Author Archives: JJD
60 minutes in Perth
This is what the other side of the world looks like! Oh man, does it feel far away! I don’t know how big Perth is, but the look of it from the air, and the size of the airport give it a remote, middle-of-nowhere feel similar to certain places in the American West, but even […]
Australia for the Holidays!
All I want for Christmas is sun, beach and city. Sydney fits the bill! Wish me luck on the longest flight of my life… London to Perth, then on to Sydney in just under 24 hours. I may set a personal best for number of movies watched in a row. 😜
I’m in Luxembourg!
What do you do when you’re in Luxembourg right before Christmas? Eat all the cheese!!! First a delicious raclette with my business clients . . . . . . then a Mont d’Or, which is an entire little wheel of cheese that has been baked until melted, and into which you dip meats and potatoes. […]
Art and wedding and candy-floss clothes
My Site Today was just the most fun! I woke up refreshed after a great night’s sleep and went downstairs to meet Dan for breakfast. He’s the one who hired me at the Kennedy Center thirteen years ago based only on a short phone interview that I took sitting in my car at a Flying […]
I’m in Brooklyn!
Nothing like a quick hop across the pond to catch up with friends! A good excuse this time: Nicole, one of my good friends from Kennedy Center days, is getting married tomorrow and today is her birthday! Naturally we’re in the uber-hip neighbourhood of Williamsburg, and the hotel is all artisanal free range brick and […]
A Christmassy Saturday in London
I love Christmas in London–and I realized last night that this is my last weekend in London until after the New Year! I’ll be in New York next weekend for a wedding, then in Luxembourg for work, and then off to Australia for Christmas and New Year’s. So today I went into full Christmas mode. […]
No dainty swans
I finally saw Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake! Can’t recall when I first learned about it . . . maybe the ending scene of Billy Elliot? If so it feels a tad late, given the piece won roughly all the awards in London and New York in the mid-1990s (but then again, in the mid-1990s I was living […]
Saturday at The Ned
I’ve had a gift card to the Cowshed at The Ned burning a hole in my wallet for nearly a year now. Matt gave it to Justin as a Christmas gift last year, but he hasn’t been able to use it, and since it will expire before he makes it back to London, he said […]
Everything is better on blue and white
Turns out my 18th Century Chinese dish is the perfect size and shape for a burrito bowl from Chipotle. Yum!
“The ‘breast of the nymph in the brake’ astounds no one”
Ever vigilant in keeping my gardening standards at the cutting edge of taste, Lady took to heart Muriel Stuart’s sage advice that gnomes and pheasants are out . . . . . . but stone nymphs are in . . . . . . with the happy result that my window boxes are now graced […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 