Christmas in the Village

This Christmas I decided to stay in the UK so that I could rest! It's been a long year with a lot of lost weekends to work, so being able to sleep in everyday for a week was very appealing. And I wanted to see how Christmas is done on this side of the pond.

How do you like this outfit? It's a Scottish tweed coat [very warm] and Irish Gor-tex walking boots. I look like I belong on the Commons!

Since the Brits don't have American Thanksgiving to tell them when to kick-off the holiday season, it was interesting to see how the momentum was built. It was around the week before Thanksgiving when the radio station that I listen to in the morning started to talk about playing Christmas songs. Mostly because one of the DJs' wanted it to be Christmas soon. There was one played, and then I didn't really hear any Christmas songs until around the 15th of December. On Christmas Eve all day, every third song was a non-Christmas song played. On Christmas Day, every 5th song played WAS a Christmas song. I guess they wore the records out the day before!

In the Village, the shop owners all declared the first Sunday in December [6th] as the shopping kick-off. They offered discounts and extra hours for that Sunday only.

Father Christmas [aka Santa] arrived in the Village the same day ... on horseback! He was having a hard time holding the horse steady as he waved and yelled, "Happy Christmas".

That's another interesting thing, the expression is "Happy Christmas", not Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. In fact, I was at an open house on Christmas Eve and when one of the guests was leaving, I got a kiss on two cheeks and as I responded to the Happy Christmas with a "Happy Holidays" ... I got, "Yeah, that's right. You are an American." I have not seen any evidence of Hanukkah. I didn't hear any dreidel songs, and haven't spotted a menorah anywhere. I saw on Facebook that Kwanza began yesterday in the States in the South. That's not here either.

So for Christmas Eve, I went to a friend's open house; and then came home, let a fire and fell asleep watching a Christmas movie [there is going to be a theme here].

On Christmas Day, I got up and made a pumpkin pie, and then opened presents! I got a box from my parents, a box from Heidi, and a box from Judy and Joanna in Austin. I had a few things from work. And then I ordered some stuff on-line. I saved it all until Christmas morning. Allie and I took a walk on the Commons and then we drove to Ramu's house for Christmas dinner. Natalie and Reise and their two kids, Jewel and Jess joined us. We had a great time. Jewel made friends with Allie by sharing her bag of cheese puffs with her. I came home, lit a fire and fell asleep watching a Christmas movie.

On Boxing Day, it was sunny out, so I decided it was time to figure out how to get to Richmond Park. It butts up against Wimbledon Park and it's twice the size, but you have to cross the A4 to get there. It was always too far for Misty to travel, and it never occurred to me to drive there, of course!

It is a gorgeous park! And very different from Wimbledon. Wimbledon is more wooded and you can get lost in the trees. Richmond is massive and you can get lost in the size!

There were herds of red and fallow deer roam freely within much of the park.

Richmond Park supports a large population of what are believed to be Ring-necked or Rose-ringed Parakeets. These bred from birds that escaped or were freed from captivity. They frequent my back yard!

During King Edward's (1272-1307) reign the area was known as the Manor of Sheen. The name was changed to Richmond during Henry VII's reign. In 1625 Charles I brought his court to Richmond Palace to escape the plague in London and turned it into a park for red and fallow deer. His decision, in 1637, to enclose the land was not popular with the local residents, but he did allow pedestrians the right of way. Richmond remains the smallest National Park in the UK. Almost three times as large as New York City's Central Park, it is Britain's largest urban walled park, and the largest of the Royal Parks in London

In 1847 Pembroke Lodge became the home of the then Prime Minister, Lord John Russel. It is now a popular restaurant with glorious views across the Thames Valley. Who knew?

At the end of Boxing Day, I was invited to visit my neighbors, two doors over, for a drink. Yvonne and Stuart have two dogs who wanted equal time on my lap. It was nice to share a single malt and learn a little about my neighbors and land lord. Stuart hunts birds and brought me a pheasant a couple of weekends ago. I had to learn how to clean the bird! Last night I learned the Stuart worked for Humana when it was a hospital company! Small world!

Benidorm, Spain Half Marathon

On Friday, 27 November, I flew to Alicante, Spain and then made my way to Benidorm for the weekend to participate in my second half-marathon this fall.

Benidorm is on the South Eastern coast of Spain ... and it is not very Spanish, from what I understand. It's actually, very British. It is a favourite spot for pensioners [retirees] to either spend the winter or move to after retirement. About every 10 feet there is a British pub serving a full English breakfast or beers! It's kind of like I imagine Destin, FL which is where it seems nearly everyone from Louisville goes, or so it seems.

It's only a two-hour flight and it's on the Mediterranean Sea so it is easy to see why it's a favourite place for Brits to escape.

I flew in on Friday, early, with my friend / co-worker, Ramu, and we spent the day exploring Benidorm. There is very little architecture that looks Spanish, or at least how I envisioned it. There are a lot of apartment-like high rises.

We sought out some non-British food ... grilled lobster, paella [chorizo, pancetta, rice, clams, prawns and squid], pancetta and cheese, and of course, Spanish wine. We had the red wine Rioja, which if you are Spanish is pronounced something like "ree-OH-ha" with a sort of hard "ha" ... like you have a fur ball. But if you're British, it's just "ree-AK-ka". When I first moved to London, it took me forever to figure what kind of red wine we were drinking when I was out with colleagues. I thought they were ordering a particular vineyard, not a region of Spain!

In the afternoon, the rains came in, so we found a pub ... it was Irish, not British ... with some live music and spent the afternoon shouting out requests for the Grateful Dead, Counting Crows, and Pink Floyd. The two guitarists would just say, "Hey English! What do you want to hear?"

Anyway, needless to say, there was a bit too much Rioja on Friday so Saturday morning I had a lie in [I slept in]. Another fellow Humana worker, Mercer, joined us on Saturday. The longest distance he had run in preparation for our race was a 10k [6.2 miles]. We were going to run a 21k [13.1] miles. We found the Town Hall and picked up our registration packets. The race seemed to be well organised and a "big deal" as they were setting up for it.

We had a great [filling] breakfast at a Belgium restaurant. Omlets! Then off to explore the village and beach and look for a new set of I-Pod head phones for Mercer. We never did find the head phones. We did criss-cross the Village and explore the full length of the beach.

Okay, and check this out. This place is called the American Bar. It's on the beach. There is a guy in there playing the electric guitar and singing. He's British. And there are as many mobility carts parked out front as Harley's!

Benidorm recognises siesta ... a short nap after the midday meal when the weather is warm. The weather wasn't that warm, about 22C [70F] degrees. Needless to say by 2 o'clock, most shops were closed ... even on a Saturday. We went where every other Brit was, to the pub! We went back to the shops after 4 o'clock, which is when the shops would normally re-open. Nope. They never came back!

We did find a pub called the Cafe Kentucky Rock. It stole the Harley logo, more or less. Had a live "band" [one guy singing with an electric guitar and synthesiser]. They didn't serve wine. You could smoke [holy cow!]. And there was rock paraphernalia around like if you were at a Hard Rock Cafe'. Most interesting "translation" of Elvis Presley's song, "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You". "Can't" doesn't translate. It's "cannot", so there was an extra syllable in every line which had to go somewhere. It was amusing!

Sunday morning was the run. It started at 10:30. As none of us were fluent in Spanish, we really had no idea what the announcers were talking about and basically had to follow the crowd to line up for the start. We figured out that we were supposed to line up by our race number, more-or-less, and that there couldn't have been more than 3,000 participants, which is a nice size.

The start was a bit odd in that we were lined up in gated areas. All I could think of was that it wouldn't pass the Fire Marshall's test in the States. When the gun went off to start the race, we took off under a banner and over the chip-reader [we wear chips on our shoes to keep our time and a few times during the race, you have to run over a mat that reads your chip] and down a red carpet. As we passed, lots of supporters were shouting and there were fireworks and confetti being blown into the air. It was pretty cool!

All-in-all, the race was flat [yay]! We basically ran up and down the sea-coast, going up into the Village to turn directions and go back the other way. Two things struck me as we ran:

Firstly, I was running along the Mediterranean Sea [!] and that the average age of this race had to be about 45!

Secondly, we were running on the roadway. The boardwalk between the road and the beach was occupied by some supporters, but mostly pensioners that lived there and it occurred to me ... everyone running with me was hoping not to be one of them in the near future.

The town turned out in big style to show support. I was amazed at how many people lined the streets, but then everything was closed, so I guess you either watch the race or TV, but it was too early for football [soccer] to be on.

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:53:08. Ramu was just behind me. This was five minutes faster than our Dublin time. I lost him by a few strides at the last turn as we were approaching the red carpet to the finish line. And just as we got on the carpet, the guy running next to me tripped and did a face-plant on the carpet! I totally dodged to the left to avoid being knocked down with him. Ramu said it looked pretty funny! Anyway, I was 21st in my age rank and 92nd in my gender finish. And I'm not sure how, but Mercer finished 5 minutes ahead of me. I lost him at the start. Had I known he was ahead of me ...

So, it was a good run. Ramu and Mercer are busy looking for the next one. I told them I was out until the daylight returns. We are nearing the shortest day / winter solstice, and days are too short for training. I hate running in the dark. And the rain. I'll start again in April.

Allie-dog in a single dog home

Thought I would give you some updates on Allie and her new world of managing a one-dog household.

After Misty was gone, Allie sort of crashed-and-burned. She would to to the couch where Misty would lie, place her head on the cushion and whimper. And every time we either entered or left the yard, she did a quick search and smell to see if she could find Misty lurking around the corner. As this has been the only time that I have ever had two dogs at once, I have never been through the grieving process with a dog left behind.

Allie stopped eating, except for treats, but she continued to drink water, so I knew it was a matter of time. She lost about 10 pounds [1/6 her weight].

She barks now. She rarely barked before. She was the kinder, gentler greeter at the door. Misty intimidated. So now Allie barks, but then her tail is wagging, so it's tough to know if she is serious, or not. And she has taken over every piece of furniture.

The first thing I did was try to establish new routines. Misty was our routine-driver ... time to get up, time to eat, time to go for walk, time for a snack, and so on. Allie seemed lost. And I am training for another half-marathon, so picking up the training schedule helped. Allie and I run first thing in the morning at least 4 times a week.

The next thing I did was find a dog-walker. Allie needed friends. I found a great place just around the corner called K9 Capers. The woman that owns the service left a high-stress job to do something she loves and has six employees [she's doing something right!]. They pick Allie up every day and take her for at least a one-hour walk with a maximum of two other dogs out on the Commons. Allie is enjoying it very much and has started to "smile" when they show up [it is goofy looking].

This last weekend, I was finalising a big bid, so I had to be in the office both Saturday and Sunday. I knew the days were going to be long, so I decided to take Allie to central London with me. This was a big adventure. We would walk through the Village to the train station. She figured out the turn-styles [actually, more like automatic gates] okay. Stairs were fine. Trains going past were a little intimidating. She "minded the gap" and got on board. She was very interested in the noise as other trains passed and doors clamored.

We went to Waterloo [London's busiest station] to catch the Tube. Back through the gates, through the crowd and down the escalator ... this was a problem. Technically, I'm supposed to pick her up, but she's not light or small. Her whole motivation to get on was because I was getting further away. She was all sprawled out across three steps and very happy when the ride was over. Then through the tunnels, on the Tube, back at the station, up the stairs and outside in the busiest shopping in Europe! No sweat.

She's fine in the office. We have a square to take a walk. I brought her blanket, food, water and treats. She may have shared some pizza with me, and she did find an abandoned ice cream cone on one of our walks. She was very happy. As we were there very late, we took a taxi back both nights/mornings. She is my urban dog. Running with cows last year in Portishead, mastering mass transportation in London this year!

Looney's in London

Mom & Dad came in September to visit for a couple of weeks. Mother Nature co-operated this time and it didn't rain everyday, all day. They arrived on the 15th Sept and I went to North Yorkshire for a meeting on a contract. And I took advantage of having somebody home and a guy showed up to drop off new dish washer. Once I got home, we went around the corner to the pub for dinner. There's a great place called the Hand-in-Hand that is an authentic English village pub ... that Wimbledon has just grown up around. They have fantastic pies [these are dinner pies, not dessert pies].

The next day, Mom and Dad slept in and visited the Village; I went to Barnsley to facilitate a partner meeting. And I am still settling into my house, a guy showed up to install the new dish washer. Wimbledon Village is a great place to get lost in, stop and have a tea or a glass of wine, so I guess Mom & Dad okay for the day on their own.

On Thursday, I worked from home in the morning and waited for the guy to show up and install the satellite. I figured Mom & Dad meeting work men three days in a row might be too much to ask. Good news! I got ESPN-America and the the St. Louis Cardinals were going to be on TV Sunday night / Monday morning at Midnight. We could record it and watch it at our leisure during normal hours.

After the Satellite was in, we headed into London. I had a meeting to be at in the office, and we had tickets to see Wicked later on. None of us had seen it, and it was really good. I had no idea what to expect, really. Fun story.

On Friday, we went to Buckingham Palace to participate in the summer open house and take some tours. We first went to the Queen's Gallery. It's a "timed" entry, so we started there and then could go at our leisure to the rest. It's basically a museum, filled primarily with paintings & tapestries and some sculptures. After that we went into the Palace and we visited the State Rooms, which was my favourite. We walked in the same entries and down the same stairs that the Queen would receive visitors for official functions. All very cool.

After that, we visited the mews where they keep the official state cars and carriages ... and horses. Most of the horses were somewhere else, but we did get to see four before we left. The glass carriage is the one that Princess Diana rode in on her wedding day.

After touring for four hours, we headed over to my office for a happy hour. No reason, it was just time for us to gather and have a glass of wine. We had a few nibbles and drinks and then headed back to Wimbledon for a rest.

On Saturday, we laid low. I was going to walk into the Village to get some groceries. Mom & Dad decided to come along and we stopped at Wagamama for lunch. We down to the Broadway [bottom of the hill] to go to the grocery at Morrison's, rode the bus back up the hill and then everyone had to carry a bag back across the Commons.

I ran Sunday morning in preparation for my upcoming run in Dublin and I was trying to spend time at home with the Misty-girl. We drove over to Kew Gardens, a huge botanical gardens park. I think we only saw about 1/3 of the park and that took us most of the afternoon.

I left Mom & Dad on their own on Monday and headed into the office. Monday was the day that I was to find out if we won the big account we had been pursuing for the last six months. Unfortunately, we did not. I was devastated. Worked my butt off for that one and really thought we had it ...

On Tuesday, I had a meeting, but then had to take Misty in to have the 25 staples she had removed. I decided to do a work from home day on Wednesday [23rd].

I went into work on Thursday and got a call from Mom in the early afternoon that Misty was down, and I rushed home. You know the rest.

Friday, we headed to Dublin with my friend Ramu, in order to participate in the Dublin Half Marathon on Saturday. We had time on Friday to do tour the Guinness Storehouse. Guinness just happened to turn 300 years old on the 24th [day before], so there was a lot going on in and around the factory. It was by far my favourite distillery / winery / brewery tour I have every been on. The place was amazing! It's seven stories and it's set up as a sensory tour ... things to watch, things to try, you walk, you ride, you touch, and so on. Afterwards we went to O'Neill's for a drink.

On Saturday morning, Ramu and I headed into Phoenix Park to participate in the Dublin half-marathon. The park is HUGE. The Ireland president lives there. The American Ambassador. We saw at least 400 deer. There is a massive cross where Pope John Paul II held mass 30 years before. I think we walked at least 2.5 miles to get to the starting point for the race. There were 8,000 runners in all. We finished in 1:58:38 ... 21 seconds longer than the Nashville Half-Marathon I ran 4 years previous ... and I was 77th in my age group. It was a good run. I had lots of energy to burn after my week. The only bad part was after running 10 miles ... they were bailing hay! Do you have any idea what that does to my already tired lungs?

We finished the run and headed back to the hotel to take ice bags and look for some lunch. We went to Stag's Head ... as we continued to tour the top pubs in Dublin. There was an upstairs / outside garden. After lunch, we headed to the garden where Ramu, Dad and I smoked a Cuban cigar in celebration of the run being completed!

On Sunday, we headed into Dublin for some more touring. We tried to stop at The Covered Market, but was closed for Sunday, so we walked through Temple Bar which runs along the Leffey River and has a bunch of shops. There wasn't much going on for a Sunday.

We did stop at the Ha' Penny Bridge for a photo, named that because it used to cost a half penny to cross over. We took a walk down O'Connell Street. It's a wide street with shops, statues, restaurants, and The Monument of Light, a stainless steal spire that's 394 feet tall.

On Monday, I worked from the kitchen for the morning and then Pam, joined us for lunch. I was back in full bid-writing mode, so Mom and Dad kept busy getting ready for their journey back to the States. We took a car early on Tuesday morning to Heathrow and then I headed into London.

Bank Holiday, August

This year for the bank holiday in August [30th], Mary Therese came in for a visit from Louisville. You may, or may not, recall that last year for this same holiday weekend I took the dogs to Scotland. My plan was to walk for the weekend. We did do that, but it rained from the second I parked the car at the B&B. August is supposed to be a beautiful month in Scotland, so this year when MT said she was coming in, I naturally figured we should go to Scotland!

The month of August is basically one big festival in Edinburgh. It's called the Fringe Festival. For the entire month, there are about 2100 different venues running, including street performers, singers, bands, opera, plays, comedians ... lost of comedians ... and they come from all over the world, hoping to be discovered, I think. You can buy tickets to participate in some of the more popular acts, or you can just sort of wing it, like we did.

The performers spill out into the street and hand out post cards, or do short performances, or shout, to get your attention and to try to get you to come to their shows. Some of the acts sponsor smaller, lesser known individuals and group them together. A known comedian, for example, might the third in a line-up of three and the first two just getting started.

Every venue possible is used. The churches were booked. Sidewalks. Alleys. Small rooms inside of bars. And larger bar had rooms set up for the performances.

We went to a couple of "free" comedian shows. They're free to get in, but they pass the bucket as you exit. But that only works if you can keep your crowd in the room. We saw two shows, three comedians each. #1 was bad. #2 was okay. #3 was actually funny. This show started about 730pm. The next one we saw [different bar] started at about 1130pm. The first guy was bad. #2 was worse. And #3 lost 1/2 of the group before he finished. I think they were hoping we would have had more to drink by Midnight and perhaps the comedians would appeal more. Not so much.

The funniest line from the comedian that we actually thought was funny was a routine he did about meeting your friend's babies. He said isn't it amazing that when you friend has a beautiful baby you find yourself saying, "you're going to be a heart breaker, aren't you? You're going to break a lot of hearts!" And then when you have friend that have an ugly baby, what is it that you say ... ? "You're going to have your heart broken, aren't you?"

We also went to Edinburgh Castle. It was pretty cool. There is the sounding of the gun every day at 1:00, which we saw. The one o'clock gun at Edinburgh Castle is in exact synchronisation with the time ball in Calton Hill's Nelson Monument, which is across the valley, and Greenwich Mean Time.

We took the train to Edinburgh and back [The Flying Scotsman] for that weekend. It seemed like the 5.5 hours on the train was a better way to get there than the 10 hours it took me to drive last year! And besides that, you can nap, have a glass of wine ... or help a woman traveling with a sick baby. A young woman traveling by herself with a 9-month old joined us in York on our way back to London. We were about 1.5 hours into our trip home. She needed to go and deal with the buggy [stroller] that was blocking the isle, so she asked if someone would hold the [very large headed] baby. I volunteered MT. After the woman was out of site, the baby started to fret, so MT was cooing and talking sweet to him telling him his mommy was coming back, and then she said [you saw this coming right-?], "You're going to have your heart broken some day, aren't you?"

I was hysterically laughing in the corner.

Back in London, we spent the day doing touristy things. MT had never seen the changing of the guard, so we went to Buckingham Palace. I had never tried to watch the guards at the gate before, so we pressed ourselves up against the fence right behind a French family and got a great view of the changing. Unfortunately, the big stately doors of the Palace are under repair, so I have great pictures of the guards, with a tacky back drop of plywood. Oh well.

We also had to pay a quick visit to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, which surprisingly, is under construction and repairs. MT is a huge tennis fan and player. Unfortunately, with all of the work that is being done, you can't walk the grounds, so it's tough to get a view of how big the place really is. I think there are 19 courts. We could have done the museum and maybe that would offer some additional insights, but MT didn't want to do that. Next time maybe.

All-in-all, it was a great visit, and sadly, it was nearly two months ago!

Misty Gone

Okay, it's been nearly six weeks since I have been able to post a blog. Finally got Broadband turned on at my house, and now am having computer issues. I have had a run of visitors through, and need to blog and post pictures of their visits. I will get to that this week.

First, I need to sadly post that I had to put Misty down on 24 September. Think I wrote in August that she had a malignant melanoma. After we settled into our new place, she started eating things. She ate two pair of trousers [can't say "pants" here; that means that something has gone all wrong, or you talking about your undies], five pair of nickers [that's your undies], and bath mat. No surprise that she developed a blockage. I had to take her to vets and they kept her over night and pushed through barium, trying to track the blockage. After 30 hours, they decided that surgery was the only option. Ironically, when they got in there, the blockage had moved.

Unfortunately [or fortunately, depending on how you look at it], they found a tumour on her pancreas and her liver was riddled with tumours. They had a hard time getting the liver to hold a stitch. I knew it was bad. The tumours came back malignant, so it was a matter of days as she was advanced.

We had a very difficult night the day after I got her home from this surgery where she went "down" ... lethargic and breathing heavily. We laid out in the yard until about Midnight and then she suddenly got up and went into the house and ate dinner. The vet said a tumour had likely burst and she was bleeding. The little ones would continue on that way, but eventually, there would be a big bleed and she wouldn't recover. The silver lining in this is that this cancer is not painful [unlike the melanoma which would have eventually taken over her lungs].

So, not unlike after hearing the bad news about the melanoma, we lived every day doing what she wanted and was able [probably against vets' orders]. She ate chicken, table scraps and chew treats. We walked the Commons every morning. And I was happy with each day that she felt good. We definitely lived the "play hard" part together of my work hard/play hard ethic.

On Thursday the 24th of September, we walked the Commons and she chased the Ravens. I took her home and left her with my parents who were visiting, and went to work. I got a call about 1:30 from my Mom saying that Misty was down. These last couple of months might have been the most difficult I've had with a dog, but am really happy to have had Misty for 10 years. What an adventure!

Progress

I have been unpacking boxes for two days. Progress has been made. I have two rooms in order, and in the process, destroyed the others.

Allie has found a new perch that keeps her out of the way of me unpacking boxes and getting stepped on. Mind you, she also sleeps in every chair, on the beds, and so on.

The kitchen is actually a kitchen, which is nice. Except that I have figured out that both the cooker [the oven] and the dishwasher do not work.

Kind of hard put everything away and clean the old dust off without the dishwasher. The cooker can wait. It's hot outside!

The girls and I took a break and walked into the Village for supplies and there are several hundred people out sun bathing on the Commons. Yesterday, when we walked through, a couple shared some pate' and turkey with the girls, so of course today they were looking for handouts. Had to put them back on the leads. They needed stay focused on the walk!