Sloan

Thursday I have dinner and spend the night with the Rob and Sloan Klein family in Mill Valley. Sloan founded Sextant Search three years ago, informing me casually that she was going to start a business as we swam across Lake Alpine in the Sierras. Today, Sextant is one of the leading executive placement and advisories to private equity and finance companies in the United States, and many of Sloan's clients are the most recognisable in their particular expertise. After founding her company with several partners, and reaching a point where the business is now stable and profitable, Sloan has stepped back to find professional balance and focus her spirit on her two children Sophie and Jaimes. She still keeps a client or two, but now her time is spent where it counts, and it shows during my visit.

Frank - Rob, Sloan - Bubbles, Flippers and Speedo

 

Frank, pictured, from Berlin and now lives in Connecticut.  He invests in private equity and we have known each other some years and via the funds we share.  Amongst other things, Frank introduced me and Sonnet to the best wienerschnitzel in Germany.  Today, and following Industry Ventures, we hack around the city and here we are at the northern lookout of the Golden Gate Bridge overlooking the bay and San Francisco.  A fine place on a lovely afternoon.

A beautiful thing about my job is I travel to those places I wish, and California allows me to see family and friends, which I do my utmost to take advantage of.  What, me work? So I am blessed to have an evening with Rob and Sloan where we re-union at a restaurant near the Presidio and catch each other up on each other's lives.  It is all good and both their businesses thriving - Sloan most recently started a consulting business and now has 11 clients; Rob's trade-finance company established and goes from strength to strength.  Both self-made, each kicks ass. This one reason MBA school valuable - having friends like this.

Back home, calamity - two of Madeleine's goldfish suddenly deceased (Eitan: "I wasn't really sad until I saw Bubbles floating in the fish tank").  This Madeleine's first experience with death and she handles herself admirably: "I cried a little bit and then it was Ok."  Sonnet assists her bury Bubbles and Flipper in the backyard including an appropriately serious good-bye ceremony.  Grave.  She then takes our little girl to the pet store for a restock - "my new fish named 'Speedo'" she says enthusiastically.  And yes, the life-death cycle ever and onward.

Napa

Friday morning we drop off the kids with Sloan and Rob's nanny and, sans kids, drive to Napa for a day of wine tasting and adult time. We meet Mary and Amado at the Indian Springs Resort, which exists since the 1920s and has both a family and movie star feel - there is a 33 meter pool with natural spring water and shaded lounge areas for the bathers. Cooled spring water, spiked with cucumbers and lemons, is found about everywhere and Sonnet and I indulge in afternoon messages. This after a day in the vineyards, mind you, so we are pretty er relaxed. Sloan organised this weekend to celebrate various 40th birthdays and we dine at Martini, a famous local where we drink more champagne.

Napa is an obvious pleasure source for those living in or around the Bay Area. Strangely, I did not explore here often growing up - perhaps due to the Bear Valley house or state drinking age - by the time I was legal, I was gone. The obvious striking thing here is the weather, which is hot and dry (it is POURING rain in London BTW). Evenings cool down so the climate year-round temperate and ideal in summer. Then there are the grapes, which fill every nook and cranny of everywhere. Spotting the valley are the wine houses, second or third homes and restaurants like Tra Vigne and Auberge du Soleil. Not surprisingly outside St Helena is the Culinary Cooking Institute of America and we present a collective bow as we drive by. I spent two years in Sonoma at Help The World See and while Sonoma has excellent wine and its own valley flava, it does not match Napa for le chique and style.

Soph

Sophie

Everybody converges for what has become our annual re-union. This includes Rob and Sloan and their two children, (Sophie pictured, wearing my new glasses) and Mary and Amado and their three. Sonnet is in charge of the first evening's dinner and we all have a manic catch up drinking super-sized vodka tonics and California wine. Ah, this golden land. My parents join the fun and they enjoy being surrounded by the commotion. In one corner: 8 animated adults catching up a year's life and the other seven kids glued to "The Empire Strikes Back." A battle rages for the loudest- it is a draw, Dear Reader, it is a draw. The brief summary: Mary a partner at Boston Consulting, Rob investing $500M, Amado teaching and Sloan involved with a charity and contemplating her next star-up. The children meanwhile are just bigger, more animated, more interesting and engaging. Rob and I in particular take pleasure teasing the little Shakespeares and I think it debatable who is more the child. Repetition is often a theme and boy can we get their goat.

Saturday we spelunk Mercer Caverns in Murphy's - it is my first time despite 25 years of here. The Caverns are named after the gold prospector Walter Mercer who discovered the caves in 1885 and filed a claim. Legend has it that Mercer was napping under a shady oak when he saw some waving grass despite no wind. He was intrigued to discover a small hole, no bigger than a foot, that was cool and omitting a breeze. He dug to find a cavern descending 16 stores - he thought he had discovered an abandoned gold mine. The caverns are covered with stalagmites and stalactites and various rare formations which come from the calcitised limestone bleached from dripping rain water. While disappointed no gold, Mercer made his fortune touring his cave with candles and rope - though uncomfortable and dangerous, tourists lined up by the thousands to pay a pinch of gold-dust (about $45 today) and see the spectacle. We do to but for the reduced price of $12 per adult.

Deck

On Sloan's marriage to Rob: somehow I am blamed for a sloppy attack he made on her at a black tie ball... but that is for another story and anyway I am happy to be a part of the legend. Sloan's Sextant Partners now employs 60 people while she remains one of the top-producing partners - this while cutting back her practice to one client. The girls immediately head out for an afternoon run and I await her mint cocktail martinis.

West by Southeast

We return to London tomorrow on the over night trans Atlantic. This is kind of how I feel.

Today we visit our friends Rob and Sloan and their beautiful children. Rob's Latin America trade finance business is growing its capital base, producing consistent solid returns before, during and since the financial recession; Sloan's exec coaching business thriving w/ 22 clients and growing.  We re live a number of key development moments like the time we all called it quits on the corporate scene and started our own businesses.

This evening we spend with Roger and Greta and their beautiful children.  They have made the return re location to the Bay Area so Roger can take his eight years at Microsoft to Box, one of the hottest companies in SV, growing 300% per year.  Roger and I re live a number of key developmental moments like the time we shared a flat on the Upper West Side and the roof nearly collapsed from rain fill - only our splashing about the roof deck searching for the plug in freezing dark temps saved the moment and Roger's high end stereo system, about the only thing of value in our place at the time.

My Mother

My Mom in her fancy wig. She is soldiering on with a lot to live for. The chemo will be done on December 27.  The mother-son relationship is a special thing.

My parents keep to their normal routine : Moe is up at 4AM and at the Berkeley Y by 5AM, where he sees his fellow gym rats who exchange jokes and insults. I bump into the famous Jack Ball, who is part of the crew. Jack was my PE teacher in 7th grade, and has memories of Katie and me, age 11, running around the King Jr High track or doing pull ups or other some such thing. I do believe we set records for the Jr High mile (me, 5:50)

We join Rob and Sloan, plus their fab kids Sophie and Jaimes for dinner in Mill Valley. Sophie, a Sophomore, is thriving. Her brain is going 100 miles a minute as she jumps from a home work project, to the school play to social media and then her friends. She occupies the space with her stories. Jaimes, not to be over shadowed by her older sister, is excelling in gymnastics and competing at the state level. She won a big tournament and was rewarded with a family dog, Bear (Rob and Sloan set the challenge assuming she would not win the thing). Bravo !

Coaster

Cal steals the photograph.

I join Rob and Sloan for rosh hashanah which, my Dad must tell me, is the Jewish New Year equalled only by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  I have many things in my life and religion not one of them.  Dinner joined by two neat families with kids about same as Sophie , gives me a big hug, and Jaimes and ours; afterwards we catch each other up : Sloan's exec advisory business jamming and Rob's trade finance business in vogue as returns consistent during troubled times.  We sit outside drinking in the warm evening , white wine, admiring the view.  California, baby.

Wine

Here she is at the Silverado winery. Sloan co-founded Sextant Partners, a successful executive placement firm which services the private equity and high finance communities. Today she contemplates her next business opportunity, which targets a similar theme, and we are all happy to provide our two-cents. She does have some expert advisors if I may say so myself: four MBAs including Mary who is Partner at strategy consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (a fun moment occurred at the Shramsburg Vineyards whilst tasting "sparkling wine" - in our group was a young fellow who had finished his PhD in molecular biology. Mary notes her firm hires PhDs "all the time" and encourages him to send her a resume. Cool.) Sloan contemplates her start-up against other commitments like school and family, but I think she is prepared to launch and I/we are all excited to see where it goes. Husband Rob founded successful a trade finance business. Bravo.

Here We Are

Here we are at the end of a long, sunny week end feeling pretty good about life and middle-age (Mary and I discuss when this actually begins; we both agree 41 a great age to be alive). Missing are Rob, Sloan and their children who were unable to join as Rob returning from Brazil and work but we speak to them on the telephone as they drive home from Mendocino. Cool. These friends, who I am proud of, the most important thing I take forward from Columbia. Sure, I took classes and learned some business in business school but what I cherish not the career nor the bucks but rather a few people who make the experience worth its while.

NY

Katie and I walk southward from the Upper West Side passing by Zabar's, H&H Bagels, Barnie Greengrass and eventually Central Park - pictured. I am back in New York and back online following yesterday's cross-country jump. California ended on a nice note with Christian, Sloan and Rob where we go to a tres cool Peruvian restaurant next to the Ferry House on da bay. Over Latino cocktails we talk about the financial markets, property values and Europe where Rob recently visited Munich for Octoberfest. It did not end well but that is a private story, if easily guessed. Oh boy and lucky him. I also lunch with David and learn about his new enterprise - an advertising technology company that projects images onto about any surface anywhere (the Union Jack, for instance, was displayed on Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Jubilee but this done by a French firm). I wrap things up with my pals at Industry but their fund remains open yet. We do not anticipate a surprise but in today's melt down, who knows? Stay tuned.

Madeleine: "Mom, would you rather have a feather or a cow as a pet?"

Eitan to Madeleine about something: "In your face!" (this gets the boy in trouble BTW)

"I want to thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities. Well done - that is what all parents should do."
Tiny Fey in The New Yorker magazine

Beef Burger

Consider the classic "beef burger" (in England, sans lettuce, tomato or anything) which took Britain by storm in the 1970s but the country still adjusting when we arrived in '97 - I do recall several formal lunches eating a burger with my hands and receiving shocked - and I do mean shocked - looks from my compatriots. The English, you see, once ate their beef burgers with fork and knife. But now, no longer as we confirm last night at Oriel on Sloan Square. Cultural changes so often subtle.

Today a lovely spring and the chestnut trees bloom. The country turns overnight to green and we rejoice - kids way happy mood, Sonnet day-off from court .. and me, an early swim and without computer as I convert to Apple with some trepidation. Will the transition kill me? It has been 15 years since my last Mac. Then I was with non-profit Help The World See (in '93, I secured HTWS@aol.com - one of the early American Online accounts when it was otherwise normal to have numbers). Business school and since demanded Microsoft and I am hell-bent on getting away from the tyranny's strong-grip; I am also bored of spending endless time fixing, upgrading, guarding and dicking around with Windows. While I love Outlook, I believe there is another, better life over the rainbow. Sorry Roger.

So back to beef: our local butchers, I learn just now with Sonnet, serving East Sheen since 1912. The meat proudly "British" and I learn something rather shocking : meat imported into the UK after one month of freezer-storage can be called "British." No doubt this meat is lesser quality fair and used mostly by restaurants (our butcher tells me) who are after margins. He notes nothing dangerous about such a "loop-hole" but the quality inferior. Well, pinch my ass.

Photo from pinchmysalt.com

SloanKlein Advisors

Sloan, meanwhile, has started her next business, www.sloanklein.com, advising seasoned professionals on their career development. In less than two years she has 22 clients. She is one of those people who attracts success - from idea to implementation - she makes it easy. Of course it never is which is one reason she is way special.

Red, White and Madeleine

Katie's friend Cara from the Columbia International Affairs school arrives last night for dinner and a stay-over. Cara lives in Burlington and consults world organisations like UNDP and CARE on their H.I.V. policies to eradicate the horrible disease. Gracie, Moe and Katie return to New York today leaving us by ourselves for the first time in a month. Wow. Tomorrow we drive to Connecticut to visit Mary and Amado's lake house and to see their kids Devon, Simon and Maya - a Paris re-union! Rob and Sloan will join us from San Francisco and everybody is way excited for the weekend.

I ask Eitan if he wants blueberry pie for breakfast. He, bug-eyed: "really?"
Madeleine goes the extra yard: "can I have chocolate cake too?"

"It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from his nose to tail with curiosity."
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Kipling

Connecticut!

We arrive Friday at Mary and Amado's house on Woodridge Lake not far from Litchfield and less than two hours from the Upper West Side door-to-door. Eitan and Madeleine peel out of the car to hug Devon, Simon and Maya who they last saw in Paris. Stories of the four hour line to the Eiffel Tower are gleefully recalled then an afternoon free-for-all takes place in the backyard. Adding to the excitement is the arrival of the Sloan and Rob, who flew in Thursday with their team. Sophie and Jaimes join in the melee while us adults grin at each other and our kids. Our afternoon is spent catching up, jogging, canoing, dining and drinking vodka cocktails and beer. Rob has a go on the jumper - pictured.

Rob and I spend some afternoon discussing college football. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, so the Buckeyes are a Big Deal - he frequently joins his friends at College Bend to see the important games. The Bears are ranked a place or two ahead of Ohio State in the pre-season polls and about ten below USC who again is #1 (ho-hum)

The Cost Of A Shower

Pictured- Sloan and Mary at cocktail hour. It is generally understood that while Dad is on vacation, Dad is also working (couple hours maybe) and blogging (too much really). Eitan and I play ping pong and he berates me: "you should have got that one." I give him a mean look and he glares back at me. Yes, he be competitive. And stubborn. Last night we had a kerfuffle over bathing- again. He refuses and I tell him ten bucks - the established going rate from the day before. The boy is so angry he can barely contain himself and refuses me money or bath. It ends with a stare-down and I tell him I want $10 as he has made his decision. We are locked eyes for maybe 30 seconds which is a long time Dear Father. He finally wavers then asks Sonnet to help him undress. I feel this a moment of some importance as Eitan has been testing his boundaries which has been rather difficult going - and out of his character too, I might add. While I may or may not have proved myself an above average father, at least the kid is clean. For now anyway.

John

This is John, one of Eitan's three coaches at KPR. He is from Newcastle and the real-deal - despite a stern look, he loves the boys and would do anything for them. I've observed this on the pitch and at the several friendlies the boys have so far played. They respect him.

Sonnet's parents settle following their long-haul flight from Denver (Silver: "The flowers, Jeff. The flowers!" - sometimes London needs to be seen from an outside eye). Sonnet stops by their hotel on her way home from jury duty and she and Stan end up at Cadogen Hal to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert venue located at Sloan Terrace in Chelsea in what used to be the First Church of Christ. Lucky, lucky. Meanwhile, I take the Shakespeares to Waitrose to buy some needed dinner supplies (red wine) and, since this is half-term break, spoil them with sugar cereal. Their little eyes go wide with shock when I answer their pleas with positive (Madeleine: "Do you really mean it, dad? Do you?"). Unable to decide, they go for the tried-and-true holiday pack - a selection of Cocoa Pops, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes &c. in diner-sized boxes. This nets a fight over who gets what so we end up buying two. From there it is the ice-cream locker where they are allowed to select whatever - again, it beggars belief and they push their good fortune: "Can we watch TV, Dad? Can we?" and I say - why not? So yes, Dad is on patrol ..

2505 Shashone Drive

We re-union with Rob and Sloan, Sophie and Jaimes plus one new addition to the family: Ozzy, who receives some considerable attention from Madeleine who is 'dog mad' (Ozzy is a "golden doodle" which is a mix between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle). Sadly missing are Amado and Mary and their clan, who have moved to Seattle while Mary starts her new posting as Head of Strategy for Starbucks. This is a Big Ticket job and none of us are surprised though of course we are keenly interested to know how things are going six weeks into her tenure (full disclosure: Sonnet and I go to Peet's in Berkeley, one of my favorite places). I am buying stock in the company.

Me: "Why do you think people get married any way?"

Eitan: "Money?"

Sonnet: "Is that what you really think?"

Eitan: "Well, why else?"

Sonnet:

Me: "There must be other reasons ... "

Eitan: "Power?"

Sonnet:

Eitan: "Well, look at Henry VIII. He married for money and power."

Me: "Good point."

Sonnet: !

Super 39

Katie turns a year tomorrow - bravo! (photo from Rob and Sloan's wedding) This has been a good one too: cover story in the New York Times, women's op-ed project, corporate trainings at Lehman Brothers, Stanford University, Merrill Lynch and others and a visit to Florida and Haiti to bring exposure and perhaps justice to one of Haiti's most notorious villains who was, strangely, a lottery ticket winner now living in America. Katie interviewed him last week in Haiti. My sister otherwise is an Upper West Side chick and has great friends in New York especially the women I've met who are writers, film-makers, philanthropists and trend setters- all are part of a cool crowd of sisters doing it for themselves. My sister's remarkable skills include an uncompromised view on fairness, a stubbornness to get things done the right way, an intolerance of dolts, an unbound generosity towards others especially her friends and a heart of gold. Oh, and she likes to have a pedicure every now and then. Happy birthday Katie!

"No wise man ever wished to be younger."
Jonathan Swift

Red Bridge

That's me in front of the West Cornwall Covered Bridge in Cornwall, Connecticut. Litchfield County. The bridge was built in 1864 and crosses the Houstatonic River. It was not featured in "The Bridges of Madison County," Thank God. Nor does it have anything to do with Cornwall, England, which is the county farthest Southwest of our beloved Britain and home of famously named Land's End. It IS a lovely red bridge which has been servicing traffic, one way, for a long time and drawing tourists to the charming nearby town all year but especially autumn. Otherwise, Amado and I play our second game of tennis, which he wins 6-1 (my yesterday defeat: 6-0). Still, it is good to hold a racket a sunny Sunday. We end the afternoon swimming some laps at the club's 25 meter pool which prepares us for a final family dinner together on this visit. Rob, Sloan, Mary and I stay up late gossiping, googling people and dreaming of things to come and next togethers.

I ask Madeleine if she notices anything different (I've shaved my moustache). She: "Do you have new glasses?"

Madeleine in the SUV pipes up several times: "Daddy has new glasses!"