Category Trials and Tribulations
Lava!
Getting rescued with a new (and functional!) van did not solve our problems. Cyclone Dennis was still pummelling us with 100+ mph winds, topping 150mph in the passes—which meant it wasn’t safe for us to continue our journey. So our guide announced an impromptu visit to the Lava Centre, which offered a small and highly […]
Stranded!
We left before dawn (aka a little after 9am) on a two-day adventure tour to the southern coast of Iceland. In no time at all we were traversing frozen lava fields and climbing our way over the Blue Mountains. About an hour outside of Reykjavík, just as we were passing through a town named after […]
Back together again
Remember how I broke my 250-year-old Chinese dish when I (inadvertently) tapped it on a granite countertop while using it to eat a burrito bowl? Well, the Japanese Kintsugi lady has plied her craft and now all is well with the world.
Beach, brunch, and a breakdown on Waiheke
This was supposed to be the highlight of my stay in the Auckland area: a day trip to the island paradise of Waiheke for brunch at Mudbrick vineyard, an afternoon of beaches and hiking, and then dinner at Cable Bay vineyard before a sunset ferry ride home. Let’s just say that’s not exactly how things […]
New Zealand bound!
Christmas in London was absolutely lovely and I’ve got more to share on that, but at the moment this is what’s happening: As of this morning I had packed nothing and planned nothing more than my airfare, a car, and a place to stay the first few nights. After Justin left this morning I went […]
Paris and Poissy
I came over on the Eurostar yesterday for some meetings in our Paris office. Natch all the public transit was on strike so no one came to the office. But I’m not one to complain about a quiet afternoon in the City of Light. After work my friend and colleague Chloe invited me to join […]
Not in Boston
This post was supposed to be about me jetting off to Boston for the weekend. There would have been a wedding and tuxedos and a glamorous party at the venerable Boston Public Library. But alas! Instead of boarding my flight on Friday morning, I was fielding frantic calls from my immigration lawyer telling me that […]
Does this count as adding to the “patina of age”?
Dang it. Apparently this is what happens when your 18th Century china taps the granite countertop in just the wrong way. I could be devastated and flagellate myself for not having wrapped it in bubble tape or hung it safely on the wall. But that would be no fun and besides I need something to […]
Diverted to Essex!
Flying back from Luxembourg to London in a smallish propeller plane mostly full of my colleagues coming back from the same conference. The weather is terrible the whole way — high winds and clouds, lots of turbulence. Finally we start our descent into London City Airport, breaking through the clouds into driving rain. But as […]
Taxes and hot chocolate
Last year I resolved to do at least one interesting thing every weekend I spend in London. Well, during the season of tax preparation and writing endless performance reviews, the bar for what counts as “interesting” is apparently quite low. This weekend drinking fancy French hot chocolate out of Danish porcelain while sorting through expenses […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 