On the Move - Bye Chelsea!

We've moving out of our current flat this weekend - putting our stuff in storage for a few weeks while I travel again to Cannes for work, and TJ to Israel, then moving into our new place on March 3.


We're moving to Belsize Park, near Hampstead. We did a small bit of neighborhood investigation late last year and really fell in love with Hampstead and the Heath. It will be fun for trail runs and I am so excited about getting an english bike with a wicker basket in the front. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampstead_Heath

Some interesting info on Wikipedia - watch out Gwyneth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsize_Park

The best things about our new flat is that it has 2 BATHROOMS, a funny mini-fridge in the living room closet, and one of those cool dishwashers with two seperate drawers. Just think, we'll each have our own bathroom and dishwasher and can have our fill of cold beverages while watching TV. Not too shabby.

It's a 2 bedroom - so come on over! Change of address cards will be posted soon.

Zermatt

Jen O'Shea and Kerry Dantzig suggested a trip to Switzerland in early January- with one of the highlights being that we could ski/board in Switzerland and Italy - all on the same mountain and in the same day.


By sheer coincidence Lauri was going to be traveling to London and Europe for work that same week and Kerry would be traveling from Ireland after a family wedding. I met Jen and Kerry in Zermatt on a Thursday night, and Lauri joined us on Friday.

There are no cars allowed in Zermatt, so after flying into Zurich and about a 3 hour train trip into the town, there are quaint covered-golf-cart type cabs waiting at the train station to drive you to your hotel.

I went up on the mountain with Jen and Kerry - hoping that my 'while adventurous in spirit, not too adventurous in execution' snow boarding skills could keep up with Jen and Kerry's skiing mastery - well, let's just say, that I had a lovely time riding in the two gondola's and being in Italy with Jen and Kerry, however brief my stay.


We all went out that night - and how fun to see Zermatt straight through from apres-ski, to the club scene. Jen inspired us all, and whether it was the fresh air of Switzerland or the vast amounts of catching up we had to do - 3 am came very quickly.

The next day - as we were shopping - a parade of bands and young school children came through town. Each kindergarten class dresses up as different characters based on their teacher's choice.

Zermatt is the perfect, quaint, ski town - and we met groups of people that thought we were all crazy americans for being there for only a long weekend.

Pictures are here.

The Seas Were Angry That Week in Tel Aviv...

Old Jaffa (above and below)

My first work trip of the year (besides the train ride to Eastbourne for our sales conference) - so my first outside of UK trip this year was back to Tel Aviv... leading up to the trip I was hoping that the weather would be just more of what I had become accustomed to there - sunny and pleasant - but instead my colleague and I got to see the one week a year when winter hits the middle east.

I tried to get the snow on the hills here - roads were closed in Jerusalem as a result of the rare snowfall and decent accumulation:

It was a good trip overall - but when packing for Israel the main items are usually sunglasses, short sleeved polo shirts, etc. - not corduroys and winter hats... and an umbrella would have been a good call as well as we saw almost a year's worth of rain in a three day period - as well as thunder and lightening at night and a hail storm while we were eating shawarma that had everyone at Shemesh (regarded as one of the, if not the best shawarma in Tel Aviv) running out to the sidewalk to feel the pea-sized ice.

Here Herzlyia is lit up by sunlight in the far distance beyond Tel Aviv:

Not too much else to report - people were a bit uneasy with the Gaza border being open to Egypt, and everyone apologised for the weather - and as you can see from the photos - the water which is typically calm and mediterranean blue was an odd brown from all of the sand that had been churned up. For a comparison click here for a photo from last August.

On our last day there the sun came out - but the sea was still pounding the shoreline:
and we went over to grab pizza on Shenkein Street (a sort of high street with trendy shopping, juice stands, etc.) and came upon a music video being filmed (no idea who they were - but they were lip synching and they had to keep shooing that little kid out of the frame - he was digging the music and dancing around...)