On a roll

Just finished the Debbie Bliss Baby bolero for Sally and Lucy's baby girl. It fits my old teddy bear perfectly but will look incredibly cute on the six month old. Now I just need to mail it to her - I'm not good at mailing.

So I'll send them this post!

Sunny Day in "Sowf" London

Mostly I took this photo because of the blue blue sky. Then I enjoyed the two elderly ladies at the top of the stairs. I was on my way to Borough Market for coffee, veggies, pastries, and a bacon butty.

I have to ration bacon butties... They are the best thing EVER. No thing in the US comes close to a UK bacon butty. What is a bacon butty, you ask? Its an amazing concoction of bacon (not American bacon but British bacon which is kind of like Canadian bacon but somehow better) in bread with "tomato sauce" AKA ketchup. That's it, but its perfect and on a sunny London Saturday, before the crowds make the market unbearable, in the shadow of Southwalk Cathedral, with a Monmouth coffee accompaniment; a bacon butty/sarnie/sandwich is the best thing ever.

creampuff parked

creampuff parked
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

I finally bought a Vespa. I've only been talking about it for about a zillion years. Isn't she a beauty? She's a cream coloured, 1997 ET4 125 cc Vespa. She's had six previous owners and she's only done 12000 miles. There are bits of her which are held on with zip ties (! I love that) but she's still elegant and probably not going to be the first one stolen when it comes to choosing a bike to steal.

I've been scootering to work for 2 weeks now and I'm having trouble remembering what its like to take the bus or the tube. I rush out of work at 6 pm because I cannot wait to ride her home. Last Thursday I left work and just drove around Regent's Park for no apparent reason, other than I could.

summer Sunday afternoon

summer Sunday afternoon
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

I had another set of visitors on Saturday afternoon. We had a lovely couple of hours drinking Pimms in the back garden, strolling around Hampstead and then having dinner at XO in Belsize Village.

It was great to see Bob, Virg, Ru and Ollie and catch up on all the SF gossip. They brought me some lovely sun flowers which made a beautiful display the following evening on a late Sunday afternoon.

do i need reading glasses?

do i need reading glasses?
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

This weekend someone asked me if I had reading glasses, yet. The answer is yes and here's a picture of them. However, I don't really need them to read yet. I've been expecting to need them since I turned 40 (that's seven years now).

A whole slew of folks told me its all downhill post 40; but I'm still hanging in there on the presbyopia front.

In anticipation, I bought a pair of reading glasses from Boots and even out them on a chain so I can be a librarian. It struck me as odd that I bought them before I needed them, so I took a picture of them and here they are.

Guerrilla handman

Guerilla handman
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Dylan (my ancient orange tabby) has been breaking out of the back garden and wandering the neighborhood. All week Bob and Jen had to battle to keep him in. Bob, being the resourceful type, took some wood out of the scary back garden shed and plugged up as many escape routes as we could find.

Unfortunately, nothing stops Dylan, just because he's at least 19, he will not let a little guerrilla handiman action keep him from his appointed rounds with the local news agent.

I'm looking into a harness and leash. If I find one that fits I'll take a picture of that. In the meantime enjoy Bob's antics.

Bob and Jen: Pub a day no. 675

Bob and Jen: Pub a day no. 675
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

On Saturday we set out to enjoy a stroll around the east end and ended up in a pub, as you do. I managed to scam the only empty table and sent the intrepid pair to secure our drinks.

Must have been their 800th Guinness. I had a lovely fruity Belgian beer just right to recover from an afternoon of strolling and shopping off of Brick Lane. Best section of shops are on Cheshire Street near : Labour and Wait is a favourite; but Mimi rocks, too.

Did we mention Bob is a photographer?

did we mention Bob is a photographer?
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Jen and Sian take another picture. Goodness, I need to brush my hair.

Bob = photographer?

Did we mention - photographer?
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

EVERYTHING was documented! Jen is a patient soul - by the way you can check out here pics of theire trip on her flickr site here.

One of my tube stations - its hot on northern line in summer

One of my tube stations - its hot on northern line in summer
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

August on the tube with Bob and Jen. Its hot and Bob takes pictures of everything. Here's me melting on the Northern line at my tube stop. note Jen's hand in the left foreground.

Bob enjoys the English seaside

summer beach trip to Brighton
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

My friends Bob and Jen visited me in early August on the way back from a two month jaunt through Europe. We spent a delightful week in London and did a small side trip to Brighton. The day was a complete English seaside treat: it was grey, then it rained, the beach was a pebble beach, it was slightly cold and we had fish and chips. The only think I didn't make them do was change underneath a towel or sit beside one of those weird stripey beach wind blockers they have at the beach in the UK.

As you can see Bob was really enjoying himself.

Sign in Shoreditch

sign in Shoreditch
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

really not to much to say about this. It is what it is, a lovely message about our current economic times. I liked the Shoreditch neighborhood, where this sign was located.

Tough life day 5

Tough life day 5
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Friday day

Really getting into the pool, beach scene now. I have my favourite chair, got the dance of the umbrella down so I can arrange to be in the shade all day. I am even on short sentence terms with the couple next to be on the chairs. Even got all resort-y and ordered a large bottle of water on ice delivered to my chair. It occurs to me that the biggest expense I will have occrued here is my water bill which will be massive. Anyway back to the lounger. Today I finished book three; magazine seven and even knocked off a few podcasts. Then in an act of desparation, I broke out the baby sweater I am trying to finish for a friend who had a baby in March. If I don't finish it soon the sweater will fit her teddy bear but not her. I could not get the curve right on the collar so I just kept ripping back then finally (EUREKA) it hit me how to do it and then it was smooth sailing until I ran out of yarn (drats!) back to books and magazines and laps in the pool.

Still no blackberry connection, in fact it now says "SOS" where the bars should be. I think that means that I will be able to make an emergency call not that I am in an emergency- will need to breakdown on hook up to internet at some point. but still operating under the it will go on without me assumption, as much as I hope it won't. Why is that?


Friday night

Still managed to have not burned myself to a crisp by the end of day 5. You really have to work to keep this level of pallor! Big Friday night here in the resort, I enjoyed the sea front again and had a glass of wine with dinner. I really never, never want to see another buffet when I'm done here.

Thursday afternoon

Met an American couple and their young son today. They are living in Cairo and come down to Sharm on weekend to get out of the city. It was nice chatting with them both and watching their 4-year old son splash around. I realised that other than waiters and the concierge I hadn't had a long conversation since lunch on Tuesday, oddly for someone as chatty as I am I really didn't miss the conversation. I suppose I might be finally relaxing. Now the days are going by too fast; when, on Monday, I was feeling a bit trapped. Like most things, getting to the halfway part takes some time and then it zips by on the downside.

Tough life day 4

Tough life day 4
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Wednesday night

OK, I am officially tired of eating alone. The maitre d' lady now says, "Only one?" in a perky voice now. Yes, I answer, no luck yet finding a dinner partner. After my fifth meal eating alone--I mercifully had lunch with two Mancunians yesterday--I have discovered all sorts of interesting things. I think it would be worse to be eating in one of those painful couples who don't seem to have anything to say to each other. It just looks so bleak. Eating by yourself can be kind of fun. A) you get to eat what ever you want, b) you always get the smarmiest waiters and c) you can read a book and it's not rude.

So I'm over the eating alone thing but I may not be able to take another buffet. I am starting to appreciate that the tactic for a buffet is to avoid all meat and go for salads as they don't really go stiff on you as they sit out. Soups are also good. Fruit salad is another winner. Let me tell you in Egypt the coffee is good so I recommend that.

Tonight after dinner I went for a walk to the beach — well really the ocean front. It's not so much a beach as a rocky outcropping. Still very hot, had a nice little sit down on a racking chair perched above the sea. A bit like sitting in a hairdryer, very dry hot wind rushing around you but with the sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. Didn't smell like the sea, no screaming seagulls, no strange sea life on the shore. Sort of like a big pool really. I think I may need to arrange for a snorkel to get up closer to the actual water.

Ack, no connectivity on the blackberry do I worry or not? I decide that the world will go on without me.

Tough life day 3

tough life day 3
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Tuesday afternoon

OK spent the full day out today from about 11 - 5 by the pool. I was so covered up in sunscreen that I barely knocked the blue off my pale legs. Good thing. My face is getting a nice glow. Its hotter than hell out there, if you are in the sun. I can't decide if its this hot in Florida. I'm not really the resort type and never went to one in Florida so I'm comparing apples to oranges. It certainly drier here than Florida, I keep thinking of Yost saying that in Tampa, "It's Africa hot" this year. So now technically I am in Africa so I should be able to tell. I'm told the weather forecast for tomorrow every night- for the last 3 nights it's been listed as high of 39C and low of 29C with the ocean temp of 28.2C on Tuesday and 28.5C on Wednesday (suspiciously accurate those sea measurements). Now if I could just get to the internet I could tell you what that was in F - which is the only way I really know how to compare.

Checked my blackberry today and had a few text messages with friends around the world. Had felt slightly guilty that I hadn't checked before but there is no reception in my room, only by the pool. Strange. I tell everyone I will check back in on Thursday.

Day Two: the good life?

Monday day

Today I walk around the resort. Get my bearings and check out multiple pools. Lots of helpful folks giving you towels and saying "my pleasure." Sort of worried about how I am going to spend six days in this place without going mad. Guess I'm glad I brought all these books and magazines.

Travels with other people

Stream of consciusness Blogging while on holiday

Sunday
Funny thing about airports is that I usually encounter them as a professional. By that I mean, I am in a business suit and getting ready to go somewhere for work. When I travel for holidays, it always feels weird -- especially after the last five years in which I have done some serious planing about. So today I am headed to Egypt for a package holiday. This means that I am at the airport on a Sunday afternoon, getting onto a flight from Gatwick South Terminal; seems to be package tour hell. I am surrounded by families in all states of happiness and misery. Children crying, laughing, screaming, squatting by huge piles of luggage concentrating on a video game, staring blankly into space while the MP3 pounds in their ears. How you parents do this is beyond me as cute as children are they grow up into surely teens who seem like they are walking around with a huge cloud hanging over their head. I'll have to ask Mum and Dada if we three were like that, if so let me just thank them now because I would have been tempted to abandon myself (if I had behaved that way. Luckily I don's remember it.)

So we finally get called to the plane. I am flying with a company called Viking Air; never heard of it. I won't bore you with the check in details, but lets just say it wasn't BA standards — and they aren't that high. It involved several desks, more money and three attempts. I felt annoyed and I hope those behind me where going to be patient. The family in front of me had about 15 members, I cannot imagine travelling like that.

Anyway, once on the plane we take off and it turns out it's a Canadian flagged plane so all announcements must be in English and French; which was kind of annoying the fact that we are headed to Egypt from London meant Arabic might have been a better second language choice.

The other interesting thing about flying a charter flight is the passenger participation. First one baby starts to cry and everyone cranes their necks to see, then after about five minutes baby 1 starts to calm down and baby 2 starts up and soon they are duelling wails going on with full other-passenger harumphing as back up. We finally start taxiing, passengers then burst out with an excited clap — "yay! We are underway!" When we take off there is a large exhalation of collected breath; then as we bank there is a "whooo" noise from most passengers. All I can think is that this is going to be a long long flight if there's going to be a passenger soundtrack. Basically it settles down for the 4 hour flight; except for the mandatory applause when the pilot sets the plane down with a "Welcome to Africa" notification' which causes a ripple of consternation through the e passengers — "I thought we were going to Egypt."

I get to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport at about 10:30, I'm not leaving the resort so I don't need a visa. I just need to pick up my bag fill out a landing form, fill out another form in case we all come down with swine flu. Then try and find my ride.

Finding my ride is a bit trickier than I had expected. Eventually a man tells me to go to the white Range Rover. I have flashes of white slavery and then look around me. If you were going to recruit for a brothel you wouldn't pick me out; you would pick out one of the 20 year olds who are all wearing next to nothing. So I climb in the White Range Rover and set off.

It strikes me as I am driven through the blasting hot night that many of the places I've been in the past couple of years were all designed by the same folks. They all have HUGE roads — well over the required capacity. They tend to be divided highways (dual carriage ways for my Brit readers) with U-turns only available every so often. Barely any sidewalks (pavements) and no shade if you were so foolish as to walk. So clearly all these places were planned by traffic engineers who created them so that folks could drive. I was weirdly reminded of the roman roads in Britain which are dead straight. I have seen the following roads similar - Abu Dhabi and Dubai (dead straight massive and completely full); Bucharest and Tripoli (not as well maintained and clearly designed by the same guys who did Moscow, Warsaw and parts of the Czech Republic). For comparison I've also driven or been driven in Florida, California, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, York, Bristol, the Yorkshire Dales, Devon, Cornwall, Penzance and other bits of the South west of England. Lots of different roads. The little ones are best.

Summertime and the living is easy

Its July 16; 14 days past the longest day of the year here in sunny England. It is almost exactly halfway through the year of 2009. I thought it would be a good time to start back to posting on my blog. Sounds like I had planned this when actually, its the first day of my summer holiday, so I have the time!

What a year it has been. I'm still finding it hard to believe that I had my gallbladder out in March, my parents came to help me recover through Easter and now its already July. If I didn't have the scars to prove that I had someone digging around in my gut, I wouldn't believe it.

Workwise it has been a tough year, economies tanking, clients not wanting to pay or taking long to pay, there just not being a lot of work to go around. Here in the UK, the design field has been hit really hard in this downturn. We have been luckier than most but its grim out there. I remember in Atlanta in 1991 the rumour was that 50% of architects were out of work at at the height of that recession. Here the statistics are equally grim - with massive increases of 861% for architects signing up as unemployed! Probably doesn't help that last year may have been the most frenzied year I had ever seen in the fight for urban designers and architects. Planning also continues to be slow and the Landscape Institute (body for LAs here in UK) is having to reorganise itself.

Outside the industry things are pretty tough. Unemployment in UK is reaching above 2.5 million. I hear from friends in the States that things are also down there - I think we are all just worrying about another shoe dropping or are we headed up, out the other side?

You gotta love cricket

CIMG1112
Originally uploaded by sillewellyn.

Sunny Green, Cava, old, new, traditional, contemporary...beautiful

Nice Day for it

Picked up a sweater I put down in disgust about eight months ago. Its called "where's the opaque?" from Sally Melville's book The Knitting Experience: The Knit Stitch. This is a total beginners pattern which is why I'm disgusted. I started it at the beach last May with Jen and LLG. Its actually for LLG and she and Jen are meeting up in Washington DC this may instead of the beach - credit crunch stay-vacation at a friends house. I'm too cheap to fly over.

Anyway, LLG's sweater will not be finished because I cannot get the arms right they are too short and flare our to quickly from the wrist. they look silly, so I'll rip them out and start again on both sleeves. Its a good day for it because its supposed to rain.

May Bank Holiday

Now I'm just reveling in the heat and hot water. New boiler means FLAGRANT hot water abuse and the heat all the way up - sure its a nice day and you don't need heat - but I have heat and therefore I will abuse it.

Yay!

Sunday

OK two days into my attitude adjustment and this morning I was only partially adjusted. but it looks like a beautiful day and its before 10 am and I've almost finsihed with teh laundry at the laundry in the village so things are starting to look up. After two weeks with out heat or hot water; the new boiler is great. lovely heat no weird kettling noises and all the hot water U can make. starting to feel less crabby.

Had a visitor this week, Dr. Hand. She was in town to attend a hand surgeon's meeting. I think she enjoyed her London stay, especiallyas she got to visit the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. Oddly I had been there last year when another friend visited - she was not a surgeon just some one who liked odd Museums. There are lots of those in London.

Anyway, Dr. Hand rolled out this morning around 9:30 and Ben and Michelle should arrive this afternoon. Ben is celebrating his 50th Birthday with a surprise visit to Oxford, where his Dad did a sabbatical in the 1970s. Apparently May Day (his birthday) is celebrated quite lavishly in Oxford. So after five days in Oxfordshire, they are headed to Hampstead for a day before their return flight to ATL.

In other news I now have Skype - so all readers should get skype and lets get in touch.

bad bad bad week

I think i might just be permanently crabby these days. perhaps its to be expected but i am dis-satisfied with everything. work is dragging - Terrible economy is not helping; my boiler has failed and has just been replaced; obvisouly there's the surgery to recover from. crabby crabby crabby.

Will spend the next three days over the May Bank holiday weekend working on an attitude adjustment.

day two back at work

The problem with going back to work after surgery is the fact that you are used to sleeping (a lot) and its frowned upon at your desk. Its especially bad when you are the boss. Getting caught drooling on myself at my desk is not good for my reputation as a hard driving bad-a**. Consequently for this first week back I am taking off by 4pm to get home for a nap. So far, two days down and I left at 3 and 4, wanna bet I dont get out before 6 on Thursday - maybe I'll just go in late...

Rambling

Before I had a portion of my intestinal system removed, three weeks ago, I said I would be blogging in receovery because I would have time on my hands. Two weeks morphed into three weeks, may parents came to visit and as fate would haven;t I didn't write one blog entry, even I am getting bored now with reading about how rubbish I am for not posting - so NO MORE. I wont mention it again. I'll just write when I feel like it.

So parents came three days after my gall bladder was removed. A very fun time was had by all and if the nifty device I bought to down load pictures off my camera had worked I would be illustrating this post - but no I am technologically challenged again.

However, I did get some great help from the 'rents while they were in situ chez Sian. French doors got draught excluded, bathroom fans got reconnected, my new printer was installed and many a gin and tonic was quaffed. In fact, I now find that I have NO MORE GIN. Dad left after a week and Mom stayed on for another week plus; that last night she was here we were reduced to vodka tonics due to lack of gin. Sad but true; I forgot how much I liked vodka tonics.

We also got to do some serious tourist stuff (in between my naps! seriously who knew that surgery knocked you on your a** so badly) we walked through Regents Park up to view the city from Primrose Hill; went to the V+A to see silver and fashion; checked out the new Henry the VIII installation at the Tower of London; walked through Hampstead Heath to Parliament Hill (again for the view); ate and drank at the Holly Bush pub (another view); bought expensive chocolate and drank flights of wine at Fortnum + Mason. Really enjoyed that last week off.

Speaking of Fortnum and Mason - my peeps in Atlanta sent me a lovely basket of F+M goodies. Really great get well gift - lovely cheeses, pork pies, beer, wine, mustard and more. We ate from that for more than a few meals - thanks, Atlanta friends!

Loo of the Year

How can you top this? This is a sign in the park across the street from Lord's Cricket Ground at the south end of St. Johns Wood. ONly in London would they have a Loo of the Year competition. Cannot tell what year by the way.

Very delayed

well I think I should just assume that I am not going to post in the winter. That way once spring comes along I can post and feel good and not shamed into the posting world.

This winter was weird, I think (despite my endless complaining) I got used to the dark dank days of winter in the UK. I did have a good trip to SF in February and of course it was sunny and lovely as was the trip to Florida in January. After writing all that I realised that I can't really complain as I spent at least three weeks AWAY from London and the winter weather.

Meanwhile I had some odder issues, which have now been diagnosed as gall stones. After some exciting moments involving the Accident and Emergency room at the Royal Free, I find I need to have the gall bladder removed. All of which means that I will have loads of time over the next couple of weeks to post and catch up with everyone.

So sorry for the long delay and I hope to be a posting fiend in recovery.

alternative transport

Lots of glorious pictures on London in the snow but I liked this one from a real cyclist. and not just because he was blogging about our Waterloo Competition entry. Lots of friends here in London cycle as their primary mode of transportation. Its truly amazing to watch them suit up and go out on cold, rainy, and/or dark mornings or evenings and race through the traffic. I'm slightly scared to cross the roads and thy bravely wizz on. Oh well at least this one bike was still for the day.

sian

Epiphany in Tarpon Springs

Yesterday, Mum and I went to see the Epiphany Celebration at Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County, FL. It was a beautiful day and a relatively small crowd at 15,000. After the parade we snaked around to the far side of the bayou and wormed our way up into the crowd so that even I could see and take photos.

This photo is the moment when one of the divers retrieves the cross from the water were the priest has tossed it. You can read all about the celebration in the attached link. It was a great day for it, much better than the cold day it could have been. As you can see it was a gloriously sunny day.

Is it just me or are there a lot of guns here?

The Epiphany Celebration starts with a parade from the church to the bayou. The parade was bit bit haphazard; at one point we heard a guy on the phone to the color guard asking them, "why didn't you wait? You left the rest of the parade behind!"

The thing that I noticed was that every police, sheriff and all other security people were armed to the teeth. Only took two years in London for me to think its odd for parade marshals to be packing serious heat.

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?!