The best place in the world is here and now
I’ve competed in some form of racing for far longer than I care to mention, long before it was considered an extreme sport. Racing has taken me all over the world and given me so much. Great stories, wonderful memories and some of the closest friendships I will ever have.
Rallying is just about the best way to spend a weekend, it’s an excuse for hanging out in the woods with my friends. It’s just for fun and bragging rights, and is about as much fun as you can have wearing fireproof overalls.
At time I have a rather busy life and while I like that, I am an introvert. I need time alone to reflect, to recharge and quiet time is very important to me. Being in large groups can be fun, I certainly appreciate it, but at the same time they can be draining and I can’t do it all the time.
Some of the best quiet time comes behind the wheel of a car on a quiet road. There are few distractions and I get to concentrate on the the road around me, for whatever reason it works for me.
There in the center of Seattle over looking the waterfront is Pike Place Market, it’s in every tourist itinerary and people who live here shop there too. It’s a rather iconic part of downtown and a fitting symbol for a city I’d miss.
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This summer the Olympics are in London, and it should be quite the event. 36 years ago Montreal was the host and this is about my earliest sporting memory. I remember watching parts of it with dad and my grandfather at my grandparents house in Scotland.
I knew nothing of cost over runs, boycotts or for that matter records and gold medals. I just knew this was cool and the grown-ups were getting excited. I wanted to be part of it.
My clearest memory is the stadium itself, looking like a giant flying saucer to this 7 year old. I’ve visited the Montreal Olympic Stadium a couple of times over the year and had a great night watching the Expos play baseball and Youppi jumping around on top of the visitors dug out.
Cutting a large arc across southern England from Dover to the Surrey/Hampshire border is a large chalk escarpment called the North Downs.
It’s a beautiful place, but it;s more than that. When I was flying back and forth to London a couple of years ago this is where I’d go for a walk for an hour or two early in the morning when jet lagged. It was quiet, peaceful and the familiarity was very comforting.
We all need happy places and the North Downs close to Guildford in Surrey is one of mine.
I’m a sucker for great museums, there are few better ways to kill an afternoon. I have some favorites, both esoteric and mainstream. The Design Museum and National Portrait Gallery in London, Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington, the awesome Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Milan and so on.
Clearly it’s not a short list and this week it got a little longer when the Getty Center got added.
A great museum is more than just what’s inside, the setting should enhance the collection. My favorite example is the Tate modern, enter by walking down the ramp into what used to be the turbine hall of the Bankside power station. This is reuse on a huge scale and the industrial setting complements the collection perfectly.
It’s not exactly my second home, but I have spent a lot of time there over the last year.
LA and I have a little history over the years. It was the initial stop on my first big independent trip. I spent a couple of winters here working for the US part of my English based employer and experienced my first curfew when I was in town during riots in 92.
Since them I’ve regularly traveled here for holidays, work (a lot) and occasional conventions. Yes, it’s huge, the traffic deserves it’s reputation and while the smog is nothing near as bad as first time I visited 22 years ago, it’s still there. Despite all that the area has a diversity and culture not found anywhere else.
Not sure I could live here, but I do enjoy being a very regular visitor.
Maybe my favorite place to visit, where tradition is central to life, but the tomorrow is so important.
