Game Day

Eitan all business before Hampton's home match against Wilson's in Surrey (this my first Hampton game btw and I am told by Eitan "to not do anything embarrassing". As if). The lads arrive in school uniform so change while the Dads chit chat about their boy's football talents - this as ever before.  Hampton win 5-1.

I am happy to be home from Zurich given a foot of snow on the departing side and flights cancelled. A highlight the Zunfthaus zur Waag, a restaurant in the 'old town' where I have the Zürcher Kalbsgeschnetzeltes mit/ohne Kalbsnieren und Butterrösti which is slaced veal, "Zurich style," with calf’s kidneys and “Rösti”.  My guests (a large pe investor and a limited partner in Astorg) and I discuss the usual topics : investment, tax, regulation . .. corruption, which is rare in private equity, perhaps surprising given the opaque nature of the industry.  Contrast this to hedge funds, like SAC, which, in theory, are transparent, investing in public stocks, and yet rocked by insider trading.

Madeleine: "Hi, Dad."
Sonnet: "That's not a very enthusiastic way of greeting your father."
Me: "Didn't you miss me?"
Madeleine: "You were away ?"

Lake Zurich

Diving platform, winter

I am in Zurich today and tomorrow for meetings and, since my afternoon otherwise free, I take my camera for a jog by Lake Zurich. My taxi driver (who hates the mountains and the cold) tells me that the lake freezes  over - a quick web search indicates this has happened 25 times since 1200, most recently in 1962.

Switzerland about the cleanest, most efficient, place in Europe or any where : I recall Geneva: The trains run to the second; the airports, highways and rail networks connect seamlessly. The swiss pride their exactness.  Of course the sacrifice is the mad creative chaos that fuels many big cities : London's mixture of cultures, sub cultures, languages, food, traffic, newspapers, noise, discos, theatre and everything else is what makes it a thrilling place to be.

Red

Madeleine at football

Catherine Middleton pregnant which disrupts Sonnet's schedule as she was to spend the day showing the Duchess the Hollywood exhibition.

Me: "You know that I will be in Zurich tomorrow."
Eitan: "For how long?"
Me: "One night."
Eitan: "One night? What a waste of time."
Me: "What do you think I do - sit around the hotel and watch TV?"
Eitan: "I don't know .. .I guess."

Barking

The dog in the habit of, well, barking. Only problem is that he does so whenever let into the back-yard and, worse, the front when we go running often at 6AM.  The neighbours hate us (Sonnet hates Rusty).  A dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do.

Madeleine to receive her exam marks and is unusually quiescent on the upper deck of the 337.  I hold her hand part of the way (until someone she knows enters the bus); it is a quiet journey.

Sonnet and I to the Emanuel hill form drinks in Clapham.  I spend thirty minutes talking to Lillian, with slight moustache, unable to make chitter-chatter.  Sonnet informs me later that Lillian is deconstructing the human genome with a particular focus on understanding the DNA sequencing of lupus.  Probably a good thing we did not reach this topic. She also rides a motorcycle.

Ginger

Redhead at Waterloo Station

Here is the morning : rain. Madeleine and I out the door in a rush, 7AM, me without my keys. Aneta shows up at my office before lunch having locked herself out, no mobile phone (hair a mess). Sonnet forgets her mobile so I coordinate Eitan's commute home from school. As his mobile turned 'off' Sonnet calls the school. Touch and go.

Flickr Tweet

Eric Fischer's 'heat map' shows geotagged Flickr photos and Twitter Tweets. The orange dots are photos, the blue are Tweets, and white is both in the same location. The UK stands out for usage and density.

Hayward Gallery

Matilda

W'loo bridge facing West

We catch a train to Waterloo station and cross the similarly named bridge - pictured. Much more fun than driving.  We are again to Covent Garden this time to see the musical 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl. It is a wonderful adaptation, too, and a close mirror to the story right down to the character's appearances (in my imagination) including the perfect horrible Miss Trunchball, who is played with gruesome awesomeness by David Leanard : a highlight visual gag when Trunchball grabs an eight year-old by the pig tails and twirls her round then releases her into the audience. . . the kids howl with delight, as do we.

Afterwards we stumble upon food stalls behind The Hayward Gallery - a new thing, which offers some of the best creative new food in London.  We pick up some rice balls for the ride home and Sonnet buys salamis and cheese (I think fondly of Brown's "Silver Truck" where half the Freshman class lined up for an egg and steak sandwich at 3 or 4AM, post night out, lonely to bed)

Covent Garden Opera

Eitan orders a lemonade at the opera house

We join the Clarks at the Covent Garden opera house to see Donizetti's 'Elixir of Love' - the kids first full opera while Stan treated them to half of 'The Magic Flute' in Santa Fe. Ease them in, we all agree.  "Beautiful music in a grand setting" Sonnet says (she now sings una furtiba lacrima or 'the silent tear').  Michael (who gave us a tour of the Capital Building in DC when he was interning for Senator Shaheen) prepares his application for the Naval Academy. Since Michael aims for the Oval Office one day, and I think he will be a contender, he wants to beef up his military credentials. Smart kid.

Robot Love

Chrome Dinette a San Francisco synth band from the early 1980s or right about when I was tuning into music.  In 1982 they put out a 12” single (Robot Love and Can’t Live Without You) and tried to get a record contract. When the label didn’t come, the band broke up, never to be heard from again.

Chrome Dinette played Berkeley's long-gone Key Stone theatre, which I consider whenever driving along University Ave towards campus and my parent's house.  It was a big night when the band in town, across the bay, no ID for alcohol.  Robot Love a pretty good song, too, which holds up even now : there are traces of the Police's Zenyattà Mondatta or the Comateens.  But I was too young for permission to concerts so I listened to my friends' enthusiasms (they being sophomores and juniors in HS). Getting older couldn't come fast enough.

And now, thx to the Internets, I can listen to Chrome Dinette again. The music hasn't changed, either, but everything else has.

Sonnet, Friday night: "This is the centre of excitement. 45 York Avenue, rock'n out."

Run Eitan Run

1.5 Km course in Richmond Park near Pembroke Lodge

Eitan competes in the Richmond borough cross country race for Hampton School. He finishes second (of about 60) and the top nine runners qualify for county championships some time next year.

Madeleine has term-end exams and butterflies: first marks on the permanent record.  The school informs me (at the the parent-teacher evening) that the children not meant to feel "pressurised" but, rather, to enjoy learning. Me, I see the mums at the morning drop-off and they are here to compete.

I ease into Friday taking the afternoon to work from home; Rusty snoozes as I blog.

Madeleine text to Sonnet: "Exam was hell "

Oxford St

Young couple near Bond Street 

Oxford St the busiest High St in the West End and, indeed, the busiest shopping street in Europe.  Its 1.5 miles stretch from Marble Arch to Centre Point and hosts 300 shops mostly of the throw-away fashion : H&M, French Connection, HMV, Look and so on and so forth.  The road blocked to car traffic, excluding the double-decker red buses, and crammed with young shoppers from everywhere.  Me, I sometimes dip into Selfridges or Uniqlo but mostly I try to stay away : too much, too many.

F-35 And Primrose Gets It

This is what you get for $396 Bn

The Pentagon's all-in cost for designing, building and maintaining 2,443 F-35s fighters, to be delivered in the late 2030s, runs at $1.4 to $1.5 Tn. So far I and the US have committed $396 Bn to the plane. The F-35 program is 4X costlier than any other weapons system built or imagined. (source: NYT; photo from LMTAS).

Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance reports in July that foreign students are outpacing their American peers academically. Students in Shanghai who recently took international exams for the first time outscored every other school system in the world. In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. Further, six percent of U.S. students performed at the advanced level on an international exam administered in 56 countries in 2006. That proportion is lower than those achieved by students in 30 other countries.

Related?

Me: "So have you finished the Hunger Games series?"
Madeleine: "Yes."
Me: "Tell me what happened ! I need to know .. ."
Madeleine: "It's too long to explain."
Me: "Please, I'm begging you."
Madeleine: "Primrose burst in to flames."
Me:
Madeleine: "And dies."
Me: "That's pretty cool."
Madeleine: "I guess."
Me: "Was it sad?"
Madeleine: "No, not really."
Me: "So it was a happy ending then?"
Madeleine: "Not for Primrose."

Merry Tills

The British holiday shopping season mirrors the US - Thanksgiving to Boxing Day.  Oxford Street and everywhere dolled up for the cash machine and no wonder : UK retail is 8% GDP and the year-end rush 25% of annual volumes.  Throw in Hanukkah from 9 December and life is looking rosy.

I introduce Astorg to Diageo regarding a portfolio company that makes premium glass bottles.  Diageo the world's largest producer of spirits including Johnie Walker, Jose Cuervo and Kettle One.  And also Captain Morgan rum, based on the 17-th century Welsh swash buckler Sir Henry Morgan who cheers "To Life, Love and Loot!" Afterwards I show one of my Astorg friends around Kew Gardens where we have lunch at the Orangery. A nice afternoon, even if grey, away from the 8e.

Three Photos Of Paris

Inside the Jeu de Paume

Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré

Hôtel Costes

Madeleine Cranks

Today the first time I see Madeleine in action with her new club the Barnes Eagles who take on Crystal Palace - tops in the league. The gals play with heart but lose 5-1 (2-1 at half) while three Eagles' strikes  should have found net. Madeleine the youngest on the squad by a year as this is U12s. She plays valiantly and physically: nobody notices her age.

I have never been at a hotel where everybody knows my name and that is how it is in Paris. There is a great scene in The Graduate where Benjamin takes Elaine to the hotel where he has been bedding Mrs. Robinson and Elaine notes that the staff know him (Benjamin denies it of course).

And, as I seem to be a preferred guest, I am upgraded to the player's suite complete with black animal skin lounge chairs, multiple media and a stylish shag carpet. Mrs. Robinson would be right at home.

Waterstone's

A dude at Waterstone's

No High Street in Britain without bookseller Waterstone's, which operates 295 stores across the island. The company's flagship on Piccadilly, where I am last week, reading Graham Greene, awaiting my next meeting, in the the Simpsons-Of-Piccadilly building.

Eitan, Madeleine and Zara race from the dinner table.
Me: "Stop! Dishes, please."
Madeleine: "What? We have a friend over!"
Me: "Zara you can help, too."
Madeleine: "That is so unfair."
Me: "Those are the breaks. You're mom and I have been working all day."
Madeleine: "Yeah, right Dad. Taking a nap."
Sonnet:
Me: "I walked right into that one."
Madeleine: "We just want to go and play. Zara: don't do any dishes."
Me: "In this house, if you are under 11, you are doing the dishes."
Madeleine: "What about Eitan?"
Me: "Sorry, kid, and if you keep complaining then I can think of some other things for you to do."
Madeleine (under her breathe): "Just wait until I turn 12."
Me: "And, as the maker-of-rules, I just may raise the under-11 to under-12."
Madeleine: "You are so cruel. You actually enjoy this, don't you?"
Me: "These are the best moments. By far."
Madeleine: "Just wait and see when I turn 12."

Simpson's

Joseph Emberton the architect Simpson's (now Waterstone's) a multiple-floor Modernism building and the first shop in Britain to have an uninterrupted curved-glass frontage. This new style made possible by arc-welding a wide-span steel frame, rather than earlier techniques that used bulky bolted joints. The interior designed with rooms conforming to domestic proportions arranged around an open staircase.

The building notable for the 42-foot spans of its welded steel framing, which produced one of the most elegant shop interiors of the decade or any time, although the purity of the concept compromised as a result of interventions by the London County Council. It was faced in Portland stone as required by the landlord to be consistent with the neighbourhood.

There was a men's toilet between the ground and first floors perfect for an emergency leak but, probably owing to popularity, it closed last summer.

Re Take

Eitan before Saturday football practice

Sonnet and the kids home from swimming - Friday night - to find me in the kitchen so we dance to MGMT.

Sonnet prepares dinner, Eitan gets a head start on homework; Madeleine watches TV.  How rare for our together on a week night.  Growing up my family nearly always at the table : Moe picked me and Katie up from the King Jr High pool (or, later, I would drive) at 5:30 or 6PM - he could do this since he was the first in his office (after dropping me and Katie off for morning practice, of course).  Grace there to greet us with dinner and a warm house. I think of these things often enough as my adult memories began to gel around Eitan and Madeleine's age now.  Family a big part of it.

Me: "Did you take the bread out of the oven like your mother asked?"
Eitan: "No."
Me: "Did you put it in the oven?"
Eitan: "No."
Me: "How old are you?"
Eitan: "Is that a trick question?"

Happy Thanksgiving

Eitan recites (picture from Aisling)

We have hosted London Thanksgivings for as many as 25 American expats while this year it is us and the Shakespeares and celebrated on Sunday; we are grateful.  Of course we miss our extended family  in Berkeley, Manhattan, Montrose, Medina, St Louis, Portland, Santa Monica, Bronxville, Akron, Denver, La Veta and Atlanta and our friends, wherever you may be.

While Europe barely shrugs over the Second Biggest Holiday Of The Year, for me it feels like a slow-down day.  Half my emails won't be returned, no cross-Atlantic calls to make.  Home away from home though Sky not showing the Houston-Detroit, New England-NY Jets nor Washington-Dallas games (that would be real football, thank you very much).