Down on the farm

Here I am on a visit to Wimpole Hall, a stately home near Cambridge. In the farm section, we visited many different animals. I said 'Baaaaaaaa!' to all of them - I am learning to speak Sheep and wanted to practice the difficult verb endings among some native speakers.

I also met these Anglo-Nubian goats. They belong to an aristocratic breed, which is obvious from their resemblance to Prince Charles.

Smashing pots

Here I am in the Archaeology and Anthropology museum in Cambridge, which I visited with Grandma. Daddy was very keen that I examine these pottery shards and give my learned opinion.

Pottery shards are a big feature of my life. I have noticed that, when Daddy talks about pottery, Mummy becomes somewhat glazed. He gets all fired up, but after a while she looks totally shattered - and then she goes to pieces.

Daddy thinks pots are smashing. Mummy says to Daddy: 'Why do you have to keep bringing up the past?' But Daddy just keeps digging over the subject, until Mummy is at breaking point.

Notes from the end of England

Today we drove to the north Norfolk coast. It was very windy. Mum was looking for villages eroding into the sea - she said something about 'global warming manifested..'. Dad, as usual, wanted to visit old churches. We also saw an Elizabethan barn, a Georgian lighthouse and an Edithian pile.

First was Sea Palling, then Horsey, then Happisburgh, which is pronounced 'HAYs'burra. I thought it was more appalling than happy.

Greats

Today we visited the grave of my great granddad Helmut Anderson. It was in a tranquil forest full of delicious pinecones.

I have been told that I look a lot like Helmut. Perhaps that is why no one can understand me when I speak - I am actually speaking German in a strong Viennese accent!

Baby carriers among Native American peoples

More subject matter for my monograph on baby carrying in art and society...

Among the anthropologists

I am currently writing a paper on anthropologists, provisionally titled 'Coming of age in Academia: The PhD as rite of passage'.

As an intrepid researcher I of course believe in the kind of ethnography where one completely immerses onself in the subjects' culture. I was therefore excited to meet with cutting edge anthropologist Janine Su, who by a bizarre coincidence turned out to be flatting with Dad's old friend Gen Fujii and brought him along for lunch.

I felt fortunate to have this introduction into anthropological society. I tried to blend in as well as I could in the hope that they would forget they were under observation and carry on with their normal customs. I was lucky - after a minute or two they began to share a ritual pint and engage in a conversation about the torpor induced by the final writing-up of one's research.

When Gen slipped out for a cigarette, I slipped on his anthropologist's hat in the hope of blending in among my subjects still better. I feel I have now been accepted as one of their own and could pass myself off as an athropologist at any of their large tribal gatherings, or 'conferences' as they call them in their own language.

Peeping at Pepys

Today we visited the library of famous diarist Samuel Pepys, whose famous descriptions of events such as the Great Fire of London and the plague tell us much about daily life in the 1600s.

As a very well educated baby, I have of course read all the Diaries and a large biography of Pepys too.

I puntuated the reverent silence of the library with several cries of surprise and delight at all the books that Pepys had collected during his lifetime.

As we left, I said 'Lurdle durdle dur!' which meant 'And so to baby carrier', which is a terribly funny pun that could only be appreciated by terribly erudite babies like me.