The best place in the world is here and now
I was in Alderwood this evening after work to pick up a couple of things and wandered into the Apple Store to get all excited over the latest shiny geeky thing (thankfully there is a corporate discount).
The Beatles were plastered all over the front of the store now they are available on iTunes. I wonder what John Lennon would think of this, I think he’d embrace it, I don’t see how it could make him less creative. It really would have been interesting to see what he could have come up with.
I was finally got round to unpacking my big case after my last trip to Japan and I found a shirt I got laundered at the hotel with this little collar on it. I thought it was worth sharing.
I was looking through my metrics and yesterday I had my 30,000th visit to this site since I started taking detailed stats in May 2010.
Thank you for your time, I hope you found something worthwhile on what is not much more than a vanity outlet for me. I enjoy writing, it helps me clarify and define some of what is important to me, and help me along the journey to being the person I know I can be.
The feedback, email and support of the online community has been exceptional. Warhol said everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. I’m not famous and really don’t wish to be, but thank you all very much for indulging me for 3.16 minutes.
I’ve been back from London and the snow (actually ice now) is still on the ground. This morning was cold, clear skied and beautiful, this was taken on my drive into work this morning. 
I’ve stated a couple of times that I thought the 2010 F1 world championship was a classic; even with a little distance between the racing and us I still think it deserves the overused “classic” label.
In the end I’m still not sure if Vettel won it, or Ferrari and Alonso conspired to loose it at the death with a bizarre strategy. There is a difference.
It was a great championship with five drivers winning races and the championship lead changing as teams fortunes strengthened and wavered over the long season.
However, Vettel dominated qualifying and was unquestionably the fastest driver over a single lap. It’s hard to argue that he was not a worthy champion. He made a significant number of errors, was occasionally a little impetuous and this cost him points that could have wrapped it up before Abu Dhabi.
I’ve been thinking about my personal highlight, and there were a number of great drives during the year, but for me it was Lewis Hamilton’s drive at Spa. In part because I was lucky enough to be there and because changing weather adds a whole new dimension to the sport. Hamilton is clearly a smart driver able to read the conditions backed by a team that will aid him in taking advantage of that.
For the true rain-master see Senna at Donnington in ’93. The best drive certainly I’ve ever seen and I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call it one of the best drives in the history of the sport. At one point Senna had lapped then entire field.
Back to Spa, through a very dodgy decision by the stewards a couple of years ago he had a win taken away from him. The race gods owed him and this year they made it even. It was a stunning drive, wonderfully controlled aggression mixed with adapting to the “dry/wet/damp/wet maybe” conditions.
That afternoon Hamilton showed a maturity that’s perhaps been missing in the past.
The conditions were challenging and it was a race when mistakes were easy to come by (Alonso finding the wall and Vettel finding Button), and luck (Button being taken out) was given out a little more sparingly.
Lewis Hamilton led from the start, impressively too. Then everything changed when it began to rain, it poured for a couple of laps and he nearly threw it all away in the gravel at Rivage.
The front of the car just grazed the wall and he got away with a huge moment. He kept on going over the compacted gravel and just about made it back onto the track.
Despite this he kept his lead over the impressive Robert Kubica in the Renault and Mark Webbers fast Red Bull, but the lead was much reduced and he had to be perfect from then on, and to his credit he was.
It was an awesome afternoon of racing, the conditions changed and the teams calls on tires and settings played a huge part for all the drivers. It was one of those weekends that make the sport so interesting, the unpredictability and rain made it a fun race to watch.
The question now becomes, which races will to attend in 2011? Unfortunately it won’t be my first choice of Monza, but maybe Montreal. Valencia would be nice and Suzuka would certainly convenient for Nagoya… We’ll see, but I will be going somewhere I’m sure.
Last night was fun, New Year should be a time spent with friends, old and new. Last night was that and more.
Today I woke up to a beautiful, but awfully cold morning. This is the view from my bed and one of the reasons I love this house.
Growing up with a Scottish parent tonight was always the biggest celebration of the year. It’s a night that everyone should spend in Scotland at least once. It’s a night where a country that can stand toe-to-toe with the Irish when it comes to drinking and having a good time, turns the dial to 11 and leaves all others in their wake.
In the finest of Scottish traditions I’m going to buy a round of decent whiskey for myself and my friends at around midnight, and propose a toast to absent friends. It’s going to be emotional, but also somewhat cleansing for the soul.
2010 has been brutal and I’m happy to see the back of it, 2011 is going to be spectacular.
Happy new year. And while I’ll be thinking of who is not here tonight, I’ll do appreciate those who are. Thanks for being there, I feel very lucky.
I was meeting friends for lunch in London today, but the rest of the day was my own. To be fair most of my friends were supposed to actually be working today, I’m sure it’s possible that a civil servant could actually get rather busy on a Monday after a holiday… It just seems rather unlikely.
My first stop is what I think is the best museum in the world. The collection is first class, and there are good reasons of that. The British Museum has piles of stuff borrowed from around the world by the all-powerfull British Empire.
The place is packed with such high quality items from all over the world, pretty much all was “liberated” in the same way a $10 note occasionally goes missing from my wallet left on the kitchen counter in the same week a 9 year old mysteriously gets $10 from her grandmother to spend on herself.
The tussle with the Greeks over the Elgin Marbles is well documented, but they are in London and possession is 9/10ths of the law as they say. The Museum has been clear that they are in London to stay. The argument is ongoing and ultimately I believe they are in the right place for them and will stay in London for the foreseeable future.
In ’97 Lord Wyatt said in the House of Lords “My Lords, is the Minister aware that it would be dangerous to return the marbles to Athens because they were under attack by Turkish and Greek fire in the Parthenon when they were rescued? And the volatile Greeks might easily start hurling bombs around again?” Who ever said the British aristocracy was out of touch with reality? As I said this was 1997.
A quick stop at the Rosetta stone (found by Napoleons army, taken as a spoil of war by the British in Egypt), followed with half an hour catching the highlights of the Egyptian rooms before a quick lap of possibly the finest indoor space in the city, the stunning Great Court and out into the sun and Bloomsbury at lunch time.
Next destination is most of the way across central London to meet friends for lunch at the original Hard Rock Café. The bar downstairs is rarely full for weekday lunch times, they have a full menu, it’s close to the toilets and the staff know how to pour drinks.
One of my oldest friends, Adrian, works in the financial sector in the London, he was already there and deeply into pint number 2. It’s good to see that despite the bail out and turmoil the city tradition of long liquid lunches is still alive and kicking. I’ve known Adrian since I was 13 or 14, he’s now a father of two and looking far worse for wear than I am. It’s not often I can make that claim of my peers.
A few minutes later Steve shows up, first words were “Pint of Stella please” followed by a greeting. Clearly his priorities have not changed since we shared a house (along with 16 others) in college. The man who once set himself on fire when he forgot to extinguish the flames on his drink before slamming it back, is now in a senior position in a nuclear power station.
Most of the time Steve is one of the smartest people I know, however mix in a little alcohol and when he says “hold my beer and watch this” take a few steps back, it’s probably going to be good. I’m sure his naked Christmas tin foil walk is still talked about in hushed tones in the SU. The man is awesome.
Quick greetings and then he starts harassing the poor kiwi behind the bar, being from Wales Steve has heard many fine sheep shagging jokes and enjoys the feeling of giving rather than receiving for once. It’s rather scary how quickly we revert back to type and forget the whole grown up thing.
With his usually timing, 20 minutes late, the final lunch guest Clive shows, another college friend and we’ve not seen each other since then. He spent a couple of years living in Perth being a beach bum, a couple of years in Connecticut and is now living in Hampstead and is a respectable civil servant.
Over the next hour and a bit the pints flow, we make fun of each other and do a lot of catching up. Swap war stores argue football and reminisce about the time Steve ended up wandering around campus drunk with nothing but tin foil covering his dignity.
Adrian drags himself to the tube, I won’t say how much he had to drink before heading back to work, but unless he has the hidden superpower “instant sober” he spent the afternoon fast asleep in his office.
However Steve and I are heading to the Tate Modern, in addition to their regular (and rather spectacular) collection they have a Gauguin exhibition going on. The other pair have to return to their real life jobs, I don’t have to worry about that job thing for another couple of days yet.
As the tube is running a limited service today we ended up walking from Waterloo to the Tate Modern. It’s about 20 minutes along the Thames. London was quieter than I expected today, OK I stayed away from Oxford Street and the shopping, but there were not that many people wandering around.
Gauguin is an early 20th century French artist (post-impressionist, but I’m not sure what that really means) who traveled the world and created some wonderful pieces. The exhibition is as comprehensive as it is impressive, it has many great pieces and well worth the effort.
We got lost here for a few hours. I spent a portion of that time staring at my favorite piece in the Tate Modern collection, “Wham!”, but could happily spend all day here. Every time I visit I find a new artist whose work I like – Today was Georges Braque, a cubist who worked with Picasso. I’m sure many people are tutting and mumbling about how well known he is and that I am a total philistine that I’ve only just heard of his work, but that’s how it is.
The book shop at the Tate Modern is wonderful, so well stoked and I could spend a small fortune in there. I walked out with a couple of design books. I love great design and are so many beautiful books here.
Soon enough we had to go out separate ways, Steve headed back to the midlands while I walked back to the train along the river front. Even on a bitterly cold December evening, this is a great city.
