Yesterday's post got cut off midway through because I had to run off to make a quick lunch for the crew. Then we headed up to a nearby landmark called the Saleve with a few friends who had proposed us a fun walk in the country. This is it:

I had told our pals that our kids weren't used to really long walks (and don't like them much) and maybe we should take it easy the first time out. We used to go walking sometimes back in Ouaga, but haven't done much since we got back to France. They had said this was no problem- we'd take the cable car to the top and hike down.

But it was only about an hour into the walk that I began to realise that we had radically different definitions of "fun". My idea of a fun afternoon is a gently sloping path through a wooded glade. Perhaps you observe some forest wildlife and occasionally stop to admire the view.

But their idea of fun seems to involve extreme danger and discomfort. Don't get me wrong: I CAN scramble down narrow, steep, rock-strewn paths that will throw you to a rocky death 100 meters below if you make one false move. In fact, I would willingly do it all day, if I were, for example, fleeing for my life before advancing Nazi troops.

It just wasn't any FUN. In fact, it was three solid hours of not fun.

I would SO rather have gone to a Renaissance Faire...or a museum...or the supermarket...or the dentist for a nice root canal.

But, as you can see, I lived to complain about it and that's what counts, right?

Here, for your edification, is the original Muse video of their song that's on the Twilight soundtrack (as mentioned in my previous post). This is NOT excerpts for Twilight. In fact, even though Twilight is a movie about blood sucking vampires, it is far less scary than this disturbing video.

After we listened to "Supermassive Black Hole" in the car on Saturday night, I turned to the kids and said "You know what? Actually, the original title of this song was "Stellar-mass Black Hole", but they didn't think it sounded cool enough. So they upgraded it to "Intermediate-mass", but that sounded even more underwhelming. So they ended up going with "Supermassive". True story."

They didn't believe me and even threatened to take away all my copies of "New Scientist"'.
I know it's hard on teens, having a Nerd Mom. That's why I didn't go on to tell them my thoughts on the lyrics of the song. For example: "Glaciers melting in the dead of night"?
Oooh! Scary! WAY scarier than "Glaciers melting in the daytime due to solar radiation, as glaciers tend to do".

Last weekend, I loaded up my car to maximum capacity (1 driver and six kids) and took them all to a concert put on by the local "School of Rock" that has already gotten a few mentions in this blog. It was the same groups we saw at a similar concert a few months back, but most of them were amazingly improved. It's heartening what a few more months of practice can do for a fledgling rock group!
The only exception was the oldsters' group- made up of six folks age 40-ish and above. At the last concert they'd graced us *ahem* with their cover version of 'In the Court of the Crimson King'. Then they performed it again at this concert. But this song (for those unfamiliar with it's length and tediousness) is a case where once is more than enough. The musicians were obviously having fun with it, but the audience? Not so much. They were a great group- don't get me wrong (especially if you are a member of said group and are reading this blog!) I just wish they'd expand the repertoire a bit and cut down on the pretentious, 10 minute long, 1960's progressive art rock songs. Cut that last down to zero, maybe even...

But most of the groups are made up of kids aged 10 and up, having fun. Some of the groups are really quite good. One of the best is a group headed up by the son of some good friends that live nearby. He's quite a good singer, with plenty of confidence and personality to back up his technical skills.

Last week was the first time I'd taken the twins along to see him perform. Alexa, in particular, was enchanted and hung out with the older kids right in front of the stage.

When we got home, she told me: "I'll never forget this night, ever! I'll remember it my whole life!"

In fact, all the kids had a great time, so when I learned there would be another concert in the same venue just a week later, I decided I'd take the kids. The poster advertising the event was kind of sleazy and normally would have put me off. But I knew lots of local families were going. And our friends' son would be playing again. All the other groups, though, would be ones we'd never seen.

So, Severin invited a couple of friends, as did the twins. Due to space problems, we had to kind of juggle and carpool with neighbors, but all nine of our little group got there in the end.

There were some great groups and it was good fun, but the alcohol was flowing pretty freely and there were lots of younger folk there that seemed to be getting 'well-lubricated' as the night wore on. So, even though the concert was to go on until the early hours of the morning, by 10:30 I had my group of kids gathered up and in the car for the drive home.

Once in the car, Tya popped in one of her cds, so that we could drive back with the windows open and the music turned up very, very loud. This, apparently, resulted in us being very, very cool, according to the sacred laws of teenagers worldwide.

The volume got louder and louder, finally cranked to the maximum for Muse's latest hit off the Twilight soundtrack. (NB: Normally, I'd have add a hyperlink there, but if you don't know what Twlight is by now, you're beyond the help of a mere link.)