skate jam from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Boomtown/hometown from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

An exchange

Angela: That lightbulb in the ceiling is messed up.
Oli: Oh yeah, that was me.
Angela: Of course it was. What was it? Kicking a ball? Playing Star Wars dad with the broom stick? Swatting flies with the electric tennis racket?
Oli: I stood up abruptly.

Insult or compliment?

Last weekend it was rainy so we went to the maritime museum, which has a really nice cafe and courtyard. We draw and play with play dough there on rainy days. I pulled a line from my diary of funny things that I hear or see in the day, and turned it into this... It's a Lili quote. The scene depicted is a frequent reality in my life.

Lili was insulted. 

10 years

At the weekend we celebrated 10 years of marriage in a group of 15 people for 3 days at a country house in the Montseny national park. Takeaways:

• We have made it. Weren't always sure we would. But foundation laid. Job done. Petty things mostly no longer matter. We can mostly get through day-to-day mood challenges (ours and kids) while avoiding major disaster. This means the next 10 years we can focus on becoming awesome individuals with the support of one another and said kids....and planning more fun stuff like this weekend.

• We have fantastic friends. A few different friend groups were brought together this weekend and on no less than 5 occasions, someone commented at length to me and/or Oli on what all-around easy-to-get along with, interesting to chat with, and fun people they had met.

• People - whether they have kids or not - need BBQs, games, the outdoors, music, dancing, and smiling faces.

 

 

Palabrotas

Today, Josie told us in Spanglish about a bad word she never says.

A hamster named Tissue Packet

Green

We went to a picnic and barbecue place at the weekend for a friend's birthday party. There's a little river and along the edge grows a plant that Oliver calls "green" but most other English people seem to called "sticky". If you throw pieces of this plant at clothing it sticks. Oli and the kids had fun throwing it at people who crossed the river's bridge so that it stuck to their backs. They taught a little boy how to do it and his family watched and laughed as they got each passerby. Oli was in stitches and said at one point, "I love green. It's like nature's sense of humor."

[Note the green stuck just under Oli's chin.]

Cheese, poo, and smash apple

Attempting to get back into the habit of blogging...

I have a notebook I write humorous phrases in that I hear people say during the day - mostly my family.

My latest entry is from yesterday morning:
Josie had just staggered out of her room first thing in the morning and was looking all angelic in that soft sweaty still sleepy kid way. I said, "Good morning, baby!" We had a great big hug. She paused and said, "You smell like cheese and poo."

I asked Lili (who now prefers her name be spelled this way, despite previously preferring it be spelled 'Lily') to draw up this scene in her comic book way.

Here is her interpretation:

The third, additional scene is me remembering I had bought cheese and poo scented perfume the day before.

In other news, Lili wrote up this story today. I love the turn of phrase and understated ending.

Google Deep Dream

We're back

Els Nois from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Danger Apple from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Kentucky Fried Tears from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Abraca Jacob

Abraca Jacob from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Spring 2014

Spring 2014 from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Kentucky Fried Tears - Pay up!

Hello people coming to the Kentucky Fried Tears weekend in the Catalan countryside May 23 - 25.

We're asking for 18 euros per person for food and accommodation for the whole of Saturday and Sunday. 

You can pay:

1. Transferring 18 euros per person to bank account 2100 3060 53 22 01673767, so that money arrives by Wednesday, May 21st.

2. Donating 18 euros per person to Angela's paypal account using the button below: By Saturday , May 17 so time to withdraw money to bank account. (CLOSED now)
3. Bringing cash to my house.

Please contribute ASAP so we can do some shoppin'.

Remember to bring your own drinks...though we'll have some ;)

Promotional video for a TEFL academy that I made.

Oxford TEFL VO Promo from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Josie's second birthday

We planned with some neighbors to have a real Halloween party for the kids in our building. We had to push it back a weekend so it landed by Josie's birthday on the 11th, thus the Halloween party became Josie's birthday party.

A couple days before the party we thought we may as well send out a Whatsapp message to the group of parents from Lily's class, thinking only a couple would come with it being such short notice. Many came :)

The result was a party extravaganza with over 30 kids plus parents. There are smaller weddings.

We had an owl cake made by Lisa, banana cake muffins with green slime (actually delicious cream cheese frosting colored green), a vomiting Jack-o-lantern carved by Oli minutes before the party, 100 glow bracelets, colored cellophane for kids to put over the lenses of the flashlights we told them to bring, a trick-or-treat session where the kids ran around bombarding the parents on the patio with "Trick or treat?!" to get candy off them, and after that I got talk to adults and drink mulled wine for 30 minutes before cleaning up.

The only snafu was that Josie is 2 and we threw her a Halloween party to which kids and adults came wearing hideous masks and face paint. We had to hold her for an hour, then she got over it just in time for singing happy birthday, which we only had to do twice because I realized I hadn't lit the candles the first time.

Final observation. I thought the kids would come in simple costumes, but having never gotten to do proper Halloween, these kids came decked out in cool and frightening costumes!

Happy birthday, Josie!
(Even though we don't have a photo of you at your party. Maybe there's one on Dad's phone? We were kind of busy throwing a party.)

Update: We found one...

...showing half your face.

Love ya, babe.