Latest news of our children and grandchildren

On May 5th our daughter Emma spoke in the EURAMET policy debate, hosted in Portugal, with members of the European Parliament participating, and Portugal's Deputy Minister for the Economy gave the vote of thanks at the end. This event was entitled "Climate neutral by 2050: the role of measurement science networks in delivering the EU’s Green Deal." It was another opportunity for her to advertise the metrology network she launched, and to explain its importance. Someone at that debate said that by 2050, it's expected that 80% of Europe's energy requirements will be supplied by wind and solar power. As an observer at this meeting, I was also impressed by a representative of the Research and Development wing of a Portuguese company called EDP, may write a separate post about what he had to say. 

Our son George has been busy completing a paper on the role of pulsar observations in a cyber-security context, which Chris and I have helped to proofread. I had better not reveal more as it is not yet published. 

 

And the grandsons? 

Alexander, now in his mid-teens and so tall that he almost bangs his head on the top of the door, has acquired tooth-straightening braces that he's valiantly trying to ignore. He had friends round at his house today, two girls and a boy. Meanwhile, his brother Thomas, having learned to program in Python, with Chris giving him a little online tuition for this to which he responded enthusiastically, is now busy creating a large-scale diorama containing all the vital elements of Ancient Egypt: the Pyramids, a mummy in a sarcophagus, amphorae complete with lids, heiroglyphics, stretches of sand, the Nile, crocodiles, palm trees and, of course, his pièce de résistance, the Sphinx, sculpted from papier-maché and elaborately painted. Ancient Egypt takes up the whole of the dining table, so I hope the weather's been fine enough for the family to eat outdoors, this weekend. Thomas' parents have no idea how they will be able to transport the creation to school when it's time for displaying it there. 

Our other grandson Edward (Eddy) has turned eight and had a birthday party in the park to which twice as many children turned up as were invited, because the gatecrashers among them spotted the large cake on the picnic table. They were a wonderfully multi-racial bunch of kids. This weekend Eddy had his first experience of horseback riding (on a stubborn horse, said his dad) and has also been playing duets on the recorder with his father, and building a fabulous Minecraft world, both on the computer screen and from purpose-bought Lego. When we had our video chat with Eddy last night he put on a conjuror's outfit and performed a magic show for us with collapsing wands, disappearing balls and scarves and unexpectedly appearing white rabbits.