A visit to Pike's Peak

Howdy,

I know I promised more details of Singapore... I will!! I thought I should share this first. Russ, Laurie, Laurie's mom, Loki, and I all went up to Pike's Peak yesterday. We never made it to the top due to high winds. We did, however stop and take some neat pictures of the frozen reservoir about 1/3 of the way to the top. Just as we were leaving, I saw a deer running out on the ice. Right on his tail was a coyote. After a very intense fight, the coyote decided he'd had enough and took off. As he was leaving, a bird of some sort decided to attack the coyote... VERY strange!! See pictures below...

The Chase is on!
Deer and Coyote Battle	When Nature Attacks
Coyote Almost Wins!	Coyote retreats

Out of Japan, on to Singapore - 29 Nov - 03 Dec 2005

As I write, I'm sitting on the upper deck of a United Airlines 747 on my way back from Singapore.  The flight so far has gone from Singapore to Narita (Tokyo) then on to LAX.  Time starts to have no meaning after you've been sitting a plane for 18 hours or so.  I promised pictures from Singapore... so far I have not had any time to post any (obviously).  I have to admit that Singapore was a great city to visit and work in.  I spent more money than is allowed, but am bringing back some great tailored suits, lots of gifts, and a new cell phone that will work everywhere that I will be traveling.  If you are interested, look up the Nokia 6680.  It's a great phone that you can't buy in the US.  The US version, 6682 is a sad excuse for a phone that looks neat but won't work in Japan or about 1/2 of the rest of the world.

I guess I should get back to updating the team's progress... ala Amazing Race.  After splitting into two factions for Thanksgiving, the end of November found our teams reuniting in Yokosuka for the start of a whirl-wind three weeks of fun, adventure, pain, stress, and much hard work.  After a week of long days full of productive meetings, several nights searching for some real food in Japan, and more than my share of near accidents with Japanese on bikes, I headed to Tokyo.  A guest star on our show, Danielle, had arranged for some of the team to spend a night at the Navy's hotel in Tokyo, the New Sanno Hotel.  Compared to the New Yokosuka, the New Sanno is a four-star hotel!  As you may notice, the Japanese are very fond of adjectives.  They don't necessarily need to go with things, for example, an old hotel might get a face lift and be called the "New Yokosuka Hotel".  Anyway, the hotel is pretty close to Roppongi.  Best described by William Gibson as a part of Tokyo that was new 30 years ago.  It now has the warn gritty feel of over-used, acid-washed concrete mixed with loud bars and crowds of people milling from place to place.  As our small band of misfits (Danielle, Matt, Erin, and I) wandered the streets of Roppongi, we found a number of interesting bars and clubs with such unique names as "The Gaspanic Bar".  We were also harassed by many of the local bar owners who would constantly beg us to come in.  During our experience, one of our merry band (to be left unnamed) discovered the bizarre effects of a distilled beverage known as Absinth.  I personally had heard of Absinth while in Prague.  It has a long history of causing blindness and death in those that drink too much.  Although it smells like licorice (or anise) it apparently tastes like a mixture of battery acid, sugar, and the carbon dust that comes out of some diesel engines.  The effect takes a few minutes but gives the imbiber a feeling of euphoria and mellow happiness.  For the next few hours, for them, everything was "cool". 

I seem to have gotten out of the habit of keeping score while in Japan, so here's a new list:

• $6 bottles of water purchased in Roppongi: 4
• Number of times the absinth drinker said "cool": 42
• Japanese women with Jennifer Aniston haircuts: 17
• Strange Cuban men named Lazlo who accidentally showed us his butt: 1
• Pictures of above mentioned butt that Danielle took: 2
• Number of strange men on the street in Roppongi asking to "hug" Danielle: 2

The next day (actually later the same day... we got back to the hotel around 4:00a) Matt and I were headed to the airport where we met up with Neetu.  We all flew to Singapore where the adventure continued.  I think it took about three days to get the smell of Roppongi off my clothes.

 

The Singapore Team, as they will now be known, arrived into Changi Airport in Singapore at a few minutes before midnight.  After wandering around cluelessly for about 20 minutes, they found the exit.  Their task for the night was to find a cab and get to the Hilton as quickly as possible.  Upon securing what looked to be a very old Toyota Crown taxi cab, the crew loaded their luggage into the trunk.  As I may have mentioned, we don't travel light... fortunately, the driver had some bungee cords to secure the trunk lid.

 

More on Singapore in the next post....

 

 

Ahhh... the green glow of Absinth

Singapore - Week 2

Hey,

Just thought I'd drop a quick post for you. I've been in Singapore for about 10 days. The temperature is about 88 each day with 80% or more humidity. We had a tropical rain here a few days ago. I have lots of pictures to post and plenty of stories about the strange things I've seen here. I've been busy working, shopping, and eating, so have not had time to post. I'm sitting in the Terror Club after lunch, so had a few minutes.

See most of you at Christmas!

hello out west

I completely forgot about this blog. So how is everyone? How is the western side of the US?
Nothing much new here. School as usual takes up my life as does Master Chorale. This year as my second year in the group, they asked me to be section leader of the sopranos which means that I take notes at rehearsals and send emails to sopranos telling them what they need to fix. I also get to hear the reauditions and decide if people can stay in the group each year. It's a big responsibility. They also asked me to be in a smaller chamber group that is singing a Mozart Opera with the National Symphony Orchestra in February. Now we have wedding planning to add to the list but we are mostly done there. I just need to find a cake that doesn't have milk in it (!) and flowers. And deciding music is driving us bonkers...something that is so important to me is awfully hard to choose. We have a wedding webpage, and I'll send the link out as soon as it is finished. We need to put a few more pictures up.

We are going down to Sarasota for Christmas because Jeff stayed here for Thanksgiving. Next year we'll stay here for Christmas. Other than that, not much news. I hope that you all are doing well.


Meredith

Japan - Week 2 (Nov 19) - Escape from Japan

After about two weeks in Japan, our team has split into two factions... one group (Andrew and Erin) have chosen to stay in Japan while the remainder of the team heads for home to spend Thanksgiving with their families.

Neetu, Phil, Chip, Trey, and Steve left from Yokosuka around 10:00a on Saturday to catch the train to the airport. After an interesting pit stop in Zushi, we all boarded the train for the Airport. Having learned from our trip down, we took seats in the "Green Car". These are the more comfortable seats in a more quiet car. It costs about $9 more, but is definately worth it.

Roughly 2 hours later, we arrived at Terminal 2 of Narita Airport. Phil, Chip, and I were supposed to get off there, unfortunately, the doors closed so quickly that only Trey managed to get off the train. The rest of us rode up to Terminal 1. We all went to the United check-in to find out that Trey and Neetu were suppposed to check in there, while the rest of us were supposed to be in Terminal 2 checking in at the All Nippon Airways (ANA) ticket counter. So... the rest of us headed over to Terminal 2... on the way, we ran into Trey who had found his way by bus to Terminal 1. (Confused yet???) Once we reached Terminal 2, we discovered that it was the busiest of the two terminals and was definately the most crowded. In true Japanese fashion, the terminal was kept at a constant 95 degrees. By the time we finally got our tickets, we were all sweating like crazy. We eventually made it through the ticketing mess and got a bite to eat at a resturant called "Pause". It was about as exciting as eating a pile of stale syrofoam peanuts. After another exciting lunch, we made our way through security and took a short break in the ANA lounge. We boarded the plane at about 4:30p... the boarding reminded me of a cross between Friday night at the fights and herding cattle. Basically a woman would walk through the crowd with a large sign that read "Economy boarding soon" while we all stood there sweating. Then, all of the sudden, they started pushing us toward the gate and onto the plane... not exactly a friendly process in my opinion.

The flight was uneventful.. the service was good and the food was good. The seats were okay... if I had a choice, I would not fly ANA again though.

We all arrived in SFO around 8:30a (on Saturday). Trey caught his flight back to San Diego while Neetu discovered that her flight back to DC had been cancelled. She ended up having to stay in SFO until 2:00, catch a flight to Denver, then back to DC. Fun times!! Anyway, Chip and I flew back to Colorado and arrived around 2:30p. Basically 2 1/2 hours before we left...

It's good to be home... even if only for a short time. I'll be headed back to Japan in just over a week. So, count on more details of the fun.

Some of the important things we've learned while in Japan:

• Make sure to look both ways before crossing the street! The Japanese usually take a red light to mean speed up.


• Don't order anything off the menu unless you know exactly what it is


• Always, and I do mean always, check your underwear for staples after having them laundered at the hotel


• The Japanese really know how to make good mochas!!

Next Stop... Tokyo

North of Tokyo... River crossing

Japan - Week 1 (12 Nov) - Kamakura, Pt 2

Welcome back... after several weeks of delays, part 2 is finally being posted.

After traveling to by train to Kamakura and walking about 5 miles from the train station to Hasedera temple, the team walked down the street to the Great Buddha. This statue is the second largest Buddha in Japan and weighs in at 121 tons and is about 40 feet tall. The temple that enclosed the statue was destroyed by a giant tidal wave in the 15th century.

For 20 Yen (about 15 cents), you can go inside the statue. The inside basically looks like the inside of a huge statue... You can see the original welds used to hold the bronze sections together and the more recent repairs made to strengthen the statue's neck. The Japanese are very mindful of earthquakes in all of their construction.

The gardens behind the statue are neat to see. Our neighbor from Fort Irwin was actually in Kamakura the next day and was able to get a private tour of the gardens. Her father-in-law is friends with someone at the temple and was able to arrange a private tour. (I guess I need to hang around with them more!!)

Anyway, after our own personal tour of the temple grounds, we headed out from the temple. We stopped for lunch at a small Chinese restaurant where we had an interesting lunch. I played it safe with some noodles. Andrew was unfortunate enough to order some of the famous Japanese rubber. The menu said "shrimp balls"... what came out reminded me of a nerf ping pong ball fried in tempura batter. Andrew was unable to eat his pile of foam so helped everyone else with their sweet and sour chicken (the most popular dish in Japan for our team).

Anyway, after our delectable lunch, we walked up the street and stopped at some of the shops. We stopped and sampled some local ice cream. We weren't able to determine the flavors, so I sampled a couple... the "green" flavor tasted like smoked gym socks... so I went with the only obvious flavor (as did everyone else) chocolate.

We then made our way back to the train station where we caught the train back to Yokosuka. We were all pretty beat after a long day of walking. For most of us, Sunday would be a day of rest.

Until next time....

---

For more information, go to http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3100.html

The Great Buddha in Kamakura

The team in front of the Great Buddha

Japan - Week 1 (12 Nov) - Kamakura, Pt 1

On Saturday our band of merry travelers set out for Kamakura. We walked from our hotel up to the train station (with a pit stop at the local Tully's coffee shop... which is my favorite from Seattle).

After our extremely long day of travel, a short train ride was welcomed. It took about 15 minutes by train from Yokosuka to Kamakura. Once there, we exited the station and wandered around the shopping district. Eventually (and mostly by accident), we found the Hasedera Temple. This temple contains a statue of the eleven-headed Goddess Kannon. Legend has it that two statues were carved in 721 AD. One statue was enshrined in Hasedera while one was thrown into the sea with a prayer that it would reappear to save the people. Sixteen years later, the second statue drifed to Nagai beach off Miura sending out rays of light as it drifted ashore. The statue was then transported to Kamakura and enshrined. This is believed to be the beginning of the Hasadera temple.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the statue, but it was very impressive... it is about 30 feet tall and covered in gold.

You can get more details about the Hasedera at:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3101.html


Statues at Hasedera (Hase Kannon Temple)


Hasedera Temple


Trey trys to figure out where we are...

Japan - Week 1 (07 Nov - 10 Nov) - Planes, trains, and automobiles

This project reminds me of the TV show "The Amazing Race". Given that, I will attempt to emulate the style... on this week's show, our team set out for Yokosuka Japan. With team members traveling from Colorado, San Diego, Massachusetts, Virginia, and San Francisco, we all made our way to San Francisco Airport (SFO) and met in the international terminal. Our team members include Trey (a farm boy turned computer jockey), Andrew (a programmer from JMU turned professional beer taster), Phil (a communications expert who used to live in the subway tunnels of the bay area), Neetu (another JMU graduate trying to accumulate as many stamps in her passport in the next 6 months), Chip (a former Air Force pilot turned desk jockey), and Erin (a real rocket scientist who plans to eat all the sushi in Japan).

Once the team reached SFO, they made a mad dash for their plane (actually a leisurely walk, but that doesn't sound as exciting). The team spread out around the plane and made themselves comfortable for the 10 1/2 hour flight to Narita Airport in Japan. About 3 hours into their journey, they gathered for a team meeting... once they calmed down the rest of the passengers (it's frightening to have 7 consultants gathered in any one spot on an airplane flying at 36000 ft!!!)

We arrived into Tokyo's Narita airport at 5:00p local time. The first thing I noticed was that the jet way was by far the cleanest I'd ever seen... it looked brand new. The walk through the airport only continued to impress me with the extreme cleanliness. Every walkway was clean and there weren't any burned out light bulbs anywhere. Very impressive.

After spending over an hour waiting in line to get to immigration, we made our way to baggage and then through customs. We boarded the 7:00p train to Yokosuka... it made 33 stops between the airport and the end of the line where we got off. Once off the train, we wandered out of the station... we finally decided to take a cab. It was a very scary 5 minute cab ride to the hotel.

We all survived and finally made it to the hotel and got checked in by about 11:00p.

I quickly discovered that the rumors of tiny hotels in Japan were true...


The bedroom... dreamy isn't it!


Tiny bathroom - Bidet included at no extra charge

Japan - Week 1 (07 Nov-08 Nov) - Arrival

As many of you know, I am again on the road. I left for Japan on Monday 07 Nov. I arrived at 5:00p on the 8th. From the airport, it was a 2 hour and 45 minute train ride to Yokosuka. I am traveling with a group of 6 other people... none of us speak Japanese. We checked into our hotel and discovered how small the rooms really are. My guess is around 120 sq. ft. I will eventually take a picture, but it's tough to be in the room and get my camera out at the same time... :)

Anyway, the next day we started work at about 730a. We got a tour of the area and were shown the gym that we can use (it's extremely nice!!) The view from the top floor is below.

I'm planning on posting more to the blog over the next few days... I've had to get all of my software set up again so that I can post pictures. I have plenty to tell and share, so check back often!!

Take care!
Steve


Mount Fuji... as seen from the gym in Yokosuka, Japan

Hello out there...

I guess there's nothing going on in the world of Bolish. Russ bought a house... Laurie got a new job in Co Springs... They moved Loki to Colorado... hmmm... nothing much.

I think it's time someone posted something interesting!

The joys of landscaping

We have about a half acre of dirt and weeds. Last week we had about 22 tons of river rock, 15 yds of mulch, and 13 yards of soil delivered. Tomorrow I'll be getting a small Bobcat to move everything around. Hopefully I can also use it to start digging out for the retaining wall. Eventually I'll get some pictures posted of our messy yard.

Day 3 - Driving in Circles

Today was full of driving. In total we drove just about 400 miles... we left from Salt Lake City, drove out I-80, across the Bonneville Salt Flats, and into Nevada for lunch, then back. We then went North to Antelope Island where we drove and saw some sights. We then ended up back at Salt Lake City for dinner and back to the Hilton. A giant loop.


Buffalo at Antelope Island near Salt Lake City

A new driver...

After two long days of driving, Steve decided to take a break... fortunately Racket took over for a bit... she just set the cruise control at 80 and kept the wheel straight as we headed back across the Bonneville Salt Flats.

(no joke... look at the speedometer)

Day 2 - Bryce Canyon

We left Irwin yesterday and headed to Cedar City, UT where we stayed for the night. The drive to Bryce Canyon was supposed to take about an hour. Due to construction it took about 1 1/2 hours. We took the cats out for a short hike while at Bryce Canyon. We think the altitude and the heat got to the cats because they were acting a little funny. After some water, air conditioning, and some time relaxing in a nice hotel, they seem to have returned to normal.

We headed towards Salt Lake City around 5:00p. The drive took a while and we got to the hotel after 10:00p. A very long day!

Day 2 at Bryce Canyon

Gas prices???

On our way through Baker, CA, we stopped to take a few pictures of the world's largest thermometer and saw the gas prices... I'm glad we filled up before we left!

Escape from Fort Irwin

The best way to see Fort Irwin is in your rear view mirror...

The movers arrived on Monday at about 8:00a and packed what was left at the house and put it on a truck. They finished before 1:00p and left us at the empty house. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and then had dinner with the new Pediatrician who is taking Athena's place. Tuesday morning we had our final house inspection and then packed the rest of our stuff into the car... we didn't have enough room for another pack of gum. We made a successful escape around noon and headed out... they say the best view of Fort Irwin is from your rear view mirror...

Return to the heat

Howdy from one of the hottest places in the US! I flew to Vegas last night. Athena picked me up at the airport and we drove back to Fort Irwin. The movers will be here Monday and we'll be headed out (hopefully for the last time) on Tuesday.

Hope all is well with everyone else!
Take care!!
Steve

Two weddings and a funeral???

I thought I should post what's on everyone's minds right now. With the coming year seeing 2 Green weddings (M and K), will we have to put Mike on life support? :)

Congrats on the engagements!!

Pictures from Prague (Praha)

I've finally gotten a minute to post some pictures from Prague. The first 2 are from the Křižíkova Fountains in Prague. The fountains were synchronized to the soundtrack from Gladiator. The next showing used music from Metallica and Scorpions. Evidentally these fountains inspired the fountains at the Bellagio... obviously they needed to be on a larger scale for Las Vegas though :)

Fountains in Prague

Fountains 2
The next picture is of Týn Church. It is located in Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)

Tyn's Church in Prague

Back in the USA

It's been quite a while since my last post. I've since returned to the US. Things have not slowed down though since I left the UK.

My last weekend in the UK (Memorial Day), I went to Prague. I flew there on Friday and returned Sunday. I spent the entire time walking around the city and took lots of pictures. I also managed to locate a geocache while I was there.

Upon my return to Newcastle, I went and saw Star Wars and then had dinner with some coworkers. I spent Monday getting my apartment cleared out and wrapping up a few outstanding items with some of my coworkers. On Tuesday (May 31), I headed for home. 11 hours later, I arrived in Denver. Russ picked me up and helped me load my extremely heavy bags into his car. I think I had 6 or 7 total.

I took less than a 1/2 day to recover before heading into the office. The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy with work, and then traveling back to DC for Jimmy's wedding. While we were there Jimmy told me he felt really bad about spilling the beans about Laura and Basil. I tried to explain to him that we all had a great laugh over it and not to worry.

How's everyone else doing??? Not a lot of activity here on the blog! I'll post some pictures of Prague eventually and maybe some other interesting photos that I've taken over the past few weeks.

Take care!!
Steve

Athena Visits the UK

Forwarded from Athena's e-mail

Hope you guys are doing well. I just got back earlier this week from visiting Steve and the UK. I spent 12 wonderful days. I didn't want to come back. We had a great time.

I left on 20 Apr but didn't arrive until Thursday, 21 April. Despite having a very long flight the flight wasn't bad at all. Steve's company paid for business class which ends up being first class on British airways. You get a huge seat that reclines all the way back to a bed, your own personal TV and real food. No crowding. Nice flight....my best ever.

The first night I met Steve's "harem" of women co-workers and temporary UK boss (Art) and his wife (Susan) at an Indian restaurant in Newcastle. Friday I wandered around Newcastle while Steve was working. I saw many different churches/cathedrals, monuments, bridges, and a nice museum. Later that night we went to his boss' home to have a wine tasting. I have never had so much alcohol in my life...I started to get a headache after the 15th wine and had to slow it down..we ended up tasting about 20 wines, plus a few dessert wines. Too much alcohol for me but an interesting experience tasting wines from around the world.

Saturday morning Steve and I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We stayed at the Caledonian Hilton which was a beautiful hotel, however it was partially undergoing reconstruction. When we arrived we wandered around the city and gawked at the beautiful centuries old architecture. Not only that but it was so green. Really beautiful. We walked along the "Royal Mile" which is where the oldest buildings are and the street ends at Edinburgh Castle. We also took a tour of Mary King's Close. Closes were small alleyway's that people used to live off of. Many of them were built over a long time ago however there were still some existing underground. Pretty neat. Sunday we took a 4-bus tour of Edinburgh and saw the sites. We saw the school that Sean Connery went to as an adolescent. We also saw Holyrood Palace which is the Royal residence of the queen when she comes to Scotland. Monday we went to Edinburgh Castle which was huge and neat. It also provided many views of the city itself. Monday night we headed back to Newcastle by train. I attempted to make my famous chocolate chip cookies for his coworkers because he was ranting and raving about how great they were. However I didn't have my normal ingredients and I had to figure out the different temperature systems (C instead of F). They came out okay but not my normal great cookies.

Tuesday I wandered around Newcastle again while Steve was working. I saw Castle Keep which was a really neat and tall castle. Who knew they just loved spiral staircases a long time ago...I guess to save room. No elevators then. I was out of breath by the time I got to the top. I also wandered around the Baltic flour mill museum which used to actually be a flour mill and wandered around the Tyne and Millennium bridges.

Wednesday evening we headed to London, England and stayed at the Waldorf Hilton. The next day Steve and Art had to go to an all day meeting. I was so excited that I wandered all over London on my own. By the end of the day I had walked 9 miles (I don't know what I was thinking). I saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Parke, Kensington Palace, and many monuments. I didn't actually go in the places because some were closed and others were so expensive (around 12 pounds which ends up being 24 bucks). I wanted to go into Buckingham Palace and would have paid the fee however it is only open to visitors in August/September. I watched the changing of the guard for about 45 minutes....but after that I had enough of the changing of the guard. It was neat to see the men in their uniforms which looked like they had a large furry animal on the tops of their heads. I don't know how they saw since the hat seemed to cover their eyes. I wandered around Hyde park which is sort of like the central park of new york to London. it was so beautiful, green, and well kept. they keep the grounds with so many beautiful flowers. By the time I got back to the hotel I was so exhausted. We went to a great little Greek restaurant for dinner.

The next day Steve was working some more for about half of the day. I wandered a bit around the British museum, the bridges, and St. Paul's Cathedral. After lunch we both went to the British Museum which was just amazing. We saw the Rosetta stone (http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html), the Parthenon marbles, and tons of other Greek and Egyptian relics. We were just in awe. We weren't able to see everything. We also unfortunately weren't able to make it to the national gallery. Later we went out for good Italian food and then saw "The Lion King" on the British version of Broadway. It was really good.

Saturday, after walking around everywhere Steve and I took the Tube, which is UK's version of the metro and visited more cathedrals, the museum again, Tower Hill---a huge castle, the Tower and London Bridge, and we walked around Notting Hill. Later that night we went to a beautiful Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St Sophia's, for the orthodox Easter service. We had never seen so many Greek people in one place in our lives.

Sunday we went on an organized tour. We saw Avebury henge and Stone Circle where there were tons of sheep and lambs. On the way we could see the beautiful green grass fields and the beautiful bright yellow orogold grain fields. We then saw Stone Henge---which was the one thing I really wanted to see on my trip. It was amazing. Unfortunately you couldn't go right up to it. It wasn't on as high of a hill as I thought. It was still amazing considering when it was built. We also saw the remains of Old Sarum Castle. We then headed to the town of Salisbury and saw the Cathedral there and where the house that they filmed Sense and Sensibility. The Salisbury cathedral contained one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta which was another neat piece of history to see. Also during the tour we drove past Sting's huge tudor mansion. Pretty neat.

Monday morning we awoke bright and early and headed to the airport at Heathrow Airport and headed our separate ways--Steve back to Newcastle (he will return to the US at the end of May) and me back to the desert in CA. I watched a ton of movies of great movies on the flight back to LA then I drove back to Fort Irwin.

It was a whirlwind trip but fantastic and I have lots of pictures and memories.

love
Athena (and Steve)

Election Results

I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear who wins the election over here... didn't know there was one? Don't you watch the news? :)

Anyway, it appears that Tony "the tiger" Blair has been re-elected.

More to come later...

Cure for the Black Plague

One of my British coworkers suggested a sure-fire cure for the black death... he said a pint of ale and 2 shots of whiskey either before or after... or both.  I don't think that would cure the plague, but you sure wouldn't feel much afterwards.

Anyway, my solution was to fly in a specialist... Athena arrived yesterday around 1:30p.  It took us more than 2 hours to get back to the apartment with a stop at the store and then unloading the car.  We turned around and went back out for an early dinner with some of my US-based coworkers.

 

I'm back at work today, but will likely leave early since it is a nice day.  Athena is probably still sleeping (1:30p).  I figure by 2:00p she should get up.

We're off to Edinburgh this weekend!

Steve

Black Plague?

Being sick sucks... being sick in cold rainy Northern England sucks even worse. I went to work for about an hour yesterday and decided that I couldn't stay any longer. I've been coughing my lungs out for the past 3 days. I'm sure the fact that it has been really nasty weather here hasn't helped. I think it finally stopped raining this morning after about 48 hours of continuous rain.

That's about all the news that is fit to report... I have a couple of cool pictures to share... will attach them to the bottom of this post.

Later all!


Tyne River from Swing Bridge


Newcastle - Millenium Bridge at Night

Is Kara okay?

I heard something happened to her recently....

UK Trip (March ?? - April 10)

Well, it's been a very long time since I've had a full post. I guess it's actually been almost a month! I've posted a few pictures to the blog from a trip to Holy Island and a trip to London, but never really wrote about everything that went on in between.

So... let's see... my last post had me returning from Colorado to the land of roundabouts and drunks singing in the street. I've managed to master the art of negotiating a round about without getting killed. I don't think I've had any near misses recently! The week I returned was when I first got the car (March 10). That following weekend (March 12) Sara, Gina, and I drove to Holy Island. The island is only accessible at low tide since the road is under water during high tide. We left Newcastle at around 8:30a and arrived at the island just about 10:00. We walked in the incredibly strong winds to the castle and took a tour. Afterwards, we walked out to the North Sea and took some pictures. Sara and Gina were nearly blown away by the wind and just about froze to death. We had lunch at the local pub around noon and then headed back towards Alnwick (pronounced Onic). There is a castle there but it was closed... the royals were living there for the winter so there weren't any tours and you really couldn't get close to the place. We spent some time at the bookstore in town and then drove out to the east to see if there was anything of much interest. It turned out that there was a nice little church and another castle to see. We started back towards Newcastle around 3:30. Gina and Sara were snoozing by the time we reached the highway. I told them they wouldn't last 1 day with Athena on vacation... "It's only 4:00?!?! We still have 8 hours left in the day!!" :) You can see a picture of the Priory at Holy Island in a previous post.

On the 13th, Sara and I drove down into Gateshead and took some pictures of the Angel of the North. It's a large "sculpture" that can be seen from the highway. It's wing span is the same as a Boeing 767.

Angel of the North

The week of the 14th was rather uneventful. I spent the following weekend in Newcastle. The week of the 21st was filled with back-to-back-to-back meetings. On Thursday, I flew back to DC for a surprise visit. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I arrived back at my parents at about 8:00p. I knocked on the door and heard my dad mumble something about who was at the door. The look on his face when he opened the door was worth the trip! Then to surprise my mom in the kitchen made it doubly worth while. The weekend was very busy, but definitely worth every minute spent on the plane back and forth. I managed to see a number of relatives (Grandma, Kara, Wes), have some really good meals, and get a small amount of actual work done. All-in-all, it was a great trip.

I returned from DC on the 28th (which is a holiday in the UK). Also, the 27th was the start of daylight savings time here in the UK. That threw a few people off for a few days since the UK was now 9 hours ahead of the west coast. Anyway, the week of the 28th was pretty short since a lot of people were on vacation and we had an all-hands meeting in London on Friday, April 1. Gina, Kate, Sara, and I flew down to London Friday morning and went directly to the office. We worked for a few hours and then attended the meeting and social hour afterwards. We all checked into the hotel and then went our separate ways. Kate went to have dinner with a friend while Sara met up with her friend from Germany. Gina and I ended up walking around London for about 5 1/2 hours. We probably walked over 5 miles!! and in uncomfortable shoes no less!! Below is a picture of Piccadilly circus. It was very crowded and noisy. During the day, there is a lot going on with performers and people milling around.

Picadilly Circus

The next day Gina, Kate and I set off to walk some more. We walked down to the London Eye (which is where the Big Ben pictures are from). Below is a picture (it's roughly 400 feet tall). It was $25 to take a ride on the eye so we all decided to go. It took about 25-30 minutes to get through the line, then the ride itself was about 35 minutes. I had talked to Athena's brother (Pete) at about noon and said that we'd meet at Big Ben around 1:00p. We were done at the Eye by 12:30 so we walked up to Big Ben and then up parliament st. We met up with Pete and his friend Brian around 1:00p and had lunch at a little pub nearby. The food was bad, the service was worse, and the prices were high. Other than that, the place was fine. After our "meal", we walked up to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures. We'd wanted to go to Westminster Abby, but it closed at 1:45p that day... we got there at 1:50p. After the Palace, we walked through Green Park and then up to some of the shops. Pete and Brian left to do other things at this point. Kate, Gina and I walked around to some shops... Kate then decided to try on every outfit at the Gap. Gina and I retreated next door to have a beverage and relax our feet... by this point she and I had probably walked 10 miles or more in 2 days.... and in uncomfortable shoes!! Gina and I flew back to Newcastle Saturday evening.

London Eye

On Sunday, April 3rd, I invited Gina, Kate, Sara, and Sandeep (another US Booz Allen employee that I just found out was here), over for dinner. We started the meal with cheese and crackers and then had a luxurious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Afterwards, we watched Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill. It was a fun evening of dairy products and British humor!

Last week was a slower week than normal... We had a going away party for one of the London based staff on Tuesday. He's been working on this project for over a year and is leaving the company to go work for another consulting firm. He's been very helpful since I've been here and we'll definitely miss him.

On Wednesday I had to go to a meeting in Lytham... it was a 3 hour drive from Newcastle. We met at 6:30a to drive down... yuck!! It was made even more difficult by the fact that I had been at the going away party until after 11:00p the night before!! We got to Lytham around 10:00a. Art and I then had to kill three hours until our meeting at 1:00p. We went down early because we rode with two other people that were going to a different meeting at the same location. Originally our meetings were supposed to be at the same time, but one of them got moved at the last minute. So, after a 3 hr drive, and 3 hrs of waiting, we attended a 3 hour meeting. It was not the most productive meeting I've ever been to... it was very difficult to maintain interest and pretend to be awake! We finished the meeting and then got back in the car for the 3 hour drive back.

The weather forecast for this weekend was for snow and cold, so everyone decided to just hang out in Newcastle. I ended up going shopping at Costco (yes, they have them here in the UK!) I was then invited to join the "girls night out". Gina, Kate, and Sara were planning to get together for drinks. The drink of the evening for them was the Cosmopolitan. I drank about 12 glasses of water. By 1:00a Sara and Kate had finished 5 cosmos. Sara was unable to form complete sentences... Kate seemed as if she were ready to have 5 more. Gina called it quits after 2 1/2 cosmos and was just hanging out surveying the room and bothering strange men. Today we were all supposed to get together for an early dinner at Gina's at 2:30p. Sara and I had planned to get together in the morning for some tea and possibly go to the gym. At about 11:00 she called and said that she didn't think she could even get out of bed. Every time she stood up she felt horrible. By 2:00p, she was still miserable and decided that she would accept the title of "The Queen of Bad Ideas." She decided that 5 cosmos was probably too many. Somehow she pulled herself together and we made it down to Gina's at about 2:45. Kate, on the other hand, had gotten up at a reasonable time, gone to mass, and then gone to the gym. She was feeling just fine. We've decided it's because Sara is an amateur and Kate is a professional. :-)

Anyway, it's been a nice day here in Newcastle for a change. It's actually been reasonable sunny and warm. We'll see if this lasts more than 1 day though.

Athena now has her tickets booked to come out!! She'll be arriving here on April 21. We'll go to Edinburgh on the 23rd for a couple of days, then come back to Newcastle for a few days. We'll be in London for a long weekend before she heads back to the desert on May 2nd.

Hope all is well in your parts of the world!!

Steve

Trip to London (01 Apr - 02 Apr)

Look kids... Big Ben


Look Kids... Big Ben


Look kids.. UGH...

Happy Easter...

A couple of days late :)

I made a surprise visit to DC over this past weekend. I flew in Thursday night. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I knocked on my parents door at about 8:00p. Needless to say, they were very surprised and happy to see me. Over the weekend I visited with Grandma and saw Kara and John for a few minutes when they stopped by. It was a good weekend although too short.

I flew back Sunday night, arrived in Newcastle Monday morning. Since Monday was still a holiday, I relaxed for the day and then headed back to work on Tuesday.

UK Fact: Daylight savings time starts a week early here. So for a few days, we are even further ahead (+9 from west coast!)

I flew down to London this morning to attend a meeting and will hang out in town this evening. I'm planning to meet Pete (Athena's brother) for lunch tomorrow afternoon. Since I missed him in DC, it'll be good to catch up.

Well, that's all for now. I will post more later with some additional pictures.

One last note... I finally have high speed Internet at the apartment!! No more dial-up at home!

Later!
Steve

Cars Speeding by on Grainger Street

Trip to Holy Island (12 Mar 05)

Gina, Sara, and I drove up even further North in England to visit Holy Island. It is only accessible during low tide... at high tide, the ocean covers the road. It's a very neat place. The picture below is the Priory located on the island. It was destroyed by Henry VIII so that he could kill his wife and marry another... he did this a few times. Eddie Izzard talks about his crazy ways...


Picture of the Priory at Holy Island.

UK Weeks 3 and 4 (21 Feb-09 Mar)

I finally installed some photo blogging tools... Picasa and Hello. This means that photos will start appearing in blogs again... although the process is somewhat manual...

Frequency of blog posts is inversely proportional to how busy I am...

My last post had me in Cardiff getting ready to head back to Newcastle (Feb 22). I flew back on the UK version of Airtrans... known as Air Wales... or as the locals in Newcastle pronounce it "Air Wheels". My team decided that we should meet in the lobby of the Hilton at 0615 to catch a cab to the airport... our flight was at 750a. It took us 20 minutes to get the airport, then about 10 minutes to check in. We sat down for some breakfast at about 645a and watched the flight status board tell us that our flight was delayed for the next 3 hours. We finally left at about 1000a. We arrived back in Newcastle after 1100a and were back to work by noon. The rest of the week was filled with meetings and other "exciting" work events.

The weekend of Feb 26 and 27 was uneventful. We had a new person join our team here. Gina Turner... not Tina... flew in from California. She's been living in the desert (near Fort Irwin) for the past 18 years and has been working at NASA. She reports to the same boss as me in San Francisco. She's joined us here to help sort out some of the ongoing project and technical issues that continuously surface. Anyway, Gina arrived on the 26th. I was charged with picking her up from the airport and was given the keys to the company sports car... a 1.6L Ford Focus... it's a right hand drive, 5-speed manual... which means shifting with your left hand... more difficult than it sounds. I managed to make it to the airport and back without any major incidents. I handed the keys back to Art the next day and decided that I could live without a car for a bit.

On Tuesday 01 March, our team traveled by train to Scotland for another round of site visits. Our luck with delays continued... our train was delayed by about 30 minutes... when a train showed up, we got on. We learned a few minutes after it departed that it was the wrong train. Our train was actually the next one on the same track. Fortunately, it was easy to fix the situation... we jumped off in Edinburough, Scotland and got on the correct train. We arrived around 9:00 to Dundee. Since we weren't sure where the hotel was, we got in a cab. It took us across the street from the station and dropped us at the Hilton... total fare £3. After checking in (which only took 5 minutes for all of us), we met in the bar to chat... Art ordered a shot of whiskey to sip. The glass they gave him was a standard 6 oz glass with about 4 oz of whiskey... that's the biggest "shot" we'd ever seen! It took him about 2 hours to sip his way through it. Afterwards, he retired to the McDonald suite. The rooms were nicer in Scotland than Swansea, but Art got the giant suite on the top floor. He had a walk-in closet, living room, huge bedroom, and a giant marble covered bathroom... the rest of us had the standard rooms (although I had a bottle of wine, a bottle of Scottish orange marmalade, some truffles, and a few other snacks in mine that nobody else did). I guess they decided to give me some goodies instead of the upgraded room.

We conducted our site visit on the 2nd, then got back on the train for Newcastle. This time we got on the correct train and got back as expected. I spent the evening packing up and getting ready for my trip home. At about 2:30a I was awaken by people making a ton of noise outside. Turns out it was snowing quite a bit. By morning it was pretty messy. My cab was 20 minutes late picking me up... I was starting to get concerned and was about to walk over and jump on the Metro to the airport when the cab finally arrived. I made it to the airport with plenty of time since I wasn't checking any bags. The flight to London was uneventful, as expected. I spent a little time in Heathrow checking e-mail and doing a little shopping. I think it was about a mile from where I came in (Terminal 1) to where my flight left out of (Terminal 4).

I arrived back in Denver around 3:30p on Thursday the 3rd. Russ picked me up and we went directly to ESPNZone where we both had steaks. We stopped into Costco on the way home and picked up a few things, then headed back to the house. I took a short nap until about 2:30a when I had to get up to drive to Co Springs airport to pick up Athena.

I spent a few hours in the office on Friday then we all took off for one of the things I'd been missing while in the UK... Mexican food. There were 3 main food items that I couldn't get here... steak, root beer, and Mexican food. I suppose I could add Chinese food since I have not had any that was any good yet. On Saturday, Athena and I went to the Booz Allen holiday party... Co Springs has their party in the spring because the landlord of the building throws a big party for all of the tenants around the holidays. So, we had a casino night party. Athena and I had a great time. We got to see a bunch of my co-workers that I barely know... I was only there for a total of about 6 weeks since I moved. On Sunday, D. Acton came down to visit. We drove around Co Springs and saw some of the local sights. We tried to go to Seven Falls but were told that it was 75% frozen and that none of the hiking trails were open... it also cost $8.25 per person... we decided that it wasn't worth it.

Monday we finished up our taxes... ouch! Russ and I dropped Athena off at the airport Monday evening, then went to Red Robin for dinner. On Tuesday, Russ drove me to the airport and I hopped back on a plane for the UK. I arrived back into Newcastle at about 2:00p local time.

Today, it was back to work as usual... I decided that I needed to get a car so that I could do some sight seeing this weekend, so I called up and ordered one. They (Budget) dropped the car off at the office at 3:00p. I came home and cooked my first full meal here at the apartment... pasta with tomato sauce and bread. Very exciting :-)

The latest and greatest counts and such:

• Drunk English men peeing on walls, cars, or in the middle of street in Newcastle - 7


• Times I've been told high-speed Internet will be available at my apartment "in a couple of days" - 5


• Days of actual high-speed service - 0


• Number of accidents narrowly avoided at annoying traffic circles - 2

Well, that about wraps everything up. Several people have asked for pictures of my apartment... I have attached 2 of the living room and 1 of the kitchen. These rooms are on the first floor along with a small dining room (behind the red walls on the right side in the living room), the foyer, and a powder room. The "laundry" is under the cabinet in the kitchen. The spiral staircase leads upstairs to the 3 bedrooms and the 2 bathrooms... sorry no pictures. I'm still waiting for the phone line in the master bedroom to be hooked up so I can use my computer up at my desk.... another "delay".

I hope all is well in your parts of the world! If anyone wants to visit the UK, just let me know! I have plenty of room for guests!!

Steve

New Living Room 1

New Living Room 2

New Kitchen

UK Week 2 (12 Feb-20 Feb) Part 1/2

Please note that part 2 is below... I put them in order for easy reading...

I've been busy/lazy... whichever.  I've visited the log and seen some info, but have not had time to type much or post more pictures.  I'm very sorry!! 

 

I guess two full weekends have passed since my last post and I've seen a good number of things.

Current counts:

• Scots that sound like Mike Myers and have HORRIBLE TEETH - 1 really bad one
• Men saying "Have a good day" in Welsh - 1 (we think that's what he said)
• Castles - 14+ "They're up to HERE with bloody castles!!"
• Roundabouts - LOTS!!! (Crazy numbers of them here!)

The weekend of Feb 12-13 was spent wandering the countryside.  I spent Saturday walking around Newcastle and looked at a bunch of shops.  The original plan had been to visit York, but my coworker (Sara) was as punctual as usual... around noon she was having coffee and wanted to work out before leaving... that mean, not going to York :)  Anyway, it worked out that I got some shopping done and it was a nice day in Newcastle.  On Sunday, the weather turned colder and there were some snow flurries in Newcastle.  Sara and I departed by train at about 11:00a for York.  It was about an hour ride down on the "local" train.  It made about 5 stops along the way but was not very crowded.  We got to York around noon and walked from the station towards our goal, York Minster.  York Minster has a very interesting history.  In the 1960's, it was found that the foundation was sinking and the cathedral was starting to fall apart.  If left to it's own weight it would soon crash into pieces.  Many people donated millions of pounds to save the York Minster.  When the foundation was excavated, they found the remains of an older Norman church... the Normans ruled the north of England about a thousand years ago... give or take a century.  Anyway, they kept digging and soon found that the Norman church had been built on top of an old Roman fort that had been built almost 2000 years ago.  The drainage system that the Romans had put in was (and is) still functioning.  It actually still drains excess water from the site and takes it all the way to the nearby river (about 1/2 mile).  The Minster now has an underground tour that shows you the history of the site as well as allows you to see how they fixed the sinking foundation, which is also amazing.  Unfortunately, you can't take any pictures down there.  I have attached two pictures of the Minster, one outside and one inside.  There are lots more at http://www.yorkminster.org/

 

Last week was pretty busy... I spent a lot of time in meetings and sorting through loads of documents.  In truth, this is the most true engineering work I've done in the past four years and it is REALLY refreshing.  I've asked Russ to ship me some of my engineering books since I really need them over here.  On Friday we visited one of our first sites... it was all the way across town!!  It took us about 15 minutes to get there :-)  We met our Mike Meyer's impersonator on our site visit.

This past weekend was all kinds of fun.  I had originally planned on taking a trip out of the country this past weekend, but there has been some confusion about immigration laws possibly changing in the UK.  I have mentioned that in order to get my work visa officially activated, I must leave the UK and re-enter.  Well, a couple of weeks ago another coworker (Art) left the country for a meeting.  Upon returning, he was told that he could not re-enter with his work visa.  He was told that the rules state that once your work visa is activated, leaving the country will void the work visa.  This is obviously news to everyone since everyone here has been traveling around Europe for work and pleasure for the past 6 months without any issues.  Anyway, the issue is still being investigated so I didn't want to risk anything and go anywhere just yet.  It looks like I will be activating my work visa when I return from my trip to the US in a couple of weeks.  The whole issue is just really confusing... it really doesn't make sense that if you activate your visa your aren't allowed to leave during the 5 months it is active.  Hopefully we will get an answer back soon.

 

UK Week 2 - Part 2

So... this past weekend was another ad-hoc weekend.  I had not made any plans to do anything Saturday and figured I'd do some more shopping or sight seeing around Newcastle... I hear they have the biggest Mall in Europe just a couple of miles away!   As it turned out, Sara called me with a plan.  She wanted to rent bikes and ride out to the coast.  It seemed like a nice day and that sounded like fun.  The catch was that she first wanted to go by a new museum with the history of Newcastle... also something that sounded like a good idea.  Once we reached the museum (about 11:30), she mentioned that she wanted to wait until 1:00 before leaving so that she could pick up some pictures from the photo shop... she had about 200 digital pictures printed... it cost about $32.  By my calculations, it gets dark here about 4:30.  If we didn't leave until 1:30, that didn't leave much time to ride 8 miles out to the coast, see much, and get back.  As it turned out, the museum took quite a bit of time and we didn't even get over to the photo store until almost 2:00... NO WAY we were heading out to the coast at that point.  I thought it would be a good idea to at least figure out the details of renting bikes and then try for another day.  We walked down to central station where the bike rental shop was supposed to be.  We finally found it and were told that it cost £10 per day to rent and a £50 ($100).... and they only accept cash for both.  I didn't even have £50 in cash left and didn't plan on handing someone that much money as a deposit for a junky bike... anyway, other factors also determined that riding a bike this past weekend wouldn't happen.... 

 

On Sunday, my cell phone rang at 0830... I figured it had to be Athena calling... it turned out to be Sara.  She simply said, "Look outside."  I opened the window to find that there was quite a blizzard going on in Newcastle.  I told her that she could go pick up a bike and ride to the coast if she wanted... I was going to stay inside where it was warm. It probably snowed about two inches total by about 9:30 or so.  Then, all of the sudden, it stopped... the clouds parted, and there was blue sky.  The snow melted by about 1:00 when I got a call from my real estate agent telling me that the apartment was ready.  I tried to call a taxi and was told they couldn't get me until 5:00... "there is a football game today."  The game started at 4:00... I don't understand why that should be such a big deal.  Anyway, I ended up getting a ride from the handy man that works for the property management company.  I got moved in and settled and was thinking of walking down to the market to grab some food when Sara (queen of bright ideas) called me again.  Since the weather was nice again (there was blue sky and sun) she thought it would be a good time to take the metro out and see the coast.  Since the weather looked stable, I agreed... big mistake.  We got on the metro and went 2 or 3 stops to Whitley Bay which is supposed to be a nice town on the North Sea... the walk from the station to the actual Sea went from bad to worse... it was sleeting and the wind was blowing about 30 mph by the time we actually got down to the sea.  It was MISERABLE!!  Sara took a picture of the North Sea and we got back to the station as fast as we could.  We got back on Metro and rode up to North Shields... which is also supposed to be really nice.  On Sunday's, everything is closed though... therefore, it wasn't so great.  We ended up sitting in McDonald's drinking warm tea and trying to get warm enough to feel our toes again... that took about 40 minutes.  On a NORMAL day, the metro is great... one of the stops takes you to Wallsend, which, as the name implies sits at the end of a wall known as Hadrian's Wall.  It was build around 200-300 AD by the Romans and still exists in some areas today.  It runs from coast to coast and was designed to keep the Scots out... guess it only worked for a while :)

 

Let's see, that pretty much brings me close to current events... I froze my ass off this weekend, which was bad since I had a sore throat.  I now have an annoying head cold.  My ears are pretty clogged up, which is bad since I will be flying tomorrow.  Where in the world am I flying??? Well, back to Newcastle.  Our team flew down to Cardiff last night and then drove out to Swansea.... where is that you ask??? Wales.  South Wales to be exact.  The drive from the airport took about an hour.  We arrived at the Ramada Inn Swansea at about 8:40.  It took 20 minutes to check in 5 people.... Wales is known for efficiency!!  We had dinner at the Ramada which wasn't bad... again, efficiency wasn't the best though.  The rooms were about what I'd expect from a Ramada Inn... not as good as where I am now :)  We spent the day talking to people in Swansea and got to hear someone speak Welsh (hence the count above).  We finished around 4:00 this afternoon and then drove back to Swansea where we checked into the Hilton... quite a step up from Ramada.  The view from the hotel is quite nice.... see attached pics.  We can see the HUGE castle here in Cardiff from the rooms and the lounge upstairs.  VERY nice.

 

Anyway... it's about 11:40p here and I need to get to sleep.  I have a 7:50a flight and have to meet our team in the lobby at 6:15a.  I will try to post more pictures of the apartment when I'm back in it.  The property manager had it repainted and put up new curtains.  They are supposed to have my high-speed internet turned on this week and 2 new leather sofas delivered next week.  If anyone wants to visit Newcastle, now would be the time... I have a huge 3 bedroom flat that is open for business!!  You have until May 3 to drop in!!!  Actually, my stay may extend until May 30 at this point... so book now!

Take care!
Steve

 

UK Days 5-7 (8 Feb - 10 Feb)

In my previous post, I mentioned that I would be looking for an apartment... On Tuesday Sara (Booz Allen - Mclean) and I were taken to some apartments by a solicitor (real estate agent) named Terri. The first location we saw was St. Anne's Quay (pronounced "key"). There were two apartments available, one on the 6th floor and one on the 5th. When we all entered the first, I headed for the balcony to see the view... both Terri and Sara backed away since they are both afraid of heights. Anyway, the view looks out over the Tyne river at the Millennium Bridge, the Sage, and the Tyne River Bridge... not a bad view! (see attached night photo) The apartment itself is about 700 square feet and has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The kitchen is not too big and the living room (lounge) is also rather small. (see attached pictures) After seeing St. Anne's, I asked Terri if she had anything else. Evidentially she had a 2 bedroom off Grey Street. Once we drove there, I knew exactly where it was... I had walked right by it last Saturday and had stopped at the bakery that it is attached to. Anyway, after walking into the building I said, "I like it already." It has a nice lobby. Once we reached the apartment, I decided it was the place to go... it is 2 floors and has a nice kitchen, dining area, and living room. It also had 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2 full upstairs and 1/2 on the main floor. Obviously Sara liked it as well... Terri offered that she could probably make a deal if Sara took the 2 bdrm and I could be patient for a 3 bedroom that was being remodeled next week. I decided that I needed to see it first. We walked down the hall to the end and checked it out. Turns out it is about 2200 sq. ft. It has a very nice kitchen, 3 good size bedrooms upstairs, 2 full baths (one with a huge tub) upstairs, and a 1/2 bath down. The living room has a curved wall that has windows looking out over the shopping square outside. The location is perfect as well... there is a Starbucks downstairs (which I just learned about tonight) and there are tons of restaurants, markets, and stores all around. The only downside (if there is one) is that parking is limited. That just means I'll have to continue taking taxis to and from work.

Anyway, because the rental company is having the apartment repainted and new furniture installed, I can't move in just yet. In the meantime, I am at the 6th floor apartment at St. Anne's. The downside of St. Anne's is that it isn't near much and it is significantly smaller... but it does have a nice view. Anyway, I'm told that the new apt. will be ready by next Sunday. Seems reasonable to me. Hopefully when I move over to Grey St. I will have Internet access and a telephone line to accept incoming calls (which will be cheaper than calls to my cell phone).

I couldn't stay at the Hilton because Tony Blair (British PM) was coming to town for the Labor Party National Convention. He rented out the entire Hilton for the weekend. There are 1000's of police running around and traffic is crazy.

On the work front, things have been fairly busy. My work permit has been approved. This means I have to leave the country and come back in to have it stamped into my visa. Strange, but true. My plan is to take a trip next weekend... probably to Prague, which I hear is nice. There is one direct flight per day from Newcastle to Prague. It will cost about 100 GBP or so, but Booz Allen pays for it since it is required for me to work here. I'm told that Prague is one of the only cities that was not bombed back to the stone age in WWII. It was left virtually untouched by everyone. Hopefully I will have 100's of pictures to share after next weekend.

And now an update on the latest counts:

• British men on BBC news saying "Huge tracts of land" - 1


• Micro-mini skirts in 33 degree (F) weather - 3


• Honda S2000's - 3


• Times offered a "cup o' tea" - 35


• Brits friendly to Americans - LOTS!!

Update on the "how-to-call-UK" instructions... Athena and I learned that to call my cell phone you don't need the first zero in the number... therefore, you would dial 011+44+7979+680604... if you add all that up, you get a very large number ;-) As previously mentioned, calls to a UK cell are based on "calling party pays" rules. That means that incoming calls to my cell phone don't cost me... although the rates may be higher for the calling party.

Well, it is the end of the day for me here... I'm headed out after a long and interesting week! I'm planning to head to York this weekend to see some of the sights there. There's supposed to be a nice museum and a beautiful cathedral that was built on top of an old Roman building with some really nice fresco's. My next post should have some pictures of that!

Hope all is well on the home front!
Take care!
Steve
I put the pictures where they belong... more to come in the future...)

Living Room 


Living Room 2 


Kitchen 

UK Days 3-5 (6 Feb - 8 Feb)

Hello from Cobalt... the name of the building where I'm working.

 

I've learned the level of priorities here in the UK.  The attached picture shows the size of various drinks... a can of Coke (150mL), a bottle of Coke (200mL), a bottle of water (330mL), and a bottle of bear (550mL).  The funny... or not so funny thing is that they all cost about the same amount.  That could be why there aren't so many overweight brits... and so many alcoholics??

 

Sunday was spent wandering the English countryside.  I went to lunch with one of the guys that's been over here for about 6 months (Art) and his wife.  We went to a new pub (it only opened in 1901)... the old one's have been around since the 1600's.  We had "Sunday Roast".  I had the chicken with mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, Yorkshire pudding, some type of mashed squash, and boiled onions.  The cost was 5 pounds and the plate weighed about that ;-)  After lunch, we went back to his flat (apartment) so that I could see what accommodations look like.  He has a 3 bedroom place with underground parking.  Around 3:00p we went back over to the hotel to meet up with some other folks working on the project here.  One woman (Sara) had just arrived around 2:00p... I think she learned that 1 day is not get rid of jet lag.  Anyway, we sat and chatted for a bit and then went our own ways for dinner.

Monday was my first day at work.  The day started with a comedy of errors though... one of the other Americans here (Kate) decided to stay at the Hilton because her apartment was without electricity.  We had agreed to meet at 8:00 in the lobby.  Well, at 8:00 Sara and I were standing around waiting.  I decided at 8:10 to call her room... evidentially her 6:00a wake up call never happened, so she was still sound asleep.  20 minutes later a very frazzled Kate arrived and we took off through the very heavy traffic towards the office.  On the way we took orders for Starbucks and ended up walking out with 7 drinks and several sandwiches and some muffins.  I spent the rest of the day reviewing numerous documents and trying to get up to speed on everything going on here.

Today is now Tuesday... although I had intended to submit this yesterday, it just never happened.  Anyway, today again filled with documents and a meeting that seemed like it would never end!!  I left at 3:00 to go look at apartments (flats).  I found a great one... but more about that later.  Anyway, I'm off to dinner.  We're headed to an Indian restaurant that is supposed to be great but will make your clothes stick like curry for a week.

Until later!!

Steve

 

Additional Picture

The picture of the sage was not attached to the blog... see below...

UK Days 1-2 (4 Feb - 5 Feb)

Hello all!

Well, after a full day in England, I have some useful information to share...  I've also been keeping count of the things I've seen.  So far:

• Bad British Hair - 10
• Bad British Teeth - 54
• Scots in the Hilton looking for beer at noon - 4
• Cute British Girls (from behind) - 3
• Cute British Girls (from front) - 0
• Scary British Girls - LOTS!!

Anyway, the flight from Denver to London was pretty good (left around 610p MST).  It was about 9 hours, of which I spent the first hour trying to sleep... in business/first class they are busy trying to serve you every 5 minutes during that first hour so I finally gave up.  After a snack, several beverages, and a warm towel, we started our dinner, which was pretty good.  A nice salad and some grilled prawns to start, then a chicken breast with risotto, and asparagus.  For dessert, I had an apple and cherry flan.  During and after dinner I watched "I, Robot".  I managed to get a few hours of sleep after the movie  and woke up around 1200a MST/0700a GMT.  I "raided the larder" or in American, "got a midnight snack."  They started serving breakfast around 0800a GMT so there wasn't much time for more sleep.  We landed in London at about 9:20 GMT and sat on the runway for a bit since we were pretty early.  We found a parking space (no joke) about 20 minutes later and then took a bus from the plane over to the terminal.  I wandered Heathrow and found my way from Terminal 4 where we came in to Terminal 1 where I was to depart.  British Airways had a nice lounge next to the outbound gate where I was able to wash my face and get something to drink (150 mL of Coke)... FYI: if you like alcohol, fly business class... I also checked my e-mail and sent out a quick message to a few people. 

 

My flight from London to Newcastle left at 1245p GMT and arrived around 145p.  I got my bags (75+ lb suitcase) and then got a cab to the hotel.  The Hilton in Newcastle is pretty nice but pricey.  It's about L105 ($200) per night.  Internet access is $30/day.  I will be looking at apartments next week.  I hear they have some pretty nice ones for about L375/week... YIKES!  For this week, I can be reached at the Hilton Newcastle.  The number here is (44) 191 490 9700.  I just checked with the hotel operator...  The country code is 44. Supposedly the rates on Vartec are $0.03/min with a $0.39 connect fee.  To dial, use 10-10-297 + 011 + 44 + 191 490 9700.  This seems to be a reasonable rate.  There are some calling cards that you can buy online that have a $0.005 rate... yes, 1/2 cent per minute.  As a comparison, Verizon direct dial is $.95/minute if you sign up for the infrequent use plan... if you sign up for the "Choice Plan", it will be $4/month + $.08/min.  I'd say Vartec is best (www.vartec.com).  With Qwest (Colorado), the rate is $4/mon and $.07/min.  Anyway, if anyone wants to research some more and find lower rates, please share!

I went to bed last night around 900p GMT and slept soundly until about 330a GMT.  I couldn't get back to sleep so I gave Athena a call at 430a GMT (830p PST).  After we talked, I was planning to go the gym, but discovered that is didn't open until 700a.  I ended up reading for a bit and then went back to sleep until about noon.  I got up and decided to walk around Newcastle.  I had lunch at an Italian place over on the other side of the river.  The Hilton is on the south side of the river with the main town on the north side.  I walked across the Gateshead Millennium Bridge (see attached picture).  There is also a new music hall called the Sage (also attached picture).  I walked through the shopping district to the north end of town where I stopped and grabbed the worst starbucks I've ever had and took a few pictures of the St. Thomas church (see another attached pic). 

 

As many people have said, the cars here are somewhat unique.  There are a lot of models you never see in the US.  I've seen 2 Honda S2000's though.  One popular car is the Nissan Micra (see attached picture of that).  As the name implies, it is a very small car.  I think the tires are actually 12 inches in diameter.  There are plenty of Fiats, Peugeots, and Fords.  I've seen a few BMWs and Porsche's, but I think those are "out of towners". 

 

Tomorrow I'm supposed to get together with the guy in charge of the work here.  He and his wife are living over here now... they moved from Kansas City about 4 months ago.  The plan is to do some sight seeing and then meet up with another person who is flying in from DC tomorrow.  I will start "working" on Monday... although I'm told as a business visitor I am not allowed to do "productive work".  I'm not sure what that means, but I guess I will find out!

 

That's about all for today!

 

Steve

 

 

Gateshead Millenium Bridge


The Sage Gateshead


St. Thomas Church


Nissan Micra

Into London

Hey,

I arrived in London about 30 minutes early. I managed to navigate through Hethrow (NOT an easy task) and find my way to the other terminal and to my gate. British Airways has a nice lounge for business travelers... again, for $6000-$1000, I'd hope you get something free. In the airport a 1/2 liter of Coke is £2 ($4). The cans they give on the plane and here in the lounge are 150 mL, about 4 oz... very tiny, but probably the correct amount to drink at one time.

Anyway, my flight to Newcastle leaves at 1245p... it's 1148a local time now. I managed to get a few hours of pretty good sleep on the plane... it made the 9+ hour flight seem shorter. As expected, they had a choice of steak or chicken... since the steak might have been from here, I went with chicken. It was pretty yummy. The appitizer was grilled prawns with a salad, which was also good. It might be hard going back to any domestic coach flights after this experience :-) (especially Southwest, the "no frills" airline)

Well, that's about all from here!! I'll try to e-mail from Newcastle!

Steve

T minus 30 Hrs

I'll be on a flight to the UK in just about 30 hours! I will be leaving around 6:00p Thursday and arriving in the UK Friday around 1:00p... 10 hrs from Denver to London... that'll be fun! I'm trying to get everything ready to go... not only do I have to pack for a month but I need to find all of the appropriate power converters for phones, laptops, etc. Anyway, things are a little hectic today... It's time to run out and grab some lunch, then get everything else done that I need to do.

Russ arrived to a snowy Colorado on Sunday... he's getting settled in and should be back online in the next day or two.

Later!
Steve

Off to the land of drizzle

Well, it seems that England is a go. I will go to CA this weekend... to get my passport :-) I will probably leave Feb 2 or 3 and plan to be back March 3. I'll only stay home for a few days, then head back over for about 6 more weeks. It should prove to be interesting work.

Funny that Russ will arrive just as I'm leaving.

Back on the home front, I picked up my 2005 Toyota Tacoma 4-dr Sport Edition truck on Saturday. I drove it up to Denver for a welcome home party for Dave A. He is finally home after being in Florida for the launch of Deep Impact... he is one of the systems engineers on it and has been very busy working on it over the past few years. He can now sit back and relax a little and hopefully enjoy the show on July 4th when it smashes into comet Tempel 1.

Well, all for now... time to get home and have a steak!!! (I'll be a vegetarian in England.)

Steve

Inauguration

So yesterday was an interesting and bizarre day. Jeff and my friend Diffle who both work on Capitol Hill got us tickets to go to all sorts of events celebrating inuguration. First I was able to sit in the seats close to front for the actual swearing in ceremony. nothing special there though, it was cold. Then we went to a preparty event with many congressmen and women and free food and drink! Then we went to Inaugural Ball number one which was the one sponsored by Florida. it was kind of lame and had bad music, so we went on to the Independence Ball which was sponsored by VA and MD where the music was better and there we started to meet people. I met Ashcroft (he had a polkadotted bow tie on) and The house whip, Roy Blunt, former governor Gilmore and a whole host of other congressmen. The president and VP make an appearance to each one but it's really not that special. Then we went on to the biggest event which was an after party sponsored by DC101 and others where 3 doors down was playing. Apparently if you buy tickets to this thing, it costs 2000 a person! But Congressional staffers often get leftover tickets if they dig around, and we didn't pay for a thing all night. The cheapest ball was $150 a person we think. Anyhow, it was fun, but i got home at 2am, and boy am i dragging at school today!

If Steve goes to England, he should take me with him, I've always wanted to go:)
Good Luck Russ! I hope you find that this is the place for you, although I'll miss having you guys around. It's nice to have family representation at my parties!

Meredith

On The Road Again...

Well I'm off. And as Steve so brilliantly pointed out, I am in fact leaving on JANUARY 21st. Oh well. Most people won't even notice. So the BLOG will have to wait until I get to Colorado...though I wish I had set up the Voice Blog feature...put that on the to-do-list. Just can't wait to get on the road again...

Hanging out in San Fran

It's day 2... or 3 here in San Francisco. I came here for a 2 day class known as "Fundamentals of Business Development". It was an interesting class. I didn't necessarily learn a whole lot but it was good practice.

Yesterday I got several e-mails from a guy I've worked with in the past. He asked me to come to England for a few months to help out with some work there. It's a tempting idea that I might actually do. I don't know if I can handle 2-3 months though. I'm thinking a 3 week stint, then home for a long weekend, then back for another 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately, it would mean delaying my involvement fully with our work in Colorado. With Russ on his way out... FYI, he is leaving tomorrow (Friday the 21st) to start his trek to Colorado. His e-mail was a little off... he said Friday December 20th... I'm not sure which year he meant.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on any trips to England!

Take care!
Steve

New Format, no new posts

Hey out there...

Why isn't anyone posting anything? Could it be because the editor is a P.O.S.??

Anyway, I'm finally situated in an office in Co. Springs. I have a desk, a phone, and even a building pass. I got assigned parking today... it's three blocks away. I guess I will get a morning and evening walk out of it. If I passed a Starbucks or something it might be worthwhile. Unfortunately the only thing I will be passing is a pawn shop... oh joy! Any e-mails I send will have my new office number and my new cell phone number attached. If you want home numbers, etc, just send me an e-mail and I will give you all the details.

The weather has returned to a more hospitable temperature here. It was in the -5 to 10 degree range for a few days. On Saturday it was very windy. At about 2:00a the wind was blowing so hard that the house was actually shaking. One of my neighbors (also a coworker of mine) had some large chunks of their shingles blown off the house. BIG FUN!!!

All for now!
Steve