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.