Happy 40th Birthday, Alexander!
Hello Everyone!
My big brother, Alex, turned 40 on the 27th November! I made him a little mini-quilt to celebrate. I only came up with the idea 9 days before his birthday, which theoretically should have been enough time to get it done, but life is not that simple, so I finally got it finished and sent off about three weeks late. He opened it alongside his Christmas presents, so I can now share pics of it.
I came up with the idea of doing 40 small embroidered squares, with pictures representing all the different things Alex does and loves. As the sister nearest in age to Alex, I have the most memories of our shared childhood, but I would like to thank our two sisters, Vanessa and Caroline, for helping me with ideas for these.
So this post is to celebrate the wonder that is Alex, and let you know the stories behind all the images! Here are 40 things to know about Alex...
1 Today in...
This is how Alex starts all his FB posts! So it was clearly how this needed to be started.
Education
2 Books/reading
Alex has been an avid reader ever since I can remember. He has read many, many books on a wide variety of subjects and has gifted me many brilliant books as well. Here is a pic of little pre-school Alex reading a book.
3 CRGS
After we settled in Colchester, Essex, Alex passed his 11+ and went to Colchester Royal Grammar School (a non fee-paying selective school), wearing a bright purple uniform. He still has many friends from his time there. This embroidery is of the school crest.
4 UCL
When he finished at CRGS, Alex moved to London to attend University College London, to study Modern History.
5 History
This embroidery is meant to be a museum or Greco-Roman temple, to represent Alex's chosen university subject. But also his love of museums. We have spent many happy times together in the Kensington Museums, the British Museum, Colchester Castle Museum and many others.
6 Blackboard (teacher)
After graduation, Alex got a job as a Teaching Assistant and then completed his qualifications to become a primary school class Teacher. He has been working at the same school in North London since he started as an Assistant, looking after tons of kids, mostly in Years 3 and 4. Alex is an incredibly dedicated and hard-working teacher, who really looks after his kids and advocates for a better working environment for him and his colleagues.
Hobbies
7 Drawing
8 Chess
Taught by our Dad, following lots of detailed study of chess books, and practice on his chess computer, Alex is a great chess player. This is also the reason I chose the black and white chequerboard pattern for this miniquilt.
9 Lego
This love was actively encouraged by our mother. Alex was very much the King of Lego in our house, and our home in Geelong had a whole Lego room, set up in a city with a large hospital set, a working train and an aeroplane suspended from the ceiling. He still enjoys playing with Lego with my kids.
10 Astronomy
Another hobby that comes from our Dad, Alex enjoys stargazing, and asked our parents for a telescope for his 40th birthday. He is able to stand and set up a telescope on the roof of his house, so he can get some good views.
11 Photography
Alex is a keen photographer. He took polaroid picture at my wedding, and enjoys taking pictures of the wildlife of London, such as the fox visitors to his garden.
Sports
12 Cricket
Being born to Australian and English parents, cricket was a major part of our upbringing. Here are me and Alex at a match in Edgbaston a couple of years ago.
13 Football
Alex grew up as a Liverpool supporter, like our Dad, but since settling in Tottenham he is now a dedicated Tottenham Hotspur fan. One of the perks of volunteering for St John's Ambulance is that he gets to go to some of their home matches.
14 Running
This would probably have surprised teenaged Alex, who actively dodged participation in school sports days by volunteering to clean up the library, but grown-up Alex is a keen runner.
Places
15 Tasmania
Alex was born in Hobart, Tasmania. Our parents were living there while my Dad completed his honors degree. He actually got his results on the day of Alex's birth.
After that, Alex and our parents moved to Melbourne (where I was born), to Chico, CA, USA (where our sister Vanessa was born), back to Australia to Geelong, then to Maidstone, Kent, England (where our sister Caroline was born) before finally settling in...
16 Colchester
This is Jumbo, a disused water tower and symbol of Colchester, Essex, England, where Alex lived from the ages of 9-18 (and where our parents still live). At 18, he moved to...
17 London
London has been Alex's home since he left home for university 22 years ago. Alex very much enjoys the city, and being in the bubble of politics and culture. I really wish I could have done the Big Ben Tower here, but my drawing skills are not up to managing that in a 2-inch square.
Animals
My brother was obsessed with animals and wildlife as a child, and for a long time wanted to grow up and study them. When we were living in Maidstone, he briefly created a wildlife protection club, consisting of himself, me, and two neighbour kids. Here are a few particularly memorable and important animals to Alex.
18 Mouse
When we were growing up, we had tons of pets, but the ones that were particularly Alex's were the mice. Due to my parents' accidental habit of buying/acquiring pregnant animals, we had a whole litter of little white mice. Later, he also kept rats, who similarly produced an unexpected litter. Alex loved looking after them, playing with them, and constructing mazes out of Duplo and Lego for them to navigate.
Even younger than that, aged about 6, Alex created and wrote books about a character called Martin Mouse (named for Alex's middle name), including the excellent title 'Martin Mouse's Jungle Adventure'. Which included an encounter with a crocodile, and Martin returning home only to be struck down by jungle fever (spoiler alert: he recovered and it ended happily ever after). Me being two years younger and needing to copy everything Alex did, created the suspiciously similar 'Mark Mouse's Jungle Adventure' book in response to this.
Alex still looks out for mice, here's one he spotted recently on the London Underground.
19 Kangaroo
The kangaroo is obviously a symbol of our early childhood in Australia. But also in memory of the time, aged about 6, he got kicked over by a wallaby/small kangaroo, when he was carefully offering it some grass to eat. I remember this as being my fault for distracting the poor animal, but Alex holds me blameless in the issue.
20 Elephant
Alex's 10th birthday, his first birthday in Colchester, was spent at Colchester Zoo. As part of the birthday package, we got to feed penguins and handle birds of prey. And the lucky birthday boy got to ride on the back of an elephant in a short elephant parade at the end of the day. How cool is that for a birthday party.
21 Fox
Alex has regular fox visitors in his garden in London. He likes to photograph them. This picture is based on one of his photographs.
22 Dinosaurs
When we were little, Alex had a great collection of dinosaur toys, and used to read books about dinosaurs all the time. He used to really enjoy going to see the animatronic exhibition at the...
23 Natural History Museum
This is actually the logo used by the Kensington Natural History Museum in the 90s. Growing up in Colchester, we would have at least 1 day trip per school holiday to the Kensington Museums. Sometimes we would meet up with our Grandpa underneath the dinosaur statue. Fun times.
Cinema
24 Cinema strip
Alex is a dedicated movie buff. In his late teens he embarked on a serious quest to watch a lot of famous and influential films, based on various lists. During the summer after my GCSEs and Alex's A-Levels, we both worked morning shifts as temps in local factories, and would come home afterwards and would watch 2-3 films in a row together.
25 Oscar statuette
During that summer, one of Alex's aims was to watch as many Oscar Best Picture winners as we could get our hands on. He is still a big fan of the Oscars and stays up to watch it live every year, despite the awkwardness of the time zone difference between London and LA.
Languages
As with our other siblings, Alex can get by effectively in French, learned primarily from out mother. He also studied Latin at school and Italian at university. But there are two of his languages I wanted to highlight here.
26 Ancient Greek
The embroidery says 'Alex' in Greek letters. Alex studied Latin and Ancient Greek when he was at CRGS. The subject of Ancient Greek at CRGS was threatened with closure while he was there, due to funding issues, but the school was lucky enough for the story to attract the attention of the Greek government who provided funding and a teacher so the subject could continue. Alex appeared (briefly) in a local BBC TV report about them securing this funding, as he was one of the pupils who would not have been able to study the subject otherwise.
27 Spanish
In adulthood, Alex has learned how to speak Spanish, he has taken trips to Spain and is the lead in his school for Spanish language learning.
Left-wing politics and political campaigns
Alex has had a political conscience ever since I can remember. He has been keeping himself very well informed about global political events, and this is most of what he posts about on Facebook.
He has campaigned for many progressive left-wing causes, including a trip to Iraq between the two Gulf Wars with the charity 'Voices in the Wilderness' to view the effect of western sanctions, and early involvement in the UK Uncut movement, participating in their inaugural protest against Vodafone.
Here are a few representations of the causes in Alex's life so far.
28 Labour Rose
Alex has been a long-time supporter and activist on behalf of the British Labour Party (despite, or maybe due to, being the son of Liberal Democrats councillors).
29 Solidarity fist
I remember as a child, we had a calendar on the fridge, showing the family activities for the month. On 27th April 1994, Alex wrote on the calendar: 'South African elections. History changes!' and was very happy when Nelson Mandela was duly elected. The notion of solidarity very much sums up Alex.
30 Don't Hate Donate
31 Independent newspaper
In 2010, the owners of the Independent newspaper were planning to hire a journalist called Rod Liddle to be their editor. Alex led the successful campaign to block this man's appointment, on the grounds that he is an appalling, horrible person whose views should not given the level of credibility implied by the editorship of a major national newspaper. (you can read his stuff in the Spectator if you want to know why. I am not going to link to it). This embroidery shows the headline they should have printed in celebration.
32 Recycling logo
Ever since we were little, Alex has been seriously into green issues. He won a Green Blue Peter badge for his recycling efforts as a child, and continues to this day to do his best to help the world avoid the 'avoidable apocalypse' as he calls it on FB.
Charitable Organisations
33 St John's Ambulance
Alex has volunteered with St John's Ambulance for many years now, providing first aid support at events throughout London.
34 BCYS
The Brentwood Catholic Youth Service is another charity Alex has been involved with for a long time. The charity helps sick members of the Catholic Brentwood Diocese make a pilgrimage to Lourdes in the summer. Alex has been involved as a youth volunteer and as a youth leader, co-ordinating the younger volunteers.
Other
There are so many more things I could say about Alex! Here are a few things that didn't fit neatly in to other categories.
35 Private Eye
Alex has been dedicated reader and fan of Private Eye magazine for nearly 30 years now. Honestly, they should be sending him copies for free by now. He is also a big fan of political satire on television, he introduced me to Have I Got News For You, Spitting Image, Yes, Minister and The Thick of It among others.
36 Muppets
When we were little in Geelong, we very much enjoyed watching The Muppet Show together. The Muppet's Chrismas Carol, and Muppet's Treasure Island were also regularly watched. So here's Kermit the Frog. Hi ho everybody!
37 Alexander's Ragtime Band
C'mon and hear, c'mon and hear, Alexander's Ragtime Band
C'mon and hear, c'mon and hear, it's the best band in the land!
They can play a bugle call like you never heard before
So natural that you want to go to war.
That's just the bestest band what am, honey lamb.
C'mon along, c'mon along, let me take you by the hand
Up to the man, up to the man who is the leader of the band.
And if you care to hear The Swanee River played in ragtime
C'mon and hear, c'mon and hear, Alexander's Ragtime Band.
When we were little, our Dad used to sing this Irving Berlin song to Alex, because it featured his name. The embroidery is of the opening bar.
38 Newszine
When he was in his teens, Alex and his friends started a student-run newspaper at his school. They called it the Newszine. Being run by Alex, it was massively controversial, getting in trouble for reporting the arrest of one his fellow students for armed robbery. It also spawned a rival title 'The Alternative'.
39 Mr Men
Alex was a big fan of the Mr Men series as a child. And in his teens, he wrote political satires in the style of Mr Men books. I particularly remember one satirising British and American relations with Saddam Hussein's regime in the aftermath of the First Gulf War.
40 Guitar
Alex is always learning new things, including new musical instruments. He had a pretty serious attempt to learn to play the guitar a few years back.
So there you have it! 40 things about my awesome brother! And there are so many more things I could have included if I had the space/drawing skills. Holidays in France as a kid, his trips as an adult to Belfast and Serbia, introducing me to improvisational comedy, his many trips to Edinburgh to visit a friend and go to the Fringe Festival, his love of the theatre, of Disney films, of art history. Alex really is an awesome person who has done, and continues to do, many great things.
Happy birthday, bro, I hope you get to hold a proper belated celebration when the pandemic is over and that we get to see each other again in person soon. Love you!
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