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With less than two weeks until a certain person’s fourth birthday, we thought it was time for the little man to make the transition into his own big bed. Although as we discovered once it was all assembled, full singles in Lebanon are longer than those in Australia, so none of our linen fit!

He’s loving the new bed, and thus far we haven’t had any falling-out dramas. But still, it’s kind of sad - all of a sudden our little guy’s not so little now…

This is my first attempt at drawing a manga Mitchell.

I bought a graphics tablet ages ago but have only recently started mucking around with it and photoshop. It’s quite a lot of fun, but a very technical process. It’s going to take a while before I really get it all down pat. And I’m still not sure that I’ve got the real manga feel yet - even though I’ve featured simplified facial features and unusually large eyes, he’s still too lifelike.

Oh, and Sheridan reckons his hair isn’t red enough. Wishful thinking I guess!

Nanna’s here again, and since there was a recent change to the travel advice taking Tripoli off the highest risk category, we decided to head up there yesterday to have a bit of an explore.

Tripoli is Lebanon’s second largest city, located on the coast near the northern border. Much of its history is from the crusader and Mamluk eras. It’s got an awesome citadel (the Castle of St Gilles), lots of mosques, an old bazaar (including a fascinating soap market, the “good smell of Lebanon”) and traditional middle eastern chaos. There is much more of an Arab vibe in Tripoli than Beirut - it feels more like Damascus or Amman (except it’s by the sea).

The visit this time was reasonably brief. First stop was the citadel. When we told Mitchell that we were going to a castle, he replied: “With a princess?”. How cute is that?

We enjoyed exploring the various nooks and crannies, although unfortunately it wasn’t very accessible so we could only get Sheridan’s chair a short way in.

Afterwards we grabbed some lunch, then spent some time negotiating through the hussle and bussle of the old city. When the call to prayer came it was a deafening crescendo of competing mosques. We finished off with a quick stop at the Hallab sweets shop for some excellent baklava.

Here are some photos that I took in Tripoli last year.

Here’s Mitchell modelling Daddy’s new scooter helmet. Not sure it’s a good fit. But I’ve only just realised how perfect his T-shirt is. Pure coincidence, I swear!