Cute as a Button

I guess I may be a little biased - but Lily Beatrice has got to be the cutest baby in the universe. Of course my brother Craig and his wife Irma will dispute this, they having been blessed with the arrival of baby Jonathan (Jonty) Scott Hodgson on Monday 21st in Harare. In order to settle the dispute I have included some recent photos of our little 4-month old treasure at our home in Norwich. These should, I think, put the issue beyond doubt. There is no way a little, probably ginger, baked bean up in Zimbabwe can be as heart-warmingly fudge-icecream kinda lovely.

Still, the Hodgson tribe increases. 11 grandchildren for Mom by now, and Kim and I are under some pressure to match the awesome fecundity of our younger brothers. For my part it is of course a little soon to even be thinking of that - we're still learning how to cope with the new addition. Marcela is on her own with the baby a lot now, thanks to the extensive travelling I have to do in my consulting work, and it is (as many of you will know) a 24/7 responsibility with no time off.

Workwise I am still engaged with a post-merger integration project - the two companies are headquartered one in Essen, Germany and the other in Los Angeles - and racking up the frequent flyer miles and Sheraton hotel points. Not as much fun as it sounds, dear readers, I'd trade my pension for the chance to spend some time working within a short drive of where I live.

Norfolk has had a pretty soggy Spring thus far, some bright days this week though but as usual fading to grey dampness and 13 degrees by the weekend. I'll be watching the rugby and babysitting while Marcela heads for town and civilisation for the first time in weeks.

** interrupted in my musings here by a knock on the door of my little office in Germany - the delightful old gentleman who is enriching his retirement by working here as a tea person (and wheeling in the lunches for the corporate big shots down the corridor) has sneaked me some lasagna from the serving dishes. Wunderbar. God's way of rewarding me for only having fruit for lunch today in an attempt to lose weight. I figure if I wash the pasta down with Coke Zero they should cancel each other out**

Perhaps I should look on eBay for some gym equipment - gyms in Norwich only open at 06h30 which is the time I am usually somewhere over the North Sea on my way to Amsterdam and the gym at the Sheraton is abysmal. I guess we could set up some equipment in the conservatory - better complete the home-made window blinds first though, Norfolk people are often shy little fen-dwellers and would be terrified at seeing the faces I pull while I try excavate the few remaining muscles in my body from the sedimentary layers of blubber in which they are embedded.

Generally the Hogga clan is doing OK. The usual traumas, debates and crises that any family has but all in all the year has been OK so far after the pretty poor 2006. These blog posts excite comments from only a few of my original readers, of course old Rhodesians are not the most computer literate folk in the world so I'm guessing they need to have a personal note from me each time I update... still and all it's a lovely Spring day in Germany, the lasagna is finished and I can get back to the intricacies of storing various documents in our virtual repository for the global project team..