Bay Area Morning

I am behind on my weblog following a week in California. Bare with me. My photo of the Bay Area taken from Panaramic Rd in the North Berkeley Hills behind Memorial football stadium. The Golden Gate visible to the immediate left of the tree. I arrive SFO Monday afternoon and up the following morning 4AM. Rather then lay in bed and fight my demons, I pinch my dad's tri-pod and quietly let myself out the front door. This the dead-zone: the only movement a lone, empty bus (the No. 65 which used to be the No. 7 in my day) which cruises up Euclid Avenue. I pass the Cal dorms, Top Dog (a Berkeley fixture since '66), a sciences building and the business school - all locked down. I brought Sonnet to Panaramic during our early courtship and she recalls the night - like now, it was unusually warm and the view unchanged. I make my phone calls and consider the strangeness of looking at this while talking to Helsinki or London. Not possible fifteen years ago.

We have a proper family re-union dinner as Katie in Palo Alto where she signs a partnership with Stanford University. They will provide editorial training for women and minorities.

According to the San Fran Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the U.S thanks to the economic power engines of San Francisco and San Jose. The Bay Area has approximately 123,621 millionaire households. Among medium-sized cities, Pleasanton has the highest household income in the country, and Livermore the third highest. 48% of the Bay's households have annual incomes >$75,000 vs. 26% for the nation. The percentage of households with incomes above $100,000 was double the nationwide percentage. Roughly one third of households had a six figure income, versus less than 16% at the nationwide level.

In June 2003, a study by Stanford University reviewing US Census Bureau statistics determined the median household income in the Bay is roughly 60% above national average. Overall the largest income bracket in the Bay Area were households making between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, who constituted roughly 18% of households. On a national level the largest income bracket were households with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000 who constituted 13% of all households nationwide. Of the 100 highest income counties by per capita income in the United States, six are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda).

According to Forbes Magazine, published in 2005, 12 of the top 50 most expensive Zip Codes are here (Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Belvedere-Tiburon, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Altos-Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno, the Cow Hollow-Marina District of San Francisco, Alamo, and Burlingame-Hillsborough).Forty-seven Bay Area residents made the Forbes magazine's 400 richest Americans list, published in 2007. Thirteen live within San Francisco proper, placing it seventh among cities in the world. Among the forty-two were several well-known names such as Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and Charles Schwab. The highest-ranking resident is Larry Ellison of Oracle at No. 4. He is worth $19.5 billion. Additionally, a Forbes survey of the super wealthy concluded that the Bay Area had the highest concentration of the super wealthy relative to other locations such as New York City and Dallas. "America's Greediest Cities". (Forbes Magazine) A study by Claritas indicates that in 2004, 5% of all households within the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas held $1 million in investable assets. As of 2007, there were approximately 80 public companies with annual revenues of over $1 billion a year, and 5-10 more private companies. Nearly 2/3 of these are in the Silicon Valley section of the Bay Area.

A May 2009 Fortune Magazine analysis of the US "Fortune 500" companies indicates that the combined San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan region ranks second nationally (along with metro Chicago and Houston) with 29 companies. Additionally, when the combined total revenue of the Fortune 500 list companies is considered, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland region again ranks second nationally after New York with $884 billion. As of 2010, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland region ranks second only to New York City (and ahead of Chicago and Houston) as the number of Fortune 500 companies has increased to 31 companies. (April 2010 Fortune Magazine) (Sources: Inside Bay Area, Stanford University, US 2005 Economic Survey and the San Francisco Chronicle)

Eitan: "Do the Americans know what a 'loo' is?"

Dream Fulfilled

Heal, Boy, Heal

"Rusty" is a pure-bred (we have no plans to stud "Rusty" so no need to own papers which otherwise would make him more expensive). "Rusty's" dad, pictured, has won a series of local Powys competitions this year, selected "Best Pedigree," "Best Gun Dog," "Best Sporting Dog," and "Best Conditioned Dog," 2010. He also won "Best In Show" and since this his first competition the locals pretty pissed off. We are told this by Steve and Kati who are very proud of their pets. The drive to Wales adds to the story - a Welsh Springer Spaniel from .. Wales.

Love At First Sight

We arrive at the breeder's house in the middle of the Welsh countryside.

"Rusty" is pretty damn cute, I admit, and we are immediately smitten by the nine-week old puppy. Sure, we have heard the stories of sleepless nights and dog shit everywhere but for now, it is all love. To see Madeleine's face indescribable - this just may be the happiest day of her life. In fact, I am sure of it. We receive our final dog instructions about vaccinations, worming, pet food, exercise &c. Owning a pup somehow less daunting now that we have the pooch - it cannot really be that difficult, can it? As I mention to Sonnet, unlike with the kids we can just pop the dog into a potato sack and chuck him into the Thames. I get a cold stare. 15 minutes into our six-hour drive to London the dog throws up on Eitan.

The Welsh Springer Spaniel is a breed of dog and a member of the spaniel family. Thought to be comparable to the old Land Spaniel, they are similar to the English Springer Spaniel and historically have been referred to as both the Welsh Spaniel and the Welsh Cocker Spaniel. They were relatively unknown until a succession of victories in dog trials by the breed increased its popularity. Following recognition by The Kennel Club in 1902, the breed gained the modern name of Welsh Springer Spaniel. The breed's coat only comes in a single colour combination of white with red markings. Loyal and affectionate, they can become very attached to family members and are wary of strangers. They are a working dog, bred for hunting, and while not as rare as some varieties of spaniel, they are rarer than the more widely known English Springer Spaniel with which they are sometimes confused.

--Wiki

Wales Or Bust

Madeleine moments before meeting "Rusty" - the fulfillment of a two year campaign and dream come true.

Saying our good-byes to Dave and Tabitha and their clan, we head for Wales crossing the Brecon Beacon on a lovely autumnal day. It is hard not to be impressed by the splendid scenery. The mountains are red-brown which, Sonnet notes, are ferns now dead from the seasonal cold. 50-degrees latitude yet tropical plants cover most of the visible countryside. Bi-zaar. We are on our way to Rhayader, Powys.

Mid-morning outside Bath in the parking lot of the closed Pet Shop superstore, Sonnet saves the day with her Android phone with directions to where we are going. The sat-nav not programmed for Wales. The kids on the edge of their seat.

We drive past the Big Pit which draws shudders from the Shakespeares. Recall the pit a disused coal mine which today provides access to tourist via an elevator-drop some hundreds of feet below the earth's surface. The tunnels narrow and claustrophobic and, since Eitan and Madeleine the youngest by like 20 years, we found ourselves at the tail end of the group struggling to keep up. At one point Madeleine's torch falls off and while fixing the problem we are momentarily separated from the guide. The kids screamed like nobody's business and we were well glad to get the hell out of there.

The Anglo-Saxon word for 'foreign' or 'foreigner' was Waelisc and a 'foreign(er's) land' was called Wēalas. The modern English forms of these words with respect to the modern country are Welsh (the people) and Wales (the land). Historically in Britain the words were not restricted to modern Wales or to the Welsh but were used indiscriminately to refer to anything that the Anglo-Saxons associated with Celtic Britons, including other foreign lands (like Cornwall), places once associated with Celtic Britons (Walworth in County Durham and Walton in West Yorkshire), the surnames of people (Walsh and Wallace) and various other things that were once new and foreign to the Anglo-Saxons (ergo,"the walnut"). None of these historic usages is necessarily connected to Wales or the Welsh. The Anglo-Saxon words derived from the same Germanic root (singular Walh, plural Walha) that has provided modern names for Continental lands (e.g., Wallonia and Wallachia) and peoples (e.g., the Vlachs via a borrowing into Old Church Slavonic), none of which have any connection to Wales or the Welsh. Source: Wiki.

Madeleine: "Do you know where we are going?"

Me: "Yes, I just don't know how to get there."

Mixer

Tabitha, Johny and AC work on the cake mix - I think this one Sonnet's gingerbread cake. Sonnet also prepares a pork roast with apples and onions, parsnips, carrots and mashed potatoes. Fab-u-lous. Afterwards we put the kiddies to bed and sit around the fire talking about middle aged stuff: house design, real estate values, fx rates and the movies. A bit of "Mad Men" and "Brothers and Sisters" which Sonnet and I will check out after "The Wire" as we are about to begin Season 4. Really these things are all consuming and I have not read a book in some while. Dave and Tabitha have remodelled their home - every room flows and light floods through windows that look across cherry and apple groves, poplar and other trees which are changing colour in a most brilliant fashion. Beyond are open fields and the rolling hills of England. Below us, Bath. Tomorrow, dog.

Paddington Station

From Heathrow I catch the Paddington Express to meet Dave then off to Bath for the week end where Sonnet, Tabitha and Sam are seeing the ballet while the men prepare dinner (risotto, venison) and watch the kids (TV, chocolate cake). Sam and John are a neat couple - for the last 18 years John has been the key photographer for the Brits which is Britain's oscars. He has an wonderful inventory of popular images and I hope to choose one or two for our living room or somewhere. The kids race to my open arms as we have not seen each other since Monday. Sonnet does the same. Madeleine especially enthusiastic while Eitan has a bit of his cool on. He is pre-occupied by Wayne Rooney who announced he was leaving Manchester United but I am delighted to bring him the immediate news that Rooney has signed a five-year contract with ManU. I feel like Father Christmas.

Downtown Switzerland

I have an evening in Zurich and go for a jog along the lake. Since autumnal and the light changing with the afternoon and clouds, I bring along my camera and take a few shots – pictured. My first visit to Zurich in 1984 for a swimming meet. It looks no different today, really, despite a few new buildings and roadworks around the train station. Clean and charming. White. I dodge the trams to get across the street. From here it is Gutenberg, Sweden - a new city! -and Helsinki.

Zurich likes to call itself "Downtown Switzerland" (according to the Tourist Board) and is the largest city in Switzerland. While the municipality has about 380,500 inhabitants, the metropolitan area is nearly 2 million inhabitants. The canton was permanently settled for around 7,000 years ago and Zurich's history of goes back to its founding by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. During the Middle Ages Zurich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, was the place of origin and centre of the Protestant Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland, led by Ulrich Zwingli (www.zurich.com)

Zurich today is one of the world's largest financial centres while the low tax rate (27% flat) attracts overseas companies to set up their headquarters here - like Delaware maybe. Or HongKong. According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zurich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe (source: Mercer Consulting). British hedge funds, banks and private equity funds are moving, or threatening to move, here.

Etoile

I jog this morning, 7AM, and disoriented by the activity on the Champs-Élysées - did my alarm go off at the wrong time? The avenue well lit, naturally, but there are people concluding their evening while street workers scrub down the road. Traffic honks away. It feels like midnight not the beginning of the day. My run takes me down the Champs to Place de la Concorde which is like playing "frogger" to cross. The Parisiennes have no qualms about striking a jogger at this hour. From there it is Toulerise then the Louvre; I cross a bridge to the Left Bank regarding Île de la Cité from point-on and finally Notre Dame with a single statue of Mary drawing my attention. By the time I return to my hotel the sun glancing the golden rooftops from the Grand Palais to the Arc de Triomphe, pictured. This is the Western World.

Salmon

Eitan: "Do you want to go away this week?"

Me: "No, I would rather stay with you."

Eitan: "Why do you go then?"

Me: "Money does not grow on trees. We have to earn it."

Eitan: "Can we copy it?"

Me: "Copy what?"

Eitan: "Money. Can't we just copy it?"

Me: "There are no short cuts unfortunately.... Keep trying though."

Madeleine: "I cannot believe we are getting a dog in less than six days."

La Grève And Astorg

What I don't get about the strikes, as I sit here in Paris across the street from the presidential palace, is why young people are involved (at now, ten of 12 oil refineries have have shut down or are in the process of closing while half the flights from CDG cancelled. Could be me tomorrow). Afterall, the protests about moving the retirement age from 60 (the lowest in Europe) to 62 and reforming the pension scheme which is much needed for its survival. For the yuf, this is a lifetime away - what twenty-year-old thinks beyond next week? Students should be fighting to ensure they get a piece of the pie, ie, pro-reform, instead of a possible insolvency. But I suppose this does not work when the state viewed as the secure long-term career track. By contrast, my free market taxi driver is énervé by the lack of fuel which means he may not work tomorrow. So I hope for Sarkozy's success. Of course the disruptions occur as I am with foreign investors who may committ tens of millions of euros to France. But at least yesterday it was a lovely fall afternoon with the foliage turning orange and the light bouncing from the Seine so, really, where else compares?

Despite it all, France has a powerful economy, which is the fifth largest in the world in nominal terms at $2.1 trillion, behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany and the eighth largest by purchasing power parity. It is the second largest economy in Europe behind Germany and fourth largest behind Germany, United Kingdom and Russia by PPP (World Bank figures). Unemployment at 10% keeps people nervous and the taxes are high no doubt (with UK catching up) but the health care and transportation networks are, arguably, the best in the world for what they provide.

France has produced global leaders in energy resources, retail, manufacturing and other industry. Managements here are clever in a French way - clever like the fox. As for investment, approximately .70% of GDP committed to private equity which is on par with Scandanavia and behind the UK and US, which have over 1%. This suggests room for growth - I have observed through Astorg that French owners have become comfortable with buy-outs as the exit route. It is no longer seen as unusual (compared to m&a or an IPO) as it was in the '90s. In theory the discipline of independent private ownership modernises business and, against popular opinion in some places (see: Germany) preserves jobs. Intuitively, better run companies are less likely to fail, though leverage may put enormous pressure on the operators. In any case, Astorg has done better than most when it comes to transformations - the firm has earned a top spot on the league tables.

Photo from CNN.

Alton

The Alton Estate, pictured, is a large council in Roehampton not too far from Sheen. It's made up of Alton East and the slightly later Alton West, each with several separate neighbourhoods. There are 13,000 residents making it one of the UK's largest. The architecture is mainly split between brutalist architecture and its Scandinavian-inspired counterpart. The area comprising a crossroads which links Roehampton Lane, Roehampton Village and the estate is undergoing planning to be redeveloped by Wandsworth Council.

Alton West was considered by many British architects to be the crowning glory of post World War Two social housing at tits completion in 1958. What made Alton West so special was its response to its setting: Built on a large expanse of parkland on the edge of Richmond Park, Alton West was a direct translation of Le Corbusiers’ idea of the Ville Radieuse or park city; sets of "point" and "slab" blocks being surrounded by the beauty of Richmond Park below. On this natural landscape at Alton West stood a number of different housing configurations; 12-storey "point" blocks with 4 flats per floor, terraces of low-rise maisonettes and cottages and perhaps most famously, five 11-storey "slab" blocks, heavily influenced by the recently completed Unité d'Habitation by Le Corbusier. Source: Wandsworth Council and Wiki

Madeleine, watching X-Factor: "Juggling fire, dad. Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

Hallowe'en Prequal

We have several families over for Sunday lunch including Dariaush who is from Iran. We talk about Iran's nuclear program and I learn that Iran's problem water. Specifically non-salienated "sweet" water which is used to extract oil. Consequently Iran depleting its water tables rapidly. Further, Iran's oil refined outside of the country by foreign companies. Consequently, Dariaush informs me, Iran must import oil from the global spot markets and it is not always cheap. See 2007. This is the reason for Iran's nuclear plans - despite being one of the world's largest owner of oil and gas they have to import energy and nuclear power cheaper+less water intensive. Their bomb making ambitions make no sense: Why spend billions building a nuclear weapon when one can be purchased for a couple hundred million on the black market? See Pakistan or North Korea. As for secrecy, Iran has likely acquired its technology from unsavory or surprising sources which it does not wish to share. Maybe Russia? Maybe America? As for Ahmadinejad it is any one's guess as to how he remains in power - nobody likes him including Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh who is the powerful leader of the opposition party. Khameneh's nephew Seyed Ali Mousavi was killed by Ahmadinejad's security forces during the Iranian election protests and now his son accused of corruption. Ahmadinejad poking the hornet's nest. Dariaush thinks Big Business keeps Ahmadinejad in power since global companies benefit from oil sales contracts with Iran. Ahmadinejad a foil, propaganda, on scale with Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s which united a country against a common cause, Iraq, while individuals lost their freedom after the Shah's removal (consider: USA WMD). This time though it might not work for Ahmadinejad but who knows?

Madeleine has a swimming gala yesterday morning and wins her relay and freestyle race. She gets a medal which she hangs up on her football trophy "that I won doing football, dad." We are thrilled for her.

Eitan Detective

We go to Emily's birthday party last night. Before dinner she hosts a "salon," asking five or six guests to present their expertise. Sonnet talks about 80s fashion, which is her planned next exhibition for 2012. I rarely get to see her in action and she is terrific - poised, comfortable and in control of her subject matter. I think of the ladies in Bronxville for some reason. The other speakers are equally remarkable: one guy describes his energy independent 9X9 meter eco-units which will one day soon be shipped around the world; another fellow who designed Trafalgar Square with Sir Richard Rogers. A famous writer reads a birthday poem while a neural scientist talks about the concept of 'home.' Concluding is Seraphine, a violinist for the London Philharmonic, who performs a melancholic tune of a man leaving home in Scotland. I talk to Seraphine afterwards - she grew up in St John's Wood before Oxford, when she met Emily. Seraphine's parents encouraged her talent from an early age and it has taken her around the world: she returned last week from Tokyo where, she notes, the Japanese attentive and appreciative of her craft. I ask if she is nervous before a performance? but she views it as any job, no sweat. It is what she does.

Sonnet meets the European Editor for Wired Magazine who refuses to sign up for Facebook. He is a gadget guy, he tells her. There is a new media element to the scene which is not surprising since Emily's husband James once at Yahoo and then part of the founding management of Skype and now responsible for Condé Nast's digital strategy. Condé publishes 85 magazines (including Wired). James sits on the main board with S.I. Newhouse Jr and is the youngest guy by ten years. Our mutual friend Nick Denton, founder of blog empire Gawker Media, profiled in this week's New Yorker magazine.

Sonnet wears her red dress and black pumps and we make scrambled eggs at midnight.

"A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" ("aut delectare aut prodesse est"). Salons, commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th century and 18th centuries, were carried on until quite recently, in urban settings, among like-minded people."

--Wiki

Some Cracks And The Dog's Name

Madeleine helps me fill in a few cracks from the second floor roof-deck. The area behind her I plan to turn into a green roof. Or maybe not.

Madeleine: "Are you glad you had two kids?"

Me: "Of course. You and Eitan are the joy of our life."

Madeleine: "Did you want a third kid?"

Me: "We thought about it I suppose. Are you happy to have me as your dad?"

Madeleine: "Well, I guess if I didn't have you some other dad might not let me have a dog."

Eitan reads a harvest-day verse to the entire school. We find out a day or two later when he looks up from his plate to fill us in on a few scanty details. How honoured, dear reader, are we to know at all.

Dog names contemplated by the family: Chester, Morris, Skud, Rusty, Dash, Ziggy, Don't-Shit-On-The-Carpet (mine), Waldo, Copper, Sipper, Makee (sp?), Mac Attack, Get-Out-Of-Bed-And-Take-The-Dog-Out (Sonnet), Marmaduke and Oscar. There are quite a few more but these are the ones that made it to a vote.

Tunnel & Tommy

Showing the world Europe can still do something with its hands and following 14 years of drilling, Switzerland builds the world’s longest rail tunnel - pictured. The Swiss tunnel's 34 miles cuts straight through the Alps. It is about 2.5 miles longer than the previous record tunnel in Japan. Unfortunately for those around and nearby, today's completion only the first stage of the project which includes more .. tunnels. And is not expected to be completed for maybe, like, 7 years. Designed primarily for large freight traffic, the tunnel will reduce travel time across the mountains and speed up commerce and trade. The trip from Zurich to Milan, for instance, now one hour faster. The project employed 2,500 diggers moving enough dirt and rock to build five of the Egyptian Pyramids.

Madeleine: "Dad do you think it is possible to dress Tommy up?

Me: "Sure. What would you dress Tommy up in?"

Madeleine: "I don't know. Do you think Tommy a Vampire Hamster?"

Me:

Madeleine: "For Halloween. Maybe I will dress him up as a Vampire Hamster."

Me: "Well that would be original."

Madeleine: "Would it? Why would it be original?"

Me: "Nobody has done it before."

Madeleine: "Really? We can make a web site about it. Do you want to hold it?"

Me: "I'm busy."

Madeleine: "Dad: serious question. Who do you like more, Tommy or the computer?"

Me:

Madeleine: "I knew it! You like the computer more don't you dad?"

Me:

Photo of the Swiss Tunnel from the AP.

Teacher Reviews+Butthead

And so yes - Friday again.

We have the parent-teacher conferences yesterday and both Eitan and Madeleine do fine. Mrs. Q, Madeleine's teacher, says that Madeleine is great at her times tables, has good ideas for story-writing, has improved her ability to develop story-lines and loves art. She shows us a hand crafted Tudor chair made with styrofoam, fabric and sparkles. Fabulous. We are delighted with Madeleine's progress.

Eitan's teacher, Mr P, is new to the school, from Ireland, and looks exactly like Butthead from 'Beavis & Butthead.' Seriously. Tall and unusually thin. Long narrow head slightly larger at the top, cropped black hair+large lower lip. Do a Google. Eitan tells us that the boys try to get him to say "third" because Mr P's accent says "turd." Yet P instills our confidence as he rattles through a check list of Eitan's accomplishments - he takes a particular interest Eitan's literary abilities which is P's favorite subject. Eitan may not be the class leader, we learn, but he is confident and independent - I think too early to call him a geek but that is there too.

As for Butthead in "Beavis & Butthead," Butthead wears dental braces has squinty eyes and a drooping nose with prominent nostrils. His top gums exposed due to a small upper lip and he speaks nasally with a deep voice and a slight lisp. He begins almost every statement with "Uhhhhhh..." and ends with his short trademark laugh "Uh huh huh huh". Calmer, though cockier, and marginally more intelligent than Beavis, Butt-head is oblivious to subtlety of any sort and is usually 100% confident in everything he says and does no matter how ridiculous or frivolous it is—unless it has to do with females, in which case he either wavers or comes on too strongly. His trademark phrase when approaching women is "hey baby". As the more dominant personality of the duo it seems he derives pleasure from regularly abusing Beavis. It is a total cap on the suburban teenager.

NYC Subway

Katie brings back wonderful memories of commuting to work in the Big Apple with her photo she sends me. My first year in New York I caught the "F" train from Greenwich Village up 6th Avenue to the 50th and Park Avenue station and the Mighty First Boston (Park Avenue Plaza - 55 East 52nd Street). Sometimes I got a seat but usually standing room only. Funny how I recall my very first day of work with Erik who "moood" like a cattle as we shuffled along the platform towards the exit - nobody paid him no mind. That would have been August 1989 after our 10-week "training" program meant to turn us into Financial Analysts or Investment Bankers or whatever we were meant to be. Underpaid whipping boys, mostly. But I guess it got us somewhere.

Here is the raw data from Wiki: The NY Subway is one of the oldest and most extensive public transportation systems in the world, with 468 stations in operation (423 if stations connected by transfers are counted as a single station); 229 miles of routes, translating into 656 miles of revenue track; and a total of 842 miles including non-revenue trackage. Much bigger than the Underground. In 2009, the subway delivered over 1.579 billion rides, averaging over five million on weekdays, 2.9 million on Saturdays, and 2.2 million on Sundays. The New York City Subway trails only Tokyo's, Moscow's and Seoul's subways in annual ridership and carries more passengers than all other rail mass transit systems in the US combined. It is one of the four systems, with PATH, parts of the Chicago 'L', and PATCO to offer service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London.”

--Bette Midler

Tiffen School

Eitan and I check out the Tiffen School in Kingston - chemistry lab pictured (do note the flames originating from the boy's hands). Tiffen the best grammar school in our area and, indeed, one of the country's very best schools: the Head Teacher tells us Tiffen "inside Britain's Top-5 state schools" based on test scores while sending a fifth of its kids to "Oxbridge." Tiffen is also free, making it very dear: 1,400 applications chase 140 spots. We enjoy our grounds tour led by a confident 8th grader named "Kush" whose parents immigrated from some obscure part of India. Kush's dream is to read maths at Oxford or Cambridge and Eitan mortified when I ask Kush if he knows 8 x 7. Just testing. I notice that there are plenty of Indian students while all the kids delightfully awkward and goofy with bad skin, untucked shirts and unpolished shoes (I tell Eitan that if he goes to Tiffen he doesn't have to comb his hair). This nothing like St Paul's or the Hampton School where those boys blue blood and polished. Eitan and I discuss the differences between public and state schools and I note that while the publics might have better facilities and teacher-student ratios, they may fail to offer a fair cross section of society and could miss the most interesting people. This my experience at Berkeley High School anyway - my friends from then generally more interesting than the Ivy League. To hand, the "Head Boy" who addresses the auditorium remarkable - poised, confident, white and a strong jawline. We are all relieved I am sure.

While Eitan duly impressed by Tiffen he notes that it lacks one critical ingredient: football. This is a rowing and rugby place.

Really, Dad, Everything Is OK

Madeleine insists everything under control as she leaves for an after-school play date with Molly even though I do not know Molly's address or the pick-up coordination. Once sorted, we have a good chuckle together over this photo as we walk off the school playground.

You Cheer, Girl

My London friends don't quite 'get' the American cheerleader. I can understand this - cheerleaders are so, well, in your face and all. So not British. No other sport - or country - presents the supporting staff in a similar, patronising, sexist fashion. Love it. Cheer leading began, dear reader, in 1898 when Johnny Campbell convinced a crowd at the University of Minnesota to chant "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!” Today, All-Star Cheer Leading attracts 1.5 million participants a year. Outside the USA, ESPN International started broadcasting cheer leading from 1997 and the 2000 film "Bring It On" increased the sport's exposure further yet. Today, Newsweek reports, there are 100,000 cheerleaders scattered around world in places like Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and, yes, even the United Kingdom.

I am reminded of cheerleaders watching the Colts vs. the Chiefs on ESPN North America. These gals are professionals - adding glitz and glam to the brutal sport of American football. Don't you doubt it for a moment. Both cheerleader and player practice patterns and set plays; each wear colourful, tight-fitting, costumes. Sonnet and I went to the Cal-Washington game at Memorial Stadium when first dating in '93 - it was her second football game. Our seats in the Huskies' section about twenty rows from the pom poms. Sonnet was bemused. She thought they were "perky." But then Sonnet fails to understand football anyways or why I stay up after-hours listening to Cal on the Internets pulling my hair out and cursing under my breath. Maybe it's a guy thing.

Speaking of cheer leading, nothing from the sidelines helps KPR as Eitan's Blues lose to AC Fulham, 1-6. Ours the first goal scored but Fulham runs away with it. Eitan in a blue funk afterwards. In fairness, ACF is the feeder club for Fulham FC which is 10th in the Premier League.

"Woo hoo!"

--Sonnet at the Cal-Washington game, autumn 1993

Photo from NFL.com

Painting

Marcus and Madeleine paint the Tudors (homework assignment) while I sweep the backyard (housework assignment). They have a great time chit-chatting and working away. Madeleine decides it would be nice to have a sleep-over and I give in following her two-hour campaign. Both kids squeal. We order pizza. They squeal. We watch Home Alone #2 - squeal! Meanwhile Sonnet with Eitan at a swimming gala - they catch the team bus to Watford - she texts me that the boy's goggles come off during his breast stroke race and the relay comes in last. Poor kid.

Madeleine: "Did you know that dogs only see in black and white?"

Marcus: "Maybe a little purple or something .. "

Madeleine: "So a Dalmatian could see itself perfectly. If it was looking in the mirror that is."

Madeleine: "We have to see an ancient Tudor outhouse."

Me: "An outhouse? You have to see an outhouse for school?"

Madeleine: "An alms house. Really, dad, you can't hear anything."

Home Improvement - Richmond Palace

I wake up - Saturday! - with my mile-long to-do list from taking Eitan to football to replacing the key-hole on the front door. In between I replace an electrical socket, untangle a shower hose, hang the kitchen clock, rake some leaves and sand down the bottom of a door which was scratching the hallway floor. I like doing this stuff, all by 3PM, when Marcus comes over to join Madeleine for some homework on the Tudors. We are off to the Richmond Museum, which is a couple of rooms above the local library. I learn a lot about the area including Richmond Palace which is no longer with us.

The Richmond Palace once a Thameside royal residence, 9 miles SW of the Palace of Westminster, and built around 1501 inside the royal manor of Sheen, by King Henry VII, formerly known by his title Earl of Richmond, after which the palace named. It was occupied by royalty until 1649. It replaced a former palace, itself built on the site of a royal Manor House. In 1500, immediately preceding the construction of the new "Richmond" Palace the following year, the town of Sheen which had grown up around the royal manor changed its name to "Richmond", by command of Henry VII. The 2 names continue to cause confusion since today's districts called "East Sheen" and "North Sheen" are now under the administrative control of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, were never in ancient times within Sheen manor, but were rather carved out, in recent times, of what was formerly the ancient adjoining manor of Mortlake. Got that? Richmond remained part of the County of Surrey until the mid-1960s, when it was absorbed by the expansion of London.

The Richmond Palace met its end following Charles I's execution in 1650. Now there are houses, themselves dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, between Richmond Green and the River Thames while the street names provide evidence of a different world: Old Palace Lane, Old Palace Yard and The Wardrobe.

Madeleine: "Can we pop into the Party Palace?"

Me: "You want to pop into the Party Palace?"

Madeleine: "Yes, can we pop in?"

Me: "Ok, let's just pop in for a moment."

Madeleine: "Ok. Let's pop in."

Yap

Sonnet in action. We have weathered her return to the museum following the work sabbatical. No doubt it is hard to juggle work and home and she does a great job. We all work together.

Madeleine: "They're hugging!"

Me: "Are they smooching?"

Madeleine: "They are. In public! Quick dad - honk the horn at them."

Madeleine: "'Death And A Funeral' - do you think that's a good movie?"

Me: "What do you think it's about?"

Madeleine: "Er, dad, it is pretty obvious isn't it?"

Westminster Underground, 9:15AM

With my trusty blackberry camera, I photograph the underground where I may find sufficient light. The station one of 270 on 11 lines which transport 3.4 million passengers on any given work day, any time of year. The daily ridership record set in 2007 when over 1 billion passenger journeys were recorded, making it the third busiest metro after Paris and Moscow. The network is about 250 miles long and opened for business in 1863 - the first underground railway system in the world. Despite its name, 55% of the tracks are above ground. The escalators alone are special: they are some of the longest in Europe, each custom-built. The longest is at Angel station, 197 ft long, with a vertical rise of 90 ft. They run 20 hours a day, 364 days a year, with 95% of them operational at any one time, and can cope with 13,000 passengers per hour. (All data from Transport For London)

The Jubilee Line, where my picture taken, is the youngest line having begun operations in 1979. The tracks cover 22 miles from Stanmore to Straford. The Jubilee is considered a "deep level" tube bored using a tunnelling shield, run about 65 feet below the surface, with each track in a separate tunnel. The JL saw 127,584 thousand journeys last year. The stations structures support Portcullis House above us.

Whenever I am on the tube I think of the people who took shelter from the German bombers. That and people could smoke on the trains until '84.

Kunst Museum

I have a day trip to Copenhagen Wednesday and Madeleine amazed to learn it is for lunch (she: "That must be one expensive meal, isn't it dad?). I arrive an hour or so before my appointment and ask the taxi driver to take me to the Statens Museum of Kunst which is the National Gallery of Denmark. There is an exhibition on Bob Dylan's paintings "The Brazil Series" which I do not rate though I love Bob Dylan. Instead I head for The Masters and revisit some old friends including Ejnar Nielsen, Vilhelm Hammershoi, Edvard Munch, Ditlev Blunck and Georg Baselitz. Now that guy was sick. The pig is from a series of seven taken in the "experimental scene" (I think they mean gallery or zone) for contemporary art. I am home in time for dinner and Madeleine shakes her head: all the way to Denmark for lunch.

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."

--Bob Dylan

River Sunset

Another bridge at sunset - this time, the Blackfriars Bridge again. I often contemplate taking my camera whenever I go into town -- though refrain when meetings involved. It seems the sensible thing to be done. So today I am left with my blackberry. BTW I am pretty certain my eyeballs irreparably damaged from this shot.

London is still landscaped with construction despite the advanced stages of our recession. More worryingly, the new 50% tax rate and £25K charge on non-doms is having its impact: the money guys are moving to Switzerland or wherever. With immigration caps, this does not bode well for the the City and its tax dollars. The developers, one would think, would take note. I am on the sixth floor of 12 Cannon St the other day seated across the street from a massive, generic and unattractive glass-steel new-build that I can look straight through - a million square feet and nobody to party. At the same time I watch the "Shard" go up in the London Bridge quarter - it will soon be Europe's tallest at 80 stories. I would never suggest London another Dubai but who would have thought Ireland or Greece or Iceland?

The Wobbly Bridge

The sun sets between a cloud bank and the horizon making for an unusually brilliant backdrop. Most commuters paid me (and my blackberry camera) no mind but several did give me a wary eye. And now they are on my blog. We are looking northwards at St Paul's crossing the Millennium Bridge.

The MB cost about £18 million to build and mostly paid for by the millennium commission and the London Bridge Trust. It opened on 10 June 2000. Unexpected lateral vibration (resonant structural response) caused the bridge to be closed on 12 June for modifications. Attempts were made to limit the number of people crossing the bridge: this led to long queues, but damped neither public enthusiasm for what was something of a white-knuckle ride, nor the vibrations themselves. The closure of the bridge three days after opening attracted public criticism, as another high-profile British millennium project suffered an embarrassing setback. Example A: the Millennium Dome. Modifications eliminated the wobble which has not recurred since the bridge reopened in February 2002.

The bridge's movements were caused by a 'positive feedback' phenomenon, known as Synchronous Lateral Excitation. The natural sway motion of people walking caused small sideways oscillations in the bridge, which in turn caused people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. Opening day saw 90,000 people, with up to 2,000 on the bridge at any one time - because the lateral motion caused the pedestrians loading the bridge to directly participate with the bridge, the vibrational modes had not been anticipated by the designers. The lateral vibration problems of the Millennium Bridge are unusual, but not entirely unique - the greater the number of people, the greater the amplitude of the vibrations. Exhibit B, C and D: the Birmingham NEC Link bridge, the Groves Suspension Bridge in Chester; and the Auckland Harbour Road Bridge -- all collapsed, sometimes spectacularly.

The MB fixed by the retrofitting of 37 fluid-viscous dampers (energy dissipating) to control horizontal movement and 52 tuned mass dampers (inertial) to control vertical movement. This took six months and cost £5m. The MB re-opened on 22 February 2002 and has not been subject to significant vibration since. For Londoners, it is forevermore the "wobbly bridge."

(source: Wiki and various)

Saxaphone

I chat with this friendly musician crossing the Thames on the Waterloo Bridge. He is thrilled to know David and Josh play the tenure saxaphone and cracks into a wide smile when we find something of mutual interest.

The Tube on strike so I find myself walking (and grumbling) from Green Park to Buckingham Palace then Parliament and Big Ben and finally alongside the river next to the Southbank Center, Tate Modern and the Millennium ridge which I cross towards St Paul's to arrive at a restaurant on High Timber Street. I take London for granted most of the time but, as the sunsets, despite the striking Underground, I appreciate this remarkable place.

David, an attorney whom I have known since the go-go years, organises a dinner party for those of us interested in company-building and technology. It is an interesting group, too, which includes Richard, the founder of Razorfish; Mark, who is an operating partner at Silver Lake which owns $14 billion of later stage tech growth equity; Rod, who sold his IT business to WPP last year; Andres, from Argentina and now a tech banker at Jeffries; and Hugo, Head of Policy & Commercial, BBC Future Media & Technology. It is a smart and engaging group in a way only the clever British can be. We discuss the usual reasons for why Europe lags the US re successful start-ups (fragmented market), venture capital (no NASDAQ) and entrepreneurs (culture, mentality; unclear road to riches). Europe, we agree, is capable of creating Hi Tech but unable to exploit it. Examples are Acorn Computers (losers to IBM and Apple); Autonomy (indexed search, loser to Google); Tim Bernards-Lee (HTML and the Internet, losers to, well, everybody). Yet there are success like Skype and Betfair, which my friend Josh founded in London since online gambling prohibited in the states - it will go public on the London Stock Exchange this month at a £2.5 billion valuation. Despite these exceptions only US seems capable, or wacky enough, to make the big bets pan out: Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, about every application on the iPad .. these companies are inspired. Europe would be a much better place if we could do the half of it.

The Tigers And A Dog Pledge

Eitan's KPR in action against the Twickenham Tigers, who are defeated 4-nil. Eitan scores his first goal of the season and sets up two more with lovely crosses. He is relieved to get on the board and the boys deserve to win against an enthusiastic but outmatched team. It pours rain so us dads are happy when the thing is over.

"They are acing it, these guys. Election Day is now only a month away. The demoralized Democrats are held hostage by the unemployment numbers. And along comes this marvelous gift out of nowhere, Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party everywoman, who just may be the final ingredient needed to camouflage a billionaires’ coup as a populist surge. By the time her fans discover that any post-election cuts in government spending will be billed to them, and not the Tea Party’s shadowy backers, she’ll surely be settling her own debts with fat paychecks from “Fox & Friends.”

--Frank Rich, NYT

Madeleine's "Dog Pledge", dated 26.9.2010, posted inside the kitchen cabinet.

1. I pledge to walk the dog

2. I pledge to give the dog a bath

3. I pledge to brush the dog

4. I pledge to pet the dop

5. I pledge to uphold the dog rules [a separate, executed, document dear reader]

6. Clear up all its poo when I am around

Madeleine signs, and I counter-sign, the paper.

10 Pack

I am on the Richmond High Street at 11PM in a torrential downpour. To be more specific: I am at McDonald's ordering McNuggets for the over-nighters. Richmond one of London's wealthiest suburbs yet you would never it know it given the riff raff I witness: kids stumbling through the street or hovering in doorways to escape the rain and drenched boozers smoking since they cannot do so inside. I can smell their beer breath. The entrance of McD's blocked by five teens smoking in my face: the boys in hoodies and girls in heels and micro minis all tarted up and no where to go. Inside is not much better. I sympathise with the cashiers who take grief from the customers including a drunk dude who complains about the speed of service since mine a large order. Everyone has to pick on someone I suppose. It is not worth my time to get in his face but I am sorely tempted.

The boys go lights out at 1AM. Sonnet makes one final check and finds Luke reading a book while the others spread on the carpet in their sleeping bags sound asleep. The TV still on.

The three layer "Devil's Chocolate Food Cake" with vanilla icing and twix bar candles, pictured, prepared by Eitan. Sparkles by Sonnet.

Eitan: "Shhh! Everybody be quiet so when mom comes in she thinks we are listening to her."

Party Gang

Missing from the photo is Joseph, who spent the night at hospital with asthma. He is doing fine and joins us for dinner. Madeleine does a good job being involved without being too involved. I know it is tough on her. I promise her that these things "all even out over time." That one gets a blank stare.

Pre Party

Eitan prepares gift bags for his party: hamburger yo-yo, check. Chocolate and sour sweats, check. A stretchy man and party popper, check, check, check. He is wearing his new sweater from Sonnet. The boys arrive shortly and the Big Strategy to take the little animals to the park for football and a good fagging out. Unfortunately it is raining.