Dano

I swam with Dano Halsall, pictured here at the '92 Barcelona Olympics, during my year in Switzerland (photo from Facebook). Dano is arguably the best swimmer Switzerland has ever produced despite not winning an Olympic medal (that honour went to Etienne Dagon, another team-mate on Geneve Natation 1885, who took bronze in the 200 meter breast-stroke at the '84 Los Angeles games, becoming Switzerland's first medal earner in the sport). Dano was Swiss-Caribbean and his reflexes lightening; in truth, he may have been a better runner where his athletic expression less encumbered by technique. I recall like yesterday watching him set the 100 meter freestyle World Record in a short-course (25 meter) pool in 1984. His time of 48.91 was the first under 49 seconds and he had the small, crowded venue on its feet screaming. Wow. (Matt Biondi clocked a 48.95 for the 100 meter freestyle to become the first under 49 seconds in a long-course or 50 meter pool with two fewer flip-turns. He did this at the August 6, 1985, USA summer Nationals)(Unfortunately, short-course World Records maintained from 1993 so I do not have the progression of Dano's record.)

Dano rose to top of world swimming in its marquee event on July 21, 1985, at the Swiss Nationals in Bellinzona. On that day he swam 50 meters long-course in 22.52 breaking Robin Leamy's World Record which had stood nearly four years. He kept it until the great Tom Jager of the US went 22.40 later in the year. Dano remains the only Swiss swimmer to hold a World Record.

Dano was a cool cat when I knew him. He had a girlfriend and lots of flirtations on the side; he smoked a fag every now and again and enjoyed Geneva's night scene (such as it was). He was also a gorgeous dude - beautiful in and out of the pool. As a youngster it was hard not to be caught up in his aura but he was a full 4 years older than my 16 and had other fish to fry. Plus he was a sprinter and hardly seemed to work out - he was rarely at the morning practices and I think this caused some tension with the coach. In the end, though, so what? He accomplished his goals and took many of us with him for a great ride. The last time I saw Dano was at Senior Nationals in '84 when he and l'equippe Suisse in Los Angeles in preparation for the Olympic games.

God Bless America

American independence means something a little different for these Brits and, I assure you, ours the only house with the stars and stripes. I do miss the BBQ, corn and beer and softball+long week end, which is what we would be doing somewhere if in the United States, may God bless her. We might be in the Sierras, for instance, which is where my parents are now. Or New Yawk with Katie sitting on her roof deck or jogging around Central Park. Or maybe Bronxville with Aunt Marcia. All nice possibilities. Instead, Sonnet returns from a school camping over-night where Madeleine suffers hay-fever keeping her and Sonnet up all-night. They return exhausted and the poor dears sleep all afternoon despite the pristine weather. Otherwise I have had the boy to myself which means we sit around watching the World Cup and eating desert in the living which we otherwise are not allowed to do under punishment of death. Eitan up two or three hours past his bedtime and so what? It's summer. This morning we have chocolate cake for breakfast. In truth, we enjoy being mano-a-mano and the gals early return, well, an encroachment on our space.

My favorite amendment to the United States Constitution (also known, dear reader, as The Bill of Rights) is Amendment X: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." This states that, unless prohibited elsewhere, you can do what ever the f--- you want. Amendment X, more than anything else, establishes the spirit of our nation.

Summer Skin

For one month of the year Londoners, oddly, shed their inhibitions and strip to the bare minimum. Men show their man boobs and pale white skin; women hike their skirt and present their bra with the aim of bronzing themselves. All this in the smart part of town. During lunch hour. In the middle of the work week. 

Mind you, these same people spend the rest of year trying to conceal their wobbly bits and otherwise seem embarrassed by their bodies. Britain missed Jane Fonda and aerobics and all that and when I arrived in '97 gym memberships a rarity let alone bottled water (I reviewed a consumer water investment for Botts which I rejected; after my departure the firm waded into the industry and lost its shirt). 

In most European countries, Ireland excluded thank goodness, exposure taken for granted and, well, considered part of being European. Topless beaches the norm; women seem comfortable with themselves. So why different here? Well, firstly, the weather mostly pretty bad then the world's best by Wimbledon. 

The extremes stimulate a certain desire for display: no sun then sun burn. The media plays its role to, of course - programs like "How To Look Good Naked" teach us to loath what we have and then flaunt it when we can. Advertising. Madeleine announces the other week that she is fat.

London no different from any other Big City - I recall NY's 'Sheep's Meadow' which is café flesh by July or August. What makes London's summers unusual that the British are so not about display. Everything understated: slanders never obvious; privates should remain so. Public displays for the holidays abroad (Barcelona has introduced clothing guidelines for its tourists. Read: the English). And yet here we are, oggling each other in Regent's Park.

Young people, no doubt, changing the culture. By summer they arrive in hordes from Australia, Europe, everywhere with their back-backs and travel passes heading for Bayswater and Queensway where they congregate in Hyde Park then the pubs and disco's. They are out for fun and to see the world - London is a top destination because, well, it is London. They push the boundaries. Ultimately it is the yuf, more than anything else, that sets the pace for the rest of us. We should go with it.

Football Pencil

I teach Eitan a game I played in grade school - table football. The objective is to scoot the paper 'football' across the table getting a piece over the edge - seven points. If the 'ball' goes over the side, the opponent gets a crack at a field goal - 3 points. A field goal scored through the opponents upheld fingers (goal posts) while the 'kick' a flick of the middle finger. In fifth and sixth grade we spent hours doing this instead of .. school. Could this explain something? Another popular game was 'pencil' where the objective to break the other's instrument. This was done by 'cocking' the wood, held in one hand and pulled back the other, then bringing it down with a loud crack upon contact. Every pencil a different challenge: a No. 2 the bread-and-butter of the game but then there was "the chubby" (an over-sized wood surprisingly weak given its size) and the No. 2.5 (stronger lead and a bit firmer in the center). We broke hundreds of pencils on the bus ride to school or on the playground or back of the class. The teachers hated it of course - but what could they do? Destructive little dudes were we.

Sonnet takes Madeleine to a school camping trip while Eitan off to a go-cart party. I have the afternoon to myself, wow. I am watching Wimbledon and blogging; maybe I will do some watering and take a nap later this afternoon. Liking this.

Friday Peace

My favorite time of the week is Friday, 8:15PM to 9PM when Eitan finishes swim practice. I drop the boy off at the Putney pool then go for a run on the Thames towpath crossing the river at the Hammersmith Bridge then scooting along the north side including my favorite quarter-mile bend at Fulham where old maples provide cover over the embankment. I thread my way through several council estates and luxury condos, by pubs, a tennis grounds and grassy parks; I pass the River Cafe, one of London's finest restaurants, and the Fulham football stadium. Putney is home to several rowing clubs and a downward slope offers water access- this is where the Oxford-Cambridge race begins. While there are always people - joggers, cyclists, couples or gossiping teenagers smoking fags on a park bench - there are also long stretches of serenity. The late sunset allows me to finish well before dark and afterwards I watch Eitan lap away. I bring an extra Lacoste and towel+my blackberry so I can read the gossips or write emails. Then home, a drink, and late dinner with Sonnet.

In its natural state, the Thames would have been very different - a shallow, meandering stream flowing through a wide bed of river gravels below Richmond Hill not far from us. Following summer storms and winter rains this area would easily flood. Torrents of water would fill the river, spilling across an extensive floodplain of marsh, reed bed and swamp extending inland for many miles. It is believed that a series of 'falls' or rapids were present at Teddington, Glover's Ait and Isleworth.

As human habitation spread, the Thames slowly changed. Wetlands were drained and the river corridor was 'canalised' or narrowed to allow navigation to take place. This caused the tide to extend much further upstream than was natural. Agriculture thrived on the rich soils and more recently large areas of the floodplain were built on. As the river changed wildlife slowly adapted to these artificial environments finding new niches to thrive in. Today, although almost entirely man-made, the river corridor provides some of the best environments in London for a wide diversity of wildlife to flourish.

Rich Man, Poor Man

I will lead a story in Madeleine's class about.. money, which the kids are studying. Madeleine has been full of ideas including a story about "a rich man and a poor man and being famous." I encourage her to write a script for our performance (she has agreed to be my under-study) and so she scribbles away. After school I to take her to costume shop "Party Palace" so she can be a 'wealthy man,' pictured, 100% her interpretation. She wears Eitan's jacket which gets a rise from the boy until I remind him that he hates it. He ponders the dilemma. Lest this seems like an inappropriate use of classroom time, I speak to Madeleine's teacher and we come up with a plan consistent with the children's lessons. No doubt I will improvise.

Me: "What lesson should our story tell?"

Madeleine: "Why you shouldn't have too much pocket money then you can be greedy. "

Me: "Great, what else?"

Madeleine: "We can pretend you are my dad, which you are, and you give me some money. I go to the candy store and spend it. Then I come back [to class] and you give me a lesson about not spending all my allowance. And then I am not spoiled. How about that?"

Madeleine, cheerfully: "Dad I've got the things I am going to pretend to buy."

Madeleine shows me a nutra-grain bar honey, a candy bar filled with tissue ("do you think there is chocolate inside?") and a box of sugar.

Me: "You go for it."

July Smile

And somehow we are into the second half of the year. An examination so far feeds back a rather dull time - there are some good highlights like California and the last two weeks with CW, Mike and Andrea or Eitan's football season and Madeleine's trumpet. Sonnet's work sabbatical of course. Our garden. On the flip side, there is not much business as private equity fund-raising down 70% in Europe and probably same or worse in the United States. I keep myself occupied with Industry Ventures and the occasional secondary transaction: when times are tough, investors want liquidity which is what a secondary firm provides. The secondary pricing volatility interesting though: last year, nobody wanted to own private equity because of the leverage. Now, the secondary buyers are back but, since so much money raised by secondary funds, they compete and drive prices to levels where it becomes difficult to make a decent return. Once a secondary a clever trade but now anybody selling a position over $15 or $20 million will use a broker who puts together a book. Not great for the buyer. Industry Ventures does well because they concentrate on venture and do smaller positions. Few have their expertise nor wish to spend time on deals less than $5, the firm's bread and butter transaction. Given the ten-year life (plus two-year extensions) there is still plenty to buy from '00, or the worst VC vintage on record.

Mike Andrea

The last time Mike and Andrea and our families together was in Provence. Only that was before we had a family - Eitan and Madeleine yet a blink in the mind's eye. Their oldest, Oscar, was two and I still recall what a cute kid he was - fascinated by a toy red double-decker bus which I brought him as a gift: it is forevermore is "the crazy bus." Now Oscar is 12 and would probably die to see his name in my blog. Mike and I went to Berkeley High together then college on the East Coast, where he met, and courted, Andrea - Sonnet and I at their wedding in '94, for sure dude. Today Mike practices law with Tyler. Despite our history, we got to know each other as adults on the Norcal trails - Mike completed the '93 San Francisco marathon with Adam, Christian and Chip, who is no longer with us. The race notable for many reasons but especially Bill Vaughan, the co-creator of PowerBar - Bill was founding his next product, the sports gel GU, in the basement of his house where it was mixed in the sink by the washing machine. Probably not approved by the FDA then. The day before the marathon Bill loaded up the guinea pigs with GU and sent them on their merry way or, in this case, to the Golden Gate Bridge for the start (GU is now a multi-million dollar operation and beloved by endurance athletes around the world). Of course nobody can out-clever 26-miles and our lads may have been a tad thrown off by a new supplement the day of the race. I recall Mike and Adam struggling on the back-half while Adam's berry flavor looked surprisingly like blood when splattered down his shirt and leg. As for the rest: results mixed though everybody finished one way or the other. The race's conclusion, a lap around the old Kaiser Stadium track, a nice touch.

I was inspired by San Francisco and so began my love affair with the marathon. It remains a physical test I have yet to surmount - my eye has been on sub-three for fifteen years. Shortly after SF, I ran Sacramento in '94 (bonk at mile-23; time of 3 hours and 41 minutes); New York in '96 (bonk at 24; 3:24); and London in '98 (bonk at 25; 3:11). Last year I did London again (DNC) and Berlin in October (bonk at .. 13; who knows the time?). I might finally be at the point of of saying: "never again."

Me: "Eitan why don't you stop sitting there and make yourself useful."

Eitan: "I am being useful. I'm singing. I'm breathing. I'm living."

Me:

Eitan: "I'm multi-tasking."

Wimbledon

Here's a quick shot from Center Court featuring Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, who wins in straight sets; I also watch Roger Federer and Andy Murray take out Jurger Melzer and Sam Querrey, respectively, in straight sets. Federer does not break a sweat. In short, this a great day with lovely breezes keeping us cool despite the cloudless sky and summer temperatures. I am the guest of Barry, who I have invested with in several funds.

Mike and Andrea hit London's Big Spots including the Trafalgar Square, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's on the Field and St James's Park and the Churchill Bunker followed by Big Ben then the London Eye. This is the best way to see the capital - on foot, with an agenda. Mike is good at this. They get home around 10PM to find us sound asleep.

On Wireless Charging

PowerKiss, a Finnish company, recently launched a line of products with small receivers that plug into handheld devices (the Ring) and an electrical transmitter built into a piece of furniture (the Heart), pictured. When a device is placed on the table it charges wirelessly by using a resonating field induction that creates an electromagnetic field around the Heart transmitter. The Ring receiver adapts the current produced by the field to the requirements of the mobile device. Induction of this kind has a short range so the transmitter and receiver must be close together.

Arthur and I, on a long London walk, once discussed whether a wireless charge would one day be possible. He noted this impossible since a charge must be transferred via a conducting path of some sort. Here is what he says about PowerKiss:

"This is a clever idea and I wonder if it will really take off. You have to convince people to buy the receiver thingie. And you have to convince furniture manufacturers to build the wires into the furniture! I think when we talked about this previously, the idea was whether you could "beam" energy around across distances and that turns out to be very difficult. Radar dishes and lasers do indeed beam energy from one place to another, but it's hard to recover the energy and use it at the other end. And a person who gets in the way suffers bad side effects like cancer or just getting burned.

What they're doing here is putting you and your electronics inside a big electric field. Maybe a little bit analogous with those wires they bury in the asphalt at intersections to detect when cars are stopped at the lights, or your electric toothbrush which charges when you put it in the stand. I'm surprised they can get enough energy into the little receiver to charge a phone. Maybe over a long period of time you can charge it.

We're not talking about a lot of energy to run a phone (as evidenced by the tiny battery).

"

Kidz

Madeleine: "You're going to court? What did you do wrong?"

Me: "I am going to a tennis court. For Wimbledon."

Madeleine: "Why are you wearing long pants?"

Me:

Madeleine: "Aren't you playing?"

Me:

Madeleine: "Once, on television, I saw two football players in a match. And they kissed afterwards."

Me:

Madeleine: "Don't do anything silly, dad."

Sonnet: "Yes, don't do anything that might embarrass the family."

Inglorious Defeat

England crashes out 4-1 against Germany, breaking the country's heart. The team never comes together despite its talent scoring three goals in six hours on the pitch. We debate why the national team is so disappointing given the quality of the Premier League, which is the most funded in the world. Players earn £90,000 a week so one argument is that they don't give a hoot beyond their club teams. Or perhaps the best players like Beckham and Rooney and Gerard and Lampard are stars on their team but do not know how to play together- there can be only one prima donna per squad. Me, I think it runs more deeply: England's expectations are so high that they can only disappoint. The players and all involved know this and deliver.

Knock Out

We sit around the television anxiously watching England vs. Germany in the first moments of the knock-out round. Eitan: "The tension is unbearable," which become our mantra.

Eitan: "I wish the players had head phones so they could hear the commentary and do all the stuff they say."

All Whites

Christian has been with us this past week, which has been a joy. Yesterday we are joined by Mike and Andrea and their three kids including Oscar, who I first met in Provence when he was two years old. That was nearly ten years ago. Now he is almost a teen-ager and a baker with a specialty, he tells me, of chocolate muffins. Here we prepare for the USA vs. Ghana match, which the Americans end up losing in extra-time 2-1. Meanwhile is anybody aware that David Cameron announced his first budget? He calls for an increase in taxes and slashing of public services in an attempt to reduce the national deficit by £128 billion. Yep, an age of austerity. Britain's approach the opposite of the US, which spends into Already the unions are lining up for battle - we anticipate strikes at best, civil unrest at worst. Look at Greece.

Spain Scores

I ask Eitan to step outside for a moment to take a photo for this blog while Spain plays Chile. He notes seriously "I will kill you if there is a goal" and, sure enough, as soon as he is outside the view of the television - gooooaaalll to Spain ! The hand of God, dude. We re-create the moment, pictured.

The kids have a sporty afternoon at the "Motivate Competition" in Twickenham at St Mary's University. The top four boys and girls chosen from years 3 and 4 and Eitan and Madeleine on the team. Madeleine wins the sprint and Eitan takes the top spot in the sprint and the "long distance" quarter mile with 15 runners where, he explains: "I was last at the start, when every one was pushing me. Then I overtook everyone and then I won." Very matter of fact, the boy. Afterwards around 7:30PM the tired, red-cheeked, crew arrives home for pepperoni pizza - Madeleine is very sad as Marcus has a birthday sleep-over and Madeleine left out since no girls. The boys tease her on the playground.

Meanwhile, I run around these past few days with Hans from Industry Ventures meeting investors and sniffing for deals. Hans buys venture assets in the secondary market which usually means the counter-party needs to sell as typically a discount is applied to the seller's assets. It requires a certain amount of ruthlessness and Hans is charming like a snake - this has allowed him to attract almost $500 million in less than five years. I admire Hans - he is a dude who makes money. As I get older I appreciate this is a special kind of person. I met him when he had $25.

Louise & Izzy

We have Louise and her boyfriend Izzy over to dinner with Christian and Sonnet's friend and work colleague Oriel. I met Louise, via Duane, in February at her fashion show in Covent Garden and we have talked a few times about ways to commercialise her runway success beyond Top Shop. In short, fashion design is a tough business. She tells me when 16 and considering university, it was going into knits or physics. Izzy, meanwhile, is a big-bearded dude from Croatia who splits his time between New York and London managing a handful of up-and-coming or established 'head-banger' bands; he does this in partnership with Sony and knows his way around the music business. We have a few references in common from the summer I spent at EMI Music while at Columbia Business. In 1996 nobody talking about the Internet. Life was good. Life was great! Back then it was a good business to be in since the record labels vertically integrated. By the late 1980s there were tens of hundreds of platinum records (500,000 sold per year). Say good-bye to all that, boy. In 2009, there were nine platinum albums. When Napster and free-downloading arrived, music fans could give a rat's ass about the legality of piracy. Most young people have never paid for a record. There's the future of the industry, dude. The model remains muddled while live performance ever more important - which is Izzy's business.

Summer Fun

Who can forget a hot day and the backyard hose? We used to have water fights with our neighbors, the Prices, when we lived on San Ramon.

Christian and I take Madeleine to school (Eitan earlier for choir). I propose to their teachers that we take the kids out 30 minutes early to watch the World Cup. I am sent to the school secretary who notes, cryptically: "I am not sure how that will go down." She does not smile. Yet I sense a vacuum of authority which shall be exploited for the benefit of CW, the children and England. Game time BTW is 3PM sharp and Christian and I prepare ourselves for another "colossal English collapse which will leave the nation in mourning" he says. Sounds about right. Still, we have hope: Eitan has run the scenarios and to reach the knock-out round England must (A) win or (B) draw while the US loses. Come on, England.

Christian and I spend yesterday in Mayfair where I have a meeting then St James's Park. We have a picnic lunch and recline in lounge chairs on a beautiful summer's day. I make a few phone calls to keep in honest, then say good-bye so he can spend the afternoon buying English football gear, have a drink at Dukes then meet his Aunt and her husband for dinner. We re-union at 10PM for a night cap.

Iris

Christian, Madeleine and I stroll Richmond Park late Sunday afternoon eventually finding a favorite spot - the Isabella Plantation. The area, in the smack middle of the park, is a 1950's woodland garden planted in once marshy land and now an immense canvas bursting with white, yellow, pink, red and purple petals. The flowers are at their peak at the end of April/beginning of May so we may have missed the best but here I snap a friendly iris who seems to say 'hello, summer.' Silver would be enraptured.

Isabella has 15 known varieties of deciduous azalea and houses the national collection of 50 Kurume Azaelas, introduced to the west around 1920s. There are also 50 different species of rhododendron and 120 hybrids. In spring, we see camellias, magnolias, as well as daffodils and bluebells. From late April, the azaleas and rhododendrons are in flower. In summer, there are displays of Japanese irises and day lilies. By autumn, guelder rose, rowan and spindle trees are loaded with berries and leaves on the acer trees are turning red. Even in winter, the gardens have scent and colour. There are early camellias and rhododendron, as well as mahonia, winter-flowering heathers and stinking hellebore. Madeleine heads straight for a well-know spot.

Cool Hand Luke

David in his backyard in Bath. For the past several years David has served as a Senior Special Advisor to Foreign Secretary David Milliband. Before government, he gave advice to some of the smartest hedge fund guys on the planet, something he has returned to following the recent elections with Labour out of power. But hold on: it is not unreasonable to consider that Milliband may one day head his party - these discussions are going on real-time with Super Gee stepping down in autumn - and, should Labour win the next general elections, well, my friend might have an inside seat at the Big Show.

"Well, if you saw him it would be a big crush. I mean, he is so vibrant, vital, attractive, smart. He's really a good guy. And he is so young!"

--Hillary Clinton on David Milliband, who is 17 years her junior. November, 2009

Fireworks

Fireworks from David/Tab's tenth anniversary party. Bam! Boom! Pow!

England's mood dour following Friday's nil-nil tie with Algeria, a team we should have beaten handily. To make matters worse, John Terry, the defensive backbone of the squad and formerly England's captain until demoted by England coach Fabio Capello for shagging his best-mate and fellow England player Wayne Bridge's girlfriend. Terry being married himself, you see. Wayne Bridge promptly quit international football and who can blame him? Terry would seem to have an axe to grind with Coach and declares that the England players may mutiny under Capello's leadership (Capello recently inking a £4.8 million multi-year salary to coach the squad). Only most of the players think Terry speaking out of turn and not on behalf of the team; besides, Stevie Gee wear the captain's band following Rio Ferdinand's freak accident the first day in South Africa. The press having a field-day with our lads' under-achievement and general weepiness - Eitan's Blues show more spirit than this team so far. Still, with a victory - one simple victory - over Slovenia Wednesday and all wrongs forgotten in the knock-out stage of the finals. Come on, England, let us see some fireworks!

Today is the summer solstice.