Another busy weekend

Tons going on this weekend – starting with Friday. Ashley took the day off, so we enjoyed breakfast at one of our favourites, Giraffe, building up strength for more tennis lessons later that day (one of these days I may even learn how to serve!)

That evening, then, off to the V&A for a little dose of culture – specifically the ‘Alternative Village Fete’. A classic of the British summer, updated with an artistic bent. So – rather than shoot a water pistol through a clown’s mouth or some such game, one competition had players racing to be the first to sharpen a new pencil and pop a balloon. We enjoyed wandering the creative stalls (sculpt Queen Victoria out of grey play-doh! Burp your favourite tune for a prize! Take a lucky dip in the prize draw!) and even treated ourselves to a unique ‘portrait’ – made using a typewriter! Ashley’s is the better likeness I think...

Saturday’s sun inspired some belated spring cleaning, so it felt like a productive morning. (and an excuse for an afternoon nap!) Even more of an excuse for the nap was the need to be able to stay up past our bed times, as we were off last night to our first visit to The O2 – the all new & improved Millennium Dome – to see the Scissor Sisters. The venue itself is pretty impressive, with 2 arenas (one stadium style, one more ‘intimate’), a massive 11-screen cinema (which just hosted the UK Simpsons premiere), and several restaurants & bars. Oh, and an indoor beach. (which I didn’t quite get, as there was no indoor sea or indoor sun to accompany said beach. I don’t really see the attraction in sand in & of itself – I only tolerate it when it’s part of the whole sun & sea combo!)

As for the concert (my first since Elvis Costello in 1991!) – loved it. And I only know a few of the songs... I’d bought the tix as an early birthday gift for Ashley, who’s more of a fan. I thought the crowd was excited, and so was the band, and – aww – it was the lead singer’s parents’ 34th anniversary & they were there to celebrate & he dedicated a song to them. One more time – aww... We got home *way* past curfew, but it was worth it. I even managed to sleep in to 8:30 – so it must’ve been a late night!

Finally, Sunday, Ash headed off for another cricket match (post game report – he said he’d bowled the best game of his career so far, though sadly the game ended in a draw). And I – I headed for the zoo, thanks to a free ticket that was due to expire the end of this month. I enjoyed the new ‘Gorilla Kingdom’ exhibit, though the enclosure still seemed a bit small. The butterfly house was similar to that at the Pacific Science Centre, and just as fascinating to see the gorgeous lepidoptera up close. And I especially liked Meet the Monkeys – similar to the butterfly house, but with squirrel monkeys! So close you want to reach out your hand for them to hop on (except of course for all the signs saying ‘these monkeys bite!’) Taking pictures seemed a better route...

Once more with feeling...

How much do I wish this would come to London?! Buffy the Musical! Great episode, would be even better in person...

3rd? Only 3rd?

Wow - I went to the 3rd Most Annoying Liberal Arts College in America... Should I be dismayed to be on the list? Or disappointed we only got to 3rd. But hey - quite an achievement for the write-ins after not making it on the original short-list. [only Swarthmoreans would do *extra work* to get onto a ranking list!]

And besides, as we always say about polls like these -- really, once you're in the top 5 darling, it's all so subjective.

It's all over...

Right, well – it’s done. After a focused nearly 4 hour binge last night, I have finished Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. I know what the Hallows are, who (if anyone) dies, who doesn’t, and even What Happened Next…

And now it’s all over. I certainly wouldn’t class myself a Potter fanatic, but I am sad there are no more, it’s been an enjoyable adventure of a read. I was almost willing myself to read slower, so I wouldn’t come to the end so quickly – and yet I had to find out what happened! And find out you do – pretty much every question is resolved (and if I have one criticism of the book, it was how neatly and quickly that happened, when it did. Kind of like one of those crime shows where in the last minute the novelist- or business man & his wife- or coroner- or pesky school kids- turned-accidental-detective(s) says ‘Of course. The note left in the dining room was a love letter from Jane to John; Jim saw that, and therefore *he* was the one to run John off the road in a fit of jealousy; he’d cleverly rigged a Ferris Bueller type device with pulleys and a mannequin to make it look like he was in his front room the whole time. When we saw he’d recently downloaded Ferris Bueller’s day off from iTunes, and then found his receipt from PulleysRUs, we realised the extent of his deception. Case solved.' But I digress…).

But all in all, a good read, fast paced, very dark in some places, but with some levity (and I kept wondering 'how will they film that?!'

And now at least I can read the reviews and comments I’ve been avoiding!

tick-tock, tick-tock

Yep, almost time for HP7 -- the last Harry Potter book hits the cash register in 7 1/2 hours uk time, 12 1/2 US... and I guess is already being eagerly devoured by some aussie fans 8, 9, 10 hours ahead...

I've ordered my copy, and assuming no new snap postal strike, should get it tomorrow midday... though a little part of me wants to go to one of the open stores tonight at 12:01 -- it *is* the last one after all.

But I'm sure at 12:01 I'll be fast asleep - so think I can make it until tomorrow...

Play Ball!

As an update from his birthday adventures... the cutest nephew ever has just joined the You Tube generation:

No, no, a thousand times no!

What's the date? Oh yeah, July 19th. Ok, I know the weather outside is frightful... but it is STILL not time for Christmas. And yet there was Selfridges in the news today unveiling its Christmas display -- 'Bejeweled' or some such thing. Why? Well, the spokewoman says it's because magazine deadlines are so far in advance. Uh huh. That's what photo shoots are for... the publicity of being in the news for the first Christmas announcement had nothing to do with it I'm sure...

Sunday Puzzle

How exciting: I've now solved TWO NPR Sunday Puzzles in a row... am I getting cleverer? Or are they just a little easier? (I think the latter...)

Still no call to London though -- I'll be by the phone today at 3pm EST just in case! (not sure why Thursday not Sunday however...)

A few hours left for this week's puzzle:
Take the two-word name of a well known city in Michigan, and its not Ann Arbor. Add the letter "E" to the first world and rearrange the letters, you'll name something people try to avoid. Add the letter "E" to the second world and rearrange the letters, you'll name something else people try to avoid. And here's a hint: Both words start with the same letter, and both words end with the same letter. What's the city and what are the words? [I just picture this like the anagrams on Jeopardy!, with the letters shifting around on the screen: POTS -- STOP... oooh! tough one!]


Can you solve last week's?:
Name two outdoor sports or games in seven letters. The first two letters of the first sports name are the same as the first two letters in the second sports name. And the last two letters of the first sports name are the same as the last two letters in the second sports name. Hint: The names do not end in "N-G." What sports or outdoor games are these? [hmm... they had over 2,000 entries, which is more than usual, so guess it *was* fairly easy...]

One more thing...

Here's one more scene from Skansen... the friendliest peacock in the world!

Swedish delight

So – weekend before last we were supposed to have a little UK roadtrip... see a few friends, enjoy a day in the Cotswolds, relax, soak in the English countryside. Except, after what seemed like 8 weeks of rain, Ashley said – forget this, let’s get out of here, let’s go to... sunny Stockholm!

Er... as the pictures show, Stockholm was anything but sunny (of course until we took off) – but that doesn’t matter, was great to get away and see somewhere new, and I’d definitely recommend it. Especially in the sun.

It’s an incredibly walkable city (though hillier than I expected, built as it is across several islands). I saw a sign calling it ‘The Venice of the North’, but that’s not really accurate I suppose because it’s not canals running between the islands. And no gondoliers in stripy shirts.

We were only there 2 ½ days, but packed a fair bit in, including not one but TWO meatball meals (yum!) and I also tried a reindeer steak (think I preferred the meatballs). And – double yum – pickled herring, though not nearly as prevalent as I thought it would be. Oh yeah - we did more than eat. Though Ashley did like the chocolate balls at Wayne's Coffee - the Starbucks of the North. (until Starbucks buys them and becomes the Starbucks of the North themselves...)

One great visit was to Skansen, in the Djurgarden (a greenery-filled, er, garden island that also boasts an amusement park). Skansen is sort of like the Williamsburg of the North, though no peanut soup. And not as commercial. They did have old buildings brought from various parts of Sweden, in an attempt to show a variety of old Swedish life across the country – including tradesmen (and women) in period clothing. Skansen also had representative flora & fauna – so we saw the home of the Moose. Ok, it was really an elk, but hey, pretty much the same thing, right? (I'm sure the nice lady at Mooseworld would disagree!)

On the opposite entertainment spectrum, we tried out the Absolut Ice Bar – a bit surreal, and very touristy... and I’m not even a big vodka fan. But glad we went – a bit strange to be in an ice room, drinking from cups made out of ice, sitting on ice benches (we were glad to see they were covered with reindeer pelt throws).

One thing I really liked about Stockholm? Outdoor (and even some indoor) restaurants / cafes have blankets for their customers! Nice little polar fleece lap blankets in many places, a little better than what you get on the airplane – and just perfect for an al fresco meal even when it’s al frio weather. And much more environmentally friendly than heat lamps! Hmm... once again, that implies all we did was eat. Well... it *was* raining after all!

Happy birthday Toby!

aka 'the cutest nephew ever'! And a very exciting birthday too, as Toby takes to the field for the Mariners game tonight with the Moose to start the game: Play Ball! That is one boy who will *never* become a Yankees fan, that's for sure. ;-)

Can't wait to see the pix...

Wow - the Mariners and Ken Levine read my blog!

Clearly as a result of my recent plea, the Mariners have invited Ken Levine to cover a few games next week --such power I never realised I had. He'll join the booth for a few games against Detroit. (Let's hear it for Detroit). Guess that will be a few early mornings then!

Best. Run. Ever

Last Sunday I took part in my, umm, I think 5th British 10k, along with 20,000 other runn-/walk-/jogg-ers. And for once, I was incredibly happy for the overcast, cloudy, unseasonably cool weather -- and even happy for the misty rain through the first 15 minutes or so.

The course is a fun one, mostly flat (bar the horrid k5 to k6 stretch, all uphill - blah), that takes in quite a few sites, including a long stretch along the river, and then crossing Westminster Bridge.

I say my best run ever, because - while about a minute slower than my best 10k time -- it was the best I have *ever* felt running. AND, I think I did my fastest 5k time at the halfway - at 29:52. AND, we kept running through the dreaded uphill stretch after that.

Other highlights included rounding Big Ben just as it chimed 11 - bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong-g-g-g-g-g-g; hearing Chariots of Fire just as we turned the corner for the last 400m; still having enough energy to do a little sprint to the finish; and most of all, travelling the course with my British 10k partner-in-crime, Verity. This is our 2nd attempt together -- next year we'll break an hour, for sure!

For pictures of the happy rainy day -- click here. If it doesn't work, my race number was 14913.

Wimbledon update

So, yes, we went to Wimbledon last Friday - on what appears to have been the least rainy day so far, very lucky us, despite how the morning started. About a 1/2 hour downpour as you can see just as we arrived, but then pretty clear skies...

Of course, I'd been so concerned about packing for wind and rain, with multiple layers, waterproof bag, umbrella, etc. ... I completely forgot that it might actually be sunny! As I was rapidly turning pink in the unexpected but delightful sunshine, I was forced by my lack of foresight to buy some overpriced (is there any other kind) sun cream in the overpriced (is there any other kind) Wimbledon shop... Ah well - worth it for the sunny matches.

On to the match report:

First up, Jelena Jankovic vs. Lucy Safarova -- a tightly fought contest that went the full 3 sets; characterised in some part by the high number of challenges Jankovic made of the umpires' calls. What was most interesting to me was the fact that most of her challenges were upheld -- so challenging was definitely in her favour, though I think the crowd found it a bit unsportsmanlike or something. More power to her, I say, and she deserved to win.

Next we saw James Blake lose in 4 sets to Juan Carlos Ferrerro (whose official photo is really goofy I say - he looked a lot better on the court). The two seemed quite friendly, laughing at times at a few shots, and there the match was very fast paced. To my very untrained tennis eye, Blake seemed very eager and in control the first set, but then he seemed to slack off a bit, almost like he was out for a friendly backyard game or two. Obviously of higher caliber than your average home game, but still, not as agressive or consistent as the first set. And of course, that cost him the match.

Finally, we saw the first set of Andy (A-Rod 2) Roddick vs Fernando Verdasco (so US v Spain part deux). Although Verdasco challenged a bit, Roddick took care of him pretty quickly - at least in the set we saw, and certainly in the final game of it!

All in all, very enjoyable outing (despite having my souvenir 45p Daily Mail tennis ball binoculars confiscated by poo-head guards at the entrance, 'because they sell other commemorative items inside, these aren't allowed'. Humph - I didn't see any Wimbledon-branded tennis ball binoculars inside! And certainly nothing for 45p...)

Looking forward to the US Open already!