... Wavy Davy is back in New York for a few days and so to Brunch. This time at Wombat; an Australian restaurant that serves cheap food to minor celebrities (today the cool architect guy from Top Design) from a decent space in a weird part of town.
It was fun actually and good to see him again. Monday is President's day - so we'll hit the stores with elbows raised in a bid to beat the rest of NYC to a bargain.
Good day today - brunch, Battlestar Gallatica and tonight a Hugh Grant / Drew Barrymore movie (Music and Lyrics)... how much more chilled can it get?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Back
Despite the best efforts of Greenpeace (protests that brought Paris to a halt), of Air India (planes old enough to make you look at the sunset as though it was your last), the weather (Jesus it's cold), the Holland Tunnel (90 minute delays to get through it) and a narcoleptic driver ('traffic give me headache, headache give me sleep') I made it back.
Tax morning this morning then in to work with a spring in my step and a nip of rum in my coffee.
Tax morning this morning then in to work with a spring in my step and a nip of rum in my coffee.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Valentine en Paris
Paris on Valentine’s day is weird. There’s a line outside McDonalds whilst Pan De Vin Blanc (little phonetic French joke for you there Sun readers) have pulled their Valentine’s day special chocolate box due to lack of interest. Not at all what you’d expect.
However you can still tell it’s Valentine’s day by the low moans of amour creeping in under the door of your hotel room as young couple after young couple, checks in, checks out of their clothes and begins le dance d’orizontal - forgetting that Paris hotels have walls made of crepe paper. Or perhaps, in the fashion of the true boheme, just not caring.
Still there are worse places to be... spent the day in a coffee shop that predates ‘kill the natives and steal their turkeys’ America drinking short café noir with a rotating cast of characters... all of whom turned up on time and had an attitude to indulgent pleasure matched only by my frotting neighbors. To quote both (and Billy Idol) the order of the day seems to be “More, more, More”
Best ideas I’ve seen here are a flat zero calorie coke (for those who don’t want to feel bloated), a store that expands out into the street at the touch of a button and a fantastic Tequilla Soda concoction that fizzes all over you like a mentos spiked Coke agitated by the rocking of the bed of my (increasingly noisy) neighbors
C'est magnifique
However you can still tell it’s Valentine’s day by the low moans of amour creeping in under the door of your hotel room as young couple after young couple, checks in, checks out of their clothes and begins le dance d’orizontal - forgetting that Paris hotels have walls made of crepe paper. Or perhaps, in the fashion of the true boheme, just not caring.
Still there are worse places to be... spent the day in a coffee shop that predates ‘kill the natives and steal their turkeys’ America drinking short café noir with a rotating cast of characters... all of whom turned up on time and had an attitude to indulgent pleasure matched only by my frotting neighbors. To quote both (and Billy Idol) the order of the day seems to be “More, more, More”
Best ideas I’ve seen here are a flat zero calorie coke (for those who don’t want to feel bloated), a store that expands out into the street at the touch of a button and a fantastic Tequilla Soda concoction that fizzes all over you like a mentos spiked Coke agitated by the rocking of the bed of my (increasingly noisy) neighbors
C'est magnifique
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Done!
Well my time in Paris is (hopefully) coming to an end. New York is su zero, 60mph winds, 6" of snow and raterh nasty but the Air India flight today looks like landing 13 mins early and so I have my fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Paris has been okay - expensive but not prohibitively so. Stylish but not swank. And the respondents have all turned up on time, well recruited and ready to talk
Last night in the mini room with the concrete mattress. I may even miss it.
BTW the pic is from our archery centre... very 80s I thought
Paris has been okay - expensive but not prohibitively so. Stylish but not swank. And the respondents have all turned up on time, well recruited and ready to talk
Last night in the mini room with the concrete mattress. I may even miss it.
BTW the pic is from our archery centre... very 80s I thought
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Are these bites?
Half way through the flight to Gay Paris (Paris is the gayest thing I've seen... and I've seen two men shagging) I awoke with hands itchier than than the Singing Detectives balls.
"Ouch" I thought and went back to sleep.
This morning I looked at my hands and I'm covered in bites. So not only did they fail to provide a plane at the specified time, fail to entertain me, wake me twice to ask whether I REALLY wanted not to be woken for meals then feed slop disguised as said meals but they also failed to clear up their 'infestation' problem.
Sacre Merde!
"Ouch" I thought and went back to sleep.
This morning I looked at my hands and I'm covered in bites. So not only did they fail to provide a plane at the specified time, fail to entertain me, wake me twice to ask whether I REALLY wanted not to be woken for meals then feed slop disguised as said meals but they also failed to clear up their 'infestation' problem.
Sacre Merde!
Monday, February 12, 2007
I still hate Paris
One hour in Paris and the cell phone that I've had for 3 years is gone.
Call it jet lag, call it thieving cheese surrender monkeys, call it dopey old guy - call it what you want the truth of the matter is that like Hall and Oates girlfriend "She's Gone"
Now losing the Blackberry, the wallet, the credit cards, the computer or the passport would be much worse of course but it still annoys.
On the plus side I did manage to snap the above pic whilst out. I rather like it
Call it jet lag, call it thieving cheese surrender monkeys, call it dopey old guy - call it what you want the truth of the matter is that like Hall and Oates girlfriend "She's Gone"
Now losing the Blackberry, the wallet, the credit cards, the computer or the passport would be much worse of course but it still annoys.
On the plus side I did manage to snap the above pic whilst out. I rather like it
Greetings from Paris
Well Air India is a trip. First they call me to tell me that the 9pm flight that I'm supposed to be on is delayed until 'at least 3am' and then I watch as that time slips and slips.
I call the reservations dept. and figure out that all of the planes the previous day had been cancelled and that two planes were leaving around 18hrs delayed but mid afternoon. Get myself on the 5.30pm.
The airport is filled with screaming families - all delayed a day and facing a long NYC - PARIS - MUMBAI - Azabazramdan (or something) flight. I bypass them all merely by waving my ticket in the air and get checked in and through security in under 10 mins.
The flight is almost empty - there are 3 paying passengers in Business class. We're outnumbered by stray flies but still outnumber the number of TV screens available. No in-seat TV here. Still they have wallpapered - which is nice.
Crew are weary looking and pleasant without being helpful. They wake me up for dinner and for breakfast - despite me asking them not to (both meals are dire) and they refuse to put my bag in the closet at the back of business class even when I offer to carry it.
Still we arrive on time and I head for the world's smallest hotel room via the back of a taxi that seems to be heated to steel warping temperatures.
Paris is - well Paris. I feel alien, afraid to order anything and scared of taking too many pictures. But it's good to be here and I'm hoping that the project goes well. Already found that the cafe at which we;re meeting has had a change of name, been ripped off for two notebooks and 4 pens (E60???) and figured out how to log on to the hotel internet.
Off to explore before it gets dark now
Steve
I call the reservations dept. and figure out that all of the planes the previous day had been cancelled and that two planes were leaving around 18hrs delayed but mid afternoon. Get myself on the 5.30pm.
The airport is filled with screaming families - all delayed a day and facing a long NYC - PARIS - MUMBAI - Azabazramdan (or something) flight. I bypass them all merely by waving my ticket in the air and get checked in and through security in under 10 mins.
The flight is almost empty - there are 3 paying passengers in Business class. We're outnumbered by stray flies but still outnumber the number of TV screens available. No in-seat TV here. Still they have wallpapered - which is nice.
Crew are weary looking and pleasant without being helpful. They wake me up for dinner and for breakfast - despite me asking them not to (both meals are dire) and they refuse to put my bag in the closet at the back of business class even when I offer to carry it.
Still we arrive on time and I head for the world's smallest hotel room via the back of a taxi that seems to be heated to steel warping temperatures.
Paris is - well Paris. I feel alien, afraid to order anything and scared of taking too many pictures. But it's good to be here and I'm hoping that the project goes well. Already found that the cafe at which we;re meeting has had a change of name, been ripped off for two notebooks and 4 pens (E60???) and figured out how to log on to the hotel internet.
Off to explore before it gets dark now
Steve
Sunday, February 11, 2007
en Paris
Overnight flight to Paris tonight... with the very lovely Air India ($2400 vs. $5000 on Air France)
A couple of days there talking with people about minor indulgence, one lonely Valentine's day night in a hotel full of starry eye lovers (though it beats last year when I was dying and the year before when I was in an hotel on a Coventry industrial estate) and then home.
Nothing much to complain about there.
A couple of days there talking with people about minor indulgence, one lonely Valentine's day night in a hotel full of starry eye lovers (though it beats last year when I was dying and the year before when I was in an hotel on a Coventry industrial estate) and then home.
Nothing much to complain about there.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
We went to archery last night
it was such a long trip back we decided to buy a car.
Honda Fit here we come
Honda Fit here we come
Friday, February 09, 2007
Another day - another ban
It seems that the US's ability to justify anything from war through to the banning of pink fluffy bunny slippers in public places by means of using a quick chart knocked up in Excel continues.
Today Philly voted to join New York City in banning transfats from restaurant menus. Now transfats are bad. They make you fat. They clog your arteries. They may well give you cancer. They do terrible things to the nation's healthcare system. That said they do store well at ambient temperatures and don't look runny when you take the top off your margerine in the morning.
I'm all for warning people about the dangers of transfats. And all for telling people when transfats are in the food that they're eating... but a ban? really?
I can understand a ban on smoking in public places. Smoke drifts. It gets into other people's hair and clothing and lungs and leaves them feeling like an ashtray. It's a health hazzard that spreads indiscriminately - so great ban it to protect the people who haven't chiosen to smoke from its nasty side effects.
But to the best of my knowledge the inside of my Custard Cream biscuit (100% transfat) does not wander around the restaurant smearing itself upon people's hair and clothes and finding a way into their lungs and bloodstream. No it's contained (deliciously between layers of crispy biscuit) and thus I should be free to eat it - having made a choice based on the fact of what's in it and my own particular weakness for 'cream' filled biscuits.
So Philly, City of Brotherly Love - get off your high horses and stick to label warnings - or the next thing you'll be banning might be gypsies... and you know where that leads....
Today Philly voted to join New York City in banning transfats from restaurant menus. Now transfats are bad. They make you fat. They clog your arteries. They may well give you cancer. They do terrible things to the nation's healthcare system. That said they do store well at ambient temperatures and don't look runny when you take the top off your margerine in the morning.
I'm all for warning people about the dangers of transfats. And all for telling people when transfats are in the food that they're eating... but a ban? really?
I can understand a ban on smoking in public places. Smoke drifts. It gets into other people's hair and clothing and lungs and leaves them feeling like an ashtray. It's a health hazzard that spreads indiscriminately - so great ban it to protect the people who haven't chiosen to smoke from its nasty side effects.
But to the best of my knowledge the inside of my Custard Cream biscuit (100% transfat) does not wander around the restaurant smearing itself upon people's hair and clothes and finding a way into their lungs and bloodstream. No it's contained (deliciously between layers of crispy biscuit) and thus I should be free to eat it - having made a choice based on the fact of what's in it and my own particular weakness for 'cream' filled biscuits.
So Philly, City of Brotherly Love - get off your high horses and stick to label warnings - or the next thing you'll be banning might be gypsies... and you know where that leads....
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Oh well
I woke this morning full of expectation... last night I'd turned on the $5 Craigslist bread machine and I was expecting an oaty, slightly crunchy loaf this morning.
Alas I think that I may have gone heavy on the oats as what I have instead is a loaf that looks like the surface of a witch's nose, cuts with a crack like the earth itself splitting and a taste somewhere between honey and hemp. Oh well it was an experiement in middle class noddling doomed to fail from the beginning.
I do love the way that once essential working class skills are now becoming middle class hobbies or even eyebrow raised hipster entertainment. Baking, knitting, sewing (even cooking) - they're all now genteel or drunken pastimes rather than the essential tools in the housewife's armoury.
Oddly they're skills that Judith seems to miraculously possess - along with the ability to fix a puncture, speak almost any language thrown at her, paint, draw, handle statistical models that prove eye wateringly complex at second view, handle animals, hack up donkeys and of course the essential ability to program the DVR without erasing any of my crap reality shows (Top Design, Survivor, Amazing Race, Beauty and the Geek...)
I only the other hand am a whizz with shaded arrows in powerpoint
Alas I think that I may have gone heavy on the oats as what I have instead is a loaf that looks like the surface of a witch's nose, cuts with a crack like the earth itself splitting and a taste somewhere between honey and hemp. Oh well it was an experiement in middle class noddling doomed to fail from the beginning.
I do love the way that once essential working class skills are now becoming middle class hobbies or even eyebrow raised hipster entertainment. Baking, knitting, sewing (even cooking) - they're all now genteel or drunken pastimes rather than the essential tools in the housewife's armoury.
Oddly they're skills that Judith seems to miraculously possess - along with the ability to fix a puncture, speak almost any language thrown at her, paint, draw, handle statistical models that prove eye wateringly complex at second view, handle animals, hack up donkeys and of course the essential ability to program the DVR without erasing any of my crap reality shows (Top Design, Survivor, Amazing Race, Beauty and the Geek...)
I only the other hand am a whizz with shaded arrows in powerpoint
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Thinking of warmer climes
With the winter continuing its brutal onslaught (-11c outside right now) and with Jude getting closer to completion of her PhD it's time to start thinking about how much of the summer we can spend together and where that time might be spent.
To date there's time in the diary for Jude and her mom to take off in May to a Caribbean island somewhere. A sort of celebration of freedom from the tyranny of deadlines. After which Jude has booked herself close to eight weeks in Africa. All in that means her being away from the middle of May through to the end of July. A long old time. More time than I have vacation. Which is why I need to choose carefully.
My ideal would be to head off mid May for Caribbean sun and then early July for African winter. That way we don't spend much more than 4 weeks at a time apart. Manageable for all, you'd hope.
Still it's nice to have one eye on the sun (even if the other is on the bank balance) when all that you see outside is grey and icy
To date there's time in the diary for Jude and her mom to take off in May to a Caribbean island somewhere. A sort of celebration of freedom from the tyranny of deadlines. After which Jude has booked herself close to eight weeks in Africa. All in that means her being away from the middle of May through to the end of July. A long old time. More time than I have vacation. Which is why I need to choose carefully.
My ideal would be to head off mid May for Caribbean sun and then early July for African winter. That way we don't spend much more than 4 weeks at a time apart. Manageable for all, you'd hope.
Still it's nice to have one eye on the sun (even if the other is on the bank balance) when all that you see outside is grey and icy
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Poor Velcro
With the temperatures hovering around -10c Velcro isn't getting the walks that she's used to and whilst she's taking it with a stoic resolve there's a spring in her step whenever we do venture out that leaves no doubt as to the fact that whilst it may be too cold for me out there it's walk in the park weather for her
Still she's as cute as a button (whatever the hell that means)
Still she's as cute as a button (whatever the hell that means)
Monday, February 05, 2007
To quote Hannibal
"I love it when a plan comes together"
Ok it's Hannibal Smith from the A Team rather than the great elephant marching general but the quote still holds. Finally have French recruiters and translators working for me and my Paris trip will be something other than disasterous. Hooray.
I guess that the mounting panic I felt was a control thing - I'd sent out the requests, had heard nothing back and was starting to get itchy - as I didn't know what my next move would be. All a little seat of the pants for me; but hey I'm here and pretty 8 days out; which can't be at all bad.
It's -11C outside and thus I am delaying my departure for work for as long as I can. The thought of being stuck on a station platform in this weather is too much to bear. As is the thought of the heating bill which will surely follow. During really cold snaps we spend about $15 a day heating this brick and glass heat sieve.
Still the journey outside cannot and will not be put off forever - and thus I shall end this brief but audible sigh and head for work - wrapped head to knee in goose down (if only we'd bought a bigger goose)
Ok it's Hannibal Smith from the A Team rather than the great elephant marching general but the quote still holds. Finally have French recruiters and translators working for me and my Paris trip will be something other than disasterous. Hooray.
I guess that the mounting panic I felt was a control thing - I'd sent out the requests, had heard nothing back and was starting to get itchy - as I didn't know what my next move would be. All a little seat of the pants for me; but hey I'm here and pretty 8 days out; which can't be at all bad.
It's -11C outside and thus I am delaying my departure for work for as long as I can. The thought of being stuck on a station platform in this weather is too much to bear. As is the thought of the heating bill which will surely follow. During really cold snaps we spend about $15 a day heating this brick and glass heat sieve.
Still the journey outside cannot and will not be put off forever - and thus I shall end this brief but audible sigh and head for work - wrapped head to knee in goose down (if only we'd bought a bigger goose)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Burning man
I'm thinking of going to BurningMan this year... part Edward Woodward (a man whose name Noel Cowerd said sounded like 'a fart in a bath') Wicker Man horror, part Mad Max desert apocolypse, part hippy festival, part excuse for people to get naked in the desert. The photo ops are amazing and the art is all huge in scale and impact.
That said this is taken from 2005's "Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro) a much smaller scale installation than most, but one that's still impactful.
Tickets are a non-hippy friendly $250 and I'd need to get to Nevada but a friend has a Winnibago and a spare ticket and I might just offer to drive across from San Fransisco for the whole thing.
Things to think about
That said this is taken from 2005's "Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro) a much smaller scale installation than most, but one that's still impactful.
Tickets are a non-hippy friendly $250 and I'd need to get to Nevada but a friend has a Winnibago and a spare ticket and I might just offer to drive across from San Fransisco for the whole thing.
Things to think about
Thursday, February 01, 2007
I think that this is too stunning a picture
... not to add to my blog. I could do with a little glamor as today felt comfortably mundsane with work slowly coming to life, people coming and going and a very late spicy tofu dinner that I have to say was really rather good.
The day saw me helping a llttle towards some new electronics ideas, had a bunch of students in and ranted endlessly at them, bought them drinks at the bar (they may not have ALL been old enough) and then headed for home and aforementioned spicy tofu stuff.
Breakfast with a recruiter tomorrow (I'm feeding him names, he's keeping me on his radar) then in for lots of company meetings and a lunch with one of the students from tonight (I liked how forward she was, was I ever that confident?)
Now bed is calling (as is Jude) - one more look at this pic and off with me. More profound entries to follow.
The day saw me helping a llttle towards some new electronics ideas, had a bunch of students in and ranted endlessly at them, bought them drinks at the bar (they may not have ALL been old enough) and then headed for home and aforementioned spicy tofu stuff.
Breakfast with a recruiter tomorrow (I'm feeding him names, he's keeping me on his radar) then in for lots of company meetings and a lunch with one of the students from tonight (I liked how forward she was, was I ever that confident?)
Now bed is calling (as is Jude) - one more look at this pic and off with me. More profound entries to follow.
NIce day
Spent the day today talking about new gizmos and gadgets and will spend the evening talking to MA students about advertising.
Bliss
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Weight
I'm reading a book at the moment - not unusual for me I will admit. I rad a lot of books. Or rather I read three quarters of lots of books - either losing them or interest as the days pass and the pages turn. But the book that I'm reading at the moment is a 'look up and realize that you're still on the subway and somewhere in Queens' kind of a book.
It's by Daniel Gilbert (a refreshingly funny pyschologist) and is called "stumbling on happiness)
The font and fronnt quote immediately alerts you that this is a 'Freakonomics' style book - but I find it much more fascinating. Central to the argument at the moment is that we spend half of our time investing in the happiness of a future self who will look back in horror at all that we did (and all that we collected - 'where did this junk come from') and that happiness requires at least the illusion of control.
It's packed with great experiments and nice annecdotes and is quick to dispel advice such as 'live in the moment' as trite, impossible and the recipe for a living limbo that feels a lot like hell (you wanna live in the moment - have a lobotomy)
Anyway the control that I seek most often is over my weight. This is healthier than trying to exert control over somebody else's weight but not a whole family away from anorexia (I have a healthy perspective on my body - I know it's crap right now) but the choosing of a light dinner, my decision to quit drinking, not eat meat and spend at least 30 mins over lunch are all linked, all exercises in control and all investments in my future self.
I'll stop rambling now and have an ultra high fibre breakfast
PS - I LOVE THIS PICTURE, check out more of Esther's work over at flickr
It's by Daniel Gilbert (a refreshingly funny pyschologist) and is called "stumbling on happiness)
The font and fronnt quote immediately alerts you that this is a 'Freakonomics' style book - but I find it much more fascinating. Central to the argument at the moment is that we spend half of our time investing in the happiness of a future self who will look back in horror at all that we did (and all that we collected - 'where did this junk come from') and that happiness requires at least the illusion of control.
It's packed with great experiments and nice annecdotes and is quick to dispel advice such as 'live in the moment' as trite, impossible and the recipe for a living limbo that feels a lot like hell (you wanna live in the moment - have a lobotomy)
Anyway the control that I seek most often is over my weight. This is healthier than trying to exert control over somebody else's weight but not a whole family away from anorexia (I have a healthy perspective on my body - I know it's crap right now) but the choosing of a light dinner, my decision to quit drinking, not eat meat and spend at least 30 mins over lunch are all linked, all exercises in control and all investments in my future self.
I'll stop rambling now and have an ultra high fibre breakfast
PS - I LOVE THIS PICTURE, check out more of Esther's work over at flickr
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Cat Scan!
The CT scans came back clear...
"you're still boring" quoth the Doctor, unimaginatively but with remarkable consistencty
Next one due in April
"you're still boring" quoth the Doctor, unimaginatively but with remarkable consistencty
Next one due in April
Results day
Nasty day today - I have a dentist apppointment this morning - a chip to a tooth that is causing no pain but is making me aware of its presence via a dull throb.
Then it's off to the hospital to get the results of my CT scan. Hopefully it will offer a better result than the one picture here, which I think has some suspicious looking shadows. It's a great image though.
In between I'm writing some recruitment criteria (check) drinking too much coffee (check) and hopefully taking the dog out for a walk in the sub zero temperatures (-3 and sunny as I write)
I think I'll take the camera with me - something tells me that today will be filled with photographic opportunity. My spidey sense is tingling.
Then it's off to the hospital to get the results of my CT scan. Hopefully it will offer a better result than the one picture here, which I think has some suspicious looking shadows. It's a great image though.
In between I'm writing some recruitment criteria (check) drinking too much coffee (check) and hopefully taking the dog out for a walk in the sub zero temperatures (-3 and sunny as I write)
I think I'll take the camera with me - something tells me that today will be filled with photographic opportunity. My spidey sense is tingling.
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