Merry Christmas from the Monkey House!

[woolymonkey]

To be honest, we're all a bit stunned that Christmas is here already. (Well, not squirrelmonkey – he's been counting down.) So to ease us gently into the annual news round up, here's a picture of the monkey family on Christmas Eve. The tortoise is hibernating and one of the cats is hiding, but otherwise, everyone's there.


Thank you to tamaranth for taking the photo.

This week's news round up
We went to Shepreth Wildlife Park, painted the downstairs toilet white, put up some blinds, fixed some bugs, and did lots of cooking.

Big news from squirrelmonkey (aka bob_the_ninja, aka Dragon Games)!
His homebrewed computer games are now available to play here. Please take a look - he'd love to get some comments.


Squirrelmonkey has moved to Year 6 – final year of primary. He's looking forward to going to Parkside in September. In the meantime, he's made some furry slippers in Technology and learned how to make fireworks out of crisp packets. In spite of not being at Parkside yet, he's joined the Parkside Federation Orchestra and has been playing cornet at Lion Yard, on the Market Square, in the rain, at several residential care homes, and countless school concerts. He did very well in his Grade 1 exam in June.

Spidermonkey is still enjoying Parkside. He's also still growing. At this rate, he'll be taller than his dad by next Christmas… He saved up his birthday money to buy an electric guitar (he already has a bass and an acoustic). He plays in various bands with variable line-ups and a persistent shortage of vocalists. He still plays violin, especially in the Parkside Federation Orchestra, and is about to take his Grade 3. Favourite subjects are currently Science (especially Chemistry) and DT Food (the subject formerly known as Cookery). He was very keen on Rugby until they were taught extra rules. Apparently, it's less fun when you're not allowed to throw your weight around.

musique_monkey is still developing 3D geometry software at Spatial Technology and enjoying it. He was sent to HQ in Boulder, Colorado to talk to customers and demo software at the annual User Summit in October, and a couple of weeks later went to Darmstadt, Germany for the European equivalent (the Euro Forum). He had not been to either of these jamborees for several years and then suddenly both came up at the same time. After months of delays, Spatial will at last be moving to a new office up the hill, which unlike the current office is not next to a hotel being built. In other news, musique_monkey has now discovered the free lunchtime Friday recitals at Kettles Yard and at ARU, and has been enjoying them immensely.

woolymonkey (that's me!) is teaching a new Open University course, memorably titled AA100. It's basically the Humanities foundation course and it's great fun because I'm learning as I go along and it covers subjects from Dr. Faustus to Cezanne, Faraday, Stalin, the Dalai Lama, gothic revival architecture, and the history of English Christianity – and that's just so far. It's a lot to stay on top of. I'm also still translating and teaching the French course. There's a chance I'll be made redundant from the latter – I'm beginning to think that might be a good thing…

If you want more Monkey News, browse the journal or click on the tags. If you want more photos, let me know and I'll email you an invitation to photobucket.

Comments

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

You're still up! Merry nearly-Christmas!

(Can't help noticing you only posted ONE photo ...)

[lj_stowaway]

Merry Christmas, Monkey Family!

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous family! The adults are good looking. I mean, you have the kind of beauty that comes from goodness. And the boys... Huzzzwawzzuzuz, what a pair of knockouts!

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

Hello all! Haven't seen you for ages, we must get together soon. Merry Christmas :)