Holiday Round Up

Our time in NY and Florida helped us begin 2008 rested and relaxed.



It was the first 2 week break we've taken since our honeymoon and it was filled with plenty of time with family, friends, days relaxing, catching up - triathlons of morning runs, afternoon golf and evening walks on the beach and wine tasting.



We had time with our nephew August, friends on Long Island (house filled with 6 young girls) and finished the visit with a trip to Connecticut to visit with John, Maggie, Connor and Molly.


Full Pictures from Florida are here.
Pictures of August are here. (coming soon....someone took the camera on a business trip so I can't download them =)
And of The Fagan Family here.

Ecomotion

I'll start this off by saying that I've always wanted to ride a Segway... I think that there is empirical evidence that you cannot look cool while riding one (we've all seen it - and you will below as well) - but still - the novelty of it really had me intrigued..

First, in San Francisco when the post office was testing them out for mail delivery our mailman would not let me try (citing safety concerns...) and then when Rachel and I checked in to the Frank Gehry hotel in Spain (see post here) we were told that while there we could have free use of two segways that were there as part of a promotion (it turns out that they had been returned to the promotion running group the day before and the desk staff was not aware until I called the next morning to book one... trivia: in Spain it is pronounced 'sedge-way')

So - I was excited when I learned that one of the activities planned during the Christmas/New Year holiday in PVB was an eco-tour - while riding on off road equipped Segways! It was run by a husband and wife team whose wbsite can be seen here - Ecomotion Tours - so all 6 of us comfortably jumped in the car for the quick trip up north towards Amelia Island.

They run you through a safety and handling instruction, and then set you off in an open field to get your segway-legs (and to identify any Darwinian weak links - of which there were none in our group) - a few of us had a tenuous moment or two with our first attempt at it (look closely at Kerry's face and the enjoyment she is getting out of the scene as someone inadvertently tried to run over the instructor):

The tour starts off by an old social and golf club called the Ribault Club and you head out through what used to be a 9 hole Donald Ross course that is now being reclaimed by nature... it has a pretty interesting history - and winds its way out to the water. They have a governor on the machines for the first part - limiting you to about 9 mph, but then let you 'open it up' for the second half of the ride once you are an established segway-er.

the only incident seen (besides the giant spider on me as I learned my lesson for not staying in line while going through the woods) was the spin out and almost loss of a member of our group - just after Kerry in the photos below - after coming up the hill... we were of course blamed as the root cause of the drama.

(look at the grins repeated...)





We then took the ferry across the river for some good local food at Singleton's Seafood Shack - which turned out to be a fried seafood extravaganza - clam strips, local shrimp, stone crab claws, fish, poboys, hushpuppies, collard greens, sweet tea... the real-deal... we all ordered more than was reasonable for any one human being to consume as we sat right on the water watching the shrimp boats come in - the spoils of which can be seen below.


The whole day was great fun.

PVB Polar Bear Plunge

For the second year running we've gathered in PVB for the infamous Polar Bear plunge... I'm sure everyone has their own version of the event - but the bottom line sequence of events is - you wake up on New Years Day make your way (walk/run, golf cart, or car) over to the Beach Club... Once everyone has gathered at the alloted time you all say the polar bear oath with about 50 others and then jump in the Atlantic.

I remember last year having rougher seas and being colder - but I was sick... this year the water and air temperatures were about equal in the morning (mid 60's F) - and I was not sick.

Pre-swim has champagne, mimosas, bloody mary's and coffee available with scones and other various breakfast-y treats

Here is the crew pre-plunge:
and then afterwards you are treated to black bean soup, hot cocoa, and what is left of the aforementioned beverages.

The cold snap that hist most of the US - including Florida, arrived later that evening - but we were very fortunate with the weather and were some of the last to leave the big porch at the beach club - enjoying the sun and recounting our individual adventures in the water (while the water temps were definitely not freezing there were separate occurrences of shortness of breath, pulled muscles, and sea water inhalation that all needed to be discussed!)

The prize / reward for all of this is the elusive and coveted official long sleeve t shirt that you only get if you participate... the front of the '07 version can be glimpsed below -- (I understand that design recommendations for the '09 version are already underway in a NYC think tank...)

I'm Back... Word o' the Day (Chuffed) and 2007 Top Photo

Apologies for the long delay - when we returned from the great holiday break that we enjoyed I was straight off to our 08 sales conference in Eastbourne, and this past week has been spent making decisions about where we would like to live this year and subsequently finding a new flat.

I thought it would be fun to share my favourite (uk spell check - sorry) photo of last year - not because of its composition, setting, or any other real reason beyond the fact that I think it is the one that I talk about most frequently and I get a kick out of it every time I see it:

It was from when we were wandering around Venice on our first day there for Rachel's birthday - we were looking for this ancient wine bar when we came upon sandwicheyses... and I love that you can see where they erased the part that was 'in doubt' and then corrected it with what we found.

We saw and visited so many interesting places this past year... and I am looking forward to what 2008 brings.

Quick word o' the day:

Chuffed:

Adjective
1. (UK, Geordie, informal) Very pleased or satisfied.

So I'm at day two of the sales conference and pretty interested in seeing what our guest speaker Bear Grylls had to say - especially after he was a topic of conversation over Christmas in PVB when F Kevin and I were watching tv after the Wii had been put down for the night. We saw him hollow out a camel in the Sahara to illustrate how bedouins escape dust storms and frigid temperatures - then next episode saw him in the Colombian jungle eating frog heads and snakes while they were still alive...

Needless to say I was interested in how this would be relevant to financial data and news -

Long story short -- it turns out that besides having a tv programme (sorry - spellcheck again) he has done other stuff too... such as being part of the UK Special Forces (SAS), the youngest Briton to summit Everest, appearing on Oprah and Letterman... and we are the same age.

So I'm feeling less motivated - then he tells a dramatic story about making it to the summit of Everest and on he way up passing the frozen/preserved body of one of his heroes (I think from In to Thin Air - the tough story of the guy who could no longer move and had a satellite call patched through to his wife who was pregnant with their first child in New Zealand as they both realised that he was not coming back)... and then talks about the effort to make it to the summit - where he shows the climactic video clip of him and his climbing partner at the top saying 'I'm so chuffed - now I just want to go home."

I look around at my table - everyone is engrossed in the story - and I have to ask - 'what did he say?? chuffed? HA - what is that?'

So I learned a new word at the sales conference (as well as popping and locking, graffiti, and stomp-like skills in our team building activity - that is a different story... and no - there is no video or photographic evidence).

Chuffed - hear it here:

Mom and Dad's Visit

My mom and dad came to London - for a long weekend visit . Our plan was to experience London during the holidays and get out of the city with a visit to somewhere else in England.

We started the their visit, with a trip down the Thames on a river cruise. Passing under London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and seeing Parliament and the London Eye from a river view was amazing. We had a great Italian dinner at La Famiglia, (where the Chelsea team, and other London celebs are known to go.)

The next day we rented a private car - and had a 4 hour tour of London. I could not believe the history and facts that this guy knew - 4 hours of non-stop dialogue - it was an immense amount of knowledge. Followed by an dinner of our favorite Indian food at Nor Jahaan.

We headed that weekend to Rye- which supposedly had the most quaint bed-and-breakfast in England. It was a sweet, small, cobblestone street village. We ate well - got some good sleep - had a true English Cream Tea, and relaxed.


It was great to see the stamp in my Dad's passport.



All the pictures are here!

Still Celebrating the Holidays....

Well yes, Jennifer....

We were still celebrating the holidays!!! Our holiday season was tremendously, beautifully long this year. Starting with Thanksgiving, my mom and dad's visit followed by a fantastic long visit 'back to the US' - New York and then Florida for a full two weeks....we stretched the holidays as long as we could.

Tonight- finally taking down the tree, (as the last collection recycling is tomorrow,) I am rested, happy, and finally ready to begin 2008.

Happy Christmas....

We've carried on with some holiday traditions:
-going to get a tree together, walking it back to the house, (this time instead of down the hill in Bernal Heights, it was Battersea park)
-listening to Christmas music, (over, and over, and over)
-having a fun spread of hor d'ourves and champagne


Some do not quite match with living in London:
-the big open house tree trimming that we did each year in San Francisco
-going to a cathedral to listen to a holiday choir, (hmmm, they were all booked)

And some are new:
-visiting Oxford and Regents streets while they were closed to car traffic for the holiday shoppers
-associating the beginning of december with our decision to move here, and celebrating that first "can we live here" visit with a trip to the Fromagerie in Marleybone
-Christmas crackers - the first round were a dud and didn't even "crack", but we'll continue until we find some good ones and wear our crowns






The holiday season is in full swing - some things may be different...but once you turn off the lights, and sit and look at the tree with some holiday music playing...it's all oddly quite similar.

Where has the time gone...

As you can see from the time between posts, and as I am sure in your lives, time has been flying!

The quick weekend in Thanksgiving was just as it should be - a thanksgiving meal packed with family in a beautiful home, little kids running around, plenty of laughter and catching up.



I met my cousin Bryan and his wife Jackie's daughter Megan for the first time and had some good conversation with August. There were, no exaggeration, 15 pies on the table for desert...ahhhh it was perfect.




Further updates to follow!

Eze

When I got back from the DC/Virginia trip I spent a day in the office an then was off to meet Rach at the Nice airport... she had been in Cannes for the previous 11 days - which was the reason why she was unable to make the trip for the wedding.

She had found a hotel in Eze that had caught her eye - and managed to negotiate a decent rate there for the weekend in return for us having a smaller, non sea view room.

Once we had the rental car (a super-subcompact manual Citroen) all sorted out we popped the address into the satnav and off we went (kind of - first we got off the road immediately due to a satnav misread which caused us to go through the same toll twice - a flashback to the Spanish road trip)...

Driving around the towns in this area of France is very fun - you come off of the Provence toll highway and are immediately on tight hairpin turn roads through the hills - which made the sat nav display look like a purple squiggly line... but it got us right to the front door of the hotel - literally. We bombed right past the gate house (and the porter inside) and wedged the tiny red rental right between a Ferrari and Lamborghini (the Bently and Rolls you see below were there the next morning - while our Citroen had been relegated to the post office parking lot down the hill!)

Our budget room turned out to be great - and since the only dinner option was going to be €300+ each at their high end restaurant - we both decided that we could do without the meal that night and that some snacks would suffice.
Our room had a small balcony - and while we could tell that there would be a good view from all of the lights that we could see - we were both still surprised with this the next morning -- it was just great - and if this is the non sea view small room - I wonder just how dramatic the others are...
the photos just do not do it justice... after that breakfast we decided to walk down to the down and explore a bit - and then ended up at a pizzeria that also had great water views (pretty much I think the whole town of Eze does - even the grocery store) as well as a visiting accordionist:
We then went back to get the keys to our underappreciated vehicle and set off on another hairpin laden drive down to the water and Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. The town (and even the whole Cote d'Azur region) was only half-open - owing to it being firmly in the offseason and well before the holidays - which was actually quite nice not having to dodge ice cream cone tourists and being able to see these towns through 'local's eyes'.
We walked around the town center and marina area for a while - and with it being so quiet we just explored and took photos:
Knowing that our only option at the hotel that evening was going to be the spendy restaurant, we took a look at where people were getting their bread, cheeses, etc and followed suit - thinking that we had a perfectly good balcony to have dinner on.
The goal was to make it back up there for the sunset - which was a challenge given the roads and tiny engine - but we made it in time to catch:
The next day we set off to Cap d'ail, where we had breakfast and tracked down a hostel that I had stayed in some 14 years ago which is situated literally right on the Mediterranean with massive gated homes around it... it is still there (and looks to have been renovated) and is still a good deal today.
(I remember getting off this train years ago with my backpack that had all of my possessions on it trying to figure out where to go- it was a traveler word of mouth destination in those pre cell/internet days - and I passed it on to Kerry who did the same ~5-6 years later...)
We then continued east through Monaco - having lunch in Menton (why do I always get the nasty looks from people when I am not even taking pictures of them?) - and then on to Italy, basically just to say that we did so - and where we got some Christmas ornaments for our tree (photos to come soon - this is from outside of the stores looking north-west - we were both a bit surprized how different the 'feel' was once we had crossed the border - from resort/beach communities to much more industrial Italy - in just a few miles.

Eze

Here are my pictures from our weekend in Eze -

After 10 days of work on an event in Cannes - 18-20 hour work days - this weekend was a wonderful way for me to chill out and become human again, and for us to practice our French - and we even drove up by Monaco, and up to Italy.

The hotel is one of the best we've stayed in all year. Definitely right up there on the all time best list.