jamesndianaabroad

Malta Trip July 2010

2010-07-29T22:01:00.000+01:00

Zion National Park, Utah

2010-07-08T12:58:00.000+01:00

ATV Riding in Utah

2010-07-07T13:02:00.001+01:00

Valley of Fire Nevada

2010-07-07T13:02:00.000+01:00

Barcelona Jan 2010

2010-02-03T21:16:00.006Z

OK, yes, we haven't blogged in months. Will try to get back into the habit and post things here in detail instead of the one-two liners on Facebook.

So I had to work Networkers Barcelona. This is our company's big technical conference. I have a speaking slot, and usually help to man whatever demos we're doing.

Diana flew over and we had a long weekend in Barcelona. I've been there 3 times, for a week each time, and this was the first I'd seen of the city. It was great.

We've upgraded our technology somewhat and can shoot videos with the Flip-cam now. Diana loves this device because it's so simple to use. I still run the digital camera, with Diana only using it when I'm drinking beer.

Video of Barcelona

And pictures

Schloss Diana

2009-09-08T23:41:00.002+01:00

Well we decided to take advantage of the depressed real estate market and the low mortgage rate and buy a weekend place. It's a little 2BR/1Bath in a gated waterfront community at Lake Tillery, just under 2 hours drive from our house. We've named it Schloss Diana.

We spent the long holiday weekend there, even adding a couple of days to burn some "mandatory" PTO. Had a blast. Cassidy came up for a couple of days and grilled some brats. We even had an uninvited house guest (the lizard).

Here's about 9 minutes of video we took over the weekend. Turn your speakers on, it's all clean.

Catching Up on Social networking

2009-07-14T12:43:00.001+01:00

Ok, we're on twitter and Facebook now. I found this "Cities I've visited" site that seems custom built for us.

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Find Cheap Flights at TripAdvisor

Back in 1 piece

2009-07-09T12:53:00.002+01:00

Well we all made it back to NC in one piece. The doggies arrived fine, though I know it was a struggle for Diana to stay up long enough to pick them up.

We're all still pretty jetlagged, have been in bed by about 8:00 every night and getting up really early. That'll last another day or two.

Darkstar and Elijah are trying to figure out if this is just a weekend trip. They don't remember the house and it's all so different from the UK to them. Darkstar hasn't asked about the pub yet, but he will.

It became obvious to us that we've got a lot of work to do on the house. We bought it and moved just before we went to the UK, and it's pretty clear we just sort of dropped everything in and left. Now we've actually got to live there.

To all of our friends in the UK: Vicky and Cosmo, Paul and Jo (and the whole group from the Crown), Fara and Jools, Chris and Sadie. We'll miss you guys and hope to see you again soon.

To all of our friends in the US, we'll be reaching out to catch up with you over the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to seeing you and spending some time together again.

We'll try to continue to keep the blog going. It's been a great way to document what we've done and share our experiences.

Into Single Digits

2009-07-02T07:14:00.002+01:00

Our days have been numbered here for a while, and now the number is in single digits. The movers come today, so the computer goes. We'll go the Wales for the July 4th weekend, then Diana and the boys fly out Monday, and I follow Tuesday.

We'll be offline more than online during the next several days.

It's sure been a great experience, both professionally and personally. We'll miss the culture and lifestyle here, but it's always nice to go home.

Hope to see you all and catch up soon.

Guinness Premiereship Finals May 16th, 2009

2009-07-02T05:45:00.004+01:00

We finally got to go to a Rugby Match. We live in an area that is big into rugby. I was able to get cheap tickets to a Finals game via an Internet promotion. The two teams playing were the London Irish and the Leicester Tigers. The game was sold out with as many as 81,601 supporters at the match. James and I walked to the stadium which is the next town across the river called Twickenham.

We're still are not quite up on the rules of rugby, but we had help by the fans seated next to us. We found out that they don't have play by play in the stadium only if you have brought a radio to hear the commentary. James and I supported the London team and we bought London Irish rugby shirts.

Our luck they lost by one point. We found a new way to sell beer, walking through the crowd with small kegs attached to their backs. The English like their beer just barely
cold.

After the game we walked back to Richmond with the 81,000 supporters walking through town and stopping at the local pubs and restaurant's. We found a good Italian restaurant who had one man band playing American songs and diners in the restaurant all sung along with him. It was a good day out and ticked the box of going to a rugby match.

Salisbury and Stonehenge May 29-31, 2009

2009-07-01T20:14:00.006+01:00

I finally got James to Stonehenge. We spent a weekend in Salisbury at a B&B that was a old coach house on the River Avon called the Legacy Rose and Crown Hotel, a 13Th century coaching Inn. The B&B was dog friendly and had a great open lawn on the River Avon.

The weather was great warm and sunny. We traveled by train to Salisbury which was a 2 hour trip. After getting off the train we walked from the station through a series of meadows to the old mill which dates back to 1135. The old mill is now a hotel and a dog friendly pub and beer garden.

The Salisbury cathedral is famous for it's tallest spire in England of 404 feet and a original copy of the Magna carta is in it's library. The city it self was a very small and friendly. Salisbury is a medieval town with many historic buildings with olde world atmosphere.

I was able to arrange for all of us, including the boys, to take a bus tour to Stonehenge and Old Sarum. Since I have already seen Stonehenge I stayed outside with the boys. We later visited Old Sarum, a castle ruin from the 11th century built by William the Conqueror. The boys had a hard time because there was no shade and it was a very warm sunny day.

We walked back to Salisbury which was about a 2 mile walk via the River Avon. Along the way back we passed a few thatched homes and walls. It was a perfect week-end at a wonderful place that was very relaxing and we could have the boy's with us.

Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo May 13, 2009

2009-07-01T20:03:00.003+01:00

The Tattoo is a charity show for the Royal British Legion. It's a military band and music event. They support millions who served and currently serve in the armed forces. The show is held at night so the show had a great effect.

This year the line up acts included the Royal Navy Field Gun Race,Royal life Guards of Denmark. The Danish soldiers looked like toy tin soldiers! There was also the military band from Trinidad and Tobago, all steel drums with a limbo dancer! A massed band and fifes and drums and the Kings troop Royal Horse Artillery,and a musical ride of the household Cavalry.

And a modern military re enactment with modern equipment.
*** lots of uniforms*****lots of uniforms*** and men wearing skirts ******

James had to keep a hold on to me all evening, he knows I love a man in uniform and especially if he is on horse back.It was a great night out. He loved the artillery demonstrations too.

Pictures were hard to take as it was night time and you didn't want to use a flash. Night time settings on the camera are ok, but movement usually blurs them.

Chelsea Flower show May 22nd, 2009

2009-07-01T19:23:00.004+01:00

For 5 days in May a world-famous flower show happens in London in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The show starts off the summer season. Since moving to London I wanted to go to the flower show. I was able to go this year. But James could not make it. He had to go back to the States for a dear friends funeral. We planned to go with some friends from Sweden, Lars and Petra, who came for a weekend visit.

Again we chose the busiest day to go to the flower show. The flower exhibits were incredible and the smells of the flowers was overwhelming.

This year the main attraction was a large rose pedal perfume maker that made perfume with the same ingredients that were used for Queen Elizabeth I perfume. The whole area smelled of roses.

The Great Pavilion was where the displays of the best of the best were showcased. I could have stayed all day just in the pavilion. It was a great experience and wonderful to have shared it with friends like Petra and Lars.

Royal Ascot June 20th, 2009

2009-07-01T18:58:00.004+01:00

Royal Ascot is a week long horse racing event sponsored by the Queen herself. James and I decided to go to the event when we found out that we were coming home this summer. It was something we needed to do and go full-out for. The Queen is in attendance the whole week so the dress attire is very strict, especially in the the royal enclosure. We could not get into that area. But we got the next best area.

The Brits love to dress up for events. This week long event is a huge production. Most men wear top hats and Morning suits and the women in fancy hats and beautiful dress's even when they don't have to. James opted out of the Top hat and morning suit so I got a new outfit for the event. We also ordered picnic box's for lunch. We were able to see the Queen twice, once coming into the race course and again presenting a trophy to the winner of the race the Golden jubilee stakes winner which is named for her.

The attendance that day was 80,000+. We choose to take the train to the race. It took 3 attempts to board the train. The train was packed full with race goers. I now know that the phrase means packed in like sardines. Overall the day was wonderful and a once in a life time event to experience.

We liked it so much we changed the title picture on the blog.

Dangerous visit to Richmond Park

2009-07-01T18:37:00.004+01:00

June 3rd
The boys and I went to the park the morning of June 3rd. It started out great a nice day sunny and warm. Important note "Spring time" in the park means baby animals in the park to include deer and fowl and bunnies. In walking the boys we saw a few baby deer in the open areas. As I crossed the main road with the boys and making my way up to a shady tree line I was soon followed by a deer very closely. She eventually had me trapped around a tree for about a 30 minutes before I could get a jogger's attention.

I yelled for his help. I had tried for 30 minutes throwing sticks at it to go away. With help,finally I got back to the main road. With the deer still following us. I was never so frightened in my life because she could have hurt me or the boys.

I now think twice walking the park with the boys. In hind sight I should have realized why the deer was so aggressive she probably had young in the high grass area in the tree line.

To get my heart beating at a normal rate I found a pond with water fowl with their young I found this beautiful wood duck and his family.

Kew Gardens Visit April 22,2009

2009-07-01T18:22:00.004+01:00

Spring time in England
James and I are very lucky that we live near a a wonderful garden. When My family came over for visit we spent a day at the gardens. The rhododendrons and azaleas and lilacs were in bloom. Tulips and other bulbs plants were in wonderful show in flower beds all through the park.

The gardens were once the home for the Royal Princess Augusta in 1759. The garden is the world leader in plant science and conservation. We saw exotic Orchids and wildflowers from across the world. Kew botanical garden also has a millennium seed bank. They are able to freeze seeds of plants that will be extinct plants and save them for hundreds of years. They have about 23,000 plant species from every continent. This year is it's 250 anniversary.

Diana’s Family Visit April 10th –April 24,2009

2009-06-03T13:51:00.003+01:00

Diana’s Family Visit April 10th –April 24,2009
Hello everyone, Back in April my family came over for a visit. In the 1.5 years we have been in London they’re the only family members to visit except for Cassidy. Because it was a holiday of a life time I tried to plan that they experience and do as much as possible. My dad and Dolores and younger sister Sabine came for a visit. Ms Dolores was like the energizer bunny. She was up for doing and seeing everything. Her favorite phrase was “you can rest when you get home”. As you all know by now we don’t have a car here in the UK so we walk everywhere or take public transport (Tube, Train, or Buses). So I think I wore them out.

The only thing I had no control over was the weather. The weather was mostly cloudy and periods of rain. A few days of sun shine. It was still a shock because they live in Augusta Georgia.

Knowing that this was a trip of a life time, I was able to book a week-end in Paris, France traveling on the Eurostar. The train travels from London to Paris in 3 hrs under the English Channel. Spring time in Paris it was not. It rained the whole time except the very last day of our visit. We saw almost everything in Paris from a bus. This was a good thing because of the rain. The mornings we were on the bus and the afternoon we were free to do what we wanted. We saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, saw the Effel Towel and was able to attend a church service at the Notre Dame Cathedral, and Sacre-Coeur, drove around the Arcde Triomphe and toured Chateur de Versailles. We also did a Seine River cruise.

In London we did all the must do or see as a tourist. Hop on and off tour of London, river cruise up to Greenwich, tour tower of London (seeing the crown jewels),walking across the Tower Bridge. Hearing Big Ben Chime, Walk through Harrods (famous London store) walked in Hyde and James and Green Park. Walked down to Piccadilly Circus and the shopping street of Oxford Street and due to the weather we were unable to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace. Toured Windsor castle spent a day at Kew Gardens which is walking distant from the house.

Wanting to get out of town I arranged a bus tour trip to see Stonehenge, the Roman Baths in Bath and see Salisbury cathedral in Salisbury and the English country-side.

In the time that my family was here we were able to ride most modes form of transport, Ferries, Trains, buses and the underground tube system.

It was great having the time with my family here in London. Usually we only see each other on a week-end visit when I go home to the states.
We are attaching a link to our picture album because we all had cameras and my family like to take pictures. I get it honestly.

There's lots of pictures, and many are redundant as we had 4 cameras going most of the time. Rather than put it in a slideshow, I'll just link to the photo album

Diana's Family visits

The loss of the biggest wolf pack fan

2009-05-18T19:55:00.003+01:00

We have lost a dear and wonderful friend today.Jennifer lived her life to the fullest. Never complaining and asking for special treatment even when we her friends all know that she was in pain. James and I will miss her terribly. Her strength and big heart and ready smile we will never forget. Her support of the wolf pack went back to her time at North Carolina State University. She always spoke of the time of the wolf pack basketball championship game and what the experience was like on campus at the time. Our memories of Jennifer at the our tailgating parties will stay with us. We will always remember her side line coaching and yelling and singing the state's fight song at the games.GO WOLF PACK

A Better Place
She’s in a better place right now
Than she’s ever been before;

All pain is gone; she’s now at rest;
Nothing troubles her anymore.

It’s we who feel the burden of
Our sadness and our grief;.

We have to cry, to mourn our loss,
Before we get relief.

We know we’ll reconnect with her
At the end of each life’s road;

We’ll see her cherished face again
When we release our earthly load.

By Joanna Fuchs

Jennifer rest in peace and pain free

Dover

2009-05-15T19:56:00.002+01:00

So when we found out we need to head back, we sat down and made a "bucket list". Basically, what is it we wanted to do, versus how much time have we got left. Obviously the first list is much longer than the second.

However, you'll see an acceleration of activity from now till we leave, as we try to pack as much into these last few weeks as we can.

If you remember this post from last Easter, I made this post as I went through Dover to take the ferry to France. It was cold and miserable, but struck me as some place I'd like to bring the family (Diana and doggies) back to. I'd heard that walking along the Dover downs at the top of the white cliffs was incredible.

So last weekend we decided to head back down there. The weather for London was very iffy, but it looked better in Kent.

We couldn't go into the castle with the doggies, but we had a great time anyway. The walks along the cliffs and through the downs were awesome and absolutely wore us out! But we all had a great time, the views were breathtaking, and the place was great.

Pictures below:

Germany and Heike's Birthday

2009-05-15T19:09:00.002+01:00

I had to work Cisco Expo Germany. Below is a video of the highlights of this event. And to answer Heike, yea, I call that work. Someone has to set this thing up and tear it down.

After the event, I worked in Germany for a couple of days and Diana flew over. It was Heike's birthday (we don't know how old she is) so we went to spend the weekend with her and Frank and Kai. The weather was warm and sunny, and we had a great time.

Time For Another Chapter

2009-04-27T08:47:00.002+01:00

If we look at life as a book, then it has to be made up of chapters. We began a new and exciting chapter in the fall of 2007 when we decided to accept the international assignment to the UK.

It's been great. personally, we saw and did a lot, as the entries in this blog attest to. We've tried to take maximum advantage of being here, to see as much as possible of both the UK and Europe.

It's also been a great cultural experience. Living here has really opened our eyes to the similarities and differences in the cultures between the Brits and Americans. There are things we could certainly learn from each other.

But now it's time for it to end. We'll be repatriating this summer, exact timing TBD. Will definitely get there while it's good and hot though! And in time for football season.

So now we're planning through our remaining weekends here, trying to again maximize the time. Looks for updates and more details soon.

Madeira - Wow!

2009-04-04T20:08:00.004+01:00

Back in January, when the days were 6 hours long, it was cold and nasty, we decided to look for a place we could slip away to for a few days of warmth and sunshine. In searching through our timeshare trading options, we found Madeira. My friend Lars' wife Petra recommended it, and are we glad she did!

Since this is not one of the most well known places around, let's look at some geography. Madeira is a Portuguese island in the south Atlantic ocean, about 300 miles off the coast of Morocco. It's basically a mountain in the middle of the ocean. But it gets all of the trade winds and the rain they bring, so it lush and green. There's no beaches, all the coastline is rocky.

this is one of those places that you kinda don't know where to start in describing it. Beautiful, breathtaking, warm, cold sunny, misty, foggy....friendly, inexpensive, sometimes a bit frightening.

We had planned to do a lot of walking, through the mountains, etc. Centuries ago, we they created stone ditches called levadas to bring the rainwater from the mountains to the lower levels to use it for agriculture. Now, all of those are walkways. Most are beautiful, some are very dangerous.

I've also never seen a place so vertical. Every road was a 15 degree slope. The hairpin turn made West Virginia roads look wide and flat! And there were times when all you saw of the edge of the road was a set of dragon's teeth stone barriers and blue sky. That was a bit freaky!

Yes, we decided to rent a motorcycle. All they had the day I went there was a 650 or 1200 cc BMW. I took the 1200 (R1200GS). Wow, what a bike! Powerful, smooth, heavy and way too tall for me. But a lot of fun to drive. We basically went all over the island on it in 3 days, seeing some of the most spectacular scenery ever.

Bottom line, we had a fantastic time. The food was great, and cheap. The most expensive dinner we had the entire week was about 60$ for the both of us, and most of the others were about half that much.

Of course, we took lots of pictures. The slideshow is below.

Happy St Patrick's Day

2009-03-18T21:18:00.001Z

We stopped by our local Irish pub for a quick pint of the black last evening. It got a little crazy! Funny thing is, we were really there for less than an hour!

From St Patty's 09

Calendars

2009-03-09T12:15:00.000Z

We've had some requests to add our Google Calendars back to the blog. For some reason, I'm having trouble doing this, so I'll add them embedded in this entry and try to keep it updated:

Walks in February

2009-03-09T11:08:00.004Z

We still try to get out and walk every weekend when the weather is not too bad. A couple of weekends in February were good for getting out with the right clothing.

We went into London (without the doggies, it's just too crowded) to Portobello Market, where they sell everything from antiques to fresh fruit and veg. This goes several blocks down a street in central London.

Went to Hampton Court one day. This palace was the favorite of Henry VIII and is now open to the public. You can't go into the palaces with the doggies, but they are aloud to walk around the grounds. We took the train to Kingston, so it was only about a 3 mile walk. After lunch in the local pub, we grabbed a bus back.

Then we got a little out of town by going out into the Surrey hills for about a 5-6 mile walk. This was great as it was really out in the country.We meet other walkers with their dogs most all the dogs are very friendly. We met a couple with a unusually colored coat. We stopped and had lunch in Oxted, a town who's high street is still primarily 16th century buildings. The fish and chips with a pint of local ale really hit the spot!

You'll notice the pictures of streams and pond show the water oddly colored. The hills are all chalk here, and it runs into the water giving it a really unique look.

Switzerland

2009-02-16T17:19:00.007Z

As always, we're way behind in updating you folks. Trying to catch up a little this morning as James is off and we're waiting to catch a flight. More on that later.

In February, James was doing yet another road show. These are usually grueling events, where you spend about 6 hours in each city and run to catch a plane to the next one. However, now that there are 3 people on the team here, we were able to break it up some and do some customer meetings between the actual presentations. The entire event was impacted by weather, as it was snowing all over Europe for 2 weeks. James got stuck in Stockholm as all the airports in London were snowed in. Then the London event was hampered by snow so everyone attended remotely. Same with Frankfurt. The last stop was Zurich, Friday, Feb 13.

So we went to Switzerland for Valentine's Day weekend. Again, snow impacted it as James was delayed getting out of London by snow in Zurich. Diana arrived late Thursday and we hoped for the best.

While James worked on Friday, Diana played tourist. She went up to a mountain (hill) overlooking Zurich where everyone was sledding down. I took a train up from the city. On the way up several people got on the train with their toboggan sleds. At the top I had to walk about a half a mile to the summit to get the view of the city. The Swiss were enjoying the snow they usually don't get this amount of snow. Instead of taking the train down I walk back down to the city via the walking paths in the mountain(hill). The only sound in the forest was birds and small mountain streams and your own foot steps it was a great experience.

Zurich has several churches famous for their stain glass windows. You could not take any pictures so I picked up some post cards of them.

On Friday night, she found a country and western festival in town. We shared a table with some great people and had a really good time. The first band was led by a guy from SC, and they weren't very good. The second was a Canadian band and they rocked. A few original songs and lots of covers. James got his dance card punched for 2009.

Then on Saturday she booked us a trip to the Jungfraujoch, one of the highest peaks in Switzerland. There's a cog train that climbs all the way to the summit, some 11,000+ feet. In places, it actually goes through the mountain and has places you can detrain and look out through viewing areas.

At the summit of the mountain, it was -27C (-17F). We only stayed out in it long enough to take the pictures. The coolest thing here was the glacier. They had actually carved walking trails through the inside of the glacier. I can't imagine how deep the snow was here.

Because of the altitude you had to move very slowly. Take it from us it was hard to breath and walk.

James is yet again playing with some new ways to show the pictures and trying to convey the spirit of what we experienced. He's put it all in a video this time, tell us how it works for you and how you like it.

From Switzerland

Pictures We've received

2009-02-07T17:45:00.002Z

Sometimes we get pictures emailed to us. Cassidy sent us some shots of her doing things. Heike sent us some pictures she and Frank took on our last visit. Here's a slide show of those pics.

February Snow Storm

2009-02-07T17:34:00.003Z

It never snows in London! Well, in just over a year I've seen it snow about 6 times, and this last one was a doozy!

James left Sunday night for a business trip to Stockholm amid a few flurries. By 6:00 am Monday morning, there were 6-8 inches on the ground and it continued to snow all day. By late Monday afternoon, there was about a foot of snow.

This shut down the entire country! Not only were buses, roads and airports shut, but even the trains and subways were closed.

And James was stuck in Sweden, where there was no snow! He was supposed to come home Monday night, but instead got home late Tuesday afternoon.

The dogs enjoyed it. Elijah had really never seen snow before. Of course, DarkStar is so short, the snow was deeper than he is tall in some places.

Pictures below:

Business Travel: Barcelona

2009-01-31T23:29:00.003Z

Yes, I travel a lot. Lots of locations, international cities, etc. Many people ask if they can come along, it sounds so exciting and exotic.

I just came back from working our annual conference in Barcelona. This was a 4 day conference in which I had to set up and man 4 demos in the exhibition hall, speak at the seminar twice for 2 hours each, and participate in what we call a BOF (Birds of a feather) session. Basically an open discussion forum on a specific topic.

Barcelona is a lovely city and has a lot of great things to see, at least as far as I can see from the back of a taxi. This is the second conference I've worked there, each trip being a week long. Last year I had 2 hours on the last afternoon to go see the old city. This year none.

So, here's my pictures of Barcelona. All of them are taken from my hotel, either from my window or from the windows in the elevator lobby on my floor. The final picture was taken the evening after we tore down the demos. My colleague Lars and I went to the grocery stire to get our wives some chocolates. He was carrying a router from the demos, and the security guard made him check it as she had no idea what it was.

Richmond Park in Winter

2009-01-31T20:23:00.007Z

This is the coldest winter in the UK in 10 years. From about mid-November until early January, we had only a few days where the high temperature rose above freezing. Also, here in the UK, you occasionally get really heavy fogs. When the fog and the extreme cold meets, you get what they call hoar frost, and it looks like a snowstorm came through.

You've seen the seasons in Richmond park in other postings:

Autumn

Summer

Spring

Here's some pictures from Winter. The first several pictures were taken on a brutally cold day with lots of frost everywhere. The last few were taken exactly 1 week later. What a difference a week makes!

There was also a large heard of deer we were able to get very close to. I thought I'd shoot them in video

Bath

2009-01-12T21:26:00.001Z

James and I and the boys spent a week–end in Bath . We found a dog friendly B&B called the Pratt House.
We again took the train up. We were able to get first class seats for a reasonable price. Bath is famous for
its roman baths which still exist today. We were only able to see the outside of the baths. We found out
early in the week-end that Bath was not so dog friendly. We only found two pubs that we could take the boys
into. And being right after Christmas the shops were full with people looking for bargains. We spent a lot of
time outside walking along the river Avon and canal and playing ball with the boys. The weather was very
cold, the boys even got cold in their sweaters. We found a patch of green to play ball with boys it was near
Pulteney Bridge. It was a kind of a walking maze pattern.

Some info about Bath I found of interest.

Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing complex that still flows with natural hot water.
One of the largest buildings in Bath is it’s Abbey,
Bath Abbey is the last of the great medieval churches of England.
The West Front is unique as it depicts the dream that inspired the Abbey's founder, Bishop Oliver King, Over
the past twelve and a half centuries, three different churches have occupied the site of today’s Abbey: An
Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church dating from 757 pulled down by the Norman conquerors of England soon after
1066. Worship has taken place on the site of today's Abbey for over one thousand years.
The Royal Crescent is one of the world's best known landmarks. Built between 1767 and 1775
and designed by John Wood the younger, the crescent contains some 30 houses,

Pulteney Bridge, together with the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, is one of the world's most beautiful bridges.
Like the Ponte Vecchio it is one of a handful of historic bridges in the world with shops built into it. Built for
William Pulteney by Robert Adams, the bridge was an attempt to connect central Bath to land on the other
bank of the River Avon and make Pulteney's fortune. In spite of its practical origins it is surely the most
romantic bridge in the world, best viewed from Parade Gardens park by the crescent weir.

Over all it was a pretty low key week-end. We walked pretty much all of Bath.

Wraysbury Walk

2009-01-10T19:25:00.003Z

We didn't spend our entire winter break cooped up in the house, eating and drinking too much. We got out almost daily for good long walks and playing with the doggies. We had about 3 days where it warmed up a few degrees, and on one of them we took off to Wraysbury. This is a town about 15 minutes from home on the train.

You can find the map of the walk here

As it was a little warmer, everything was very muddy, and I think we both had mud up to our knees!. But the walk was along several waterways full of birds and other wildlife, plus some historical markers. We even passed Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed (the English still don't have a constitution, but the Magna Carta is the closest thing they have).

At the end of the walk was a lovely pub where we stopped for s Shepherd's pie and pint before riding the train back to Richmond. It was a great day!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-09T18:27:00.004Z

Our First Christmas in London England, we stayed home and vegged from our whirl wind tour in Germany and eat light ie. the salad. The Christmas holiday lasted over 2 weeks. The boys were so confused that daddy (James) was home so long, what a long week-end. We took long walks and played lots of ball. When James did sit down at the computer the boys immediately jumped into his lap.

We were able to get a small Christmas tree and wreath for our place. We picked up some German Christmas decorations to decorate the tree and have some memories of our trip to Germany Christmas markets tour.

A few days before Christmas we got tickets to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a called Carols by Candlelight. The music was by the Mozart Festival Orchestra and the Mozart festival chorus. The Orchestra was dressed in period dress. Our seats were amazing 3rd row from the stage. The hall was absolutely amazing to experience a concert in. The only sad part is that they did not allow photos to be taken during the concert so we only had time to get a few before the start.

I got a new hair do for the concert and we both got dressed up for the night out in London.

We made reservations at a local pub/restaurant (The Duke) for a proper English Christmas lunch/dinner. Most places were closed Christmas day and the next which is called Boxing Day. Boxing Day was a day for charity putting things or money in a box. Not the fist fights that happens in the USA when we return unwanted gifts.

James and I chose different options from the menu so we can taste different things.
The meal was great, we liked most things. The staff and owner of the Duke spoiled us (Americans) and we had not tried some of the things on the menu before especially the desserts and the chutney’s. James had the consommé and the roast turkey I got the tart and the beef Wellington. We tasted the Christmas pudding, bread and butter pudding and the crumble and the mince pies.

The boys exchanged gifts with Vicky and Cosmo their wonderful pet sitter. She is a
great friend. The boys get very excited when we mention her or Cosmos’ name and they seem to look for them when we’re out on walks.

New Years Eve we went to our local pub called The Crown. We’re now regulars there. The owners Jo and Paul are wonderful people and have made us very welcome. I can even go there by myself with the boys and not feel uncomfortable. They had a DJ who played 70-80’s disco music. I danced a lot. The only thing at was unusual was that they did not have champagne or noise makers or funny hats.

Cassidy was able to come over for a few days in the New Year. This winter has been very cold like freezing as a high and 2-6 below at night. She figured out fast to wear layers and wearing hat gloves and scarf. We exchanged Christmas gifts. And pretty much had low key days and we planned some evening entertainment. We took her to the Hyde Park winter wonderland and had German bratwurst and beer. Then we went to a theatre in Greenwich via a ferry to a panto (Pantomime) (not to be confused with a mime artist referring to a theatrical performer of mime) is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in Great British , and is usually performed during the Christmas and New Year season. The show was from the Jack and the Beanstalk tale, but was for both kids and adults. A must do if you all have a chance to see a show. We also went to a walking Jack the Ripper tour, we had many layers on and still we were cold we even saw some snow flakes fall. It was great to have Cassidy here for a few days and catch up. James and I have missed seeing and talking to her.

German Christmas Market Tour

2009-01-08T19:39:00.007Z

Still catching up. Seems like we're always doing that.

So in order to get into the Christmas spirit, we decided to go to Germany. We wanted to visit our friends Frank & Heike, Diana's Tante Hannelore and her family, and go to the German Christmas markets. I wanted Diana to see some other areas of Germany, as most of her experience has been in Bavaria.

So we hit 5 cities in 4 days. We got some cheap flights round trip from London. I used hotel points and we stayed in the Hilton in Cologne and Munich, and Diana found an awesome deal on the German railways, so we traveled as 1 cheap person rather than 2.

So we started in Cologne. beautiful city, and we were staying right beside the Dom, the big cathedral. It's been incredibly cold in Europe this winter, since about the middle of November, it's rarely gotten above freezing, so we were traveling heavy, taking lots of warmth.

In Cologne, we hit no less than 5 or 6 markets. The most interesting was the Mittlearts Markt, or Middle Ages market. This was right beside the river, everyone was dressed from the Middle Ages, and there was no electricity, so the only lights were by candle and firepot.

Also went to Dusseldorf. It was a bit disappointing. The markets have become somewhat commercialized, and there are several shops you can find at all of them. Most of the markets offer some truly unique shops that are local and you can't find elsewhere. The markets in Dusseldorf didn't offer such. The local beer is sold in small glasses called alt beer, not James's favorite beer.

After 2 cold days in Cologne, we hopped the train to Aschaffenburg, where our friends Frank, Heike and Kai live. I've known Frank and Heike since 1991, and they are mine and Diana's oldest friends. They were closing down their summer place and we got in on the end of season party. there was lots of dancing! And, of course, we hit the local Christmas market on the way out.

We left there on the train to Munich. German trains are so great, they run on time and are very clean, safe and fast. We were in Munich about 1 1/2 hours faster than we could have driven it under best conditions.

The whole time we were in Cologne and Dusseldorf, we were hearing that it was snowing in Munich. We didn't get any snow there, but Diana found some on the ground. We saw several patches of snow, but none fell. I think it was too cold.

The Christmas markets are full of food and drinks. Bratwursts, fried potato cakes, roast pork sandwiches, candied almonds and other treats are everywhere, and we ate our way through. Also, Gluhwein, a hot mulled wine in lots of variants, schnapps and other drinks are in abundance. We sampled some of them as well. Finally, I tried the feuerzangenbowle, a mulled wine drink topped with 70% rum and a sugar cube, then set on fire. It warmed me :) and how, not a drink for Diana. She enjoyed the gluhwein.

Leaving Munich we took the train to Nurnburg to finish our visit at the oldest market, the Nurnbrug Christkindlsmarkt, and see Diana's Aunt. We had a great visit, saw the christmas angel, and had some nurnberger brats, the little ones. Nuremberg market is also famous for selling figurines called Zetschgenmannie made from nuts and dried plums. Then it was time to head for Frankfurt and the airport to come home.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. We had bought a small tree before we left and we picked up unique decorations and ornaments for it on the trip. We'll show those pictures in a later post. We tried to label the pictures as to where they were taken, then a comment about them.

December 2008 update

2008-12-31T18:19:00.003Z

December has been a very busy month for us, and you'll see several updates in it. Since we hadn't planned to come back to the US for the holidays, we made some plans to enjoy them here in the UK, and in Europe.

We went around to some celebrations in the London area and looked at the decorations, lights, etc. Spent some time with some friends, Jools and Farah, and James caught up with the boys, as he'd been traveling almost all of November.

It's been very cold here since the middle of November, so getting in the mood for things. In Hyde Park, near Buckingham Palace, we went to the Winter Wonderland festival. This was great, and it was just right to get the season started.

Enjoy

Happy Winter Solstice

2008-12-21T15:05:00.002Z

Today, Dec 21, at 12:04 pm, was the Winter Solstice. This makes today the shortest day of the year, and from now on, days get longer by a few seconds a day.

In London, the days are currently less than 8 hours long, as you see from the Astonomy data below

Astronomy
Sunrise: 8:05 AM GMT
Sunset: 3:55 PM GMT
Length of Day: 7h 49m
Tomorrow will be 0m 4s longer.
Moon Rise: 2:06 AM GMT Moon Phase
Moon Set: 12:08 PM GMT
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
29% Illuminated

Yes, this means the sun comes up after 8:00, and sets before 4:00! It's depressing. And on cloudy days, which we have plenty of, they seem even shorter.

I'm looking forward to some longer days. Happy Winter Solstice!

Vienna

2008-12-07T19:18:00.006Z

As i mentioned, I spent almost all of November traveling. In the middle of the month I had to be in Vienna on a Wednesday and Thursday, so we decided to fly Diana in and stay a couple of extra days.

I'd never spent much time in Vienna, literally less than 24 hours. Of course the city has a tremendous history, but it was an interesting mixture of old and new. Much of it was very modern surrounding the historical buildings.

While we were there, Vienna was just opening up their Christmas markets. There were several of them around the city. German Christmas markets are lovely places and great for getting into the mood of the season. We were fortunate enough that on our last day, it was snowing while we were in the markets, really making the season seem right. Then, we almost got stranded there by the snowstorm!

We went to see the Lipizzaner stallions show at the Spanish riding school. This is their home turf and they are awesome animals. I could only take photos before and after the show, they were very serious about no pictures during the performance, even without flash. Still, you get a nice look at the building they perform in.

It was very cold while we were there, and has stayed cold ever since. You'll even notice in one of the pictures that the horse had ear coverings. Some things were a bit tough to do due to the cold, so if the outdoor pictures are shivery, that's why :)

Autumn in Richmond Park

2008-12-07T19:10:00.004Z

We spend a lot of time walking the dogs, and Richmond Park is one of our favorite places. You've seen lots of pictures of this park in the spring and summer, with the deer, parrots and beautiful landscape. In October and November, the deer were preparing for the rut. All of the bulls have their full racks of antlers, and they are bellowing all over the park. The females are separating off into smaller heards for mating.

You'll also find a picture here of Diana and Elijah on the train. The dogs are allowed to ride the public transport systems here, trains, buses and subways. We've been so impressed at how our dogs took to this. You see the picture here, Elijah is just laying down on the train, relaxing and waiting for his stop.

november catch up

2008-11-23T18:11:00.002Z

Seems like we're always in catch-up mode with the blog. Well, in early November, both Diana and I went to the US, and for the first time since we left we were both in town at the same time.

Cassidy was in a car wreck , and unfortunately totaled her car. Thank god she wasn't hurt. Cars can be replaced. Anyway, we needed to get her some transportation, and that takes a while.

We had so much to do we were both very pressed for time. Our friends Mike and Sara are moving to Seattle (Mike is already there). They were storing our camper and truck for us. We sold the camper to Diana's sister Sabine, and she and her husband Jim came up to get it.

I was in San Jose for a few days, then a quick stop back through NC again on the way back to London. These visits are very short and hectic for us, and we try to see as many people as possible while there. Always, we miss some.

A quick update on our status here. Our assignment here was for 1 year and due to end the first week of January. Right now, we're extending that for 6 months, we'll get new work Visas in about 2 weeks. After that we're not 100% sure, and will keep everyone posted as things develop.

I've been coming back through on business travel about every quarter, but with the global economic slowdown, the company has curtailed that. We can only travel now to see customers, and all of mine are in Europe, so I guess I won't be back over for a bit.

The invitation is still out there for all to come visit. Cassidy is planning to come by in early January, and Diana's daddy and his friend Mrs Delores are coming in April. Aside from Cassidy and her friends, they'll be our first visitors. As Cassidy says, she's had more visitors in England than we have.

Look for some new posts soon, as we've been around some in the autumn here in the UK and Europe. I'm back on the road again as soon as I get back, with trips to Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, Rennes (France) and Madrid scheduled for this month.

Hope everyone is well.

Cassidy's Fall Break to Dublin

2008-10-25T12:46:00.004+01:00

Since we hadn't had Cassidy over for a while, we wanted to take advantage of her few days off for fall break. She was tired of coming to London, so we met in Dublin for a very quick few days. Diana and I flew in on Wednesday so we had a place for Cassidy to crash on her arrival, as she suffers from jetlag really badly.

We had a blast. We toured the city, including St Patrick's cathedral. We also booked a coach tour out to Tara and some of the neolithic monuments. It was kind of cold and rainy, but we did our best. On Saturday we got drenched and decided it was a PJ night. We ordered in pizza and watched TV.

We ate tons of good food, and had a pint or two of the black :) Yes, it's different in Dublin, where Guinness actually tastes like beer. We even toured the Guinness Storehouse and learned to pour our own perfect pint.

Of course, we caught some really good traditional Irish bands as well. every place had several bands playing.

I'm trying a new tool I downloaded and I made a movie of our pictures, set to music. Please let me know what you think, especially those of you on slower links, as I know we have readers on dial-up connections still. I can make 2 more videos with it before I have to pay for it, and don't want to pay unless it's good to use it.

Brussels September 2008

2008-10-25T10:54:00.007+01:00

At the end of September I had to work a trade show in Brussels. Now, Brussels is a funny city, and not my favorite in Europe. In fact, it rates above only Paris from being at the bottom. But I enjoy going anywhere with Diana, and she'd never been there.

I say Brussels is funny. As the HQs of NATO and the EU, as well as lots of other international organizations, you'd think it would be a very international city. But it's not, it's French!. Outside the tourist areas, no one can or will speak english, and you see very few foreigners on the streets.

Also, I'd always wanted to take the Eurostar, the train that runs between London and Paris and Brussels. So we booked onto it.

After a September of really rainy, crappy weather, the weekend in Brussels was lovely, sunny and mild. We spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday playing Japanese tourist around the center of the city. Then, when I went to work on Monday, Diana went to the city outskirts for more sightseeing.

A couple of more notes. Brussels is also a city of bizarre fountains. You'll see several pics of fountains. The most famous is the Mannequin Pis, which is a little boy peeing into a fountain. They dress him in different costumes. There are 2 other that go with this, his sister and a dog. There's pictures of them too. Not really sure why the Belgians are so fascinated with urination.

Also, you'll see pics of the Atomium. This is a giant replica of an atom left over from the 1958 or something world's fair. Oddly, the place I was working the trade show turned out to be right beside it.

A Great download

2008-10-25T07:55:00.004+01:00

Old & In The Way
Breakdown

Click below to preview tracks from this show

DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience
The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience

Click below to preview tracks from this show

DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM

I'm starting to do some automatic posts on music I'm listening to and how to download it. I'm not a big listener to pop music or stuff you can hear on the radio, and I don't use iTunes online store much, preferring more eclectic sites.

Virginia waters Walk

2008-10-24T07:13:00.006+01:00

We try hard to find walks to do on week-ends and we found a walk near Windsor
Park called Virginia waters walk. We had to take a train to start the walk. The walk was advertised on the trains web site. The walk was advertised as a 8.5 mile walk which we found out later. We did not prepare for a long walk. No snacks or water for the boys or us.

The walk was mostly side walks through a golf course lined with mansions that are homes to the likes of Sir Cliff Richard and golfer Ernie Els. We finally got to the park and because it was a nice day a lot of families where out and about, biking and walking having picnicking. At the park the trail went around a lake called Virginia waters and around the lake we saw a Roman ruins, brought in the 19th century from near Tripoli, and finally the Cascade Bridge by the waterfall,and a Totem Pole, a gift to the Queen from Canada. and small cottages.By the end of the walk we decided that it was not walk we like. We enjoy more the country side walks better.

County Fair at Hampton Green

2008-10-24T06:59:00.003+01:00

While James was in the US in August the boys and I took the bus to Hampton where at the green
(a open green park) a county fair was being held. The advert said that a jousting
group was performing and a wild bird display. It was a warm day the boys kept looking for shade.

We were able to watch both shows. The pictures maybe a little fuzzy.
Holding the camera still and the boys under control was a challenge especially when the horses came close. Over all it was a great day out. The boys get lots of attention. They do so very well on the buses.

Diana's Birthday Cruise

2008-08-15T19:51:00.006+01:00

Since Diana's birthday and our anniversary both fall in August, we've always just taken a weekend away to celebrate both events. After much research, we decided to ride the train to Newcastle and take the ferry cruise to Bergen, Norway.

James and I had a great time on this trip. It was our first cruise together I hope not the last. The ship was a ferry which transported people and cars/ motorcycle's and supplies to and from England to Norway.

The cabin was small but comfortable with two twin beds and en suite bathroom some rooms had bunk beds which thank goodness we did not get.

The weather out to Norway we had lots of sun and warm breeze,we stayed on the deck most of the day soaking up the warm sun shine.
We visited all the bars on the ship. This vacation was so relaxing. We both had books to read.

The food on the ship/ferry was wonderful we opted for the 2 course meals.
The landscape of Norway was breathtaking with the small cove villages on the coast and the many sail boats. The ship made a total of 2 stops one in and the other in Bergen.
The over night crossing got a little rough we really could feel the ferry going thru the waves

When we got to Bergen we found out that the Tall Ships Competition was taking place and they were resting in Bergen that same week-end. The town port was full of beautiful yachts and old ships and many sailors (oh my goodness they looked smart).Here's a link with some of the ships in the race

http://www.tallshipsracesbergen.no/eng/pages/The_Tallships/

Finding a place to eat was a challenge but James found a Irish pub that served a German schnitzel. We have a standing joke that I look for only German food on our holidays. Regardless if we're in Spain or Norway or Scotland. Most of the time I do find one. In our wanderings in town I found a karaoke bar it was great fun and we met the most charming couple and their friends. Most of the songs were country and western songs is was a blast to hear them sing them most were very good and the dancing was good the floor did not move.

On the ship, James took me dancing every night It was a challenge to dance with the movement of the ship. We did not stop swaying for days maybe a week after we got off the ship.

Slideshow is below

July Update

2008-08-11T22:03:00.004+01:00

We try to do something, see something, or go somewhere every weekend. I mean, that's much of why we're here, and we have nothing else to do. I usually work 12-15 hours a day Monday -Thursday, but try to stop by 5 or so on Friday and take the weekend off.

In July, we went to some local town festivals around the area. These ranged from a town fair (where we got our pictures in the paper)

to a local Blues festival

to Dragon Boat races on the Thames River.

We also take the opportunity when the weather is nice to have a picnic. There's pictures here of 2, the second one in the Richmond Park, about 15 minutes walk from home.

It had been really hot here (about 80F) and you couldn't sleep at night, so we had to buy a fan. It worked, the weather turned colder :)

One weekend we went into London to the Borough Food Market where Diana found a German deli and loaded up on German meats.

Finally, the weather had been so nice we decided to go to the beach. We took the train to Bournemouth on the south coast for a weekend at the beach. The doggies loved playing ball in the sand and we had a really good time. One thing to note for this set of pictures is that all of them were taken in the same day.

Edinburgh the last leg of our Scotland tour

2008-08-06T15:40:00.006+01:00

hoOn the way out we stopped at a working cooperage and the Glenfiddich Distillery.

We got to Edinburgh via train from Aberdeen. I found a Guest house walking distance from city center and on the bus line. The house was called The San Marco Guest house
http://www.edinburgh-guesthouse.net

It was wonderfully decorated and Avril the hostess was great and met all our needs. When we got to Edinburgh late afternoon she recommended a restaurant near that had a 2 for 1 dinner special that night. Dinner was great and the wine hit the spot. The next morning breakfast was a cooked breakfast eggs, ham, and toast beans. I choose a small breakfast cereal and fruit and one of James’s eggs. The boys got a taste of ham from breakfast that they enjoyed. (THANKS DAD).

The room was absolutely beautifully decorated 2 double beds and single bed in blue and white color scheme. The only down side to the guest house was that it did not have a green area close to walk the boys they did not like doing things on the side walk and concrete. Especially Elijah he likes grass or mulch under his feet.

Edinburgh is a medieval city it has an old town and new town we mostly walked the old town. In the old town you can walk from the castle to the palace called the royal mile. Edinburgh is a hilly city with lots of alley ways called (closes) with many steps.

We found out that the large cities in Scotland are not dog friendly. Only one pub called the Jolly Judge that we could go in with the dogs. This came in handy the last day in Scotland. We had a shock when we tried to take the boys in the Bobby pub for pint and meal. They did not allow dogs in or outside the pub because they serve food is what we were told it was against the rules. Luckily I ordered a couple pints a dram of whiskey for James before they told us that we could not have the dogs in the outside seating area. Here is a link to the history of the area and the pub and why we where disappointed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby

In our wanderings around Edinburgh James found shop that sold old and used CD’s. He was in heaven for about an hour. We had to buy a small suitcase to bring back the whiskey and the CD’s and sweaters. I could not visit Scotland and not get a wool Scottish sweater. May be 2.

I got James and the boys trekking up a volcano rock call Arthur’s Seat in a park in Edinburgh. The view from the top was disappointing. I though that we would see the coast line. James and I did a tour called the Real Mary King’s close http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/
A tour about life was like in the old days of tenement life. The tour takes you under the modern city streets. City under the city.

Our only mistake we made in our trip of Scotland was the last day our train did not leave until after midnight. So we had all day to wait luckily we could put our luggage in storage. It was a long long day. The weather was damp and chilly so the Jolly Judge pub came in handy. We sent several hours there. We all were ready to come back home. It was an amazing holiday it was relaxing, adventurous and sometimes stretched our endurance levels (out of shape 40 something’s). We met friendly people and tasted delicious food and tasty Scottish whiskies and saw absolutely amazing scenery. Well this is the last entry about our Scotland trip. More adventures to come.

Cairngorm Mountain

2008-07-21T11:41:00.003+01:00

So after walking around the coast, through the fields and pastures, in the forests and along the river, the only left was to hike up into the mountains. Cairngorm is a ski resort near where we were staying. It has an option to ride a train to the top, but it you ride up you have to ride down. If you walk up, you can ride the train down (thank god!). So we decided to do that.

Amazing experience really. The views were lovely, and we went through about 4 different climate zones on the way up. Darkstar and Elijah thoughts it was great, and Elijah must have climbed the whole thing 3 times :)

There were 2 paths to the top. Our original plan was to take the easy one, but we met a ranger at the bottom who recommended the steeper one. He said it's only steep for a bit, then levels right off. LIAR! It didn't level off until we got the the house on the top.

We started off in T shorts, then gradually added fleeces shorts, rain jackets, gloves and hoods as it got colder and wetter. We packed a lunch to eat at the top. Fortunately, the place at the top had refreshments and we were able to get a pint and a wee tipple to warm us.

Walking the River Spey

2008-07-21T11:35:00.003+01:00

For those of you with a taste, and some knowledge, of single malt whiskeys, you know that there's primarily 2 areas in Scotland where it's made, the islands and the River Spey. The Spey winds through some lovely countryside and Diana found a country walk along it.

Carrbridge

2008-07-20T18:30:00.002+01:00

We were staying in the little village of CarrBridge in the central highlands. this village is about 4 blocks long, has a lovely stream running through it, and a central wooded park.

We were actually staying about 2 miles outside of town, at The Pines guesthouse, a B&B. Lynn was our hostess and she was wonderful. One night, she made a very special dinner for us. Lynn has a beautiful place, with lots of room to walk up the hills behind there. We took some amazing photos from behind her house. Diana loved her yard as it was full of gnomes, bird and squirrel feeders. She has the fattest squirrels and bunnies you've ever seen.

The rest of the evenings there, we ate at the one pub in CarrBridge. This place was dog friendly, sometimes having more dogs than people almost. The food was hearty and good, especially the grilled pork chops. We discovered there was so much we could actually split the dish. We met a young man there named Liam who tried to teach James how to play Snooker.

This was our base for several days adventures. Those will come in other postings.

Oban and the West Coast

2008-07-18T18:28:00.000+01:00

Wow, this is where Scotland becomes really amazing. Get out of the cities and it's such a lovely country, the people are wonderful and it's great.

But to tell the story chronologically, we picked up a rental car in Glasgow and left for the west coast. This was by far the worst weather day we had on the trip, rainy, cold and windy. I had bought a Sat Nav system to find our way around, and it worked fine about 99% of the time, which is as good as any of them. I'll do a separate entry on the car and driving.

We stopped on the way at this lovely church, St Conan's. To look at it, you think it's 1000 years old like so much of this part of the world. We picked up the book on it and it was actually started in the very late 1800s, and not finished until after WWI. A bit disappointing. Still beautiful and on an awesome piece of real estate. Location, location, location.

After leaving there we had another hour + to drive. We were actually staying about 20 miles south of Oban, in a place called Loch Melfort. We finally get there, Diana goes and checks us in, then opens the room. I'm opening the rear of the car to get the bags out, and she says "well, it's a bit dated", then I walk in and see the view

Suddenly it was OK. Also, this place was bed, breakfast and dinner. Dinner every night was a great 2 course meal, all you had to pay for was your drinks. The meals were awesome, and the creme brule' was irresistible for desert!

We spent a day in Oban, a port town where the ferries leave for the western islands. It was a very neat town, lots of woolen shops and items, gorgeous scenery. If we'd had the time, we would have taken one of the wildlife excursions out to see the Puffins and other rare species. There was also a ferry to Ilona, the island bed of Christianity in the British Isles and still a working monastery and religious shrine. Would have loved to see that, but just didn't have the time.

Anyway, we found a walk that went through a lot of farmers fields and livestock areas, but had some beautiful views along the way. I had eaten Steak-and-black sheep pie for lunch, and felt the livestock were after revenge the whole time. Especially at the end when we were headed for a hill and the cows seemed to have scouts on the ridgeline. Then a group of 4 moved in and cut us off, so we had to leave. I was thinking of all those westerns I'd watched growing up :)

Wildflowers in Scotland

2008-07-18T18:22:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone, We tried to take a few(haha) pictures of the wild flowers we ran across in Scotland. The vegetation was lush and every shade of green. The forests were lush and amazing to walk throw. The forests you could not see throw it was so thick and dark. The story of little red riding hood came to mind. The wild foxgloves were the most prominent flower, also orchids and ferns and some flowers that looked like forget-me nots. Fungus plants (Moss Campion a tundra plant) that grow on the rocks with beautiful blooms and daisies like flowers.

James was so patient when I pointed out different flowers to get a picture of. He even started to take pictures on his own. The heather plants were amazing the deep purple blooms made the landscape look like a sea of purple.

The trees were also amazing to see the birch and scot's pine and juniper bushes.

The thorny thistles and it's bloom is the national symbol of Scotland, you find it everywhere. In the states it would be a weed.

Glasgow

2008-07-15T20:56:00.002+01:00

We stayed at the Kelvin Hotel. This is a converted Victorian house, and these types of B&Bs are all over the UK. We've stayed in several. They are pretty basic but functional. The real difference is the people who run then. We've stayed in a couple where the owners didn't give a damn, and we've stayed in some that the people running it were great, like the Avalon Hotel in Brighton. In this case, we lucked out. Linda was gracious and took great care of us. We arrived about 8:30 am, in the middle of breakfast. She let us in, gave us a place to store our bags, and even offered us breakfast! When we returned in the afternoon she has set us up with a room with a private entrance for the doggies and put our bags in there. Now that's service!

Anyway, as everywhere, the doggies attract a lot of attention, and we met and talked to a lot of nice people. Only found 1 real dog friendly place, but others where we could sit outside and eat or drink with the dogs.

We couldn't wait to get out of there and into the highlands, so bright and early Tuesday morning we were off!

Prepping to Leave

2008-07-15T20:51:00.002+01:00

We had an entire weekend at home before leaving on the sleeper train late Sunday night. Of course, we packed and repacked several times. It's impossible for us to travel light, but having to carry stuff for the dogs added to it.

We spent much of Saturday outdoors as it was a lovely day, starting with a walk through Richmond Park to see the deer. They are all growing their antlers in for the fall rut, and they are still covered in velvet.

On Sunday, our friends Farah and Jools invited us to a party, and they didn't want the doggies to leave.

Finally the time came and we took the tube through London to Euston Station, where the sleeper train leaves from. We had a private berth, just the 4 of us. The Caledonian Sleeper is MUCH better than the French sleeper we took a few years ago. It's not like sleeping in your own bed, but it's ok, and better than sitting in a seat for 8 hours. It leaves Euston in the north of London at 23:00 and arrives in Glasgow at 7:00. About 30 mins before it arrives, the conductor comes through with coffee and a small snack.

Scotland Holiday Report

2008-07-15T20:38:00.008+01:00

It was great. Diana did all of the planning and did a bang up job. She found some incredible places to stay, all dog friendly, and very reasonably priced. They were all bed and breakfast places except 1, which was bed, breakfast and dinner. And when I say breakfast, I'm talking a full English cooked breakfast, not doughnuts and watery coffee.

As an overview, we left London on Sunday night, June 30 on the sleeper train to Glasgow. We picked up a car in Glasgow and drove to the west coast, near Oban. We spent a few days there. From the west coast, we drove into the central highlands for several days. from here we did several days trips, including a Highlands Games.

As we left, we stopped by the Glenfiddich Distillery and a working Cooperage nearby where they make and refurbish barrels for the whiskey. We dropped the car in Aberdeen and immediately caught a train to Edinburgh for the last few days. On Wednesday night, we rode the sleeper car back to London. I return to work on Monday.

The weather overall was awesome for Scotland. Only 1 day was truly bad weather, rainy and cold with a lot of wind. Most of the rest of the time was warm and sunny. We had a couple of days with some showers, but we were prepared for everything except the hottest and coldest temps.

There's so much to share in this trip, we're going to do it over multiple entries. I'll use this one as the master and link to the others.

We spent the weekend prepping to leave, that entry is here with a slideshow

First stop was Glasgow, the report is here with slideshow

Diana has an entry about the Wildflowers we saw here

Oban and the West Coast is here

Our walk along the River Spey is here

And our climb up Cairngorm Mountain is here

Carrbridge is here

An entry on Edinburgh and our last day is here

In the other entries, I'll share some photos, but not all. The master photo album is linked here. Also, we mapped where the pics were taken on Google Maps here, and you can look at it in Google Earth (Warning: Google Earth must be installed on your computer and you'll need a high speed internet link, this won't work on dial up. It downloads a small configuration file to your PC that's safe)

Battle to Bexhill Walk

2008-07-10T21:25:00.004+01:00

In June, after I'd been traveling for so long, we wanted to get away from the city for a bit. Trying to take advantage of some of the history in the area, we went down near Hastings, where William the Conqueror invaded in 1066. The actual site of the battle now has a village on site, called Battle. This is all in the rolling hills of Kent, and was about an hour train ride from home.

The walk that was planned to be 5.3 miles that ended to be 8 + miles. But what a great walk. It started at the Battle abbey. James the history buff did not get chance to see the battle fields, I was a weenie and wanted to start the walk. James was very disappointed. We hope to get back with out the boys to see everything.

The 1066 walk went through several nature reserves and by a 1,000 year old yew tree and through several farm grain fields. Darkstar even found a country pub. We got off track when we got to the marsh area in the walk. The sting weeds were as high as our necks well some of our necks (mine) the boys just ran thru them. The boys were great even when we finally got out of the marsh and found out that we were 3 miles off track and had to walk back thru town to the train station. Again the beach was not sandy but had large stones pebbles . We found a pub in Bexhill to rest before the train trip home again.

Sunday Update: Cassidy sent us an email that she gets a log in prompt when we publish pictures, but not when we put in the slideshow mode. The main point of putting a link in to the picture album is that you get much larger pix than the slideshow mode, and in some of these landscape shots, we thought you might want to see that.

So, you'll find the slide show below, and here's a link in case you want to see the larger pictures. If anyone has problems with seeing the pictures or anythi8ng else on the blog, please let us know. I'm constantly trying new things with the application and I can't tell very well if they work or not.

And the map location where they were taken. It's also pretty cool to look at these things in Google Earth

Off on Holiday

2008-06-29T10:57:00.002+01:00

We're off for the next 2 weeks to Scotland. We're taking the sleeper train to Glasgow tonight (with the doggies). We'll pick up a car in Glasgow and spend about 8 days in the highlands, hiking, sightseeing, catching some highland games. We turn the car in on the east coast in Aberdeen, then train it to Edinburgh and sleeper back to London arriving the 10th.

Not taking a laptop, but will have my mobile. We'll get some updates posted as soon as possible after our return.

I'm back in the US

2008-06-20T13:06:00.006+01:00

Hello Everyone, I'm back in the us for a little while. The trip over was good. No crying baby's seated close. I'm glad I changed my seat from the back of the plane to the middle.I was seated with a deaf mute on the trip over. So it was pretty much silent . A few times on the plane ride over he got up at the wrong times and the personnel got irritated. I haven't to flown on delta since 911 and they made announcement that you are not to walk thru the plane from coach to business or first class, you will be arrested and/or flown back to your country due to homeland security.So the first time my seated partner got up it was a concern to everyone.Communication was very slack, they did not tell him the do and don't on the flight over. We had a tail wind and landed half an hour early but the staff at the airport was not ready and we had to stay on board for 20 Min's at the gate.I'm now at my sister's place outside Atlanta near Macon Ga. It was a great time last nite talking and catching up. Spending time with Veronica and Ricky and Gregory was wonderful but short maybe a longer visit next time.Veronica especially loved the present I brought over from Germany (flips) they are peanut butter flavored snack which you can't get in the states. I plan to leave this afternoon to drive 2-3 hrs to Augusta and visit my dad and young sister.

Updated July 11th added pictures of my trip.
Friday afternoon Daddy and I sent the day catching up and took a drive to his large new dog house (5th wheel camper stored at the lake.) Also saw Ms Dolores but unfortunately she was working during my visit. Sent some time on Saturday with Sabine and her family. Her son Brian will be leaving in July to join the Navy( Best of luck Brian ) I left Augusta Georgia and drove up to North Carolina Sunday morning . Stopped by Jame's Dad and Regina's for visit before getting to the house in Cary.
I was able to visit with Roslyn and Ben and the boys and had a wonderful dinner of BBQ. I also had Dinner with Cassidy at mellow mushroom pizza restaurant. We where able to catch up and spend some time together.The town house was in great condition only a few dust bunnies found. I also saw the girls at NCSU health center. Everyone looked great, I enjoyed seeing everyone. I left Tuesday morning to drive 6 hrs back to Atlanta Ga for a evening flight back to James in the UK.

Diana goes to ATL June 08

Diana is visiting the US

2008-06-20T10:43:00.004+01:00

Diana left yesterday for Atlanta to visit friends and family for a few days. It's her first trip back since she arrived in March. We're used to me being gone, but not her. Neither are the doggies. As she was packing, Darkstar was trying to go with:

Hang in there buddy! It's a guys weekend and momma wil be home on Wednesday.

Housework

2008-06-20T10:40:00.003+01:00

Diana is adjusting well to being a stay at home Mom (to the doggies). She finds things to clean in the house I never knew existed. Have any of you guys heard of this “dust” stuff? Apparently you have to wipe things down that never get touched to get it off. Mondays are her laundry days, and Fridays are house cleaning days. I was working from home last Monday morning prior to catching an afternoon flight and watched her slaving away at the laundry, per the photo below:

Some random thoughts I wanted to share

2008-06-19T21:41:00.006+01:00

We’ve been here for 6 months now, sure doesn’t seem like it. The time is flying by.

One of the things you don’t expect is the big difference in the length of days. When I arrived in January, the sun didn’t rise until about 8:30 am, and set by 3:30 pm. Now, a week from the summer solstice, it’s bright daylight before 4:00 am, and not completely dark until almost 11:00 pm.

You quickly adjust to your surroundings. According to the TV weather, some areas are still having grass frost in mid-June. We consider a day at 60F and partially sunny to e a beautiful day and try to rush outdoors. 85F is too hot and we can’t sleep.

Another adjustment. When we first arrived, we converted everything to dollars. This process made everything incredibly expensive, as the exchange ratio is 2:1, so all marked prices are doubled. Now, we pretty much think in Pounds Sterling.

Sports - I arrived just before the 6 Nations Rugby tournament. Watched a game on TV and enjoyed it, so I found a web site that explained the rules. I really dig the game now. Tough sport.

European football (soccer) though is different. Right now the Euro cup is playing. It's easy to catch some of the excitement, but then about 1 game in 3 or 4 is enjoyable. The rest are gawd awful boring.

A weekend in Aschaffenburg

2008-06-13T22:08:00.002+01:00

I was traveling from Romania to Germany, and it seemed like a great opportunity to stop by and see our friends Frank and Heike, and their son Kai, in Aschaffenburg. I used to live there and got to know them very well. Plus, they've know Diana and me as a couple longer than anyone.

They have a camper at a permanent camping place where they go every weekend when the weather is nice. There's a lot of retirees that live there full time, and lots of people come out on the weekends.

It was also the first weekend of the European Cup soccer tournament, so on Saturday night, they set up a plasma TV outside to watch the football matches. We made a batch of chili, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. As the night went on, the party got a little silly, with strange hats coming out and some even stranger characters showing up.

Diana Visit's Nurnberg

2008-06-13T18:52:00.002+01:00

One of the weekends that I was in the US, Diana went to Nurnberg, Germany to visit her Tante Hannelore. Hannelore was actually her mother's best friend, but I think we all have someone like that in our families.

Looks like she had a great time. They went to the Nurnberg Zoo and saw the polar bear cub, wolves and other animals. They also visited the nazi stadium in Nurnberg we've all seen in movies.

Peter, Hannelore's husband, and Peterle (little Peter) her son, build and race model cars and have a variety of tropies.

There's also a couple of pictures of the place Diana's dad was stationed when he met her mother. Emotions were high.

A link to the online album below. Double click to see the pictures and a Google map of their locations

nuemberg germany trip may16-18

Mid-June travel update

2008-06-12T13:59:00.000+01:00

Well I don’t think I’ve ever had this kind of a travel schedule. I’ve basically been on the road non-stop since April 14, including 5 weekends! A couple of those were our choice, tryin to take advantage of where I was for Diana to get out, but the rest were purely due to business travel. During that time I’ve hit 12 countries, including the US (which ate up 2 of the weekends).

Generally, travel days run about 14 hours each, trying to do your job as well as meet with partners and customers. It sounds exotic, while in fact it’s exhausting. You’re doing con calls in airports, working on documents in hotel rooms, eating too much and exercising too little. Never getting enough sleep.

Had my first trips into Eastern Europe in the last couple of weeks. Spent 3 days each in Prague and Bucharest. Eastern europe is the only part of europe still cheap. In Prague, 4 of us had a very nice dinner with drinks and desert for about $60. One person could not eat in the same level of restatraunt for that price in London.

Everyone says Prague is lovely, and they are correct. We had about 2 hours the last afternoon to spend in the city before I had to get to the airport. Baeutiful old architecture, well maintained, pretty safe feeling. Only down side is tons and tons of tourists. People from every nation there in tour groups wandering about. The prettier areas are very crowded with tourists.

Bucharest on the other hand is different. As soon as you arrive, you know you are in a poorer, eastern country. Just a little shabbier, not as well maintained. Lots of new buildings, but lots of older, very rundown buildings too. Not much pretty old architecture. Also, it has some vague, not very safe feeling. We never felt threatened, but you knew you needed to keep your guard up.

Everything went well in Bucharest. We always try to find a resatraunt that serves local food, and we found one. Lots of grilled meat, polenta and bread. As we were sitting there, I saw an old Byzantine church. Stopped in for a look. Romanians are Orthodox. I’ve never been into an Orthodox church before, and this one was just wonderful. Very small, no pews or benches, apparently everyone stands during these services. Lots of ornate icons of madonnas, saints and other figures I don’t recognize. In the rear, there was this quaint Greek garden. I didn’t have a camera with me, so can only describe it.

Sitting in Berlin now. First trip here since right after the wall came down. Very cosmopolitan, new and dynamic city. Realize that during the almost 40 years between the end of WWII and reunification in 1990/91, the Russians prevented the Germans in Berlin from rebuilding. When I was here in 90/91, there was still rubble in East Berlin from 1945! Bullet holes in buildings, etc. Now all of that has been razed and replaced with modern, glass and steel buildings.

Only 1 more trip left, Amsterdam next Tuesday. Will be glad when it’s over and I can stay home for a bit. Of course, as soon as I get off the road, Diana is going back to the US for a visit.

Cassiddy's Second visit

2008-06-06T08:07:00.002+01:00

Running way behind updating the blog. Cassidy was in town for the second time during May. This time she brought friends.

Her Italian roommate from last year, Ombretta, and Ombretta's sister Raphaella were her for the first few days. The girls appear to have had a great time running about London.

The day the Italian girls left, Cassidy's boyfriend, Brian (Bobby, Billy?), arrived for several days.

Unfortunately, for all of this time except the first day, I was in the US, so really didn't get to visit much. Looks like everyone had a great time anyway!

These are all Cassidy's pictures.

Spring time and everything is blooming

2008-05-25T17:28:00.002+01:00

Everyone talks about the weather in the UK, and especially about the rain. One of the big advantages of the rain is the lush vegetation and flowers. Now, as the soil warms up, everything is blooming.

Some of these pictures are from our garden, some from Hyde Park in central London. And yes, it's warm enough, I had to cut the grass once.

The boats were in a canal in London called "Little Venice". People live on these boats, called narrow boats, and we ran across a club meeting.

A weekend at home

2008-05-25T17:23:00.003+01:00

Just so you don't think we're running around every weekend, we do spend most of them at home. And the weather is really getting nice here. This was the last weekend in April, we took the doggies for an extremely long walk along the river. Everybody was out and it was a lovely day. We when we got back to the house, we just continued enjoying the weather in our own back garden, and used the grill for the first time.

Stockholm Sweden Week-end April 19-21 2008

2008-05-07T12:49:00.007+01:00

Again the weather was absolutely wonderful sunny and breezy. No hint of rain anywhere. James and I arrived Saturday morning James just got back home Friday night from Madrid so he was a little blurry. He then was leaving Monday morning from Sweden to Copenhagen and then to Amsterdam and then to Brussels.

We looked everywhere for a chocolate moose but couldn't find one. But we did find some interesting looking vikings.

We walked through the old town called (Gamla Stan)a island it was so beautiful. We also took a boat ride through the harbor around Stockholm. We also took a ferry ride(Djurgsrden ferry) to the Vasa Museum it has the world's only surviving 17Th -century ship and then a walk through the Nordic museum (which was disappointing) We also saw the changing of the guards at the palace.

We even found a pub with live music a 4 piece band playing American music.The band was playing in the cellar. You had to go down steep narrow stairs to the cellar where you literally were sitting among the band as it was playing. Most people were sitting around the room at long tables, when people came down the cellar stairs they just moved in tighter to make more room. People also just stood around the front of the band as they played.

The weather was so great that that we saw a few convertibles we even saw a guy walking his pig through town. The weirdest thing that we experienced was the noise the car's were making we finally figured it out they still had snow tires on. and they made a humming clicking noise.

Monday morning James left to go to Copenhagen, I had a half a day to do some shopping But I decided to go to Skansen a open air museum. It's a royal park with a zoo and living history museum. Being a Monday it wasn't busy with tourist only mothers with children. I was able to see what it was like to live in Sweden the the early days. They also had people in character but They only spoke Swedish. I took a few pictures of the animals seen in Sweden (bears, wolves and elk(moose) and reindeer. The batteries were almost dead before I got through the whole park. I really liked Stockholm the people were nice.

The whole picture album is here

Stockholm April 19-24 2008_1

Week-End at the Beach(Brighton)April 11-13 2008

2008-05-07T12:26:00.007+01:00

What a wonderful week-end we had at Brighton Beach

In planning this trip we found a wonderful pet friendly hotel run by two guys (Brian and Tom) and a son (George). The place was called Avalon it is an old Victorian style Town house turned into a hotel with I think 9 rooms. We got the largest room with a king size bed and full bathroom. (Not shared) Some converted houses to hotels you share bathrooms. We had ready made breakfast every morning made by Brian and Served by Tom. The First Morning we had an English breakfast. What is in an English breakfast?
• The key components of an English breakfast include:
• bacon *
• sausages*
• black pudding
• eggs *
• tomatoes*
• baked beans*
• mushrooms *
• potatoes
• fried bread

We only had the items with the *

What we had plus coffee toast with butter and jam and Orange Juice.
It was wonderful and I could not eat it all. The next day I just had toast fresh fruit and ham and fried egg.

I agree with Diana, Brian, Tom and George were great hosts. For more information about The Avalon Hotel, click on the link.

James and I went down separately to Brighton beach . James had a late afternoon Friday meeting so he came down later. So the Boys and I took off for our first train trip. The first leg was short around 10 min ride with 20 min wait for the next train. Then 1 hr ride to the coast. The boys were great they always get a lot of attention here in the UK. They stayed near me or sat on my lap. Because the train was not full Elijah a and Darkstar held their own seat.

I gave the boys a hair cut and Elijah needed a fleece sweater for the trip. The Weather men/women here in the UK are as bad or worst then in the states. They predicted rain and chilly. The weather both on Sat and Sun day was sunny and nice with some breeze. I brought a rain coat but did not need it. Just wore it at night when it got cold and damp.

Friday night we went to the 40th anniversary tour of Jethro Tull. I knew a few songs but James was in pure heaven. The seats were great up close and personal the concert was in an old theater called the Dome. The place was absolutely beautiful.

Before the concert we all went to dinner (James and I and the boys) The place was recommended by Brain as being dog friendly it was called the Wellington. The food was good I had a half chicken dinner and James had wild boar dinner (the boar was in a sausage link) which we have discovered while here in the UK we don’t like very much.

Saturday we walked down the coast line to the marina and harbor. Oooh one thing I forgot to mention about the beaches here no sand just smooth rocks and stones. Hard to walk on especially for the boys (no ball playing on this beach).

We had a great week-end. Saturday night James and I walked down the pier and found a bar with a live music. They were ok, more punk than our tastes. We then went to a local bar which was recommended for a few more drinks. James had to almost carry me home they made very strong drinks, thank goodness the hotel was very close. Sunday was a slow going morning. The boys wanted to play ball so we found a green park and we played and walked around town and slowly made it to the train station to go back home.

Full slideshow here

Spring has Sprung!

2008-04-26T17:29:00.003+01:00

As I mentioned a while back, I've been on the road almost constantly for about the last 2 1/2 weeks. This included 2 weekends in a row out of town, though both were our choices. We spent a weekend in Brighton Beach, here in the UK, then spent last weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. Look for blogs about those adventures soon, we're still sorting through notes and photos.

So this is my first weekend at home in about 3 weeks, and today, Saturday, is the kind of day you live for over here. Sunny, warm, we spent the entire day out in the sunshine with the doggies. Have a few pics to post. As usual, double click on the picture below to look at the entire album.

Saturday April 26

We're way behind on the blog, and hoping to catch up here very soon. Things are going great, and we've got some exciting things coming up, including a visit by Cassidy, her prior roommate, a sister, and Cassidy's boyfriend. Diana stays busier taking care of the house than I thought possible, but the house is always ship shape.

Anyway, we'll try to catch up here soon and will update you when we do. As usual, thanks for your comments and thoughts.

Goodbye to a Great lady

2008-04-17T15:25:00.002+01:00

my Aunt Mabel died last night. She's been in the hospital for a few weeks, apparently suffering a series of strokes.

Aunt Mabel was 95, and had lived alone and on her own since 1976 when her husband passed away. She learned to drive in her 60s, and drove into her early 90s. She was a primary caretaker for my grandmother for many years, was active in the church and garden club. And she spent all that time living alone with no signs of Alzheimers.

Most of all, as Toni pointed out, she was a link to our childhood. It seems like she was always involved in our lives, and now she's gone. I know it's part of growing up, but it's a bit painful as we continue to loose those links.

Anyway, I'll miss her. RIP.

More bad news from the US

2008-04-15T21:45:00.002+01:00

Well it looks as if my Aunt Mabel is not doing well. Toni says she's back in the hospital, non-responsive and not eating. She has a no feeding tube order on file. Not good.

Also, I just spoke with Cassidy and her boyfriend, Brian, just lost his grandfather. Our condolences to Brian and his family.

Jethro Tull

2008-04-15T21:22:00.002+01:00

Tull are on their 40th anniversary tour this year, playing lots of shows around the UK. They have a couple of US dates, but are obviously focusing their tour on the UK. As I looked at their web page, many of the cities were complete mysteries to me.

However, I bought a pair of tickets to see them in Brighton, which is a beach town about an hour or so SE of London. I've learned through experience not to buy tix too early, as business travel has forced me to sell more than 1 set. But I took a chance on a Friday show and grabbed best available tickets.

Come to find out, we were stage right, close enough you could throw the program and hit Ian Anderson on stage. Great, great venue. Small, very nice, wonderful acoustics and a great crowd.

I'd never seen Tull, and Diana had barely heard of them, but she's pretty game about things like this. All I can say is they were great! They focused a lot on their early stuff, with a lot of jazzy tunes, etc. Gradually going through time to end the show with Aqualung, and a Locomotive Breath encore. Ian Anderson is into his 60s but still scampers around the stage with lots of energy, and tells some hilarious stories in the process.

All in all, well worth the money. Besides we had a great weekend in Brighton, but that's a story for a different blog entry.

On The Road Again

2008-04-09T19:52:00.004+01:00

So I haven't been doing much traveling for a while. This is for 2 reasons. One is that, as a company, we've tried to reduce travel. On the other hand, I've really been focusing on trying to build relationships here in the UK.

However, all that's changing. Today in Hawaii at our Partner Summit, we're making some major product announcements, and Monday we start a big roadshow. The roadshow is a rolling seminar the will cover all of western Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. In the middle of all this, I'm going to the US for about 10 days in May (most of which will be in San Jose). Suffice it to say, I'll be on the road until about the second week of June.

One advantage to this tour is that I only have to present in the afternoons, so that keeps me from having to fly in the night before in most cases. I am tying some customer meetings to the trip so I may stay an extra day sometimes.

If you look at the Google Calendar I have pinned at the top of the blog, it's pretty much show you where I'll be. Diana is going to join me for a weekend or two in the process, and that's represented by the locations shown across the weekends. When you see us out for a weekend, look for a blog update soon afterwards.

Again, for those of you looking at the calendar thinking I'm gong to lots of cool places, remember that most of the places distinctly resemble airports, hotels and meeting room. Only the restaurants are different. Many of these places I'll spend a total of 6 hours in.

Another Result of Global Warming

2008-04-06T17:12:00.011+01:00

We were told it never snows in southern England. It gets cold and rainy, sometimes windy, but rarely freezes. So I blame this on that moron AlGore and his stupid global warming campaign. It's been snowing all day in London! And, in case no one noticed the date of this post, it's APRIL! Pics below from our yard (double click on any of them to see them larger).

If you can see in these photos, the flowers blooming in the snow.

OK, so our friends the Riders left this weekend. It was a bit emotional because, as I mentioned earlier, they are kind of our only friends here. On the up side, we loaded up with their stuff! I posted earlier that I've been here the whole time without TV, now we have TV. It was an interesting experience hooking the parts up, only to eventually find we didn't have the right cables. Diana took the lead and we finally got it together. We need to get a TV stand for everything, but now we have TV.

Of course, the biggest downside to this is we now have 4 remote controls. I'm just waiting for the business trip when I get the call that none of them work :)

So now we have the BBC (which I payed 135 GBP, or about $270, for a TV license to support). We have a digital box that gets us about 25 or 30 channels via an antenna (an aerial here), but we have news, some weather, and some shows. I'm starting to miss the music playing all the time already.....

Almost one week in-country

2008-04-03T20:08:00.006+01:00

Hello Everyone, I have now been in the United Kingdom one week. And what a week it has been. James had a list of things that I needed to do when I got here because he hasn't the time. Getting established with a local vet so we can get the boys their very own passports.They will need them if we travel outside the UK/Ireland.We have already ran into a problem with that.They were micro- chipped in the USA and all the scanners have been able to read their chips until day when the local vet couldn't read it we even tried another vet and they also couldn't read them. I had to contact (e-mail)the chip company the Cary vet and the pet moving company regarding our problem.

The next item was getting established with a doctors office here they are called surgery's even the vet was called a surgery. I was able to get the paperwork and fill out the forms now I just need to take them back and then they will set up us with an appt. to see a physician for a meet and greet.I also need to get James his own National Health service number which means calling a government agency and then they will then give me another number to call which will be a local area number so we can make an appt.to speak with a local representative.

The next item was to get the correct recycling containers. One for plastic/glass /cardboard(toilet paper rolls and paper towels rolls and cereal box's) one for food scrapes which they pick up and add to area compost piles.(they are very very green here). Garden rubbish (trash) is also recycled.

I have gone out and shopped for house hold items and groceries several times in this week.

Also a couple loads of laundry We only have a washer so drying clothes on a cloudy day is a challenge. We have lots of radiators(our heating source) and an AGA see attached pix. (large gas cast iron oven). One day this week was partly cloudy and windy I could hang the clothes out ona line to dry, like the old days (the clothes smell clean and fresh). Jeans are a little stiff and don't shrink.
Now to the fun activities the boys and I have gone for several long walks. Monday we went for a 4 hr walk down by the Thames river called a towpath. it was very muddy and hard on the feet and toes lots of rocks and pebbles and did I say mud puddles. I was able to let the boys off their leads most of the time they had a great time running off energy. We passed an estate that was being filmed for a movie or TV program about young Victoria. We saw some beautiful black horses and a large carriage being loaded up. I found this out by meeting a elder women and her dog Henry.

My intention was to go to Teddington Locks along the tow path.A gentlemen and his dog (did not get the dog's name) we meet on the path informed us that Teddington was the place that the D-Day boats left from and that Glen Miller(big band music) once played here. We did not make it to the locks a quarter mile short. Elijah started to limp and so we turned around and I carried him for about 15 Min's 13 pounds is a lot to carry. I think he was foot(Paws) sore and the mud was cold. and then Darkstar not to be left out wanted to be carried. What we do for our pets luckily I had a large scarf to make in a holding pouch. The scenery was great and the river was moving fast.

Tuesday we rested for our next big outing. Wednesday we went for a 3 hr walk to a local park called Richmond Park is was a Kings hunting area in it's day. In the park you can drive your car though (gates close at sun set) walk, ride bikes and horse back ride in the park. The park is on 2500 acres . One of the things that it's famous for is the two kinds of deer in the park that run and roam freely in the park. see the attached pix.

You can pretty much get very close. the boys wanted to play. the deer just kept eating or moving away. We even have seen some wild green parrots, here is the proof look at the last two pictures closely.

Lastly we have made some friends at a local pub and one of them will be available to pet sit and walk the boys for us. That was another thing that was on the list.

Well that's all folks I'll try to made the next entries shorter and more pictures. When I leave the house I always need hat, scarf, gloves, key, money(for the bus or a drink) and umbrella and a camera.

It's Not all Peaches and Cream

2008-04-02T08:56:00.010+01:00

We continue to enjoy living in the UK. Frankly, since the early 1990s, I'd forgotten how much I really like the European lifestyle. I really dig the walking culture of people always on the streets. I like the village culture, of every town being different and every shop and square is local and has local flavor. The US has become so homogenized, to the point the only difference between 2 towns or 2 cities is the weather.

The doggies and Diana are adjusting and we're all doing lots of walking, usually an hour or more per day. Believe it or not I've actually lost a few pounds!

But being this far away from friends and family is not easy. Last week I had a cousin pass away in Ohio. And one of my favorite aunts has now had a stroke and is in a nursing home. And it's almost impossible to stay on top of things. All of our hopes and prayers for Aunt Mabel.

We also miss our friends and family. With the doggies here, we're starting to meet a few people, but really don't have any friends. We've had Brian and Andrea here, and they've gone out of their way to make us welcome. However, this is coming to an end as they return to the US this weekend. We had lunch with them Sunday for the last time.

We're not real big on fooling ourselves, so we expected to be fairly insular here. And we knew it would be remote, but it was something we definitely wanted to do.

What I didn't expect was how much I'd miss Cassidy. I've spent most of her life making sure I could be close to her. When she was small, I saw her every other weekend, making sure I blocked the weekend out to spend with her, even if it meant working 80 hours during the other 5 days. As she's gotten older, we've both made an effort to block time out for each other. I really enjoyed it when she came over to the house to spend the entire afternoon with me the day I left to come to the UK.

Now it's much, much harder to stay in touch. We have Skype, and email, and IM, and I have a VOIP phone to use, but with the time zone difference and everyone's busy schedules it's really hard. And I miss it. with her busy schedule, it's tough to catch her when she can talk much, and it's expensive for her to call here from her cell.

I'm very proud of how mature and independent Cassidy is, but sometimes I probably take that for granted. We've always been able to communicate very frankly with each other and have to make ways to continue doing that.

I also realize that, aside from this blog, I haven't done very well at keeping in touch with other friends and family. So, it's time to change that. I'll make a more concerted effort to do so. Will also send out mine and Diana's Skype IDs in an email to everyone. Skype really works well and is a great, and cheap, way to stay in touch. Nothing I can do about time zone differences and people's schedules.

So, to all our friends and family, remember we love you and miss you. We're always thinking of you and please make that extra effort to stay in touch as well.

We're a Family Again!

2008-03-28T21:45:00.003Z

Well it's been longer and harder than I think any of us expected, but it's over now. The doggies came in on Wednesday and Diana is here to stay as of today. We're a family again!

I'll say that I travel on business more than a lot of people, although business travel to me has always seemed like just part of the job, some people struggle with it. I've been gone up to about 2 1/2 weeks at a time, but it's nothing like this. The thing about business travel is you are always so busy and so exhausted, you don't have a lot of time to miss you family.

Here, I've been living here, gong to the office daily, coming home to an empty house. Diana has been dong the same, in NC, waiting for the clock to tick down on the doggies. Now it's all in the past.

The boys have arrived in the UK

2008-03-26T11:05:00.003Z

James just called (07:08 am) and the boys have landed and the airport personnel reported that they are fine and well they were out of the crates and watered and feed. Now James is just waiting at a area cafe until they pass customs. Just two more day until I leave. Yesterday I got the boys off and visited my co workers at state it was a great visit seeing everyone. Today I take the truck back to Catham county and visit James's dad in Spring Hope and then dinner with a friend.Sometime I need to pack. Well got to go it's trash day need to get everything out.

An update from James: getting the doggies was a piece of cake. It was expensive to do this, but well worth it. I talked to a guy that had brought his cat over by himself. He said it was such a hassle he paid a pet moving company to bring his dogs over.

Anyway, they are here safe and sound. I've taken them for a couple of long walks and while they enjoy it, you can tell they are jetlagged and exhausted, per below

Easter Adventure days 3 & 4

2008-03-24T17:56:00.002Z

OK, so it hadn't been what I'd hoped for, lots of crawling around medieval ruins and imagining "Knights in white satin, never reaching the end". Instead, lots of wind and rain.

I will say Calais is much different than Paris. I found most of the people generally nice and helpful, and willing to speak English. Several of them were actually very nice. Overall, I found the cultural experience to be rather positive. Hey, remember, it's an adventure. These are the parts that make it good!

So Sunday I'm up bright and early, check out and get a taxi to the port. Pig Pen singing "Let me jump on your wagon and ride..." None of the customer service numbers for the ferry companies work as it's a weekend (BTW, it seems a matter of pride here that customer service numbers go to UK or French call centers, of course, that means they all work UK and French hours!)

Anyway, the wind has stopped, the ferries are running and I can get on the (:45 ferry. Life is good. The French port is better equipped than the British one, so I grab a coffee and croissant and wait for my ferry.

Interestingly, the French side has a security check point, much like you see at airports. for boarding the ferry. The Brits don't have this. Also, the British immigration officers love to talk to you, so after getting my passport stamped, I'm in a conversation with the guy about weather and crossing the channel. I think these guys live in the UK and cross for their job. Interesting commute.

Anyway, the ferry crossing back is a piece of cake. Smooth, flat channel, empty boat. I make friends with a Canadian couple heading to see their kids (adults) in the UK. A pic of the white cliffs of Dover from the ferry coming back. Oh, BTW, if that looks like a snowstorm, it is.

Ferry lands, we get on the little bus for the terminal and Buddy guy is screaming "Somebody's been sleeping in my bed, and you know that's a terrible thing to say"

Get to the terminal, I gotta pee, hit the head, come walking out through customs (there was none of this BS in France when landing) and Warren Haynes is screaming "And you still don't understand Why they hate you, Mr. Man"
and as the doors open, there's 12 cops standing there. One immediately walks up to me and motions for me to step aside.

Now, I'm a 47 year old white guy, with nothing but a backpack. They were either profiling someone or were bored. I've seen bored cops, these weren't them! I assume they were stopping everyone driving down that sidewalk that day!

Anyway, he had 40 questions about where I'd been and what I'd done. Told him that mainly I'd ended up hiding from the wind and rain. He asked me for a receipt for my lodging and i told him it was in my backpack somewhere, but I'd need to dump the whole thing and search every pocket to find it, but I'd gladly do that for him. Suddenly he was a fine feller and started joking about the weather.

I gotta say, that was the one point in the adventure that irritated me. Really don't think I deserved that level of harassment.

Again, I decided to walk from the ferry port to the train station, as now I knew the way. It was snowing like mad!

Now, I get to the train station and there's no trains. Engineering works on the tracks. You have to take a bus replacement service to Ashford. the name meant as much to me as it probably does to you, so I hop on a bus. Cream playing "That same thing..."

Of course, what I don't realize is that this bus is now a local train, and will stop 12 friggin times before it gets to Ashford, and it takes an hour and a half. This was a 2 hour train ride down, now working on 4 hours back.

Got home it was still snowing, though not overly hard. Here's a couple of pics where I tried to catch it. You may have to look full size to see the snow.

Somewhere in this process I got one of those chills you just can't get rid of. When I finally got home about 4:00 pm, I turned the heat up in the house and sat here in my coat and hat for a good 30 minutes until I began gradually peeling outer layers off. It was about 6:30 before I got reasonably warm!

So it was an adventure. Not one I want to repeat, but not one I regret taking. Some good things, would have been better with better weather, but who woulda thunk it would snow for the first time in 2 years here on Easter weekend?

One final note on the pics, Google Photos has a capability to link photo locations to Google maps and Google Earth. You can follow that here or from any of the photo links

Easter Adventure, Day 2

2008-03-24T17:15:00.003Z

OK, have already blogged about the food. As I mentioned, I did well on selecting the hotel. Not a 5 star place, but, by European standards, very decent for the price and location.

On Saturday morning I awoke to a gale outside. Not sure I've ever been in wind this fierce. Also was raining. Not hard, but with the wind so string, it took no time to get wet.

I was determined. So after finding a place that served the biggest ham and cheese omelet I'd ever seen (had to have been 8 eggs!), I went looking for historical sites. Near the market square, I found a 12th century tower where Edward III received the town's surrender. Apparently, all of ancient Calais was destroyed during WWII and this is all that remains. It's at

And across the street was a cheese shop I thought would interest Cassidy

Then wandered down to the main city square and got these photos. Lots of Hooker on this trip "I'm a boogie Rambler, boogie night and day".

The Story of Calais was that in the 13th century siege,when the town wished to surrender, Edward III required 6 of the prominent citizens to bring him the keys to the city, naked, with nooses around their necks, a very humiliating display. These "6 Burghers" are the pride of Calais.

Also there was a memorial to citizens from Calais who have lost their life in various wars. Remember European countries have many more wars in their history that we do, but this one starts in th e19th century with some of the colonial wars. It has an addition for Afghanistan.

There's a few other pics in the album at here

I also toured the WWII Museum. It was in an old Nazi war bunker and they had a nice collection of uniforms, weapons, newspaper articles, etc. And enough in English to makes it worthwhile.

However, by mid-day, I was as cold and wet as I wanted to be. I stopped into a pub and had a pizza for lunch and dried off and warmed up. The rain and wind kept coming, so I spent the afternoon in my hotel room watching rugby on BBC. Now, I don't have a TV in the UK yet, so the ability to watch 4 hours of english-language TV was a treat itself.

I discovered that the port of Calais had been closed down for a while Saturday due to high winds, and I was concerned about getting out on Sunday. I was basically tired of staying someplace with nothing to do and no ability to get outdoors, and got anxious to get home.

So my plan became to get up Sunday and call the ferry ports to see what the schedule was. There was an option to take a train to Dunkirk (not the French spelling) and catch a different ferry from there. It's about 12 miles.

The forecast fro England on Sunday was for heavy snow, and I had concerns about getting from Dover to Richmond. The adventure continues....

Food in Europe, Part 2

2008-03-24T16:58:00.002Z

I talked a little about food here earlier. Wanted to catch you up on some things.

We had a business off site for 3 days a few weeks ago. Nothing like this event would have been in the US. In the course of 3 business dinners for large groups in 3 nights, I had ostrich steak, Welsh lamb chops, and a marinated duck breast. All except the ostrich I had had before, but none this good, especially the duck. I normally don't care for duck, but there were no options. This duck breast was in a light sauce and tender and juicy like I'd never seen.

On to Calais. After I arrived, I asked the lady at the desk for a restaurant. I was starved. She recommended I go back to the main street and take the first place on the left. It was called "Au Vieux Forneau", don't know what that means but it didn't seem to involve the rude French asshole, so I tried it.

Best decision I made the entire trip. Wonderful place, the staff spoke passable English, and the food was superb! that night, I had what the French call a "menu" which means you order 3 courses for 1 price. They start with a "chef's little bite" meaning whatever the chef wants to serve you for 1-2 bites. In this case, it was a shot glass of vegetable soup. Yes, it literally came in a shot glass! Absolutely wonderful soup.

Maybe I've been in the UK too long now, but it seemed very reasonably priced as well. The salad was a mixed salad covered by a cheese pastry. Awesome! Followed by a thinly sliced steak and veggies, and a cheese plate for desert. Also had 2 glasses of an impressive house red and a brandy to top it off.

Was so good I went back Saturday night and asked the head waiter to bring me a fish. "Les poissons
Les poissons
How I love les poissons"
No, I don't have this on my MP3 player!

Anyway, they brought me a 3 fish pot. I was a little nervous. Being from NC, fish is supposed to be battered and fried, with hush puppies and cole slaw. That's how God created them. This was a crock pot with 2 fishes and shelled mussels in it cooked in a sauce. Again, wonderful!

Overall, I found the food in Calais to be excellent, with good service, and almost everyone not only did, but would speak English.

My Easter Adventure, Day 1

2008-03-24T15:19:00.004Z

I've actually begun carrying a notebook around with me to take notes so I cab blog accurately afterwards. This is a very long entry, but I hope you'll find it worth the read.

Trying to organize my thoughts on this one. The important thing to remember about this adventure was that it was just that, an adventure. Every time I started thinking about it in a different way, it began to suck, and I'd start to get a little pissed off and grumpy about the whole thing.

Easter is a 4 day weekend here in the UK, with Friday and Monday as holidays. Since Diana is not here yet, I didn't want to spend 4 days couped up in the house here by myself. In looking at options, I thought I'd take the train to Dover and ride the ferry across to Calais, France. I had been reading some books about the hundred Years War and English occupation of Calais from the 13th century, and thought I'd knock around the historical sites some. Just me and a backpack. An adventure.

The London papers and radio/TV had been emphasizing that traffic and transport in general over the long weekend was going to be a mess, as there was a lot of roadwork, as well as engineering work on the subways and trains going on for the weekend. I thought, well. I'm on an adventure, have no specific timetable, I'll take a backpack, book, an MP3 player, a dose of patience and go for it. All three played an important part in my journey!

I'm an early riser, so I was on the tube to London Victoria station by 7:44. Arrived, bought my ticket and had 30 mins for the train. Grabbed a coffee and a sandwich and chilled. Train left on time, wasn't crowded, about 2 hours to Dover Priory station. No prob The Dead are signing "Going down the road feeling bad". Once there, a bus comes by every 30 mins to take you to the ferry port, but it was only about a mile or so, thought I'd stretch my legs and walk. I was on an adventure, and I was going to see what I could see. The Who signing "I wear my war time jacket in the wind and sleet..."

The day was extremely windy, probably 40-50 mph winds, and cold. I know You Rider comes on "March winds will blow all my troubles away". I was prepared, so it wasn't that bad. Had heard that Dover was a nasty port town, but got a very different impression of it. At least the area between the train station and the port seemed rather nice. Below are some pics of Dover Castle and the waterfront area. Click on the pics and they should take you to larger ones.

OK, so I get to the ferry port, and it's packed. The winds had been so high the night before they'd canceled several ferries, so they were backed up. I bought a ticket on the 12:40 ferry, that was scheduled to leave at 1:40. It was now 11:00. My adventure has hit a snag, but nothing big. The biggest downside was that the 1 snackbar at the port was completely overwhelmed by people and the 2 guys working couldn't keep up. I got the last sandwich they had and a cup of coffee and settled in for the wait. Slipped the MP3 player on, read my book. "Let your soul shine ...". Life is OK.

One of my concerns was the ferry crossing. I'm not too proud to admit I'm prone to seasickness, and the wind was extremely strong. However, these are some big-assed ships, holding up to 20 tractor trailers in each. I'm thinking I can make it. Oh, and I knew they'd have a bar, so if necessary, I'd have something to puke up :) A photo of the ferries below

Well the 12:40 ferry finally left about 3:00, and it was packed. However, they did have a bar, with pints of Boddington's for 3 GBP each :) I've found from experience that a little alcohol (not a lot) helps with the seasickness. It numbs your inner ear some (honestly!). Well the crossing was a bit rough, but I was OK. As I hit the head on the ship after we docked, I noticed some others hadn't made it quite so well.

I had made a reservation at a cheap hotel through booking.com, but I really didn't know where it was. Plan was to grab a map at the tourist info place when I got to Calais, about 2:00 pm-ish, and figure it out from there. It was now 5:30 pm and almost of the offices in the ferry port were closed down. There was one open that was labeled "Information" and several of us lined up there, as we could see a guy in the back. I don't know much French, but we soon found out that "Information" translates into "rude French (is that repetitive?) asshole sits behind this window".

Hey, I'm on an adventure, and this is not my first experience with "Information" in France. I was a little bleary from the ferry ride, and had little incentive to wait 30 mins for the bus downtown. I found a map on the wall and thought it was a walkable distance. Stuck in my headphones and I'm off. John Lee signing "boom, boom, boom boom, gonna knock you right down..."

The area around the port in Calais is NOT a good part of town! I was very happy it was still daylight for a while, else I might have ducked into a cafe and called a cab. However, the lord looks after drunks and fools, and I've been both in my life, so I got into the city center of Calais in a little over an hour. But the tunes were excellent!

The center of the town is very pretty, but I had been travleing for 8+ hours now and wanted my hotel. I found the train station, but by this time it was almost 7:00 pm and nothing was open. Figured, ok, I ll just grab a taxi and have them take me to the hotel. As I asked the taxi driver at the station, he laughed, turned around and pointed down the street and said it was 100 meters from here. "Can you answer? yes I can. but what would be the answer to the answer man?"

I'll close on this entry by saying the hotel was better than I was hoping, and I was in a hot shower about 15 minutes later. The trip I had expected to take about 4 hours had taken more than 9 hours. I was tired, hungry and exhausted.

Hey Everyone It's me Diana

2008-03-23T23:49:00.002Z

This is my last week in the Cary, North Carolina. The boys leave Tuesday afternoon and arrive in London wednesday morning. James is planing to rent a car and drive to the airport that morning
(wish him well) London traffic and driving on the wrong side of the road (hahaha)I think this will be a challenge. James says He'll be fine. I spent Easter week-end in Ga visiting my dad and sister it was a great visit. I hope everyone had a great Easter also. I leave for England thursday evening I have a great friend who will take me to the airport. I can't wait to see James and start my adventure in England. I hope to hear from you all soon. Be safe and live life to the fullest.

Diana comes over for St Patty's Day

2008-03-16T18:18:00.005Z

For those who don't remember, I'm here in the UK by myself for a couple of months until the doggies can come over. Yes, it's a bit lonely, but I've had some visitors and overall it's been tolerable. These guys are worth it

They are scheduled to leave the US on March 27th and arrive here early the next day. I can't wait. Diana then will depart the US on Mar 27th and arrive here for good on the 28th. Then we'll be a reunited family :)

Anyway, we had scheduled a couple of visits for Diana to come over. We've been together for almost 16 years, and almost 3 months apart has been tough on both of us.

This weekend was her final visit before the 28th. She'll leave on Tuesday and it'll then be 10 days before she comes back.

While here this weekend, we had 1 great day of weather and 1 really crappy day. On the first one, we took the train about 30 minutes out of London to Windsor and Eaton. Windsor is a castle the royal family still uses and it dominates this small town. Here's some info about the castle as a Royal Residence

Across the river is Eaton, where one of the most exclusive colleges in England is. Both towns are very picturesque, although Windsor is a bit touristy.

On Sunday, we went back into London for the St Patrick's Day celebration in Trafalgar Square. They've been shutting the subways down on the weekends for a few weeks to perform track maintenance, but this Sunday the trains were shut down from here as well, so we had to take the buses.

A quick look at a map and where the photos were made (Note: This is a blog technique I'm still working on)

http://picasaweb.google.com/nourider60/StPattySWeekend/photo#map

A double-decker bus is THE way to see London, though today it was so rainy all the windws fogged. We spent a little time at the celebration, then came back home as it was just miserable outdoors. We did stop for lunch and have a pint of Guinness and a bowl of Irish stew to mark the holiday.

Pictures are below. You guys tell me if you like this slide show format. It's the second time I've used it and have no feedback.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona dár gcairde agus teaghlach
Happy St. Patrick's Day to our friends and family.

Cassidy's Visit to London

2008-03-10T22:18:00.006Z

I was thrilled for Cassidy to come over for a few days of her spring break. She was only here for about 3 days, but we did as much as possible during the time. It was a fun, exciting weekend and I thought I'd share some of it.

She arrived on Thursday morning and we spent Thursday with her napping to recover and just walking around Richmond here. I think her highlight of the day was the Spanish tapas place we had dinner at. Cassidy loved it.

Friday we went into London and she felt she had to see Harrads, where Cassidy found something she liked. I finally convinced her it wouldn't fit in her suitcase :)

That evening, we went to see Monty Python's Spamalot in London's west end. What a funny play! Lots of surprises. One thing we had to try was the Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale

Then on Saturday, we went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It's a huge tourist event, and we were able to see the new guards march in, the horse guards come by, but once they got inside the gates we couldn't see anything because of the crowds.

The it was off to the houses of Parliament. Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, where Cassidy had to compare her watch for accuracy against the clock. We ran into some friends and had our picture made, then it was off to souvenir shopping. Finally it started to rain and we hopped a double decker bus for a ride across town to the train station.

You can see the slide show with Cassidy's pictures here

Overall we had a great time. I hope she comes back soon.

New Blog Elements

2008-03-04T12:15:00.003Z

Have been playing around with linking some additional elements into the Blog. You'll now find a Google calendar pinned to the top, which should help you see what's happening with us and what our plans are.

On the right, you'll see a link to the journey planner for transport for London. This is a key site here in finding how to get around London and the best route to get to different sites.

Below that you'll find a link to my LinkedIn profile. If you're not a LinkedIn member, I encourage you to join. It's a great professional networking site and is useful in maintaining touch with past colleagues.

Finally, I've added a Skype button, as we're using this to communicate with people back home. I've bought Skype credit and use it to call landlines and mobiles, and it works well. There's also an IM capabilitiy in it, and it links with video on webcams.

The Beauty of No TV

2008-03-02T17:44:00.001Z

For those of you who don't know about it, the UK has a TV License requirement. It's about $300 to get a license to own a TV. This funds the BBC.

So you think, ok, $300 is a lot, but then I get a cheap TV and I'm good. NOT! The cheapest TV I've found is about $400 for a 15" flat screen. No tube TVs here anymore. And you have to buy a digital box converter for it. This is all before you add cable and/or satellite subscription on top. On the digital boxes, you get 3-5 channels, all variants of the BBC. woohoo!

Well I've got a deal with another ex-pat who is leaving at the end of this month and will sell me his 32" TV and the digital box for about $400 total, so I'm waiting for that. The box also has a multi-band DVD player in it.

Agagin, for those who don't know, the TV and DVD algorithms here are different, so it's not just a matter of shipping your US stuff over.

So, now I'm without TV. This is not as bad as it sounds. When I was stationed overseas in the 1980s, I actually enjoyed not having TV. Now, I have all of my music on HDD, so I spend all of my time at home listening to my music collection.

This is actually really cool. I've used the iTunes "Party Mix" feature to scan through all of the music (many GBs) and randomly play music.

I imagine all of us have a lot of music on CD, and we listen to very little of it. I think people either tend to listen to whatever is new, or get new stuff and listen to the good old stuff. I probably fall into the latter category. This mix really forces me to listen to my entire collection, including stuff I haven't listened to in years. I'm really enjoying it.

I do have some DVDs I can play onthe computer, and have been downloading some though bittorrent sites. But generally, it's music and books for me. Ahh, the simple life :)

Happy Mum's Day

2008-03-02T14:31:00.000Z

It's Mother's Day here in England. Actually, they call it Mothering Day, but it's the same concept. Apparently one of the traditions here for Mother's Day is yellow daffodils. That's the traditional flower for it and everyone has a corsage of yellow flowers.

It's another lovely day here as well. Low 50s (about 12 C) and mixed clouds and sun. Apparently February 2008 was the sunniest February on record, which everyone here is blaming on global warming.

So, Happy Mum's day to all you Mum's out there :)

Oh, Sister Broadband ....

2008-02-26T21:30:00.000Z

OK, not exactly how Mick and the boys sang it, but it's how I feel. It's been awhile since I posted, mainly because I haven't had any internet connectivity at home. I'm not terribly comfortable doing a lot of personal stuff in the office, and it took BT a month to connect my home broadband.

During that interim, coming home at night consisted of turning on the stereo and reading for a while before gong to bed. Yes, it was lonely, and I really got caught up on my sleep! Also went through a lot of books.

But I felt totally disconnected from the world. I still don't have a TV (will blog about TV in the UK later). I could walk down to Starbucks and get online, but who wants coffee at night?

Anyway, yesterday BT connected my DSL line and I'm a rockin! Don't think I've hardly left the PC since :)

Will try to catch up on the blog this week, but, to quote Jack (Nicholson) "I'm baaack!"

I met the Wharf Rat

2008-02-08T08:52:00.000Z

So one of the great things about London is it's a truly huge city. Those of us who've spent most of our lives in NC or even the south really don't know what a big city is. For those of you who've lived around NYC, Chicago or a few others, you do.

Truly big cities are so diverse, that people watching becomes one of the better passtimes.

I got off the train the other day and was stopping in to an irish pub for a pint before I went home (yes, I'm adapting to the local culture!). I was having a conversation with the bartender when this guy comes in, dancing to the Celtic music, pays for a pint, flirts with a table of women, orders a burger, pays for it, then leaves, before his burger comes up.

My first thought was, this wasn't his first pint of the day. But then i thought about how happy the guy seemed overall, though he had the appearance of someone who'd had a really hard life, and Wharf rat came to mind.

Half of my life
I spent doin' time for
some other fucker's crime
Other half found me stumbling around
drunk on burgundy wine

Weekend update from Diana's Visit

2008-02-04T15:20:00.000Z

Yahoo! Diana came for a visit this weekend. She came in on Friday morning and left today. Short, but much needed.

After some issues connecting at the airport and train station on Friday, she got to the house and immediately started rearranging everything I'd done. At least I expected it :)

We had a great time though. Spent lots of time walking around Richmond, the town we live in here. Did those mundane things together like grocery shopping and such. The, Saturday afternoon we went into the center of London. we were shopping for 1 item, but we also had a really nice Italian dinner and walked through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, the theater district.

I'll be coming back to NC later this month for a few days. Then Cassidy pays a visit for spring break. I told her she'll be the only kid at State that comes back with a paler complexion than she left with :)

james

Thursday DQOTD and London update

2008-01-31T11:50:00.000Z

So I'm starting to get used to commuting to the office. I have about a 5-10 minute walk to the train station, take the train for 2-3 stops (depending on which train I catch), then there's a free shuttle bus from the Feltham station to the office. All very cool, takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

The variance in times is mainly due to having to wait for the train and/or wait for the shuttle bus. While many people here seem to have a system that allows them to walk from the house straight onto the train, and that train arrive just about a minute prior to the shuttle bus, I haven't. So I usually wait at one or the other, or sometimes both, places.

Well I went to the depot, I never got there on time
Went down to the depot, never got there on time
Well that train's rolling down, she's rolling down the line

Food in Europe – part 1

2008-01-29T17:17:00.000Z

I’ll start a multi-part entry here on food in Europe. Let me state clearly up front hat I love it! It’s different, tasty, and hand crafted. You never go to a restraint in Europe and get your food within minutes. Everything is cooked to order and, generally speaking, wonderful.

Most of the people who have ever told me they don’t like Europe have done so because it’s different. DUH! Of course it’s different.

So I’ll talk about some of the food over here as I run into it, and, as often as not, try it. You guys know that I’m like Mikey, I eat anything J

First thing is wild game. Many European restaurants serve wild game on their menus. In Munich, I had Wildgoulasch, which is a spicy stew made from wild boar. Very, very good.

In Spain, I ordered a deer steak. This was not your normal Bambi on a spit. The deer is more like an Elk. I have this nice, very lean, very rare steak that was tender and wonderful!

Another dish I saw in Spain was roasted shoulder of kid. Now, I’ve seen some kids I’d love to roast for a while, but my guess is they’d still be tough and bitter. However, this is a baby goat, roasted and served up very nicely. I didn’t get it, as they had a clam dish that caught my eye, but I took a bite and it was delish!

Barcelona

2008-01-28T07:49:00.000Z

One of the comments I hear a lot from people is “You go to such wonderful places; I want to go with you”. The first part of that is accurate, I’ve been fortunate enough to go to a lot of very neat places around the world. However, it’s business travel.

Let me try to frame it properly. Barcelona is like New Orleans to the rest of Europe. Unique culture, the language is heavily accented Spanish, the weather is warm and lovely, and it’s full of history.

I was there for 6 days. The cultural highlight of my trip was a 2 hour lunch in the old city on my way to the airport. The rest of the time, I was working. No site seeing, no long afternoon strolls down the Ramblas in the sunshine. More like 2 minute breaks to catch some fresh air between standing on a concrete floor for 8-10 hours a day.

Some of my colleagues flew their wives in and stayed either the weekend prior to after. That’s the only way to see these places, and the company doesn’t pay for your weekend. All you really do is get 1 r/t flight for free.

That said, it is a lovely city, though with a real danger element. The old city is full of tiny, narrow alleys that, even at noon, are very dark. Everyone warned us about pick pockets, though I never saw any.

I do want to go back and enjoy it one day …..

Late January Update

2008-01-28T07:44:00.000Z

Well I’ve been off the blog for a few days, due to business travel and not having broadband access from my house in the UK. Still waiting for BT to deliver the service.

Have spent the last week in Barcelona, Spain working our big annual customer trade show. I’ve worked the US variety several times, but this is the first internationally. A couple of interesting observations.

First, it’s a pretty awesome feeling to stand on a trade show floor and hear every language in Europe being spoken around you. Some guys walk by speaking french, while 2 Germans talk on the other side of you. A guy walks up speaking heavily accented English and you see from his name badge he’s from Slovenia (how many of you can find that on a map!).

Second, the team I’m in over here has some Brits, a couple of French guys, a Russian guy who lives in Poland and speaks fluent Polish, a German, and a swedish dude. It takes about 3 minutes after the show doors open for each of them to find a customer who speaks their language and go talk to them.

We do all of our technology briefings in English, and everyone who comes here must have a pretty good comprehension of the language, but they slip ito their own very quickly. I feel a bit left out.

So now I’m back home for my second weekend in our house over here. It’s a bit boring and lonely here by yourself. Next week is my first week living here and commuting to the office, then Diana is coming over for the weekend. Very excited.

I was NOT on the BA plane that crashed at Heathrow!

2008-01-17T17:09:00.000Z

Many of you have probably seen the news that a British Airways 777 crashed at Heathrow today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/world/europe/18heathrow.html

While it has impacted the commute to/from the Cisco office here at Bedfont Lakes, I was not on it nor would I have been. It was flying in from China.

Imagine, a 14-18 hour flight, then landing like that. Luckily it looks as if no one was hurt!

james

A little bleary, worse for wear and tear ...

2008-01-15T21:08:00.000Z

A line from Mick Jagger "Far away eyes" describes it pretty well. Left RDU Saturday evening, flew into London Gatwick Sunday morning. This is always fun, as it's a non-stop flight, but then you have to get either into London or to Heatrow.

The Heatrow trip I took was a 1 hour bus ride (I HATE BUSES!), then on a hotel shuttle. Went to the wrong hotel, so grabbed a taxi. Finally got to my hotel about 11:00. Had paid for Saturday night, so checked in and went to bed.

Monday morning, caught a bus to Heathrow for a flight to Munich. Been here for 2 days now and starting to get my sea legs again. Munich is wonderful. Tons of good food and beer, if I stayed longer I could weigh 300 lbs! I did find this German lady in my bathtub :) She made me feel right at home

Back to the UK tomorrow evening. My calendar is filing up, seems like I've done little but coordinate travel and book it since I've been here. Have trips booked to Barcelona, Amsterdam, RDU and San Jose. Looking at Dubai, Warsaw and Dublin.

To a wonderful husband

2008-01-09T09:06:00.000Z

while here it goes my first blog entry. If I can stop crying enough to do this, I may can finish before I go to work this morning. I could not sleep so this will be tough. James had to do a very hard thing yesterday in taking Shane our baby to the vet. James did it by himself I could not do it. James is such a wonderful husband. We had a quite evening loving our other boys. The days are numbered now. James got his work visa and passport back today so he will be leave saturday for eruope. James has worked very hard in getting everything in order before he leaves. So that I don't run into any problems. I can't love him any more than I do now He is my love and my whole world. Well I need to stop this and get to bed. I will try to up date the blog when James is traveling after I figure it out. diana

Time waits for no one

2008-01-08T22:43:00.000Z

Especially these days. And my time in the US is about gone. I received my Visa on Tuesday and now I leave on Saturday to move to the UK. I'll arrive in London on Sunday morning, then I have to be in Munich, Germany on Monday for meetings.

We started this process in August, so it's been a long time coming. However, now that it's here, I feel like I'm leaving a bunch of things undone.

I've come to the realization that I'm fortunate in many ways. One of which is to have many great friends and colleagues. As this assignment nears, we've had the chance to spend a lot of time with many of those friends,and have not had the time to catch up with others for various reasons. For those we have been able to spend time with, thanks for the time and friendship. For those we haven't, I really regret we weren't able to do so, but still thanks for the friendship.

I'll be pretty much on the road for the first 2-3weeks I'm in Europe, with current bookings in Germany, Spain,Scotland and Ireland. I'll post some updates from those places as time allows.

Since I'm posting this on a Thursday, it's my music quote day. A couple of things come to mind, but this one won:

The wheel is turning
and you can't slow down
You can't let go
and you can't hold on
You can't go back
and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you
then the lightning will

To all, I hope to see you in London soon.