De Silva Family Blog

For the bank holiday Monday, we got some bike seats and went on a short trip around Grafham Water with Roz, Sophie and their parents. In typical bank holiday style it was cold and rainy. Our resolve faltered as we thought of our poor, wet, shivering offspring strapped to the back of our bikes. We forged ahead regardless and were rewarded with the weather easing somewhat and even a ray or two of sunshine. After lunch Mary had a number of passers-by laughing at her. She was a little put out until she looked backwards and found the source of their mirth - a headless Ollie!

Too much Gummy Berry Juice!!!

I've been a good boy recently and eaten all my dinners so was finally tall enough to go on the the big boy rides at Legoland. I'd been looking forward to it for ages, so was very excited when Mummy and Daddy said we could go. Things started off well as Ollie met Bob the Builder and managed to get me a job on a building site... Unfortunately, it was only a small job but that did give me time to go on the Sky Train and a balloon ride. After helping Daddy put out a fire, I was famished, so had some grub in Dragon's Castle. . That afternoon things took a turn for the worse as, despite passing my driving test, I was caught on camera for reckless driving... ... and put behind bars! Things went from bad to worse as, after being let out early for good behaviour, I got eaten by a lion! Fortunately I'm a tough little thing and he spat me out, choosing instead to go after my, much juicier, younger brother. We celebrated our lucky escape with a quick pint of...

Fed up with being told what to do whilst living in their house, Ollie and I have designed and built our own house where we will be in charge. It's a pretty cool two-up-two-down, with an extended hallway. Both living rooms have French doors, giving great views of the TV. My bedroom is South-facing, also with a clear view of the TV. The wonderful thing about it is that there is plenty of room for expansion as our needs grow. Even better is that we're safe from Mummy and Daddy as they are too big to fit in! Even with the current state of the housing market, we decided it was better to build rather than buy. We used recycled building materials and found some great cheap labour. Haven't got the plumbing in yet - anyone know a good plumber? The only drawback is the crime in this neighbourhood. Apparently the Big Bad Wolf lives around here and a cardboard house feels rather vulnerable. Fortunately we've got a decent security system. We'll arrange a house-w...

From all your boys. Love Ni, Leo & Ollie xxx

I spent this week in Shanghai, attending a Board meeting for one of my clients. It's my first time in China and I've been blown away by the scale of development going on over here. The picture shows the Pudong district of Shanghai (my hotel, the Shangri La is the little orange building to the right). This whole area, all 500km2 of it has been built during the last 20 years! Unfortunately the most I've seen of this place is the back of a cab as, during the two hours I had free, the driver and I failed to communicate in any way. Finally, when I realised that we were going round in circles, I got out and walked back along a very busy road. I felt cheated, despite having only paid half the fare on the meter, so you can imagine my horror when I realised that I'd left him my camera too! At 500 times the cost of the fare, I'm sure that driver is celebrating right now. As for me, I'm just looking forward to getting back home.

We celebrated Ollie's birthday a few weeks ago , together with Leo and Ros. So, for his actual birthday, we thought we'd celebrate with a day trip to London. We started by visiting my office, where the boys worked their charms on various colleagues and were well paid with chocolate, sweets and toys! We then headed off to the main attraction, Dinosaurs Unleashed , an amazing interactive exhibition. Leo was really excited about the whole thing, until we entered the building and he came face to face with a life-sized, roaring, T-Rex. He turned tail and ran! Fortunately, after some cajoling and some (very nice) hugs, he managed to overcome his fear and spent the next few hours becoming a palaeontologist: digging for fossils, piecing the bones together, classifying dinosaurs and learning all about them. He even appeared in a video with one! Meanwhile Ollie slept peacefully in his pushchair, blissfully unaware that he was sleeping under the most vicious carnivore ever to walk...