A respectable showing

Saturday saw PlanetWulfagar visiting the Stonor Cricket Club pavilion in an effort to retain our Quiz Night Championship Title... The team roster was a little different this year -- an all Agar showing, with Ash & his parents and li'l ol' non-cricket-trivia-knowing me.

As you may have guessed from the headline, we didn’t quite make it – but, considering we were the smallest team (4 to others’ 5 or even 6!), we were pretty happy with our bronze medal finish. [Strangely, the organisers didn’t listen to our request for a ‘small team’ handicap, or my suggestion of taking each team’s final score & dividing it by the number of team members. Our 50 would’ve become 12.5 to the winning team’s paltry 9.17. Not that I’m bitter...]

What questions helped us to our 50/72 total? Which ones kept us from the top spot? All I can say is thank goodness the Quizmaster has a fondness for American sports – so naming Brett Favre’s team was no problem. A few others:
1) The shortest verse in the Bible, found in the Gospel of John (thank you trivia brain!)
2) Mt Aconcagua is in which country (d’oh... we just missed this one)
3) Which of these cities is the furthest west: Oxford, Portsmouth, or Sheffield?
4) This star is the lead in Michael Clayton
5) Which is the highest grossing film franchise?
6/7) And I’m particularly proud we were able to name the (individual) artists responsible for “Persistence of Memory “(the artist is Spanish) and “Mother and Child Divided” (the piece is in need of repair)

So - not bad... and we’ll get ‘em next year!

Maybe I should've kept that Slingbox...

D'oh - really really annoying that NBC is no longer selling shows through iTunes. I'll have to watch Season 2 of Heroes with all the other non-Americans - whatever will I do??!

New York, DC, both helluva towns

So –we’ve been back from the States for 2 ½ weeks – about time for a holiday recap! It would take me nearly the length of the trip to cover *everything* we did in such a packed week (and you’d die from exhaustion / boredom reading it all!) So instead – some highlights:

• Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge – iconic views, and the friendly policeman out of central casting who pointed out the shortcut to getting onto the bridge. And when he heard Ashley’s accent, stopped & chatted a bit about the upcoming NFL match to be held in London – with ‘his boys – the Giants’

• Going for a run in both Riverside and Central Parks on a sunny Sunday morning, ending our run with H&H bagels, lox, Starbucks coffees and a fat Sunday New York Times. Could we be any more New York-y?

• Wandering through Washington Square Park, and stopping with the locals (or other tourists – who knows? That’s the great thing about New York, such a mix) to enjoy a jazz interlude, complete with spaced out drummer, and blissful keyboardist in his own world
  
  
  
• Checking out Rye’s classic Playland (since 1928!) – I never knew there were so many variations on kiddie rides. Next time though – it’s the big kids turn!

• First visit to Yankee Stadium – and trading good natured comments with the 99.9999% of fans there who were cheering on the Yankees. Of course, we were good natured because –amazingly – the Mariners were winning; they were good natured because they could see the Yankees were still going farther in the post season... best moment of the game: Ichiro hitting his 200th hit, Ashley standing up and shouting, everyone in our section looking at him, and Ashley responding, as if for explanation, ‘we’ve got the same birthday’

• US Open vs Wii Open in Rockefeller Square. Missed out on tickets to Flushing Meadows – take in Federer and Williams on the big screen set up in Rockefeller Square. OR cross the street and see 2 people you’ve never heard of battle it out on a different sort of big screen – playing Wii Tennis in the ‘virtual open’
  
• Taking in New York skyline at night – at Top of the Rock – definitely one tourist attraction worth a visit (though how come our photos don't look as good as those on the site?!)

• Travelling back to DC for the first time in 10 years – and finding it quite surreal. Almost everything seemed the same, and I had to keep reminding myself that it really was 10 years later, and I’m 10 years older. But then little changes would appear – like the fact my old shared house at 17th & P has been turned into individual apartments. Or I’d pass a corner and think ‘hmm... was that always here?’ I think Ashley got tired of me saying ‘Ooh – I ate here once’ or ‘this is where I got my drycleaning’. Yes, dear, very exciting.
  
• Getting coffee at ‘my Starbucks’ on Connecticut Avenue – I almost told the girl at the counter ‘I was a barista here 13 years ago’... but figured she wouldn’t be perhaps as accommodating with my recollection stories as Ashley

• Enjoying a day out at the Zoo – one of the best in the US, if not the world... I especially like the gibbons, though can’t give a specific reason why...

• And of course – the real highlights (saving the best for last!) – getting to see family & friends – from Chez Olson (yay – place in White Plains looks great, happy to see you looking settled in with so much space), to our Hotelier Friedman Towers (thanks Kim – not only for Upper West Side pied-a-terre, but the great Mexican recommendation for Rosa Mexicano), to Zoo buddies the Caltrider Clan, where I finally got to meet the lovely Lauren and beaming Ben...

Fantastic trip... when do we go back?

I did not know that...

What did you learn this weekend? Me? I learned -- courtesy of an 'invest in our great city' ad -- that Łódź in Poland is pronounced 'wodge'. And here I always thought it was 'shuh-shev-skee'. Ok, really, I just assumed it was pronounced 'lohdz', but maybe everyone knows it's 'wodge', and I'm just a little late to catch on.

I think Polish must be one of the most difficult languages to learn.

Magazine Week?

How did I not know it was Magazine Week? See, this is why magazines are losing readership... when someone as addicted as I didn't even know to celebrate this week? How are the little, non-caring, dilettante readers supposed to find out?

I want to go to *this* movie!

Smell-o-vision returns... and Willy Wonka is the perfect subject! (I always think of that movie with a weird mix of fondness and creep-me-outedness... but I guess that's its charm. And the original only, please. Call me a luddite if you will, but I never got that Johnny Depp high-pitched lisp thingy...)

Schoolhouse Rock for the 'aughties?

How come WordGirl wasn't around when I was a kid?!

Another day, another 5k

A little slower this time -- but with 20,000 other runners on a tight course in Hyde Park, I had a reason! So, relatively happy with my 31:31, though could've done better. But why-oh-why do people overestimate their abilities?? If the sign says 'Est time 25 - 30 min' DO NOT start in this wave unless you know you can finish in that time!

I'm all for inclusive races & getting as many people out as possible, especially for charity-driven outings such as today's run, and I'm certainly no speed demon, but there must be a better way to train newbies on basic race etiquette. I mean, I roughly know my pace, and know not to start in front of people faster than I am... More signs along the way saying 'walkers keep right'? More obvious information in the race pack?

Or am I being a race snob and I should just live with it, and do a better job of getting to the start line earlier so I have a better chance of being closer to the front?

29:17

Woo-hoo... think that's my fastest 5k ever, this morning in Battersea Park for the Trees for Cities 'Tree-athlon'. So thanks to running partner Verity for keeping me moving, and Ashley for cheering us on as our bag man...

I've got another one tomorrow, but no Verity or Ashley -- so a scientific test of how important support is! (of course, I think I know the answer to that already...)