Tryphoon's Lair

Thia lost her first tooth!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:19:35 -0800

We wait for so long for our little angels to get their first teeth and we monitor them, and before you even know it, they can't wait to lose them.

So yesterday, at 4:37pm, Thia lost her first tooth, after weeks of telling us that her tooth was wobbly and us denying it!

I have to confess that I have been in total denial for a while. Thia wasn't growing up. Thia isn't getting older! Well, wrong and wrong!

Next week, she'll be 7 and will probably miss another tooth!

NB: Spending the week in Atlanta, I could only get a shot of the new smile over Skype, last night.

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Saturday morning breakfast with the girls

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:05:00 -0800

Pretty simple menu:

Home made Breakfast Crepes
Home made Gingerbread Cookies
Rented Movie (thank you Amazon Prime)

Simple!
Heaven!

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An afternoon in the Mojave

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:58:00 -0800

Totally using my friend Tom's Facebook status update regarding this event, during which I checked 2 of the last tasks in my full Americanization list in one go: "Shooting at various objects" & "Spend afternoon in open desert"

"On Saturday, we established a modern-day "Ligne Maginot" on point defending against the Armenians from Glendale.

Then we raced some RC cars through the desert, and drank beer with the local denizens..."

Great time, great fun and yes, I got scared by the locals!

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Happy New Year (from the hot tub)...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:51:00 -0800

Only in California, or maybe the Southern Hemisphere.

Jan 1st, after a nice birthday meal for Sarah, we decided to start the new year by jumping in the pool.

The girls both went to the normal pool but quickly came back to the safety of the 100°F of the hot tub. Our visist sadly had to get cut short after Loulou got sick both on Sarah and in the hot tub (muuuuuch better!!!)

01/10/12: This signed the beginning of a week of sickness for almost the entire family (Sarah, her both parents, Sophia and Thia!)

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New Year's Eve across valleys and time zones!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0800

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This year, once again, we enjoyed celebrating the arrival of the new year 3 times.

First, British Time, at 4:00pm at the Fox & Hounds in Studio City, with the usual suspects (Geoff, M and gang). As in any good English party, we then crossed the road, had a curry. I added my own twist by receiving a parking ticket as well! Bye bye 2011...

Then East Coast time, at 9:00, with most of the kids from our street! TV on, countdown, champagne, amazing food (including some Russian caviar) and good company.

Finally, proper midnight Pacific, still at our neighbors, in a way smaller committee, after most of the parents left to put their kids to bed!

Tomorrow will be another year!

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Christmas Day lunch, English style

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:30:00 -0800

Last chapters of the Xmas traditions, the English dinner and the annual family photo.

First thing first, the turkey! This part of Xmas (like many other ones, mind you) is totally Sarah's remit! I prep snails and open oysters, Sarah preps the turkey and the trimmings. I mean ALL of the trimmings (very long list with the exception of parsnips due to Sarah massive allergy to these). That's the rule!

While Sarah is prepping the meal and the table, I install the tripod and the camera, making sure we carry my dad's tradition of the annual family snapshot that used to annoy me so much. I guess I just became my dad and have to carry that torch now!

Last piece of the puzzle, when everything is almost ready, the girls go and get ready, wearing their Xmas dresses, looking beautiful for the special event.

And finally, we eat, and eat, and have some more, knowing that our next meal will be the famous "Sarah's special Xmas fry up" (Soooo gooood.... Sooooo decadent).

And then, we collapse...

Merry Xmas!

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Xmas Morning

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:00:00 -0800

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Finally, the time has come...

No more expectations, no more counting the days to Xmas, no more threats to be put on Santa's bad list (yes, we used this a lot this year, even pushing to calling Santa on the phone a couple of times, asking him to potentially put one of the girls on the dreaded list).

The Christmas tree is surrounded by packets and boxes. Small ones and large ones. Red ones and silver ones. As if a wave of presents had reached the tree as it reaches a shore.

Despite being up late last night, the girls show up in our bedroom at the crack of dawn, standing right next to me and murmuring "Daddy, can we go downstairs and check if Santa has been?".

Santa did definitely pay a visit to our house last night! He ate a couple of cookies, drunk his Brandy and gave carrots and peanuts to Rudolph and the other reindeers.

There is no delaying it, no cuddle in bed this morning. The mild request turns to an urgent plea and so the best day of the year begins, part asleep, part excited.

Then, the fun begins!

As it is now our habit, we connect our home with both grandparents homes for a live broadcast of the event, and the girls start their dance made of jumping, screaming, unwrapping boxes, opening presents then presenting them to both sets of grandparents, repeating ad-nauseum.

Santa, this year again, seems to have known exactly what everybody wanted and delivered in large quantities.

Next step, Sarah gets in the kitchen and starts preparing the English version of our Xmas Day dinner...

See you in few hours!

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It was the night before Xmas...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:30:00 -0800

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there."

Every year, on Xmas Eve, once the Xmas pajamas have been put on, the girls have to prepare a plate for Santa and Rudolph. Cookies and a Brandy for the old man, carrots and nuts for the reindeer.

Once this step is completed, we go and read the "'twas the night before" poem from the books both girls got from their grandparents on their first birthday and finally, soon, both pairs of tired eyes do close, dreaming of North Pole, wrapped presents and snow...

Tomorrow is the big day and we shall soon be finding out who has been on the good list and who hasn't!

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Christmas Eve dinner, French Style

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:43:00 -0800

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Christmas is a time for family traditions, following some old ones from our childhoods and creating some new ones for the next generation.

As a result, our home usually goes through a French style Xmas Eve dinner (Diner de Reveillon) including some goods found in our local French deli shop:
• Escargots
• Foie Gras
• Huîtres
• Boudin Blanc sauce Madère

We ate most of it and girls even tried some snails again (Thia used to eat snails off the shell when not even 2 years old).

Xmas Day lunch shall respect the other half of the tradition: British turkey (with trimmings), family picture and fine clothes.

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Camp Freddy Xmas residency at the Roxy - Week 4

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:38:00 -0800

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Fourth week of the Xmas residency and the band was still going strong!

So last video, before a longer pictures based post, M. Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), singing, well, growling Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen". Guests included Ian Scott (Anthrax), Corey Taylor (Spliknot), Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple and a second path from M Billy Gibbons (ZZTop) [phone crashed at the end of my recording of THE ZZ top song, "La Grange".

See you guys next year, hopefully!

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O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:40:00 -0800

Thy leaves are so unchanging!

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Girls meeting Santa, the official picture

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:43:00 -0800

So here is the (semi) official of the girls and Santa. Loulou at first wasn't totally sure she wanted to sit on the old man's lapse but at least this year, she didn't run away from him!

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Meeting with Santa Claus

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:28:00 -0800

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With Xmas only days away, it was definitely time for the girls to go and make sure that Santa had them on the good-kids list and discuss some last minute request that might not have been part of their initial letter.

No visit to The Grove or the Americana this year, due to family wide bout of cold. Luckily, Santa stopped briefly by the Valencia Mall, where we caught him between his 2 lunch breaks.

Last report from the girls: we're all on the nice list!

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Xmas Party at Barbara & Brian

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:20:00 -0800

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Good wine, good food, good friends.

We braved our colds, drove over the mountain and down to the valley of Burbank. Saw some old friends, made some new friends, got merry by the end of the evening.

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Happy Birthday Billy Gibbons

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:48:00 -0800

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62 years of age and still rocking.

Even displayed a little joint ready for the party...

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Camp Freddy Xmas residency at the Roxy - Week 3

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:31:00 -0800

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Third week of residency in and Camp Freddy managed to stun me once more.

Besides the usual suspects that are Franky Perez whose band played an amazing opening act, Marc McGrath, Billy Duffy, Sebastian Bach and Steve Stevens and some more, half of Guns n Roses showed up on stage. Not Axl but Gilby Clarke and a shockingly sober Steven Adler (the guy looked so happy to be playing, it was great to see him like that instead of slamming doors on reality TV).

And the grand finale act of the week was no one else than rock legend Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, celebrating his 62nd birthday on the stage!

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Sophia's Christmas Performance

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:35:00 -0800

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Annual traditions with both girls' preschools: the Christmas festival.

Think 15-20 preschoolers, singing (mainly lip singing actually) Holidays songs, eating tons of sugar and going through Holiday Gift Exchange.

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Sometimes, life is unfair...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:58:00 -0800

There are people you meet in life that you think you might spend some time close to. There are other people you know you will never want to spend more than a couple minutes with. And there are people who, from the first second you meet them, you know that they will part of your life for ever.

Last week, I lost such a person in the late John Warren.

John lost a battle with one of the least forgivable cancer, Pancreatic cancer, only months after he finally decided to retire from Disney and spend some long retirement years enjoying his numerous passions.

John was a friend. John was a mentor. John was a fatherly figure. I have often joked (and told him) that without him, I would never be who I am today.

And he is gone.

I met him many years ago, in London, when we both worked at Disney and were both part of the smokers clan... We used to see each other in the smoking zone of the Hammersmith office, often battling wind and rain, taking furious drags on our Marlboros before rushing back inside. But one day, I left the Internet side of the Mouse House and joined its TV/Media side (thanks to M. Beal, another one of my London days mentors) and soon enough, John and I tried to figure out a way make our media buyers embrace the 21st century, dropping VHS tapes and accepting video streaming. This effort took us a good couple of years, a ton of persuasions and John's entire address book, during which we got to know each other. During this time, I spent numerous hours listening to him and his stories ranging from artistic photography to music through technology, sitting on one of his office chairs, while he kept repositioning every object on his desk to reach perfection. And John had a lot of stories!

We shared numerous passions, had the same views on many subjects and were just 20+ years apart.

John kept talking about his family, his wife, his son, Jay, as well. The true passions of his life out of the office (Funnily enough, a couple of years later, both Jay and I would end up moving to Los Angeles, a couple of months apart and keep bumping into each others at various gigs).

John had done so much in his life (and yet probably not enough to his own eyes). He had so many stories. A lot of them! Tons! We often joked that if someone had gone to Tenerife, John might have been to Elevenerife, but in the end, it was true: he had accomplished so much, done so much, so much more than anyone I know and yet, I am sure I barely brushed the surface of his accomplishments.

John was simply a better person than most of us, one of life's true good person, one of the good guys!

He'll be missed...
I'll miss him...

Until we meet again, Rest In Peace, my friend...

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Xmas gift exchange at the office

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:35:00 -0800

Another year, another gift exchange.

Yes, it was far from being as fun as the Disney CNG one, but was as well a different variation on the same theme: Secret Santa.

The white elephant one will occur after we're all back from the holidays break.

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Camp Freddy Xmas residency at the Roxy - Week 2

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:20:00 -0800

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I thought it would be hard to top last week's concert (and the mini Billy Idol gig) but the Camp Freddy guys did it again and blew us away last night with guest ranging from Sebastian Bach to Fred Durst (surprisingly good) through Billy Duffy and a grand finale gig from Kiss' rock legends Paul Stanley and guitarist Tommy Thawer.

Here is a little taste of the evening, "All Right Now" from Free, introduced by Paul Stanley as "This one, you won't know the lyrics. I didn't write it!". Billy Duffy, Billy Morisson and Steve Stevens on guitars, Matt Sorum on drums and I am ashamed to admit I didn't recognize the bass player last night (I've seen hime before though!!!)

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