Author: James

I mightn’t post here very often these days, but when I do… Gold. Solid gold…

This blog has lain rather fallow since the arrival of the Twin Monkeys; they and the Little Monkey have been keeping us busy, as this video attests… It features “Andy” going on a dinosaur adventure to find some pumice, which is why I am both a T. rex and Hatty, a female Australian archaeologist…

Robin Oliver and George Arthur were born at 11:32am and 11:33am, respectively, on Wednesday 27th August 2014, tipping the scales at 6lb 5oz and 6lb 6oz.

The Little Monkey’s dance moves have largely lain dormant after his early promise. He’s always been fairly good at following instructions, and his dingle-dangle-scarecrowing is exemplary; but it’s only very recently that he’s started busting out his joyous freestyle moves. The music, by the way, is EMF with Vic & Bob; their new sit-com may…

It’s interesting how things seem to suddenly just ‘click’ with the Little Monkey. Until recently, he’s been a bit ambivalent about jigsaw puzzles; he’d do a few two-piece ones in a desultory manner, but that’d be it. But he received a 30-piece puzzle (a police mise en scene) for Christmas, which he loves doing, and…

The young Father Christmas showed some footballing promise, but his raw talent was at the mercy of his wild temperament…

The Little Monkey has spent much of the last two weeks in his Father Christmas outfit, and enjoys delivering presents down imaginary chimneys. He does a very sweet thing when pretending, where he repeats the verb describing what he’s doing; for example, when pouring tea he’ll say “pour, pour, pour”, and when putting trains in…

As I was writing the subtitles for the charming Little Monkey’s most recent video, I realised how much translating Mrs. Monkeyshines and I do, without really thinking about it. It’s like he has his own dialect, Little Monkese, that takes some getting used to. Of course, many of the Little Monkey’s pronouncements require a knowledge…