housekeeping items:

amber – we pronounce daughter #2’s name KAHR-ys. the traditional welsh way. the majority of people we know pronounce it care-ISS. doesn’t matter to me!

on the friendship blog – a couple of you touched on it and got it right on the head, as did a couple of emails and one facebook message – "People want to be part of the fun. If you are radiating it, they want to be part of it. How loud you are being doesn’t make a difference, how happy you look and how "simpactico" you seem does."

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as i mentioned in an earlier blog, charmaine and i saw, "no country for old men", which swept at the oscars earlier today.

as they trotted up to collect their first academy award of the night, it struck me that part of the coen brothers success (and even their failures are arguably successful if they make money and make people like me laugh) is that they are siblings.

famous siblings.

let’s look past the jackson five, hanson and lord forbid, donny and marie, to ernest and julio gallo, the grimm brothers and even, harvey and bob weinstein, who named miramax studios after their parents, miriam and max.

what is necessary for siblings to work together like that? why would they want to?

the trust issue. the ability to fight with the person and know you have to make up, because there is no hope of getting Christmas or birthday presents or peace of mind from your parents (who are probably partially funding you) unless you do. you know the person’s style of thinking, there are few surprises about them left. you probably have similar ways of thinking and similar senses of humour, which causes great think tank sessions.

as a parent, i would be DELIGHTED if my kids worked together. i would be there everyday, completely unwelcome and they would never get any work done because i was being so nosy and making suggestions that they didn’t want/need.

what would they do? should i have gone into business with graeme at some point? doing what? making illegal copies of madonna songs? writing archie comic scenarios?

could my child be filled with enough creativity and talent to start a business or company? how wildly scary and exciting for them. forget university, i better start saving money for this now. whether it was successful or not (remind me i said that in 20 years), i would love it if my kids loved each other and respected their siblings talent enough to go into business together. i think that would be fantastic.