Spinnaker Tower

Here is the Spinnaker Tower, which is 170 meters and located in Portsmouth. The tower's design was chosen by local residents and is meant to reflect Portsmouth's maritime history - modeled after a sail, of course. It is possible to go to the top of for a spectacular view of the coast+the glass floor puts one's gonads into one's stomach (from personal experience) though we don't go to the top this time. The thing was completed in 2005 at the centre of the waterfront's re-development and funded by the National Lottery (planning began in '95 and there were fits and starts around money- construction went over-budget and tax-payers had to foot the balance so that it did not stand half-mast; good thing the cost to stop work greater then its completion, oh boy). It seems to have worked as a stim-u-lator too as there are post-holiday shoppers and a bustle - not surprising as Portsmouth has the highest population density of any UK city including London. Go figure. Retail is mostly middle-brow: Gap, Cliftons, Marks & Spencer, Waterfords, Top Shop. . . and themed-restaurants galore. We settle for a faux Mexican surrounded by chili, mustachioed cowboys and cacti decorations. Madeleine orders a cheeseburger and Sonnet some kind of wrap while my burrito interpretation would offend anybody South of the Border- I bemoan the lack of Mexican food here. Concluding, we stroll to the great docks and HMS Victory as well as a number of Britain's war ships including an Aircraft Carrier which is a monster. This is the world's largest dry-dock and so at the center of British history and former empire.

I make the kids jam-butter-banana sandwiches on wheat bread; I overhear them discuss how awful my creation; so bad, in fact, Eitan reportedly cries (Eitan "did not Madeleine. You wouldn't even know!")

Madeleine, out of the blue: "Have you ever been sacked Dad?"

Eitan: "I wish I could be on (Chelsea's Frank) Lampard's training team so I could ask him if could swap to Man United."
Sonnet: "I wish I could be inside Eitan's head so I could say: Eitan, when are you going to pick up your room?"