Loads Of Kids

I like being around kids. I always think in advance that I'm not going to have the energy, but then it happens and I enjoy myself. Odi dropped by on her Avon round yesterday evening with her mate Nina in tow- so that's three kids to begin with. We took them out back to kick a ball around and Samina invited us in to bounce on the trampoline- and that was three more- Nakisha and Zhaim plus a niece or cousin. And then various neighbourhood kids joined in and by the end there were nine or ten of them. A ball got kicked into a garden and I went and fetched it- which meant going out on the street and waklking round the block and the niece or cousin tagged along with me wearing her aunty's sandals which kept falling off. 

Fabi calls me numpa (grandpa) and doesn't like to let me out of his sight. Christa is just beginning toi walk. She puts her arms up in the air (I don't know how this helps) and has the confidence to take three steps before collapsing in a heap. 

Billy The Kid

The only existing photograph of Billy the Kid just sold for $2.3 million. Way over estimate. Well of course it did!  The auctioneers needn't be so surprised. It may only be a battered tin-type, but it's the single most iconic picture to have come down to us from the Old West. Billy is wearing a top hat on the back of his head- and is grinning at the camera- something 19th century sitters hardly ever do. Never was there a jauntier pose. This is what it looks like to be young and free and not to give a damn.