Merry Christmas - Happy New Year!!

OMG I got on!

It is the Saturday between Christmas and New Year, I have managed to get a library card and accessed the Internet through the Swiss Cottage library; which is fairly local. Still no Internet at home so things are just barely moving along. I never realized how much I did on-line.

Christmas in London was/is very beautiful. I didn't manage to get the tree up until Christmas Day, but the city had plenty of lights to make up for the lack of lights at home. I had two guests (E and J) for the week, so I spent a great deal of time doing tourist-y things. WE took the Big Bus tour, went to Greenwhich, British Library and several other nuseums of note, saw a Boxing Day movie and two plays. Exhausting just thinking about it. We had a great, great time. Lots of photos to be posted in the future.

The sun actually came out for a short while today. First time since the freezing fog that closed down Heathrow in the run up to Christmas. Its been grey but no to cold and no rain until today! Sorry about the weather talk but its what you do in the UK--discuss the weather.

Must get back to the errands I am running today. Its true what they say about London over the holidays, everything shuts down. So today is it for stores being open so I must go out and shop!!

Christmas lunch

Can you see the name on this awning? Its Llewellyn and its a fairly normal shop. I made my co-worker stand in front of it and look excited that we found it. Mostly, I am just thrilled to live in a land where my names are not TOTALLY weird.

This was the night of the "Christmas lunch" for planners in my office. A new experience for me - lunch began at 3 pm and as you can see carried on until dark (admittedly that's 4 pm this time of year) but it was after 6 before we left "lunch" to go to a pub for drinks. Pretty fun, I'm not sure if things stay this friendly but it seems they know how to have fun as well as work too much here in London.

Another great tree

Last week I was wandering around in my neighborhood and I saw these fabulous trees. Since they were without leaves you can see the amazing job the owners are doing of training the trees to wind into each other. (While you are peering at the screen please also note the TINY cars!)

Lots of great trees in London; especially in my green northern area. I assume they are London Plane trees. Perhaps a reading landscape architect will correct me if I am wrong. Many are pollarded, so they have that weird "knuckled" look but this one has been trained like a fruit tree - I think esplan-something is what its called. I am looking forward to seeing this tree-sculpture through out the seasons.


Really makes me wish I had some gardening skills to wrest some beauty out of the back yard of my flat. So far someone has come and cut back years of growth and exposed a lovely area that I am looking forward to inhabiting in the summer.

Sauces in the UK

They really like their sauces here in the UK. This is a small sample of the sauces offered at a local eatery. The big green one is mint sauce. Now I have seen mint sauce only occasionally and only at a house where some one has roasted a lamb, but here you can get mint sauce in a packet.

The next two are mustards-French and English. There is a joke in here about French vs. English but I will leave that up to you to fill in the blanks. Not sure if they have a mustard packet for "trailer-mustard" i.e. yellow mustard. But they do have a packet for "brown sauce"; which is something they put on everything.

What they don't seem to understand is that ketchup is not precious. They will only give you teeny-tiny small cups of ketchup. Of course they will put bucket-loads of mayonnaise on everything. Now I'm just getting crabby so I'll leave the sauce discussion at that.

Freud sits around

Apparent;y I live in the neighborhood that Freud lived in during his stay in London. This cold and mossy statue of Freud is found in front of Tavistock House, which is on a prominant corner south of Hampstead. He doesn't look happy; however I was very happy to find him becasue I had been lost and once I found him I could fine my way home. So, "Thanks, Freud."

Blustery - but not rainy - Sunday

I notice on my clever Google homepage, that the weather in London is not that different from San Francisco. It seems to be in the 50s most of the day here, just like San Francisco. Why, then, does it seem so blustery, sweater-snuggled, hot-drink-needing, curl-up-and-read, and fluffy-sock-wearing here?

In SF, I just threw on my leather jacket and was ready for the weather at all seasons. Here I find I need layers to wrap up/peel off; constantly adjusting my temperature. Today, I have moved around the stuff in the last untouched room in the flat. Nice to know where all my stuff is, I even found that last small bit that I had not been able to find since I moved. Unfortunately even though I carefully pruned my housing stock, I still have too much stuff and find I need to give away/sell more stuff.

I didn't leave the flat todayexcpet to take out trash and recycling. I did wander out into the garden to check out the rest of the real estate. Turns out there is a garden shed back there; but its dark and kind of wet so I'll explore more later - maybe spring.

Anyway, today while I'm re-arranging and hanging pictures and filing papers and getting rid of still more stuff, I decided was the perfect time to roast a turkey. So I did. Actually, it's a turkey breast but still, I finally am getting to have my Thanksgiving turkey only 10 days late -- roasted some veggies, had a nice salad and some Rojo. Bailey would be proud. It is not Thanksgiving but it does make the place smell all holiday-ish.

Speaking of which let us talk of christmas trees. They are disapointingly small here--I stumbled across a tree lot yesterday when out for a stroll. Not one tree was taller than me (I'm just over 5 feet). In fact, I towered over a couple of them. Hmm, so much for a gloriously tall tree in my reception for the first Christmas in London. On the plus side, it will be easy to get back to the flat with out a car!

Hope your Sundays are great, whereever you are.

My Viking

This week I was very sick - bad foreign cold. Actually a domestic English cold but foreign to my immune system. Started to get sick on Monday but gave up and just stayed in bed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally today, Friday, I am feeling better.

Rather than show you a picture of a giant pile of kleenex - I have chosen to show you a picture drawn by my friend Oliver. Its a picture of a viking (in case you are really dumb and haven't figured it out yet).

Thank you, Ollie, my viking made me feel much better.

Moving in

Moving crates all stacked up in the new space - just waiting to be unpacked. Its a lovely new office, perhaps I'll take a picture once everyone is unpacked.

Funny that they are called Teacrates, what's that all about.Headed home now - need a nap.

Moving out

Here's the office on saturday afternoon, all packing is done and we are off to the new location. On Monday morning the onslaught begins, that's when all the staff shows up and unpacks the boxes and makes the new LOVELY office a big old mess.

Skate! at Somerset House

This lovely Ice rink is set up at Somerset House, a "magnificent 18th century building which houses the celebrated collections of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Gilbert Collection and Hermitage Rooms." In the winter they install an ice skating rink in the courtyard. It is marvelously beautiful. After friends skated, they cleaned up the ice. I love Zambonis, so that's when I took the picture. Note the flaming torches above the tented area. They are big into flaming torches here in England. We had a great time--despite the rain.

What a mess

This is a view of the London office of my firm. We are just about to move to a new office as things have gotten a bit out of hand in this one. We have four separate locations around London and its getting crazy to try and get around between them so as of Monday - we will all be in one location, nice and shiny and new. Cannot wait

Knitting at night - in a pub

Last night, I was invited to join a friend at her knitters group. It was a very fun crowd at a lovely Islington local called The New Rose. It was a great assortment of knitters doing a variety of projects. Since fall/winter lighting has set in for Londoners, these intrepid knitters had come prepared for the ambient pub lighting with a series of headlamps and other lighting devices so that tricky decreasing could be done while still drinking and chatting.

Knitter on the left side of the picture even helped out knitter on the right by taking a break from her task to share her beam. Very resourceful.

More visitors

I did however get a picture of Robert, looking completely dissolute. I still am not sure what his intentions are for that flamingo but they cannot be good.

Jeremy and Shira Visit

OK so this is really a picture of them visiting me in SF and they didn't believe me when I told them it was going to be cold in August.

Somehow I managed to not get a picture of them when they were in London. They came to visit two weeks ago and Robert also came into town from Oxford (see next post).

I didn't realize I was lonely until I walked into the hotel bar and saw them sitting there. It just kind of hit me that I hadn't just hung out with anyone - no agenda, no work, etc. - since I moved almost two months ago.

We had a great night out, despite the fact that Robert and Jeremy had offal for dinner. I was sorry I had to leave when it was time to go. It did remind me how much I like my friends though, I assume I'll have friends like that here, too.

Boxes arrive

Its a bad, bad photo; but it shows my packing label which came on over 180 boxes. Delivered to my most recent home. Yay. Except now I have to unpack those boxes. Oh well. More, once I've got at least half--that's 90--of the boxes opened.

BTW, note the spelling of "clock" - for the record, someone else labeled these boxes, I know how to spell clock. Despite their spelling these movers were great.

Mysterious thingy

Tonight is my last night of homeless wandering. Unfortunately after my most recent back-and-forth to San Francisco, I couldn't get a decent hotel so I'm in a local hotel in Islington. It is the very bare-bonedness of this hotel that is dreary. I'm so sleepy that it probably doesn't matter. However, a brief tour of the hotel room, reveals this mysterious thingy on the wall. It says "unistrut" and I have no idea what it is supposed to do.

I spend a lot of time staring at things in London trying to figure out what they are for, I think I might just launch off on a whole new tangent, taking pictures of things I don't know what to do with in London. So, does anybody know what a "unistrut" is or why it would need to be embedded in a wall at eye level in a not-very-expensive hotel in Islington?

Someone is watching

London has congestion charging; that means if you drive a car into certain areas of London during a work day you must pay 8 Pounds. To catch scofflaws they have these unbelievable camera set ups on streets near entrances to the pricing zone. This is a picture of what they look like.

Very Police-stateish, right? So on the one hand you have every planners dream - a way to charge autos for using relatively scarce city street space. On the other hand, if you want to effectively charge folks you need to track their movements, which results in these rather scary camera pods looming around certain street. You can help but think of the movie Blade Runner when you see these things. It doesn't help that it was particularly grey the day I photographed it, further enhancing the Blade Runner effect.

Of course, you can opt out of the whole tracking-of-your-movement thing by walking but there are still cameras watching your every move.

Garage Blobitecture

Walking through Guy's Hospital last week, I noticed this funny cladding for a garage and substation. Its still under construction so you can see the square panels as they are fitting them into place. The end result is not bad, its better from the street than your run of the mill parking structure/electrical substation eyesore.

I have no idea about the expense, so I don't know if its easily replicated. The again I don't know if I would want a whole group of parking decks/electrical substations all suddenly coated in blobitecture. I suppose if its a one-off design its pretty expensive, on the other hand in the little-ish streets of Bermondsey, the elegant wavy shape is very cool to walk by. I cannot wait to see it fully constructed, I'll post another picture then.

Krispie Kreme in Harrods

OMG. For those of you that know me you may remember my disastrous investment in Krispie Kreme. I bought 100 shares when I moved to SF, based on the quote of a very fit friend about Krispie Kreme actually containing heroine because he couldn't NOT eat them. That was enough for me, if a fried and frosted southern treat could tempt a dedicated sportsman then perhaps I should invest. The stock price went up up up then down down down down. Now I just keep it in the portfolio to remind me that buy and hold doesn't always work...

When researching the stock I had heard they had an outlet in Harrods, but had trouble believing it until I ventured into the foodhall and lo and behold - "Hot doughnuts Now." Sort transported me back to the outlet on Ponce DeLeon in ATL, and the many late evenings that ended there. I'm all misty eyed as I write. I did not partake of the goodies, I will leave that for a future date however please note, that they do indeed have a krispie kreme in London.

In re-reading this post, I find it very surreal, kind of like the Bar B Que thing - I'm starting to sense a bad food theme for this blog. Must change that.

November 5

That date probably means nothing to my American friends to but Brits and the British diaspora it means huge bonfires. Since bonfires are not really probable in urban London, it means fireworks. They have been going off all over town for the whole weekend but have reached a crescendo tonight as darkness fell.

Now most folks LOVE fireworks. I have a healthy fear of fireworks -- especially the amateur kind, after an unfortunate incident in the early 90s involving my innocently standing around on a hot July 4th night watching my friend Leigh set off fire works. To this day he says he is sorry he set me on fire; however that doesn't make me like bangs and pops any in my general vicinity. I've gotten much better in the last 10 or so years - at least I'm not keeping the cats company under the bed any more.

They must be shooting them off over the river because the noise is much louder than the local hoddies shooting them off. I've been out to look at them and they are visable all around so its not just one show. It has been booming, banging and flashing since about 5. Now that its getting closer to 10 pm, it is starting to slow down. Well my first Guy Fawks has been survived!

Why they drink so much tea

This morning I went for a walk so I could stare at the sun. I am concerned about SAD here in the land of overcast. I feel it is important to chase the sun and get it to beam directly into my open eyes--if and when it makes an appearance. After my sun worship and brisk walk I concentrated on some work I had to do back at my digs.

I sat at the computer for six hours all together. I had to stop when I realized my fingers where stiff with cold (sounds very Dickins-ian doesn't it?). That is when the penny dropped, "I understand why they drink so much tea here." It is very cold - BOOM - all of a sudden. One moment you are barely able to breathe on the tube because its so hot, the next you are happily snuggling between the woman with shopping bags and the man reading The Evening Standard.

Needless to say, I have been unable to figure out how to turn on the heat in the temporary abode. So, my only recourse is extra sweaters (not that I have many because they are all on some ship somewhere), socks to bed and lots and lots of herb tea. Today, I go so cold I just started to drink hot water with lemon, because I could not face more tea.

Temporary Housing

This is a view of the former Sarson Malt Vinegar Brewery, south of the Tower Bridge at Tanner Road. My temporary apartment is in this complex of open plan offices. It is in an area called Bermondsey, famous for being a dumping ground for "stinking industries" in the 18th and 19th Century. Stinking industries included leather tanning, and the production of other malodorous commodities like vinegar. In the 20th century, the area became a growth area for council housing estates and weirdly a huge antiques market.

The neighborhood is currently achieving a certain amount of regeneration. It well located between the Tower and London bridges and the new city hall is right on the river at the north end of the neighborhood. It contains the usual jumble of gentrification butting up against long term residents of modest means. From a planning perspective, the council housing is not that bad and the block structure is quite fine grained. The older building are warehouses but on a small scale and mostly brick.

Its been an interesting place to live and while I'll miss it, I am looking forward to my swanky new digs in Hampstead. That will be another slice of life entirely.

Bar-B-Que in London

On Thursday last week I got an email from DT in Atlanta which went something like this... "Just got back from Harold's on the southside -- QUE!"

This translates to, "We've just returned from the ancient southside Atlanta BBQ joint located right next to the the Federal Penitentiary, and the food was great." Of course then the gauntlet was thrown down - could I find BBQ in London? I was wondering around Spittlefields Market near Liverpool Station in London on Sunday. Another ancient market, like Borough but this one was mostly clothes and accessories; the sign said, in business since 1849. The market was packed to the gills.

However, in the very back, buried behind endless rows of tat (I think that means junk) was Bubba's Cafe -- a surprise BBQ joint. Unfortunately, they were not open for business so early on a Sunday; I will have to go back and check out the "QUE!!"

Manchester Vending Machine

Not much to say about this post, really. This is a vending machine in a coffee shop (!) in Manchester. To be honest it was in the dark back alley between the male and female toilets. The funny thing about it was a couple of months ago MG sat next to a woman on a plane who's big idea was basically this. She felt it was something that would go over big in San Francisco. Probably right.

My morning Park

I walk through this park some mornings when I take the bus to the soon-to-be-old office in Islington. The bus is a big double decker and it lumbers from London Bridge Station up through the city to Upper Street in Islington.

The park is beautiful and lush its hard to believe its just about to be November, there are hardly any leaves on the ground and I can still stop at this bench and drink my coffee before entering the mad house.

The UK Llewellyns

On Sunday I went to Sandhurst to visit some family - My father's brother, Roger, his wife June and my cousin James. My other cousin, Rhian, was off starting up a new job, with a trip to Nice - can't wait to hear that story.

June and Rog invited me for Sunday dinner and it was lovely. I took the train out on a rainy, chilly day and spent the afternoon tucked inside smelling the lamb roast and drinking buckets of coffee. This picture is of June, James and his fiance, Annabelle. Roger and his cousin Wee David were in the living room (AKA reception)watching Formula One racing.

Don't fence me in

This is the iron work that surrounds one of the many castles or estates I have seen on my rambles around the city. pretty aggressively telling you that you should want to climb that wall. You would also have to have been pretty wealthy to afford that kind of iron work, however even on more modest buildings I have seen some amazing ironwork. Very different from the scroll-y stuff there is in Florida and San Francisco.

I am very amazed at the different levels of construction here in the UK, on the one hand they have some very modern buildings and construction methods on the other hand, I've seen guys laying tile on steps of major public building in a very old school way. So, iron work security bars to old school construction methods - you a get a bit of everything with this blog...

250 years of Borough Market

Saturday was the 250 year of the Borrough Market near London Bridge. In celebration of 250 years, they asked people to dress as they would have 250 years ago. That led to the above sighting of two ladies chatting next to normal shoppers who looked remarkably slovenly. The market was HEAVING with people but I went in anyway just to get the feel.



Once you are inside you see things like this display of prize winning apples in the national Fruit-off--I'm joking but it did have a name like that. The notice tells you the best things about the prize winning Egremont Apple such as it was first recorded in 1872 and it has "rather dry flesh with a rich nutty flavor."

Its true what they say about London

It is grey and it rains. This is the view from the top of the 43 bus snaking its way through London. I am testing out all modes of transportation and I discovered that this bus leads to another bus which leads to the RV1 bus, which is THE tourist bus. It takes you from Covent Garden past the BBC "Bush House" (coincidence?) across the river to The London Eye around a couple more spots and ends up at crossing Tower Bridge. It happens to also go quite near my temporary digs. The moral of this tale is sometimes just get on a bus and see where it takes you. and... yes, it rains in London.

Red Ferrari

Believe it or not, this is a knitted Ferrari. It was a featured piece at the knit and stitch show at the Alexander Palace (aka "Ally Pally"). I went to the show, with a friend from my London office, another knitter. The demographics of the show were fairly predictable lots and lots of older white haired ladies. It was kind of hilarious when we stood up to get off the train and were engulfed by a elderly women all desperate to get to the Palace to feel some yarn.

Back to the Ferrari, it was pretty cool - some people obviously have way too much time on their hands. Still its is quite a piece of work

Bangers - cheap as chips

I love the British sense of humor. This sign was outside of Burroughs Market in Southwark (pronounced "suthuk" not "south-wark") in a pub across from a butcher. I almost stopped in because I wondered how posh bangers would taste. The gents leaning on the sign are smoking and talking, the usual outside of pub behaviors, at least they weren't yelling into cell phones. I'll have to try again some other time, because there was just too much else to see.

This is a cereal box

There are some great design things in the UK. This is a cereal box. I cannot believe that CEREAL boxes look so good. Of course they also have some crap cereal boxes but this one is quite beautiful, don't you think?

Green Park is really green

Very jet-lagged, I decided to go for a walk on the first day I have in London. I walked to London Bridge tube station and took the Jubilee line to Green Park. May be I wanted to checkand see if it was really green. This is a picture of the park, and I can confirm that it is green.

Remember conferences?

Just to remind you this is what the vast majority of conferences are really like. You sit in those silly chairs which they hook together for maximum un-comfort in a darkened room, listening to people talk. In the case of this photo, it is the Mayor of Portland and he is welcoming up to his lovely city. Turns out the weather is lovely (read: not raining) but we don't really know that since we are below the surface in the bowels of the Portland Hilton Hotel and Conference Center.

The only saving grace for conferences is all that free coffee AND in this case, the fabulous folks who are members and staff of the International Downtown Association. They are so welcoming and GREAT at throwing parties that you almost for get the hours you've sat listening to folks tell you stories about "clean, safe, and inviting downtowns."

I'm only being harsh on conferences in general, the IDA is great and my hotel (I booked to late for the Hilton) really rocked. If ever you are in Portland go a little out of your way and stay at the DeLuxe Hotel. Its all glammed up and just across the interstate from downtown.

Plus, as an extra bonus I got to visit with a Development Group staffer who is working remotely up here in Portland. Liz and I met for a little drink on Monday evening and caught up - it was great.

Back on a plane -- again

Now for the final plane trip (in the month of October) between SFO and LON. Not a bad flight but, boy, am I tired of United food and bad bad coffee.

So its official, with this flight I used my new work permit visa and I guess that means I am officially a Londoner. Hmmm.

Half price for hybrids

Another planner piece. I saw this sign in Portland when I was there for the IDA conference. Parking is half price in close in parking lots for hybrids. Now this might induce people to buy hybrids but doesn't it also induce people to drive in town to get that cheap parking? In a city like Portland with semi-decent mass transit, isn't that a shame?

Leaving San Francisco, again..

This morning, I am taking off for three days in Portland, then finally headed to London for real. I am enjoying my coffee and listening to Henry coo and giggle. Its the best -- well much better than yesterday's crying jags. OK, really that was me. I had a last dentist appointment to get the final touch on the "fear of British Dentistry" campaign. Yay! The crown fit and just for good measure Negvesky, the Dentist, gave them a good scrub and my teeth are glowing. California teeth hitting London on October 11.

This picture was taken by a co-worker, Todd Kholi, at dawn in SF while we were on a conference call on October 4. Bob was in London and I was in a cab trying to get on the call at 15.00, Todd was in SF and Aki was in Lake Tahoe at 7.00, meanwhile Chris was in Hong Kong at 22.00. This was what was happening on the Marin Headlands

Another plane seat

Another ticket, believe it or not I am headed back to San Francisco, its been five days since my "soft start" in London. I haven't even finished the book I bought for the first flight on October 1. So I took another picture, of another ticket stub just to prove how silly my life is right now.

In another five days, its back on the plane to London, at that time its really going to be home.

Boring planner blog

This is a warning to all non-planners reading this blog, you may find this installment boring.

If you've gotten this far then I am going to assume you know who Sir Ebenezer Howard was. If not you can probably guess by reading the sign pictured, that he was the "father of garden city movement." What is really funny/ironic about this lovely, fired and glazed plaque is that it is imbedded in a highrise on the south side of the Barbican Centre in London.

This is a picture of the northwest side of the Barbican Centre. It is a concrete, brutalist structure built east of Smithfield market begining in teh late 1950s in an area that had been basically destroyed by bombing in the Blitz. It is a complex that only John Portman could really love--a confusing maze of levels with very strong horizontal and vertical building elements, totallu cut off from the surrounding fabric. In essence, its the complete opposite of what old Ebenezer was shooting for in his garden city movement.

Having said that, Barbican Centre is also weirdly cool in a retro kind of way. That's enough planning talk for the day.

Day three

Much better start to the day - kept upright and standing all morning. A credit to my upbringing. However, I do have some very lovely technicolor bruises, pictures of which I will spare you.

I found a temporary place to live, in Bermondsey (spelled that way?) at the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Tanner Street. Really looking forward to unpacking for the 36 days I will spend there. The hopefully my stuff will arrive and I'll be Hampstead bound.

Must go to work.

Day two

This day started badly. As I was leaving the hotel, I missed a step and fell headlong onto the carpet in the lobby. Luckily, it was 8am and the lobby of my fancy hotel was practically empty. Unfortunately, my new workmates got to see the spectacular spill, since they were meeting me for breakfast. Of course there was the usual fuss (I fall a lot) and humiliation. I can see I need to pay more attention to walking in London, lots of steps here and the sidewalks are never even. Dangerous territory for those with bad ankles and absentminded folks.

So note to self, "watch where you are going."

In the seat on the plane...

Luckily, I got an upgraded seat in business class. While sitting there I realized that my ticket had the name of the blog on it (sort of) "from San Francisco to LON/Heathro." Too long for a blog but quite catchy.

The trip was completely uneventful and the luggage was there when I got off the plane. Amazing start to my British adventure.

Henry says goodbye

I spent my last two days in San Francisco at Henry's house. He and his parents had a party for me on Saturday night, along with just-about-to-be-new mother Amanda.

We all had a fabulous time, chatting in the lovely backgarden and eating the catering of "Good Fricken Chicken," a mediteranean restaurant in the Mission. Strange name but good "fricken" chicken and hummus. So many friends, it was great.

But finally it was Sunday morning and I had to go, luckily I had a little down time with Henry on Saturday before the party and I got him to say goodbye in that Henry way.

A completely untethered existence

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I have just realized, this morning, that when I give my keys over this afternoon, I will not have ANY keys - not one. I've never not had keys!

Brynn and Lisa will take my car and house keys and disperse them to various folks - car keys to Jen, house and mailbox keys to the neighbors who are taking over my place. I'll give the office key fob to Sally to return for me and that's it. Poof! No keys, no home, no car, no cats, no responsibilities for at least 24 hours. A completely untethered existence.

If it weren't for the 130 boxes working their way towards Southampton and the two suitcases and a backpack tucked in my friends' closet, I guess I would be untethered. Lucky me.

Goodbye red cabrio

This morning, after a bath, oil change and fill-up, I parked Big Red for the last time. I've left her to be picked up next week by Ms. Jen, who will no doubt take wonderful care of her and enjoy endless hours of top down cruising. I have enjoyed my second cabrio immensely. She loved it out here in California, lots of sweeping coastal drives and Sonoma back roads.

When LLG visited, we tucked her young girls in the back seat and drove around--enjoying their squeals of delight. It got a bit cooler and they took cover under the Mexican picnic blanket so that only their little legs stuck out. San Francisco is a great place to have a convertible.

So strange, as I took the #22 bus after dropping off my car, I realized that I will only be on buses, trains, taxis and subways for at least the next two years. In London I will be car-less, for the first time since I learned to drive at 16.

The container has holes in it

This was the container that is supposed to take my worldly goods across the ocean. It pulled up about an hour ago. Luckily my moving guy, checked it out and discovered it had a rather large hole in the roof. Not a good thing in a container, apparently.

What is supposed to happen is that that the 130 boxes which contain my household goods gets loaded in this box (known as a "20") which is then put on train, which travels to Houston, where it is put on a rather large ship, when then travels across the Atlantic and arrives in Southampton, when it clears customs then trains or trucks up to London and the leafy suburb of Hempstead, where the moving company will unload it in about six weeks time. However, this particular 20 has a hole in the roof and it is therefore rejected.

After some discussion the moving guy decides to load the 130 boxes onto his truck and take them to the warehouse--where they will transfer all of them to a more acceptable, non-holey container. Then the trip described above can take place. Without holes, I have great faith that my stuff will arrive in pristine condition. These guys really know how to pack!

Just a postscript, as I was clearing up after the truck with my stuff in it left, the container guy pulled up with another container. So perhaps my faith in my stuff arriving is a bit misplaced... I'll tell you how it all works out in six weeks!

Cats on couches

The truth is I came to posses cats in 1992 becasue my friends Ross and Suz said my apartment needed them. So I got one, Dylan Thomas, a big orange tabby. I was then told that two cats were as easy as one and so I got Dylan his own cat, Morgana. So, really, I swear, I'm not cat person. However, they have been with me ever since and now they are making the move to the UK.

It is a real pain to take a cat to the UK. It involves multiple vet visits, microchipping, shots, blood tests and that's all before the six months wait. So this morning they had their last round of shots and their surrogate Mom, Candice, came to pick them up. Candice, the ever affable pet sitter and force of nature, will keep them here in SF for the six month waiting period. Finally, in March after being spoiled for six months they will be shipped to me in London.

All this is to explain why I felt it necessary to post pictures of Dylan and Morgana on my blog. Here they are soaking up the sun last Sunday, shedding all over the new brown couches. You gotta love them.

Goodbye, Firmwide!

Lunch on Wednesday, my last day in the office, everyone waves "so long" to me. It is interesting having a blog, because it is a reason to take pictures and a place to put them. This is the Firmwide staff or at least those that were in the office that day.

Mexico City here we come!

Big moving week at the 900 Tennessee Street Lofts. Pictured are Richard and Dyana, newly weds in the back of a minivan full of their worldly posessions. Good luck and safe travels!

Can dogs laugh?

So this is the moving week. Had the moving sale (picture courtesy of Sproutgirl74). Friends are all coming by to pick up their goods and now I really am moving. I'm really going to miss my building; I suppose I mean my neighbors in the building. My friends here are all so great; they are always around to let me in when I've locked myself out or feed the cats or pick up the mail.

I will especially miss the sound of the dogs raring up and down the hallways - can dogs laugh? Some times it sounds like that. I know their owners do.

The Clampetts are leaving dogpatch

Getting ready to move means farming out your stuff to friends. Henry and his parents are reciving these two fine slipper chairs. They were transpported with the help of Big Red, my valiant volkswagon, and a blue tarp with bungy cords. Luckily, I was protected from neighborhood varmits by Dixi, the wonder dog. I really did feel a bit like a Clampett driving from Dogpatch through the Mission to Henry's house.

I assume they will be well used over the next couple of years. Parties, dinners, and general lounging are what these chairs cry out for. Hopefully, by Friday of this week I can show you a picture of the chairs in situ at Henry's place.