Sunday 26 Feb @ 1230

Last day before returning to work. I had a great week with Henry and we did lots of fun stuff and even got a few things done as well. Bike expo, getting a new MTB on layaway for myself, bowling 3 times, snowboarding lesson and a day in the mountains, tried out Fu Man Dumpling House as I've been wanting to do for a while now (yummy too!, might have to return for lunch today), got the furniture in the family room rearranged, the counter in the kitchen cleared off for the firt time since we moved (it's been a staging and dumping area since then) and got the stereo and home theater hooked up and in place finally and last but not least unpacked a few more boxes in Henry's room and my office. Things are starting to take shape, just need a few pieces of furniture to round things out and it'sll be excellent.

Today's plan is to finish the last of laundry, get a curry on for the week and get to Costco so it's off to biz I go. More later...

Thursday 23 Feb @ 1125

Snowboarding was a big success! Henry did great! His instructor said that he was a bit reluctant @ first and actually pretty negative but perked up once he could stand up a bit. He has graduated and is now considered a level 2 for further lessons. However, what makes me the most proud is that after the lesson, he thought that was it but I told him his lift pass was good for 2 more hours. He jumped right back on and used up his entire time practicing and he got better and better with each of his successive 10, yes I said that right, 10 runs on his own. By the end he was back up the magic carpet lift in under 10 minutes including lift time. He stuck with it and took a few tumbles as we all knoew he would but he kept right on getting up and trying again. Here are some photos:

These guys have it pretty easy as there are no longer t-bars, rope tows or poma lifts to maneuver on the bunny hill. They have a moving sidewalk called the magic carpet and it may be slow but it sure is easy for beginners. The last photo doesn't look like much as a still but he is actually sliding pretty well and making a real turn. Pretty good for end of first day. I think a l,ot of the success came from the fact that this is his, nonw of the rest of us do this and he can proceed completely at his own pace. As much fun as this looks like, I think I'm going to just give him this for a while at least and maybe I'll try it next season so he can keep going on his own. I can always ski with him once he progresses to the lifts.

Vacation is coming to a close, sometimes too soon and sometimes I actually have a hankering to get back to work for a bit. I miss the pace sometimes...We're taking today pretty easy, yesterday out oin the snow all day took it out of us so we're once again enjoying our holiday be being pretty lazy. Bowling later this afternoon and we need to get to the bank and the PO but other than that, we can use up some time on around the house stuff. Plenty to do around here...

Henry & Butch

Tuesday 21 Feb @ 1935

Still home on holiday. Not a lot to add but Henry bowled 5 games this afternoon and put up to 100+ raw scores. He is having a lot of fun with this and it is a really great afternoon diversion for him a couple times a week. He rolls for free and gets free shoes since he is in the kids league so it is even a very cost effective way for us to get out of the house and get some activity time in as well.

Tomorrow is Henry's first snowboarding day. He is signed up for a 2 hour lesson @ 1300 and then gets 2 more hours of practice time. He's pretty excited but was a bit reluctant when I told him I had signed him up for a lesson. He seems to think he can do anything if he just gets out there and tries since he "already knows how to snowboard". Right... I decided this time to sit it out, let him spend some time with kids his own age that are just trying it for the first time as well. He gets pretty frustrated if he doesn't immediately grasp any activity when I am doing it with him but seems a lot less frustrated when I just surreptitiously watch from the sidelines. I'll take my book and wander out from time to time to take photos but otherwise stay in the shadows to let him concentrate.

That's it for now

Lazy Sunday - 19 Feb @ 1210

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon...

Had a big day yesterday, Henry bowled 2 consecutive 81s in his league games yesterday and his team rolled a high score of 475 with the 183 team handicap (one of his teammates rolled a raw 128! Way to go Mat!). Here are some photos:






Henry












Mathew















Elizabeth






Together they make up the Mad Strikers. They have fun together and his teammates are great kids, really nice.

Henry and I then spent the remainder of the day @ the Cascade Bicycle Club Bike Expo. We watched the trials riders (Henry finagled an invitation to Fluidride to try out one of the beginner trials bikes) a couple of times and then a couple of BMX exhibitions. Henry was mesmerized throughout. Ran into a friend Michael @ one of the exhibit booths for Axley glasses and it was good to see him. Now both Henry and I are a bit stoked to get on our bikes but the weather has been too cold for any windchill addition. We were @ the bike show from just after 11 until 6 last night and had a great time.

Read the paper and now that I'm home, I feel like I need to be doing stuff but I also need a plain old lazy day. Henry took Butch for a walk for over an hour today and we'll go together later this afternoon. Still feeling pretty lazy but need to get moving and finish the laundry and clean the kitchen.

Strangley enough, since I've been back from England I am craving Thai food. I ate Thai more than any other and now I feel like I need it every day. I had been going through an Asian food stage before I left where I am craving Asian every day but now it is more specific, I want Thai curries especially the jungle curry I had the last night in London. Packed w/ veggies and w/o coconut milk as most Thai curries, this stuff was spicy and good. Called kaeng par but I'm having trouble finding a recipe or mention of it on the internet other than to say it's spicy and w/o coconut milk ( I know that!). I'll need to experiment. I did find the large Thai aubergines fresh @ Whole Foods but need to try and find a Thai grocery for the Thai pea aubergines, these were totally new to me and although they look like a large English pea, they are hard skinned and POP when you bite them. I thought they were just raw English peas when I first encountered them in the UK but they are something else entirely and really good. I saw them listed in every rendition of green curry I saw in England.

signing off for now...

Now on Holiday - 17 Feb @ 1817

Back to work today for a while. It was good to be back although I didn't get a lot done other than catching up on some approvals. Many of the peeps had questions about the trip, I took UK coffee passports to our department coffee masters and delivered the souvenirs I had committed to as well. Kim wanted some TyPhoo tea, Daniel wanted some Chelsea Football Club memorabilia and Alissa wanted something from Lush that she couldn't get in the states; all delivered!

Yesterday was a bit difficult, some jet lag but had a good time with the kids at the Childrens Museum @ the Seattle Center. We'll be spending some time downtown this next week as long as the weather holds. I've been talking about taking Henry up the Space Needle and he loves the Fun Forest with all the rides plus we both love the Pacific Science Center. One thing we now know, we don't really need a season pass to the Children's Museum, it's fun for an outing but it's not large enough or diverse enough to hold Henry's attention all that long where the Science Center never gets old for him. Here are some photos from the field trip:

Henry @ the drum kit in the sound booth




More drums ...A budding John Bonham?



Cool music machine where the balls drop on tone bells



















Henry & Brandon ticklin' the ivories














Today, after work we ran a couple errands and Henry frosted some brownies he made last night and they are truly a wonder to behold. Here are some pics:




Working hard














Caught in the act



















A future food stylist? You be the judge...

Back home again - 16 Feb 0630

Here it is early Thursday morning. Suffering from a bit of jet lag; passed out before 2100 last night and woke up @ about 0350 this am (converted to London time, that would have been asleep just before 0500 on 16 Feb after getting up @ 0800 on 15 Feb with a lot of travel in between and then getting up just before noon on 16 Feb) so yesterday was a long day. I did sleep for a fitful couple hours on the plane just to make it that long but didn't want to over do so I could go to sleep early last night to start recovery ASAP.

Last night I made it home too late to pick up Butch from the kennel sadly and finally was able to pick up Henry from his Mom's house just before 1800. I went for the big hug and it was terrific to see him smiling so wide as I drove into the driveway, we were both very excited to be reunited. Henry too was quite sad that we didn't have Butch for our family homecoming and wept a bit but he'll be fine. I was able to get Henry a coule shirts while away; a Harley Davidson from a London dealer with a great logo of waving Union Jacks and saying "London, England" in big letters, a tshirt from the Chelsea football club ( we were right by the stadium as you might recall rethinking earlier posts) and a Scotland t-shirt; all were happily received.

We didn't have much food and I was tired so we went out to the Mexican place a block away and then came home for a bit of talk and cuddling up in front of the TV.

Today I'm to spend as a chaperone on a trip for Henry's class @ the Seattle Children's museum. A day of that and a Tylenol PM and tomorrow I should be back on schedule.

Since I'm up, I've been catching up on some work email from the past couple days, man there has been a lot of traffic. I'm in the office tomorrow and then taking a weeks holiday to spend w/ Henry. Might try to get a snowboarding lesson in if the finances will tolerate it.

Here are some of the photos of the trip running chronologically:

The river Thames from near our hotel


The massive Queens Street staion in Glasgow

The railway bridge over the Firth of Forth

The British Museum

Big Ben and the House of Parliament through the rainy capsule high on the London Eye

The London Eye from the corner of Waterloo station

Last night in London - 14 Feb 1815

Well, here it is. I just stopped @ Lush to get the last of my obligations (they have products in the UK they dn't have in the US). Almost forgot as I haven't seen one in a while but I left Dave and Steph @ Leiscester Square and they're off for a nice Valentine's evening. They have tickets to The Mousetrap, the show has been running in the same theatre for 54 years now. Had I known the history, I might have gone earlier in the week but I'm ready for an early night tonight. I went out to lifet a couple with the UK manager last night and didn't get in until late again. I'm very nearly packed as I woke up early today and frankly I'm so excited about going home I got packed before going to the office today.

We had a great day, said goodbye to the team and toured 4 stores with last year's district manager of the year. His stores are all central London and all very busy with many challenges but they always make them work. Good to meet some of the field partners as well adn listen to what they have to say, both the positive and the negative as they speak of their experiences using our group. We're taking back quite a lot of information.

I walked up to Covent Garden and went through the Lush there, apparently it is "the Lush" so I've been to ground zero for you Lushies out there. Now I'm about halfway back to the tube and decided to update one last time from here before going home. I think I'll stop and get a curry and then spend some quality time with the Olympics.

This is a brilliant city and now that I'm leaving I look forward to coming back. If it weren't already so darned expensive, I might think about the 2012 Olympics but I can't even fathom how much it will be then.

Signing off for now...next update from Edmonds

London Office - Tuesday 14 Feb @ 0930

Here we are, the last day in the office. We'll be catching up with the UK support team this morning and then doing some store visits with a retail district manager this afternoon. We'll be visiting the busiest store here, Leicester Square and then others and discussing the challenges the stores have and how we can turn those challenges into opportunities.

We need to find a Lush store and hit the Chelsea team store as we're out today and all my obligations are done. I got tea for Kim last night on my way to the hotel. Henry has a sack of souvenirs even though I've truly stayed my shopping hand as I've been out.

I am really ready to go home, as is Dave. We talked a lot about it as we walked to the office this morning. I woke up early today and I am completely packed except for the clothes on my back and what I need to take in my carryon. I really miss Henry and my slobbery crazy assed dog. I'm really looking forward to just taking some time and laying on the couch petting the dog and hugging my boy.

The flight tomorrow is @ 1405 GMT and we arrive just after 1500 PST.

Monday - London 13 Feb 1725

Well, here we are at the end of another day in London. Again I believe we have accomplished quite a lot on this trip. Today we did the wrap up we had scheduled for tomorrow as the retail team will meet with us tomorrow and take us on a store tour so we can see for ourselves some of the challenges the stores face each day. We are especially looking FW to back room tours as thy tend to be quite eye opening. We will also ask of the store partners and their DM that will be tourin us what we can do better to assist them in overcoming their daily challenges.

After the last update Saturday, I walked up the King's Road to Sloane Square. It was great to see the place where the 60s swinging hipsters hung out and be in the neighborhood where some of the old pop stars of the day still keep houses and flats.

I made it to the British Museum and spent the majorty of the day in the ancient civilisations wing w/ the Eqypt, Assyria and Greece exhibits. What an amazing place and so much to see. It is amazing the pieces of the Parthenon and other exhibits such as the Rosetta stone that are all here. I spent some time in the Americas wing as well as the reproduction of the King's Library and found these to be wondrous exhibits as well. After the museaum, I wandered a bit more and found my way into Chinatown. I must have wandered into a werewolf because I found myself @ a place called ...










...and considered a bowl of beef chowmein (the blessed among you will understand the importance of this).

Another walk round and found myself again in Piccadilly and Leicester Squares, tried for a discount ticket to the We Will Rock You show but none available so headed back to Chelsea and stopped in a reat Thai restaurant called Jim Thompson's named after an American silk exporter that was a purported spy in 60s Thailand. Had a bowl of beef randang that was sensational and had a walk back to the hotel. Brutally cold it's been...

Raining these past couple days and even with the weather I got out and did the London Eye opposite the House of Parliament on the Thames on Sunday. I'll let you read about it here for yourself http://www.londoneye.com/. I have to say, 145 metres did not seem that high to me even when I was on the ground but even with the weather the views were very impressive and the people with which I rode the capsule were very nice and took pictures of me as well to show you all. Here you can can gaze upon my visage over London w/ Big Ben in the background

In all, this was one off the best things I have done in London and I'm glad I did it even in the rain.

After the ride, I hopped the tube back from Waterloo and grabbed a bottle of wine (Gemstone Shiraz from McLaren Vale, quite tasty) an my host for the afternoon collected me @ the station for a traditional Sunday in England. We had a Sunday roast of beef rib, yorkshire puddings, oven roast tatties, peas and a parsnip mash (heavenly, mashed w/ creme fraiche, butter, salt and pepper; MMM MMM GOOD!) with wine and beer before the Scotland v. Wales rugby (Scotland los but I did wear my Scotland jersey I picked up last time here, glad my hosts were Scotland fans!). Here's a picture of my friends in London














And one of me with my friends (Thanks Liam)














What a tremendous way to spend the day in a city far, far away with friends, food, bevvies and rugby.

Tomorrow is our last day here and although I'm having a tremendous time in London and can't wait to return, I'm ready for home. Think of living in what's referred to as a "function" hotel (along the lines of a Motel 6 or Super 8; bed, bathroom, tv) for 12 days. I'm trying not to complain but it is tiresome. The bright side is I'm in London, a vibrant city where everything is moving all the time and there are lots of things to see and do

Edinburgh airport; airside 2/10 *UPDATED 14 Feb*

Just finished a vendor visit in Edinburgh. Waiting for the return to London. Updating from an internet kiosk in he airport. Last night in Glasgow, very interesting visit.

More to come later, my travel mates are waiting.

*****UPDATE 14 Feb*****
OK, so I need to talk about the evening in Glasgow. We worked with NCR @ the call center until about 2030 and the director we worked with was taking us to the hotel in a city with which he was unfamiliar. As his frustration grew, he was driving faster and faster, jerking around corners and we saw quite a lot of Glasgow by night. Mark was in the back sandwiched between Dave and Pete and asking for someone to crack a window, I was trying to read tiny print on Graham's map while sitting in the (wrong or left) passenger seat trying to help navigate while being thoroughly confused about being on the left (wrong) side of the road and left (wrong) side of the car with a map that was not marked with North and funny names (Scotland remember). Finally Graham jumped out to ask directions @ a convenience store (where apparently neither English nor Scottish were even a scimilie of the attendant's language) and we asked Graham to find a somewhat inhabited street with restaurants and drop us off. We could get a cab from there. Humorous at best but vomit inducing at worst I must say. None of was feeling all that well and Graham still had to drive for a hour to get home out in the countryside. He dropped us on Sauchiehall Street and we found an Italian restaurant and ordered 4 pizzas and ate every last morsel.

The best part of the whole thing was that when the cab driver dropped us we realized we had driven within a block of the hotel but didn't see the sign. A good laugh was had by all after all was said and done but I think that Graham will be rethinking any offers of chaufferring for some time. He sent me a mail the next day apologizing and jesting about a promise to have SAT NAV available for our next trip. Obvioulsy feeling bad about it but no harm done, in fact quite a funny story to tell everyone.

Next day a beautiful train ride just after the sunrise to Edinburgh. Our vendor had a cab waiting for us and we felt like stars with the suited driver holding a Starbucks sign and showing us to a Mercedes people mover.

We learned a lot about the manufacturing process and the future of one of the devices we use and then had a tremendous lunch (my first steak and ale pie, between that and the bangers and mash the a couple nights before I think I can say I had some native food this time around) overlooking the Firth of Forth. We were then chauffered to the airport and given a gift of Michael Jackson's Guide to Malt Whiskys. Another successful day

Worlds End - London - 1210 GMT

Made it back to London last night and after a bit of a rest, met up with some friends for a few pints and a good curry. What a tremendous London experience. Many beers, many glasses of rioja (I'm told most people drink red wine with curry, just another thing to like about it) and layers upon layers of tastes. Some of the dishes I remember:
Plain and spicy popadums
Pickled lime
Yogurt and coriander
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Biryani
Green garlic chicken chilly
Lamb madras
and other assorted lamb, chicken and vegetarian dishes just coming at you from all sides. A great evening with friends and coworkers with a definite London bent to it.

One thing about the culture here; there are still a great many smokers and the pubs and restaurants are all very smoky. My clothes end up impregnated to the point I have to put them in plastic bags as far from the bed as I can get them in the hotel room and then shower before I go anywhere near the bed so as not to get the pillows and bedding smoky as well. I was in a grocery today getting food for my walkabout today and thought it was still me but it was little old ladies walking by me.

Today I'm in a neighborhood called Worlds End (how can you not like a name like that?) in Chelsea and walking East up King's Road. I don't have a destination in mind at all, I just thought I'd take this in and then head to the British Museum for a bit this afternoon and try and catch the England v. Italy rugby later this afternoon. Not sure if I want to get all smoky in a pub or pick up a couple beers and snacks and spend it in the hotel to avoid some smoke for a day but I'll probably end up in the pub, after all how often do you get a chance to take in rugby in London surrounded by real fans?

Tomorrow, I've been invited round to John and Mary's for a Sunday roast and wine then the Scotland rugby (big supporters they are; John one hopped down to NZ just for a match between Scotland and the All Blacks and they hold season ticket to Murrayfield in Edinburgh for the games although they live in London). I have to be careful though, they hurt me last night and I have a bit of a hangover today even though I slept until 0930. I thinks it's time for a pint...

Not much more at this time but I'll update you all again soon

London Wednesday 2/6/06

Wednesday 2/8/06

In the office working today, gave a 3 hour presentation for my British colleagues and was well received. Even my co-workers that traveled with me did know I had so much information and had developed so many tools to help me do my job. All impressed. Well enough of the patting myself on the back, I don’t need an injury before we head to Scotland tomorrow.

I’m well acclimated now, even woke up before the alarm this morning for the first time. Feels like I’m on a regular schedule now. We’ve been very well received and very productive since we started work Monday morning. There have been many “ah ha” moments since we’ve been here, on both sides. All I really need to leave here with is a good sense the UK team knows what we do and how we do it so they know they can leverage us for assistance in supporting our stores and field partners. We have also learned a lot about the challenges as well as the opportunities that exist here for us to help out.

Sunday after my last update was pretty tame, avoided most of the post football crowds as they left the pitch and made it to the hotel where I settled for an underwhelming burger and a couple pints of Guinness. Every pub including the one at the hotel over a km from the pitch were packed as there seems to be a bit of bad blood between Chelsea and Liverpool; just glad the locals won so I avoided any difficulties.

We’ve been introduced to a fine deli near the office for lunch each day; expensive but terrific fresh foods as well as gourmet items and fresh fruit from the Mediterranean. Quite a find and although I sometimes wish for a place like his close to the home office, it would be terribly dangerous as I can’t seem to get out of there under 7GBP. That’s indicative of the cost of everything here in London. When we got the bill for ~35 GBP for dinner last night and felt it wasn’t bad, we knew we’d been in London a while already. 35 GBP is ~ $61.16 for a plate of pasta, a steak sandwich w/ chips and bangers & mash. Granted the food was decent but adding only 2 sodas and a beer still would have been a lot less than that in most neighborhood bars at home. It was the least expensive dinner we’ve had since we arrived though. Most have been ~ 45 GBP so it’s a budget buster.

Well, that’s about I for now, I’ll do my best to add some updates soon

Saturday 1740 GMT - London

Well, we made it. Pretty uneventful flight and darn comfy as well. Got about 5 hours sleep on the way over and was still able to watch all of Walk the Line. Terrific movie and very impressed with the portrayals by Reese and Joaquin. We managed to get tickets to The Producers last night and it was tremendous. Funny, fast paced and incredible scenes. Last minute tickets were even relatively reasonable in cost. The theatre was the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and it too was very impressive. Built in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren, the first governor was Lord Byron and even it's current direction has a pedigree, the Managing director since 2000 is Andrew Lloyd Webber. Pretty impressive bit of history and not far from the Covent Garden tube station, Leicester Square and the Covent Garden Market. We got our tickets with about 2.5 hours before curtain and were able to walk around the area and get a nosh and coffee. After leaving the theatre, we were all very tired as it had been 32 hours through 8 times zones with only a few hours sleep. We made it back to hotel and I ended up sleeping until noon unfortunately it was a very nice day (read "not gray") here until about 3pm. We all decided to head off on our own today anyway since no one had any idea when we'd have enough sleep.

I walked for a couple hours along the Thames and then up the road to Parsons Green where I hopped the tube to Oxford Circus, wandered for a couple more hours with a quick stop off for a cask IPA mi afternoon. I picked up a few souvenirs for Henry as well as some coffee and tea to take back to work for tastings. I hit Harrod's (open Sundays now) when first came up to the central city area, and then up to Piccadilly Circus for a bit of wandering, a quick shop @ Fortnum and Mason. I took lots of photos and will post some here when I get to a computer where it's easier to hook up the camera







Internet access at the hotel is £5.00 so I found an internet cafe close to the tubestationn where I can update everyone about our trip. I'm just outside the Fullham Broadway stations and it's right around the corner from the Chelsea football pitch and the game is about to end. There are police everywhere; walking, in paddy wagons, in riot gear and on horseback. I wonder if I'll get to see some of the football hooliganism so famous for the UK, I'm hoping not.

I'm off now, get a bite and a pint or two and take it easy before we start work tomorrow.


All the best from Chelsea