ever seen. It went through from the origins of anti-Semitism from about AD70, when Christianity was growing and held the Jews as responsible for killing Jesus, through 1930 when it moved from being based in religion to Hilter's irrationaly hatred and up to modern day. There were displays of the various items of humiliation used against them, photographs and displays of items that were found at the camps. A medical table which they'd used to dissect victims (basically an autopsy table). There was also a model of a small part of the Auschwitz camp. Compared to the photograph it really gave an impression of how huge it was. The boy was pretty much quiet all the way through. Explaining about the view of the superior Aryan race and the "cleansing" that was done of those with disabilities really hit home to him. Being able to say that in a period of time that his grandparents lived through these people simply would have killed his little sister made it very real. It is certainly something that people should see and, as time goes on, we need to remember what happened. Especially remembering that at the end of the day it wasn't just the Jewish that were persecuted, the Roma people, Eastern Europeans and those of different political views. We need to remember as next time it might be us.
