Master Chef

We end the week with Simon and Sabi and Ligia and Alberto, from Lisbon, who spent several years in Kansas City running a business for GE (Ligia heads GE"s European private equity business).  Alberto and I compare notes on Modine's, a bbq joint on the town's edge which Sonnet and I know from our drive across the USA in '97.  The restaurant in a house hollowed out for the grill manned by two giant sweaty black men who poke the shredded meat then served on a paper plate and piece of Wonder Bread.

This week began in the Nordics and Sonnet in Italy; we attend the V and A opening for "The Treasures of the Royal Courts" (wonderful, covering Henry VIII and Elizabeth I to Ivan the Terrible and the early Romanovs and 500 years of exchange between Britain and Russia).  Sonnet out with Natalie  Thursday and tonight we at a 'Ho down' for the Hampton School. Tomorrow I am to Paris.

Madeleine and I (from the comfort of the living room couch) watch the age-group inter-counties cross country championships in the mud and damp.  Puff puff puff.

Spring ?

Queen Victoria St in the City

This is one of those days London known for : murky.

Eitan faces a conundrum as he is selected to represent his school in the British biathelon age group championshiops at Crystal Palace the same day as the All Stars take on Teddington in a match that may determine who wins the Surrey League's Premiere Division.

I am back from Helsinki a city I love - minus 8 degress and a foot of snow prevent me from running yet I enjoy a slippery stroll along the Boulevard admiring the strange Nordic-Soviet aesthetic : modern and kitsch at the same time. Looking over Töölö Bay is the Finish orthodox Uspenski Cathedral, designed by a Russian, which (now mostly empty) reminds me of Norman's house on the hill in Psycho.

Wonderful Copenhagen

A Dane on display

This is what everybody looks like in Cophenhagen (where I blog, awaiting a flight to Helsinki). And I think it is true. Or maybe it is the surprise of seeing so many young people in the cafes, on bikes, walking in the park.

Following lunch I go for a seven mile run around 'the lakes', a row of three rectangular lakes curving around the western margin of the City Centre, forming one of the oldest and most distinctive features of the city's topography. I have done this loop many times now. What is different: construction. There is a new, narrow, walkway and (soon) public area.  The students, strollers and sunshine seekers remain unchanged.

Istanbul Was Constantinople

Bosphorus, 1997

We are in Waybridge to watch Eitan battle Fleet in the Surrey Cup quarter finals - the farthest the lads have gone in this tournament. After an exciting win, 2-1, Sonnet takes Eitan to the first weekend of the Surreys swimming championships where the boy has qualified for nine events. Today he competes the 400 individual medley, only Sonnet gets the start time wrong and Eitan yelled at by Coach for failing to register on time. The boy allowed to swim in the first heat and gets DQ'd on the butterfly as his legs separate into a crawl-like kick. Sonnet says: "A bad day at the office."

Despite it all, Eitan comes home in a good mood, finishes off some homework, reads the Sunday sports and now both kids watch Harry Potter, which is like some soothing drug.

Me: "Have you ever had a detention?"
Madeleine: "If you're going to get a detention it better be for something worthwhile. Like carving your name into the wall."
Me: "That would probably get you  more than a detention."
Madeleine: "Yeah, but it would still be worthwhile, better than getting three spelling words wrong."
Me:
Madeleine: "Everyone would know that Madeleine Orenstein went to Emanuel School."

Rusty's Got Nose

Bonkers

After school, before swimming

Yep - Friday.

The EU announces a bonus cap on bankers at €1 million which is like chump change to a Master of the Universe. Further, it is not clear if employees of British banks stationed abroad are on the cap. Without question it will play into the hands of London's overseas rivals while undermining support in Britain for the EU.

"This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman empire." 
--Boris Johnson compares the EU to Roman emperor Diocletian who introduced an cap on food prices across the Roman empire in AD 301.

Eitan: "We got free cheese on toast at school today."

Me:

Eitan: "Because it's Saints David's Day, I think."

Me: "What's that?"

Eitan: "I don't know."

Sonnet: "Madeleine put your book away and join us. We are having dinner."

Madeleine: "What about Eitan? He is watching TV."

Sonnet: "But he is not having dinner."

Madeleine: "Well he should have to join us."

Me: "Do you really want your brother at the dinner table?"

Madeleine: "No!"

Me:
Madeleine: "I am just saying."

On PE

Eitan reads 'Charub'

I am back to London with a pocket full of business cards.  A highlight of my trip, somehow, was jogging by the start - and finish- of the '09 Berlin Marathon.

The private equity industry going through a structural change as fundraising in the worst post-peak trough the industry has known (fundraising levels at 40% of 2007/08 levels).  There are still Big Dollars flowing in but now going to fewer managers, including Astorg, who receive bigger checks.  "Bifurcated market" is a popular expression.

Meanwhile returns have fallen as plenty of capital competes for limited auctioned deals and leverage paired back : recall the famous KKR takeover of RJR Nabisco in '88 (at $25 billion, the largest ever at the time). The deal financed with 95% debt.  Today, equity accounts for 43% of all buyout transactions.  This doesn't help IRRs (but allows people to sleep at night).

Ours a mature industry which is obvious from the number of minorities (almost nil) and women (very few). Who is going against the grain to make the over-size returns? Who is allowed to do so by their institutional backers ?

West Berlin

Brandenburg Gate

Last time I was here it was not so nice.

I join the good and the great for the Super Return conference and shuffle about seeing familiar faces and catching up with friends.  The conference attracts over 1,400 "senior private equity professionals" (the website tells us) and is the largest private equity conference in the world. I would not doubt it. A highlight is Frank, who I have dinner with - Frank from Berlin and recalls the wall coming down; after that he involved himself in privatising German industry and now works for Deutsche Bank pe in Manhattan.

Sunday Night At The Movies

T-800

We are about to call it a night but then 'The Terminator' on television and who can resist that?  The indiscriminate killing of the innocent and police irresponsible but, boy, it is entertaining.

The 1980s glorified firearms - those stupid films like 48 hours and Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon and Tango And Cash or Tequila Sunrise - which showed machine gun spray as part of the buddy-buddy bonding experience.  The violence, already insinuated into the American psyche, morphed into video games and glocs and Bushmasters. Only now, like never before, the violence is for real.

"It's a hyper-alloy combat chassis - micro processor-controlled, fully armoured. Very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs...The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new, they look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot."

--Reese

"I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told she was here. Could I see her please?"
--The Terminator

Haiti Visit

Chaîne de la Selle, Haiti, 1997; 2,680m

Me: "How did Ava play ?"
Madeleine: "She's really good."
Eitan: "I think she was a bit nervous, having all of us around."
Me: "And you want to play at Old Trafford.  Do you think the crowds would effect you there??
Eitan: "No, because I wouldn't know anybody in the stands."
Me: "If you or Madeleine play in the Premiere League I will drop everything and follow you around to all your games. .. ."
Eitan, Madeleine:
Me: ". .. putting up a big banner: 'Go Madeleine!' "
Madeleine: "I would so kill you."
Me: "Or 'Eitan's Dad.' I am sure you wouldn't mind that, would you?"
Eitan:

One More From The City

Queen Victoria St and Cannon St

Sonnet back from Devon and not without drama as she has to add oil to the car en route. I take her through the steps to open the hood.  We re-union with hugs and kisses and my peaceful long week end comes to an end (I would be lying if I told you, dear reader, that I did not enjoy it. Madeleine: "Nice, Dad.").

Simon, the father of Billy, in Los Angeles to win an Oscar for the sound work to 'Les Mis.'  He has already won the BAFTA.

Fauja Singh, age 101, completes his last race, the Hong Kong 10K, in 1:32; in 2011 he celebrated 100 by running the Toronto Marathon (his eighth since turning 90).  Says he: "I am happy that I am retiring at the top of the game."  And there is hope for us all.

Cityline

From Oxo Wharf

Wheels

I miss my stop and end up at Ladywell and have 30 minutes before my return train so I chat up three local kids who goof about on their four-wheeler. Their thick accents difficult to understand but I enjoy the conversation about go-carts and mini motorcycles.  They are up for it.  Grandma watches in the doorway, cigarette hanging from lip, baby cradled in arm.

Me And St P

At St Paul's

Since by myself I (re)watch "The Wall", which has been on my list for some time now.  It does not disappoint, either.  Rock and roller goes insane following wife's infidelity and drugs plus a fatherless childhood and cruel teachers; he becomes a Nazi and rapes and plunders before becoming completely isolated then finally exposed before peers. At least that is what I understood.

Big Build

I check out the Shard, Europe's tallest building, that opened to the public a couple of weeks ago. At 95 stories it is pretty God damn impressive.

Across London there is work, work, work. Saturday no exception.  The Walkie Talkie near completion and, behind it, two more towers going up. At the Cannon St station an entire city block gone replaced by a dig hole for, presumably, another skyscraper. Blackfriars Bridge seems strange and I realise it is covered with solar panels.  And to think I recall a Second World War bomb site on Ludgate Hill now long gone replaced by office space.

This is a city on the move.

Cow Gal

Colorado

Ah, yes, Friday evening.

Until six or seven years ago I was a committed b and w photographer holding out from digital as long as I could then I couldn't.  In part (mostly) it is a time thing : spending the day in a dark room playing with chemicals an unaffordable luxury with the kids and work and everything.

I once developed film at the Battersea Arts Centre in an attic studio so cold in the winter I could see my breath. Still, it was tidy and surrounded by students and creative types. Good vibe. When that closed I found Photofusion in Brixton - London's largest not-for-profit photography centre funded by the Arts Council.  

My fellow developers at Photofusion all a bit odd - the elderly couple who made 1000s of theatre prints for professional purposes; the obese lady and her nudes.  Then there was the guy who took photographs of human bones.  We sometimes compared our work but usually it was an in-and-out affair. The result: seven prints worth keeping. Maybe.

Good Bet

Sonnet and the kids in Devon with Halley.  I take advantage of the evening to do some work, blog, watch TV .. .usual stuff.

On the walk home I pass Ladbrokes, a bright and vacuous gambling storefront with multi media showing the horses or dogs, a cash counter+betting papers to keep track of the action. A radio's broadcast incongruent with the sports screens.  Always there are middle aged men betting nickles and pounds. The enticement ads have not changed in 15 years (Andre Agassi with hair; some ancient rugby match). I imagine sitting in a KFC for five hours. This is what these guys do.

Ladbrokes the largest betting company in the UK and largest retail bookmaker in the world with 2,400 retail betting shops in the UK, Spain and Belgium.

So Preciousss

Mila Kunis, Gemfield's 'global brand ambassador'

Gemfield emerald mine, Zambia

Mark Eitzel

Sonnet and I see Mark Eitzel at the wonderful Bush Hall in Sheperds Bush with its red velvet curtains, long crooked mirrors and ancient feeling.  I have known Eitzel's music since '96 and his seriously depressing yet beautiful album '60 Watt Silver Lining" where he covers depression, heroine .. AIDS and loss.  And last night he is in no mood to pander to his audience who, BTW, look exactly like him : almost entirely middle age male, scruffy .. a lot of beards and plaid and stuff.  Eitzel asks us, his fans, for forgiveness yet fails to play his best songs , willfully ending on perhaps one of his worst and loudest.  So an interesting experience but, then again, Eitzel is from the East Bay so what should I expect ?

Sonnet sees Pipa Middleton in a South Ken sushi restaurant .. .with a boy .. .and me not there with my camera !

On The Pyroclastic Flow

Eitan and Shaheen

Walking with Rusty. Me: "Did you know a meteor hit the earth over the weekend in Russia? 1200 people were injured."
Madeleine: "Whoa. How big was it?"
Me: "15 meters. A bigger one hit Siberia in 1908 - maybe 100 meters. A large meteorite strikes earth every 10,000 years or so .. . the good news: you would go quickly."
Madeleine: "At least it is not a pyroclastic flow. That is the worst way to die."
Me: "What's that?"
Madeleine: "It's a fast moving river of lava and rocks. It would drag you along and crush you to death."
Me: "Would your eyeballs be squished out of your skull?"
Madeleine: "That would only be the beginning."
Me: "What else?"
Madeleine: "Your bones would snap and and your brains squished."
Me: "Sounds gruesome."
Madeleine: "Yep."