My Tampa Home

This is the Tampa house where I lived in high school. On New Year's Eve, My friend Nancy Yost (MFNY) and I drove by the house. As we were taking the picture a car drove into the driveway, we were busted. We staopped and chatted with the lady who bought the house from my parents in 2000. Pretty funny, because my old neighbors sold their house to their son, who now lives their and HE drove up while we were chatting. Apparently most people never move far from home.

The house looks much more bland since my family moved out!

Christmas in Florida

Christmas Day was unusually warm, in fact I thought I was going to die! I have become one of those people who can barely stand it when it goes above 75 F. However by the second week I was back to old Florida form, barely flinching when it got to 75 and trooping right through 80. Goodness knows what will happen when I visit in the summer in the future.

Anyway, visiting with the family was grand, Mum and Dad and sister Ceri were all in fine form. Had other visits with friends and lots of lounging around on the back deck. Even had a kayak trip - will figure out where those pictures are and get them posted. In the meantime I have added pictures from the Eastern European tour below.

Happy New Year to one and all, best of wishes for this coming year.

Christmas in Florida, Part II

Some things never change, Mum and Dad enjoying their Christmas morning gifts and no, they didn't mean to be wearing matching shirts!

If it is Thursday this must be Bucharest

We arrived at the Bucharest airport at 15 minutes after midnight. It was a pretty big plan though, so their were a significant number of us jostling toward the cab rank. My crew - now expanded to four of us - jammed into a cab with three across the back seat. This would not have been a problem except because it was so late, there was very little traffic and our driver took off at a very high speed. Unusually, I was not in the middle seat; I say unusually because in most crowds I am the shortest one and the one therefor who gets the "hump." However, my gallant fellow travellers gave me the seat behind the driver, this I was pleasantly unaware of our careening across multiple lanes until "hump" passenger, Andrew, started looking ahead in a very scared way and gripping the seatbacks of the two seats in front of him.

In the front seat along side the driver is Chris who is showing us all three cities. He tells the driver to slow down and the driver does but only for a while, I start paying attention peering around the seat back and noticing that not only is he driving fast but he is also no where near driving in a lane. It was almost like he was a cab driver in Shanghai - in my experience the worst, scariest cab drivers in the world. To distract us from impending death, Chris started pointing out the sights.

Mind you some were REALLY hard to miss. First thing we all noticed was the extraordinary number of car dealerships right outside the airport, very interesting to have Ferraris next to Skoda but all there lined up in a row. The road was huge and wide just like were you would find the car dealerships in suburban Atlanta. Then boom next was a giant collection of stores dominated by Carrefor (which is a French WalMart). Finally we start coming to teh more urban area. signalled by the Arc de Triumf, I swear it was actual size sitting right there in the middle of the roundabout. Turns out it was built in 1922 to memorialise the war dead.

Next up was Ceauşescu Palace. Remember, its probably now about 1:00 or so in the morning, we have been on the go since 8am and traveled here from Prague. This thing looms up to the left as we tear into the city driven by a mad driver. One of us had read a guidebook and piped up with, "Did you know that the Palace is mistakenly called a palace its really supposed to be a government building and is generally considered to be the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon." Looking it up after the trip I discover that factoid is one that everyone quotes, but there are some who say that its actually the third largest behind the Pentagon and the a Pyramid in Egypt. Nice view from the balcony though.

Finally after drag racing around the palace we arrive at our Marriott home. Third night; third Marriott - although this one used to be a guest house for the palace next door. Marriott took it over in 2001. Finally got to bed at 1:30 and guess what the room looked exactly like th eone in Prague and Warsaw - same toiletries, same sheets, same tv. When I woke up I really didn't know where I was until I looked out the window and saw the palace.

If you go to Bucharest - this guide isn't bad.

Day Two and Three, Warsaw and Prague

Since I'm doing this after the fact lets just pretend this is Tuesday last week. I flew from London to Warsaw on Monday, met up with my fellow business folks and went to the Warsaw office met some great people - saw some cool work and had an amazing lunch at a restaurant that served traditional Polish food, U Kucharzy. My wonderful hosts took us there. Wed did not have the famous dish - steak Tartare; but the pirogues were excellent and it was great to watch the chefs. Short walk around the town and then back to the office for more meetings.

Fly that night to Prague, where we once again check into the Marriott. Second night in Central Europe, second night in a Marriott, I swear it was the same room, just different colour schemes. But very well located just outside the old town square so I had a brisk walk before bedtime to enjoy the lights and wonderful architecture. Prague has always been one of my favourite cities even in the dark and freezing cold. I am really struck by how different Warsaw and Prague are. Warsaw was basically destroyed during the WWII and then trashed again during Spring Uprising. Many of the old buildings are rebuilt copies of what stood there before. Significant portions of Prague remained relatively unscathed in the physical architectural sense. My Warsaw hosts said if I wanted to really see what Poland was like before 1940's I should visit Krakow. Must book that flight.

Next day, we head to another office, see another set of projects and meet lots of people all good. Another walk through the city back to the office - another plane ride to arrive at Bucharest at 00:15.

My CEE adventure

I am just back from my tour of CEE (Central and Eastern Europe - apparently lots of folks use that acronym I had never heard it before.)

Now if I could only figure out how to get the pictures out of the phone and onto my computer I could show y'all some touristy stuff. I was an interesting couple of days. Started on Monday by flying to Warsaw and meeting up with the other members of the team -- we were there to meet some company reps of another business. My companions were a guy from corporate parent company and a guy from Abu Dhabi office. Both very nice; we made an interesting crew. Me: planner from Florida, Atlanta, San Francisco, London. Corporate guy: engineer from all over US but most recently Denver and Orange County, CA. Abu Dhabi guy: engineer from Adelaide who had just moved to Abu Dhabi/Dubai to take over a new role. All very different but fairly compatible considering we had just decided to meet up at the Marriott lobby bar in Warsaw.

Turned out fine, we agreed to meet the next day at the coffee shop and meet the Brit who was going to be introducing us to the offices on our three-country tour. Fine, I went for a cold evening stroll passed the culture palace not far from the hotel and was tucked up in my first Marriott bedroom by 10pm.

International Assignee

Just got an email from the parent company of my company (long story) but the gist of it is that as an International Assignee I must choose my 2009 Benefits, you know healthcare and 401K and etc. So its that time of year again, fine. This post is really about the term "international assignee." Its sort of like "resident alien" which is what my Mum and Brother are in the US, here they say you have "indefinite leave to stay." I am always struck by our ability to make up amazing names for things. Its not just the cultural difference of names but how people react to them.

I work for a company that is based in the US but is getting a much larger presence outside the US - so the distinction between domestic and foreign is really a bit strange right now. Technically domestic is here in the UK and foreign is outside the UK because technically we are a plc registered here in the UK and wholly-owned by a US parent which is in turn owned by another US parent. I have been known to get memo requests -- created on letter size paper (aka 8.5x11 inches) which won't print in my A4 world -- asking me for breakdowns of sales in terms of domestic and global clients. What we call "foreign" here in UK would be "global" in the US.

What do you think - foreign or global? and is it a good or bad thing to be an International Assignee?

Ooohh... business trip planned

I can tell my life is getting dull - I'm almost excited by the prospect of an upcoming business trip. I never get excited by business trips, I used to do them all the time. Recently, though I have been assigned to base, as it were, keeping an eye on the looming credit crunch business drop off - or not; kind of depends on the day of the week. Anyway, Just found out that I will be going on an Eastern European fly by night tour to meet some potential business partners. So on Monday I'm flying to Warsaw, Tuesday Prague and Thursday Bucharest.

Sounds exotic but I'm staying in the Marriott in each of these cities - which I think is a bit like going to Paris and eating at a McDonald's but we cannot be picky, can we. By the way I have eaten at McDonald's in Paris and I have nothing against McDonald's; in fact I truly love my fast food - but I think you know where I'm going here.

I'm sure it will be airport, hotel, meeting room, hotel, airport with an interspersing of interesting cab rides. But still could be fun, at least its different from Chicago, West Palm Beach, Charlotte - which was my old business trip stomping grounds. What I really need to check is whether I will get any new passport stamps - Is Romania in the European Union?

oohh I'm off to google Bucharest - its the only one I haven't been to.

Its Thanksgiving!

No that's not my sad English turkey dinner. Its dinner from a couple of weeks ago, at the beginning of the real credit crunch. Since then I've re budgeted 12 times and scaled potential salaries up and then scaled back the increases. Taken a good hard look at all expenses. Tried to figure out which of our markets will survive and prosper. Its been exhausting.

All that work and really its back in the same place, radio and t.v. are all shouting about how we are going to hell in a hand basket and Woolworth's here in the UK just declared bankruptcy. Do we even have Woolworth's still in the US? I can't remember. Surely they have lost out to Target - wonder why they don't have Target here? Such a great store. I digress, as usual.

Point is after all that furious Excel-ing we are back in the same positions the majority of our clients are carrying on but some are slowing down. Seems to be the way all the way around the world. So, I'm having Turkey this weekend at a friend's flat and I will be thankful for family and friends and everything else that sometimes one forgets to be thankful for.

By the way, that dinner pictured above was lovely. Cheese here is really good and sparkling water with fruit juice is always a tonic.

Sproutgirl's thankful list

An old neighbor and friend of mine Jen, AKA Sproutgirl has recently posted a list of 100 things she's thankful for - see it here. Interesting test for an uptight business-girl on her day off awaiting the delivery of new flashy hob and cooker (stovetop and oven for those of you not bilingual). Will have to think about it and get back to you. In the meantime maybe you could share your own lists...

OMG, I've joined Facebook

My Friend Nancy Yost made me do it. She has wrangled a lot of old high School friends into it and I must say its been interesting. One overriding reason I didn't want to join was because it was something else to keep up with -- as you can see from the dates between blog posts, I'm not very good at keeping timely with all things digital. I find Facebook can be weirdly addictive, you spend a lot of time spelunking through the private lives of people you know, people you know and barely remember and other who are just taken with something about you. One guy wanted to be my friend because he wanted to know another Sian Llewellyn, his name is Shaun Llewellyn and he lives in Costa Rica. Others are just friends of Yost and mine that I used to go to school with. Interesting to catch up with some of them - others are readers of this blog and will know more about me than I care to share with al the world's strangers.

Fall in the US is known as Autumn here

Last weekend there was a cold snap in London. I had to turn on the heating, which seemed really odd for the first weekend in October. Even after all these years outside of Tampa, I still think of October as a warm month. In fact, despite the fact that this summer had about three hot days--I don't even think I really opened the windows all the way once--I was sort of secretly happy to wake up to a chill. Perhaps Fall and following Winter is sort of form of Stockholm Syndrome. My first year here in London I was steeled to face the Winter dark mornings and afternoons, cold weather, endless grey days. I find myself almost looking froward to it now. That first cold snap morning, I was shocked to find myself thinking how pleasant it was to be able to wrap up and go out for a brisk walk. Leaves are turning yellow, red, brown and covering the pavements (sidewalks). I have in fact come to really enjoy and anticipate the cold weather. What the heck is that all about?

Autumn reminds me of at least three things:

1) Packing with my Mum for my first year at college at Emory. I had three (3!) wool sweaters, a severe Prince Valiant bangs and bob hair style and a pink peter pan colored button up shirt. It was August/September 1980, and I was so excited to head up to Emory in Atlanta; where they had fall and winter.

2) My roommate Allison (she was from Indiana and Illinois so she knew about winter) in our two-bedroom apartment in Buckhead post-college, coming out one Saturday morning in the fall swathed in a big cable-knit sweater, saying "I know I'm rushing the season."

3) Hayrides and hoe-downs with the Lake Magdalene United Methodist Church youth group and football games at Chamberlain High School.

What do you think about Fall; by the way here in the UK they always correct me when I say Fall, with a curt "You mean Autumn."

Sadly, Chuck still drinks Bud

Had some visitors in late summer, Chuck and Susan. I know them both from my Atlanta days. In fact I take total credit for their marriage since I introduced them to each other. However, I cannot take credit for Chuck's terrible taste in beer. Despite visiting the beer capital of the world, Chuck continued to purchase and drink American Budweiser.

We had a great time while they were here, theatre, art exhibits, good food, shopping; plus long conversation between old friends. However, I fear for my friends. He may be an esteemed architect and Susan a sophisticated museum director, but Chuck still drinks Bud.

Did I mention I was British?

Two weeks ago, my brand spanking new British passport arrived. I was well chuffed. Thanks, Mum and Dad. The paper work was interesting, You can only get an ancestry British citizenship by

A) Having a father who was British at my birth (he's a Yank now, has been since the sixties) - By the way if you were born before 1980 you could only be British through your Dad not your Mum, interesting huh? So you need his birth certificate.

B) Having a mother who was married to your father. So you need their marriage certificate.

C) Having me. So you need your birth certificate.

Then you fill out a lot of scary forms and have someone who is "professional" counter sign your form saying they have known you for some number of years. In my case it was a friend from work who has a PhD in Urban Morphology, he gets to be called Dr. Jones. and that Dr. preface means he gets to co-sign my application. Better than the registered landscape architect I was going togo with, right?

Then you send all that off with your existing US passport (eek - I was without a passport for weeks!). I will get the US passport back because technically I am a dual citizen. After the required amount of time they send you a letter and tell you show up at a dodgy part of town (in my case Hannibal House at Elephant and Castle) where you have an interview and "prove" you are who you said you were. Couple of scary moments in the interview when they asked me my phone number. Shit, I've never known my phone number. I use my work number for everything because I can remember it. So I told the interviewer, I could never remember my mobile number and I could do parts of it and proceeded to ramble off some familiar sounding numbers. Apparently I got pretty close. Next slip up was when I started rattling off my Dad's birthday instead of my Mum's. Then I switch to my sisters in stead of My Mum. Ack, panic - was she the 6 or the 7, franticly counting the days between Christmas and 12th night which is the only way I can remember it. Oh, I'm fluffing this. Ask me about direct labour rates, gross or net contribution or what percentage of our net rev goes towards fringe benefits - don't ask me phone numbers and birthdays and expect an answer without the help of supporting documentation. Whew, they let me go and told me I would hear from them in 4 to 10 days.

Five days later I get a piece of paper at my home telling me to arrange a delivery, which I do for the next day at the office. Then I hang around near my desk or go to meetings clutching my mobile so the deliver company can reach me because I have to prove to the delivery boy that I am the to whom he should be delivering the package. That's it. Some sweaty bicycle delivery guy looks at me looks at my California drivers license then hands me an envelope. I rip it open hoping its the passport and not a rejection letter. It is! It is a pleathery red square-ish block with biometric chip and antennae (!?) and additional pages for those traveling folks. I'm in! I can go and live anywhere in the European Union. I don't have to get stopped, questioned and frisked at small airports in France. I can go to CUBA! I can go anywhere because the Queen says so inside the front cover.

Best of all I don't have to get another work permit because my first one runs out next week. So what have I done with my new found freedom? Nothing. I've taken the 168 bus from the Royal Free Hospital stop on Haverstock hill to Southhampton Row and then walked to Clerkenwell Road and left onto Hatton Garden to work. All I need now is a bowler hat and a black umbrella to be the perfect British worker bee.

To celebrate, I have begun using the words "crikey" and "bother" as often as possible in everyday speech.

End of Summer BBQ

On last bank holiday of the summer - sort of the equivalent to Labor Day in US - I took a couple of days off and lazed around. It was lovely. By Monday I was ready to see some folks and invited some Australian friends over for a BBQ, which I had been threatening to do for some time. Unfortunately I didn't have a BBQ, but had seen these clever disposable things in grocery stores. So I headed out to check out the newly revamped Sainsbury's on Finchley Road. Sainsbury's is basically like Publix - its an upper-mid market grocery store with everything. I am a Waitrose shopper, which is like saying I'm a Whole Foods shopper - it implies you are idiot who pays too much for your food, but the stores are smaller and are more to shop in because they are less like bus stations.

ANYWAY, I headed out for the newly refurbished Sainsbury's and had that feeling I usually get when I walk into store of over 200,000 SF, "would I ever really need a grocery store this big?" There are aisles with nothing in them but canned food. The aisle are so long that you can see the curvature of the earth. They had a season aisle - always a favourite for me. What will the season aisle bring? IN this case it was a decimated aisle of summer-like products; sunscreen, unbreakable plastic products, very breakable chairs, sun umbrellas, a smattering of garden related implements, slug pellets, compost, and etc. They also were having an end of the season sale on disposable BBQ - two sizes small and family size. They are aluminum (or aluminium as we say here in the Great British Isles) trays with flammable briquets leashed in the tray under a sort-of-grill thing. You put it on its cute little stand which is made of something like a wire coat hanger. Then it requires that you place it on a non-flammable surface. Tough to do in my back yard since its all paved in railroad ties (known as sleepers here). So I rigged up a table with a big tray and balanced on the tray is a big slab of slate that usually holds cheese at dinner parties.

I was really pleased (chuffed) at how cleverly I rigged up the grilling gadget. I thought even my "of-shore ready" sister would have found my improvisation acceptable. Everything went off like a charm, the BBQ worked great, we had great burgers that tasted like they had been grilled. Good thing I bought three of those disposable BBQs

This truck is wearing a skirt.

Driving between Abu Dhabi and Dubai means you spend a lot of time sitting around staring at the traffic surrounding you. This back of this truck really caught my eye. sorry about the poor quality of the picture, but if you look below the bumper you will notice that there is a colourful layer of chains (?) hanging from the bumper. I assume its like a mud guard of some kind. It was quite mesmerising to just watch it sway and simmer in the heat while we sat there. The truck was pretty interesting, too. Look at the detail in the rails on the sides of the bed. Very heavily detailed. A bit over the top for a working vehicle but nicely grand, I think.

Believe it or not this was the view from my room at the Shangra-La hotel in Abu Dhabi. This is the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan Grand Mosque. Third largest Mosque in the world after Mecca and Medina. I was AD and Dubai for a work project it was hot hot hot. so I didn't really spend a lot of time looking out of my rooms windows. But finally after my last of three days locked up in airconditioned meeting rooms, I went out on the rooms balcony and turned to the right. OMG, I nearly fell over the railing. The sun was setting and the white structure was just glowing. Its really huge.

Quite a sight.

This is the other view

This is the view you see when you look straight out the window. Really nice and luxurious. Just to put in contact though it was something like 45 Celsius that day (wow, I just looked that up and its 113 F).

Not a bad view, but its nothing compared to the Mosque.

Funny that the minute I start blogging again...

my internet connection starts to get all flaky on me. I can only get online every so often. Makes no sense. Ever since I moved to SF in 2003, I've bundled phone, internet and cable. These bundled services have been remarkably stable. I rarely lose connections, could be because I moved away from the horrendous storms of the south east United States and there fore just had less lightning, hurricanes and tornadoes to contend with. So I notice it much more when I cannot get online.

Think about all the things you do with the internet these days. Want to find out what time the movies starts, the population of Doha, the correct way to set a table, the phone number for pizza delivery, what people are saying about your blog... all require a decent internet connection.

*****HUGE DIGRESSION my spell check thinks internet should be spelled Internet, with a capital "I". What do you think about that?*****

So as any red blooded liberal would now likely comment, gosh, we really need to make sure more folks get access to th einternet so they can join the early 21st Century.

Enough said, I'm currently back on line so I'm going to post a slew of things.

Arthur's Seat with Mum and Dad

So far behind! I never posted this picture of Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat hill. Mum, Dad and I climbed (ok its a walk but it felt like a climb) it when they came to visit in April! Love this picture, because we got very close to the top and I just petered out. Mum kept on for a while further - that's her seated on the boulder in the foreground, left hand side. Dad, feeling he had to accomplish it, went all the way to the top. He is one of those specks you see in the upper left corner on the out cropping. It was a very cold day especially for the Floridians but it was really great.

We ended the day at a pub in Leith, watching a semi contentious football game between rivals. Luckily we had no idea who either side was so we just went ahead and cheered for the team the whole pub was rooting for and made lots of friends.

Now I'm just rambling, aren't I?

Did a lot of knitting this spring and summer

what the hell, I've already shown you my cats. I might as well show you the knitting I've been doing this summer and really seal my reputation as a swinging London chick - Not. I bought this lovely yarn in Edinburgh on a trip the first Fall I was was here. Its been one of those projects you just keep plugging away at - not thinking just sitting there watching re-runs of Inspector Morse, or Midsummer Murders or some other total murder mystery tele.

The Longer I live in England the more I find I am actually becoming Miss Marple. I guess that's no surprise since I was into mysteries and knitting before moving but now I find its all coalescing into a potential Agatha Christie plot.

Good thing, too, otherwise life would be very dull.

Fingerless gloves

Its cold here so when I'm bogged down in the middle of a big project I like to whip out something small and fun. These green fingerless Gloves (hand warmers?) were really fun to make with cables and ribbing and thumbs. Lots of things to pay attention to - can only listen to Radio 4 not watch old tv when you are working on something like this.

Dylan in repose

Don't know why I find it necessary to post pictures of my cat - but I do. This is Dylan looking regal in my living room-actually here its known as my reception room - doesn't that sound more regal? It also gives you a pretty good view of my bookshelves. Makes me look really intellectual doesn't it? Don't be fooled, its all a front.

Anyway, Dylan has had kind of a rough summer. I traveled a lot in July and August and he was pretty pissed off. He's 19 years old and expects better treatment than to be left home with only his companion, Morgana (a spry 17 years old) for company. He has started to get very thin - which is very unlike him. He was a robust two year old, 18 pound alley cat, when I adopted him in 1992. Now he's just an old gentleman cat who likes his food and water and a warm lap.

Dubai in July

sorry sorry sorry for those of you who keep tuning in and I have nothing posted.

Its been a long summer and I have been a lazy sod. But I'm back and now I am going to fillin some of the gap since I last wrote in July - oh how can it have been July.

Anyway, This was the view from my enormous room in Dubai. I as there on a business trip and completely flummoxed by the scale of everything. As you may remember I was in Abu Dhabi previously, which was odd enough but Dubai is fiercely growing. This is the main road along which most of the tall towers you hear about are gathered. Its a nightmare to cross, the older part of town, around Dubai Creek, is pretty interesting - although the picture in the link makes it look a lot like Hong King but its really much less urban. On the part of the creek were I had dinner it was very low scale and small boats transport people back and forth.

Definately worth going to the small but interesting Dubai Museum. To see how houses were made before oil.

Its summer!!!!!

This is summer in England. This rose plant is growing up through another bush in my back yard. Its been blooming like this for about three weeks. Unbelievable.

Biggest Green Roof in the middle of The City of London

Last week I went to a meeting at a new building in London. The law firm which now resides in the building in the City is justifiably proud of its Green aspects. Because my firm is a planning and design firm, they gave us a tour of their newly finished "Green Roof."

This photo shows you was a misnomer green roof is, the planting results in a green and red carpet of low growing plant material - I forgot the name of the plant. It even has some higher stems which are topped with a white flower. There are bird and bat boxes to encourage wildlife. The building manager was very funny when he said it was hard to get used to the idea that he was supposed to be attracting flora and fauna to the roof; apparently that strikes against all his previous building management experience. But he seemed very please with his expansive new territory.

But enough about the roof do you see that view? We are looking out across St.Paul's Dome and in the back you can see the London Eye. Luckily it was a lovely day - clear and hot. Up on the roof in the The City. Thanks for the tour.

Today, I helped some old people

OK they weren't that old but they were standing outside my tube station (Farringdon Road) dazed and confused pouring over a map. They kept flipping the map around and staring up at the buildings where the street signs are supposed to be. No street signs, its a typical London sign nightmare. You think they could put up some decent signs since the streets are not a grid and who can tell what direction is north (south east or west for that matter) when its a constant level of grey.

Anyway, I asked them if I could help. Not because I'm particularly helpful but because I've worked with a lot of downtown improvement districts and I always like to know where tourists are going.

Lovely couple, they held the map out for me and asked a simple question, "Is this Cow Cross Street?"

"Yes," I replied in my regular voice. I don't know who else's voice I would use but its an important part of the story, that I spoke to them in my regular voice.

"We are trying to find Hix Oyster Bar." It's clearly marked on their map but they are holding the map upside down. I point them in the right direction. They both say thank you and I say "That's fine, I spend a lot of time looking at maps in London." Thinking, how clever of me - I will put them at ease.

As I walk away, the lady says to her husband, "Isn't it funny that a foreigner stopped and helped us."

OMG, these people think I'm a foreigner. So now I have to re-evaluate my entire persona. I'm not just an American - I am a foreigner. My regular voice - which I believe to be a standard sort American perhaps vaguely southern accent - has signaled to these bastions of middle England that I am a foreigner. How exotic.

I'm a foreigner.

Our boat came in 42

We agreed to tell everyone that our boat came in 42 out of 1800. Pretty good, huh? OK, that was 42 in the Sunsail 37 division which had 58 boats finish in an overall race of 1800.

The winning boats
/ First Monohull to finish ICAP Leopard did it in 3 hours, 53 minutes and 5 seconds however their time got adjusted and they came out in the rankings below Ran - no idea why.
/ First IRC winner (no idea what that means but they got a trophy) was Ran they did it in 4 hours and 32 minutes and no seconds
/ Extreme 40 class (again no idea what that means) but they were fast and pictures of the boat are cool) winner was Team Origin, they did it in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 50 seconds
/ The first in our division Sunsail 37 did it in 7 hours 49 minutes and 35 seconds
/ The 42 in the Sunsail 37 division (ahem that's us!) did it in 9 hours, 5 minutes and 25 seconds

1875 boats registered. Only 1750 started the race, the rest were all chicken, and only 1557 finished.

We finished AND we weren't disqualified.

Photos from Round the Isle of Wight Race

Casting off on Friday night from Portsmouth to cross the Solent to get to Cowes. It was grey and very windy. We made it in around 11 pm and sacked out by midnight. Hard to sleep the night before my first race.


Saturday morning the race started for us at 6:15 is was a cold hard slog up to the Needles (western-most point of Isle of Wight) but all those boats tacking and swerving were a sight to see even in the cold foggy early morning.


By the time we got around the Needles, the sun had come out but the wind was still very strong. This picture shows the Needles at rocky outcroppings in the sea. At this point we are sailing quite fast downwind. Very large swells and not a lot of tacking. It was sort of like being on a tippy roller coaster. At least it was sunny now.


This is a great part of the race you have made it past St. Catherine's Point (the southern tip of Wight) and are zooming north and rounding the eastern tip called Bembridge. Here all the boats narrow in to take a left (! ok ok port!) around a buoy - you can see it on the left of this picture. Its incredible to look forward at all the boats ahead of you then turn around and see all the boats behind you. Quite magnificent.


I didn't get any pictures of the madness that occurred going around the Fort or crossing the finish line, just this relaxing shot as we head back to port at Cowes - exhausted but happy after 9 hours of sailing. I slept really well on Saturday night

Sorry but I have even more photos at the following link.

Sailing Around the Isle of Wight

Last Saturday I was crew on a boat that did the round the Isle of Wight race. The entire experience spanned most of the sailing I think you see in the UK. It started off ignobly with a gale force wind, race day dawned bad but turned great and sunday post race sailing was better yet. I'm composing a photo essay on the event.

In the mean time this is a great picture of ME! I'm not really sailing, its totally posed. But that is my new foul weather gear (thanks, Ceri!) and that is my hugely sunburned face. Really great fun.

For an overview of the race see this you tube video

Pawley's Island, South Carolina Beach

This is what Pawley's Island looks like from the back porch of the old beach hotel were we stayed. It was very relaxing.

Best part of the trip was when another guest told me with a completely straight face that they were going down to the beach music festival, taking chars and plopping down around the dance floor to watch couples shag all night.

I've been in Britain long enough to almost fall out of my chair. When I told the retired teacher what "shag all night" implied in UK slang I thought she was going to turn into a beet. But then she had a good giggle and went anyway.

Travels since April

Wow, I've been back from vacation for almost two weeks and still running to catch up. Need to get some photos of friends I visited on my trip back to visit Atlanta. Had a great time seeing old friends and catching up. The trip to South Carolina's Pawley's Island was excellent as well. We stayed at the Sea View Inn. Which has not disappointed for the second year in a row. No phones , no TV; just the beach and a really great porch. Doesn't take much to get me happy at the beach.

A rainy bank holiday later, I'm just headed up to Shrewsbury for a work event. Don't know anything about Shrewsbury except the guide says its the County Town of Shropshire, the birthplace of Charles Darwin and features the Shrewsbury Abbey (which is the mythical home to Brother Cadfael).

As usual I am packing on the fly and cannot find my camera - where does that thing hide. Will try and get some decent pictures from someone else's camera on my walk through the town on Saturday morning.

Hope all is well with everyone - tell me about your summer plans.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

So remember Russell Brand, a member of my grandfalloon and celebrity siting there of? Well, it turns out he's made a movie in the US, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He plays Sarah's recovery boy a British rocker and has a new fake video. I wonder if any one in the US will get the joke?

Its a funny think British humour - plus he's wearing normal clothes and the birdnest hair seems to be under control.

I wonder if he will remain in my grandfalloon and if I'll still keep siting him in the BA lounge and Hampstead. Funny the public people you recognise.

Smithy Beats out Nessa for a BAFTA

Oh - its BAFTA time (well it was when I started this post) and Gavin and Stacy, the show I wrote about a couple of weeks ago swept the awards. While Smithy got the award, Nessa is my favorite character. The actors who play Smithy and Nessa are the writers of the show - so I'm please to see they are getting some recognition.

I think its great that Nessa has that giant Welsh dragon tattoo she has on her arm. That and the fact that she's reading the Satanic Verses and couldn't talk about it because she couldn't afford "another fatwa." I love hearing those Welsh accents and who knew that Barry Island could be so funny?

Do you know about Gavin and Stacey?

Its a comedy on BBC3, second season started here five weeks ago. I believe you can watch them online at BBC's iPlayer here.

I've had a miserable cold for days only falling into staying home when the cough got so bad others begged me to stay home - lots of time on my hand and a friend suggested I watch it, because I'm bored, and I'm terrible and grouchy when I'm bored. Anyway my friend was right it did make me happy to watch it - now if this cough would just go away...

Way too much television in the last couple of days.

Mad Men Mad Men Mad Men

Oh I really love Sunday evenings because that is when BBC is showing Mad Men. Tonight's episode ended up with our hero in a village bar listening to a folk song about the River Zion, meanwhile Mr. Sterling head of the ad agency is having it off with the head secretary at the agency. They leave the hotel separately but end up standing on the street just near each other while they are both rying to get a cab while the folk song is still in the background.

omg the symbolism is like getting hit over the head with a beautifully crafted photograph.

All brings to mind MFNY who used to work at an ad agency and looks a bit like the wife in the story - right, Nancy?!

More Yorkshire Dales

The snow made the dry stone walls really stand out in the landscape. They were interesting mostly because they need to be built by hand. Can you imagine the labour required to build hundreds (or thousands) of feet of these walls which criss-cross the hills and valleys. Truly awesome

Ribblehead viaduct

Easter weekend Robert and I ventured forth for our second annual Easter road trip. This year we went to the Yorkshire Dales -- last year it was Cornwall. This year it snowed; six inches of snow on Saturday night. It was really really gorgeous. This picture is of the ribblehead viaduct which was built in 1874 and is still in use today. Doesn't it look cool in that valley.

I forgot my camera so all pictures are care of Robert's camera. I'm trying to figure our how to get direct links but best I can do is link to his source.

The family that reads together, stays together

The weather was perfect the first day in Paris so we ate a picnic lunch our side and watched Paris stroll by. This scene played out on the bench across from us, they all sat together and just read the paper. Didn't really speak to each other just reading and soaking up the sun. I liked that about Paris, it was like everyone was in their own bubble, they weren't ignoring you they were just getting on with their own thing.

As usual I must give creative credit for the photo, this is from the marcia collection. Here is a link to her Paris pictures, they are so beautiful.

just sitting out on a sunny Sunday, reading the paper on the artists bridge - ain't life grand?

Marcia and Me -Paris - from early March

This was late in the day and we were in citroen park. it was looking a bit shabby, possibly more shabby than it actually was since it was grey and the end of a touristy day. Bailey is the photographer.

The thing I like most about this photograph is that I have NO DEA what we are saying and why it was so funny. It also reminds me that I apparently only travel in the winter because all photographs of me include coats and scarves. This red one is a favorite! we had a great time.

Where does the time go?

Its March 2nd today and I feel like it was just February 2nd! How can it go by so fast - it was even a leap year so we got an extra day! Probably because I've had some friends passing through. Marcia and Bailey are visiting from San Fran. They arrived in London last Saturday and on Sunday I joined them for a short trip to Paris. I'm hoping to get some pictures to post from them because Marcia has a bitchin' new camera.

I took the usual badly focussed tourist pictures including this lovely night shot of Notre Dame. Best part was right after we took it we went in and watched a bit of mass being said (or is it performed?). There was a whole lot of incense; giant billowing clouds. Not exactly the same of the local anglican church here in leafy north London.

The weather was amazing on Sunday. We loafed around the city drinking wine from plastic cups--very bohemian. We stayed in the St. Germaine as lovely a place as you could ever hope to see. My last trip to paris was in 1999, so much had changed; for starters Notre Dame was no longer shrouded, but probably more importantly I could afford my own hotel room. Ah, the joys of aging and achieving more disposable income.

More later once I get some pics of Marcia!

Houston: Mission Control

When I was in Houston at the end of January, as a side trip from the meeting, we went to the Johnson Space Center. This picture is from the gallery at the original Mission Control. As with all pictures from the race to the moon I was struck by how amazing it was that any one actually made it to the moon let alone back. The computers in the mission control were only terminals and the guide says the computing power was something tiny and the main frame took up a whole floor underneath this control room.

Really remarkable. But the most interesting bit was the next picture.

Rocket with boosters

This is one of the two or three rockets left. There is this one laying on its side with stages slightly separated in Houston and apparently there is another one standing upright at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The most interesting thing about the rocket, apart from the scale which no picture can really capture, is the fact that the whole thing looks like it was put together in someone's backyard. Ok a really really big back yard but still.

One of my fellow tour takers said, "Really look like it was made in shop class, doesn't it?"

That really captures the essence. Although they weren't really reused, the enormous rocket was slightly bashed in looking and when you looked at the business end, the end where the giant propulsion occurs, you really get the feeling you are looking at something smushed together slightly badly then covered in tin foil. I really wish I could have captured that in a photograph. All I could get was this shot from near the top end; this thing is huge.

Being there did give you a frisson of pride. If man can do this then surely they can figure out some other stuff. Of course that was ages ago.

Note to Mum and Dad: I still can't believe you wanted to do this Dad or that you were willing to let him, Mum.

Robert is Here fruit stand

On saturday, we went for a walk in the Everglades National Park. On our way there we stopped at "Robert is Here" fruit stand. Neither Ali nor Ules (nor the boys but they are all under five) thought it was odd that this place was called Robert is Here. I thought it sounded like a fruit stand for a guy who could use some therapy. They figured he just used to be out in the middle on nowhere, declaring his availability for fruit purchases.

I highly recommend this fruit stand; they had a key lime pie milkshake that was out standing as well as some really ugly tomatoes which, of course, tasted excellent. Just north of Homested, I believe. Make sure you visit Robert.

Robert has Purple Martins, too

In addition to excellent key lime milkshakes and tomatoes; Robert also claims to have the southern most purple martin house in the continental United States of America. Which reminded me that in all my travels across the world, I have RARELY, nay, NEVER seen another country have such bizarre roadside attractions as you do in my home country.

Why do we do this kind of thing? The best you can get here in the UK is a stand which will sell you cornish ice cream or silly stuff with pictures of royalty on it. But even here in the land of the truly eccentric; you never see anything like a claim to have the southern most purple martin house in the continental USA. Which make me think is Hawaii more southern than Homested? That must be the reason for the "continental" modifier. I wonder if they even have purple martins...

Of course, there were alligators

Who cares about the purple martins anyway. There were alligators to be seen. Here is a view of a few wallowing in the swamp, just feet away from our board walk. very very similar to last year's alligator picture. But this year I was with intrepid boys under the age of five. Who were kitted-out with binoculars. Well, at lest in the begining they were...

Binoculars floating away

Unfortunately for my intrepid fellow alligator hunters. One set of binoculars had to be sacrificed to the alligator gods. After a rather thrilling siting (see previous picture) we clambered up on the railing to get a better look and one pair of binoculars fell off.

Sadly, Ules didn't feel up to wrestling the alligators that saturday afternoon; so, we had to watch the bright yellow and orange, grandma-purchased, best-est of all binoculars float away.

I slept with Superman, Spidey and Captain Jack Sparrow...

After a meeting in Houston, I flew through Miami to spend some time with my friend Ali and her family in Coral Gables. Ali and her husband have three lovely little boys.

Got kicked out of their room so I could sleep in amongst the most fabulous collection of super hero's I've ever seen. This is the view from my twin bed. Superman has certainly got better looking than what I remember of him. The pirates of the Caribbean sheets were also fun. Please not that the planets in front of superman actually glow in the dark, but Ules had some trouble with getting th eorder right so I think they are all revolving around saturn. Ali says that because he didn't go to catholic school. I took umbrage at that, being a public school girl myself...

Back in the UK and more on Thor

I wrote this last week and never posted it.
---------------
I'm back in London and feeling slightly more grounded. As I mentioned in my last posts Tripoli was a surprise; picturesque and pleasant.

Getting back to the UK was a bit of a strain. As we entered the gate at Tripoli International Airport (TIP, for those of you collecting airport call letters) my British seatmate - flying back from six months at an oil field-- informed me that "we had no idea where we were going." After a perplexing moment I replied that I was going to London and hoped the plane we just boarded was headed that way as well. He then told me there had been an 'incident" at Heathrow and runways were closed.

Now, when a British person uses the word "incident" I try to remain calm. They are a remarkably understated group and it could mean anything from a neutron bomb detonation to a taxi cab run amok. Turned out to be an amazing save by a pilot who landed an 777 with no power by gliding (!!) it down. Virtually no injuries -- an amazing story.

Lots of emails flying back and forth between my friends from college; spurred by the death of our friend Thor. Since he was peripatetic, his friends from around the world have built a memorial site. I found this very strange in the beginning, slightly unseemly, which is odd if you think about it since I write to all my friends through an open blog. Ultimately, I have found the site quite comforting because it allows me to remember with a lot of others the hysterical life and death of Thor, the God of Thunder. Best of all there is a collection of his yearly letters which show you how funny and witty he really was.

I spent Sunday rooting around in my flat looking for photos from the mid 1980s when most of the Emory crew were still in Atlanta and found an great set of negatives from when I was taking black and white photos. The picture above is Thor posing for me. I don't remember subjecting my friends to this but apparently I did because there were a ton of black and white negatives from then.

I'm headed to Paris...

At the end February, I'm finally taking the super duper fast and speedy train to Paris from the snazzy newly renovated St. Pancras Train terminalwith some friends. We are staying for a couple of days; I'm just telling you so you can get all set up for great pictures. Maybe we will run into Sarkozy and his squeeze who are being endlessly written about in the British press. Who knows - it could happen. Chances are what you really have to look forward to is the usual funny signs and possibly a picturesque cafe scene...

Sportswear for modest women

Becasue all the signs are in arabic I cam only take pictures of scenery. This display shows a remarkable adaptation of the "mall suit" or sweatsuit. I suppose its sportswear for modest women.

BY the way headscarves are very prominent here in Triploi along with generally demure women's clothing. But chadors or other full body covering has been a very rare sight.

Libyan plumbing

I have a long standing beef with British plumbing specifically the ridiculous habit they have of two taps in the bathroom - so that washing your hands is a freezing or scalding experince.

This picture shows Libyan plumbing is much better. Who knew a country coming out of exile could learn so much quickly that the world's seventh largest economy.

This is Tripoli in January

I'm in the Libyan capital on business. I was gentily approaching this trip for a variety of reasons, mostly it took sooooo long to get a visa and it was difficult to arrange a hotel. But things opened up considerably overthe lastcouple of months or my companies in-country group got better at figuring out how to book rooms. Regardless, I have been pleasantly surprised by Tripoli.

As usual most of my trip is spent in conference rooms and hotels so there's little time to explore. Yesterday, I did get out for a walk for lunch. This is the view in the regular neighborhood. Not bad, eh? Well the weather is much better than in London at this moment, so that's a plus. The infrastructure is really hurting for a variety of reasons: lack of cash from embargo, insufficent planning and god knows what else. The people I've met have been really great, eager to help sort me out and very friendly. So I guess the jury is out but I encourage a visit. Did I mention the whole country is dry? no alcohol, none, nada.

Terrible news

An old Emory friend was killed yesterday in Afghanistan. Thor Hesler was killed when Taliban rushed into an expat heavy hotel with grenades and guns. Its very odd to think he's gone. I got an email from a friend in the US yesterday while they were still saying "an American" had been killed. I wrote back to my friend asking if it could possibly be a mistake. The answer is no, Thor was that American.

Thor had been in hot spots all around the world and spinning tales of his travels in yearly letters to his friends. December's missive was as usual great reading.

Not much you can say when someone dies like this; but its on my mind and I'm far away from home so I wrote it down.

New Haven as an example

First, let me say that I love having this new Mac. It means that I can finally get some speed out of my home Internet pipe, so there's lots more surfing going on. Now if I could just figure out how to get all my old files transferred I would be golden but that requires that I sit down and RTFM since the easy way has had a hiccup.

Any way that's not why I'm writing I'm writing this post because I've been thinking about infrastructure (can you imagine how dull my life must be?) and then today I read this marvelous article in NYT on Public vs. Private infrastructure. It sure isn't pretty but basic infrastructure is what makes cities great and every city I have lived in has a crumbling infrastructure. Atlanta's water system, San Francisco's schools and roads, when I left Tampa it was so busy growing that the infrastructure hadn't caught up yet. Sort of makes you long for early to mid 20th century when civil engineering was kind and social infrastructure got nothing...

Here in London, I'm still having trouble understanding how these things are funded. They don't have bonding as I know it from the US - central government shares our revenue to local authorities who get work done (or not). They have privatised everything so its a very strange quagmire. As fully realised in this week's cock-up concerning net work rails in ability to get the line work finished on time to re-open Liverpool Street Station. They seem to have split up the companies which maintain and deliver the rail lines from the companies which run the trains. No overhead wire engineers available over the holidays so no line from Rugby to Liverpool Street. Good thing no body was at work last week!

Anyway back to infrastructure, I suppose it was always this - before it was privatised the service was crap, now its privatised the service is slightly better than crap but the infrastructure is weak and failing.

As and aside, despite all the great papers here I miss my Sunday morning coffee and NYT ritual, either in the sunny spot in front of my place in Dogpatch with my neighbour's or in Henry's back yard.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Mum!