London, the Tate Modern

On Wednesday we had some more beautiful weather. I don't think I mentioned how lucky we have been everyday on this trip with the weather. It has been sunny and mild almost the whole time. One day it was a little overcast - but that was the exception. I hope that it stays that way!


This is a view of St Paul's from the Millennium bridge. Nice!


These may look like sunflower seeds. But they are really ceramic sunflower seeds, each hand painted in China. There are about 100 million of them in this installation. The artist is Ai Weiwei. You can read a little about this here.


You can get a sense of the scale here


and here.


Then we went to Parliament, and had to look at Big Ben.


We had lunch at the Cinnamon Club, which is not really a club. It is in an old library building.

Excellent food!



This is the famous Banqueting House designed by Inigo Jones. This building changed the face of London.


On Trafalgar Square, they always have one plinth that is used for temporary Art installations. This year it is a ship in a bottle. It is Nelson's ship HMS Victory. The multicolored sails represent the multiple cultures that now occupy the UK.



There I am, after washing off my pants. This bird:

Made me very lucky.

That evening we went to see The Children's Hour - a play set in the 1920s in a small town in New England. Keira Knightly and Elizabeth Moss were the stars.

Hampton Court

Doreen and I planned on meeting some good friends (Jamie and Andrea) for dinner on Tuesday evening. After much back and forth, we decided to meet in Hampton for drinks, and then head to India Zest for dinner.


So we took a train from Waterloo station down to Hampton Court in the afternoon.


As we were getting off the train, I snapped this photo. The conductor said he would have to confiscate my camera, as he thought I might be a terrorist. I said he just wanted a picture of my wife.


Hampton Court, as everyone knows, was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey, but was "given" to Henry VIII when the good Cardinal was trying to keep his head. (it didn't work. There is a lesson there for all of us)


It is a spectacular place, though. They have folks dressed up in period costume and they did little performances. It was fun.


The place is huge - about 1,000 rooms. They only have about 100 open to the public. That is the "Great Room" above. Probably the biggest room outside a church at the time it was built.

Hampton Court is really two palaces. The Wolsey Palace built in the 16th century, and the William III (William of Orange, or William of William and Mary) initiated additions (such as this courtyard below) designed by Christopher Wren (of St Paul fame. Though I always wondered if he was related to Percival Christopher Wren...)


They also have a maze:

I told Doreen about the "one hand" trick, and this is indeed a one handed maze. The trick is to never remove your hand from the wall, and you will get out of the maze. IT may not be the shortest way, but you will get out.

Not all mazes are one hand mazes but this one is. The trick worked.


The daffodils were blooming while we were they. Absolutely spectacular. They had a whole field of blooms.


They had swans, too. I am not sure if these were for the kitchen (as per The Tudors) but this fellow was rather aggressive.


This is a good view of the Wren facade. A spectacular place


But we did have to use the handrail HSE all the time! You spot it, you got it!

Here Doreen is in front of one of the many gardens. 60 acres worth.


One last shot.

I have to say that the meal with J&A was spectacular. They are excellent hosts.

London on Tuesday

Monday I worked all day, but yesterday (Tuesday)we had a good day all around.

Monday evening Doreen got tickets to her friend Bruce Norris's play Clybourne Park, which just won the Ollies (the UK equivalent of the Tonys). (you can see the poster here, at a pub):


It is a play set in Chicago, 50 years apart. This is a simplification, but it is about a neighborhood that first goes from White to Black, and what the neighbors think about that - and then 50 years later when the neighborhood is starting to gentrify and white people start moving back in.



We always make it to the British Museum, to check and see if the Rosetta Stone is still behind glass. It still is.


A couple more photos from the Museum - one of our favorite places




Finally, we had to stop and whet our whistle (or is it wet our whistle?) at a pub.

We had some "real ale" (that means warm beer. And delicious) to tide us over for the rest of the day.

More on the rest of the day later. (Think Hampton Court)

London

I have Board meeting in London Monday. The Company has invited "Partners" to come on this trip and get to know the other Board members and spouses. This was an alien concept to me, so when the Company asked me if I would be bringing a "partner" I did not know if they wanted me to invite a client, a supplier, or my spouse!

I waited to see what other Board members would say.

Happily, they meant spouse.

So we set off for London, and will be visiting Paris on this trip as well.


We start all our international trips in the Continental Presidents Club. Not sure how that will change with the United merger, I guess we will just have to see.

It is a good place to unwind. My good nephew Quinn drove us to the airport, and will be picking us up. Our good friend Linda will be taking care of the animals, and the house. And she live there, so don't think about going there to rob us. She is a real Texan, and is no doubt armed. You are forewarned!


This was a 777 with the new lie flat beds. Nice! This is the first time that I was actually able to lie flat on them. We both slept most of the way here.

Our hotel is The Arch just north of the Marble Arch underground (Tube!) stop. It is small, but seems quite nice. We are on the First (that  means second) floor.



We wandered about this part of the city to stay awake and to buy a metro pass. We are just on the cusp of the either just paying for our tickets or buying a seven day pass. Since I am working one day, we bought Doreen a seven day pass, and I just loaded up my Oyster card with pounds. We walked over to the Marylebone (look at that word. What do you think the \genesis is?)  train station.

We walked through Regent's Park afterward, and saw this flock of herons. (Herons, not egrets) They had a rookery nearby.

The park is very pretty, but I think it would have been nicer in a couple of weeks. The daffodils were blooming, but not much else.




Well, the apple trees were blooming, too.


From Regent's Park we took the tube to London Bridge. Some friends of ours told us about this gourmet food market on Borough High Street that is open on Saturdays. This was a good way to stay awake! (Thanks, Richard and Jim)



The market was amazing, and PACKED! It looked like you could get just about any sort of food there. (Even Mexican food)

There was plenty of fish. One place had Fish Soup that looked excellent, but we didn't get any.

Lots of sausages and pig parts. You could even buy pig heads:

But we didn't get any of those either.

We got Pastys:

Sort of like meat turnovers. They are Welsh or Cornish in origin, the miners use to take them underground. They would say hot all day.

Meat, potatoes, other root vegetables with brown gravy. Delicious!



As I said, plenty of fish. Here was a batch of fresh cod (the fish that changed the world)

and other, less important fishes.


And, of course, Italian Cheese.

Here is the Southwark Cathedral. The market surrounds this building, and probably has for over 1,400 years. There have been religious ceremonies on this cite since 606 AD!

Finally, we walked across London Bridge.

and then came back to the hotel for a well deserved nap.

A joke from The Fed

Hat Tip to The Economist Free Exchange Blog:

DALLAS Fed President Richard Fisher is an entertaining guy to listen to. He likes to tell jokes, as he did to open his latest speech on current economic conditions. This one is borrowed from Ronald Reagan:

Paddy McCoy, an elderly Irish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Works and Pensions stating that he was suspected of not paying his employees the statutory minimum wages and that an inspector would be sent to the farm.
On the appointed day, the inspector turned up. “Tell me about your staff,” he asked of Paddy.
“Well,” said Paddy, “there is the farmhand. I pay him 240 a week and he has use of a free cottage.”
“That’s good,” said the inspector.
“Then there’s the housekeeper. She gets 190 a week, along with free board and lodging.”
“That sounds fine,” said the inspector.
Paddy went on. “There’s also the half-wit. He works a 16-hour day, does 90 percent of the work, nets about 25 pounds a week when all is said and done, but takes down a bottle of whiskey and, as a special treat, occasionally gets to sleep with my wife.”
“That’s disgraceful, Paddy,” said the inspector. “I need to interview the half-wit.”
“Well,” said Paddy, “you’re looking at him.”

Poets and Writers Ball

Last night we went to the Inprint Poets and Writers Ball, their main fund raising event for the year. (My sweet ever lovin' is on their Board of Directors) It is one event that she doesn't have to drag me to - I enjoy this evening.

It is held at the Houston Country Club (fancy!)and the event is really a celebration of writing, with a focus on local writers. They have cocktails from 6:30 to about 7:00, then the crowd divides into three rooms, and local writers read from their most recent works.

During the drinking part of the evening Doreen introduced me to Jeff Smisek, the CEO of Continental United. (His wife is on the Board of Inprint as well). I chatted with him a little, saying how I hoped that he would make United more like Continental, and keep the level of service as high as it used to be. He assured me that they would. I told him I flew 150,000 miles on CO last year and he asked me if he could shine my shoes (While that sounds odd, it was surprisingly nice). We talked a little about Gordon Bethune, the charismatic CEO that rescued CO from oblivion a couple of years ago. Smisek said Gordon was right for his time, but that the company needs professional management now. I can't say that I disagree. This is one of those things that we just need to wait and see what happens. I will keep flying Continental and I will keep letting you know how it goes.

The three writers last night were Antonya Nelson, poet Martha Serpas, and Austin-based author S. C. Gwynne.

Serpas is from Galliano, LA and read some poems about the flat, sugarcane plantations, and water of South Louisiana. She was very intense (she is a trauma chaplain at Memorial Hermann Hospital) and an excellent reader. He two books of poems are called Côte Blanche and The Dirty Side of the Storm. I will look them up.

Nelson read a funny essay about getting a tatoo at 46.

S. C. Gwynne read from his book Empire of the Summer Moon, about the Comanche Indians. Excellent! I bought it this morning.

The main course was Colum McCann, who wrote Let the Great World Spin. He talked about how important stories are in our lives. He is Irish, and mentioned that he wanted to get the crowd singing. I was disappointed that he did not. So afterward, I went up to him and we sang a couple of verses of Irish Rover (much to the amusement of all concerned)

I went into a tavern I used to frequent,
and I told the landlady me money was spent
I asked her for credit, she answered me nay!
Such a custom as yours I can get any day!

and so on.

Finally, as we were leaving Doreen introduced me to Justin Cronin, the author of The Passage. I told him how much I enjoyed his book, and I guess that was still new enough to him that he wanted to talk. So we chatted about the book, the science behind it, the complex social relationships that he had to take care of, and when the next two books in the trilogy will be coming out (1 year and 3 years). His wife was standing by, looking bored so we eventually moved on. But I am pretty sure that he would have stood there and chatted all night.

It was fun.

Continental flight crews

Are the best in the industry.

Sent from Samsung mobile

On the way to Pittsburgh

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UW Madison Mining Engineer: Exxon Minerals, My First Real Job.

This is sort of self referential, but there you go:

UW Madison Mining Engineer: Exxon Minerals, My First Real Job.: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Peter Carey

Last night we were fortunate enough to see Peter Carey read at Inprint, the Houston reading series (My sweet ever lovin' wife is on their Board of Directors). Prior to the reading, we were at a dinner with Mr. Carey - a small dinner with about 14 folks.

During dinner he joked and told stories, and was generally very amiable. I have read several of his books (The True History of the Kelly Gang, Oscar and Lucinda, Jack Maggs, Theft, My Life as a Fake, 30 Days in Syndey, and his latest Parrot and Olivier in America)so we had plenty to chat about. We bantered, which I always enjoy.

Some of y'all may know that my sweet even lovin' really likes to have autographed copies of books. (Note to potential inheritors - look in all our books for autographs. They will be worth some money!) We debated how many books we could fashionably bring to the dinner with us. I said two.

That topic came up during dinner, and Mr. Carey laughingly said that we shoul have brought them all! We enjoyed that.

After dinner, we handed over the two books (Jack Maggs and Parrot and Olivier in America) to him. He thought a minute and asked what he should write in them. I suggested "To my most charming dinner companions" in the first one:

From Peter Carey Books

Then as he was thinking about what to put in the second, I suggested he say "You should have brought more books":

From Peter Carey Books

He was equally charming at the reading.

Read his books, and catch a reading if you can.

A Short Term Blogging Task

I was recently informed that the University of Wisconsin Madison has a Geological Engineering department - the logical successor to my Mining Engineering degree.

I have taken it upon myself to recap my mining, and subsequent career for them (sort of, but not really, at their request)

You can see the progress of such self indulgence here.

I will fill it out as time goes by.