Good Day, Sunshine

6:14AM sunrise

Earlier this week I am in Abu Dhabi which is like a giant 5 star shopping mall (Rolls Royce's newest car, the 'Wraith", advertised in the airport and on the streets : this is its natural habitat, after all). My hotel (54th floor) offers views of the Persian Gulf and .. the desert. Strangely , several towers block my vista.

From A D to Dubai, which is more of the same. Then Kuwait City which I like. Despite Kuwait's vast wealth it is still Third World and the airport a complete shambles. Visitors require a visa so I queue in three lines before my passport stamped then another line for passport control.  It is 10PM and the airport heaving. And hot. And it smells. Getting a taxi not a problem but exiting the airport like threading a needle through the traffic. I'm at the nicest hotel in town, a Sheraton, which is designed for Westerners so gauche brown marble, gold and 14th century French decoration. A trio serenades us with pop songs at the hotel Italian. No Alcohol, of course.

Despite the crumbling eye level, Kuwait has some of the world's tallest and sleekest skyscrapers in the world. They shoot up like sprouts through mold.

Self Portrait XXXVI

Eitan goes to Luke's disco party with Joe and Shaheen; Joe shows up at our house first.
Me: "What's up?"
Joe: "Nothing."
Eitan, Joe:
Me: "Well this is awkward."
Eitan: "Yeah."

16 Candles

Hampton 5, Sutton 1

Sonnet, Madeleine and I watch the late John Hughes' film "Sixteen Candles" with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall - excellent. Madeleine seems about the right age to appreciate Samantha's world, surrounded by awkwardness and embarrassments of family, school and being a teenager.  The movie from '84 or 30 years old - the equivalent of looking back to 1954 when I first saw it.  It doesn't seem to have dated but then what do I know ?  

I reference a poster of Cheryl Tiegs and music from Spandau Ballet, The Specials, Oingo Boingo. Samantha uses a phone to .. talk, something neither Eitan nor Madeliene have ever done with their friends.  Floppy disks, also something the kids have never heard of, noted 'kind of expensive' by the geek. All in, not a bad decade.

Madeleine absorbs it all.

Grandpa Fred: "Hey Howard, there's your Chinaman."

'Sup

Spain

Friday night.  Madeleine faints in hockey practise and Rusty comes down with a bad vibe - the pooch is bedridden and looks at me mournfully.  Serves him right for spreading the kitchen garbage across the hardwood floor.

Sonnet: "So what's your plan for Sunday?"
Madeleine: "Jack and Williby are coming over."
Me: "You're having a play date?"
Madeleine:
Sonnet: "Dad's just teasing."
Madeleine: "No he's not."
Me: "Actually I wasn't."
Madeleine: "See?"
Me: "So where are you going?"
Madeleine: "Hammersmith. And then Westfields." [Dad's note: Westfields is the largest shopping mall in Europe, located in Shepherds Bush, London]
Sonnet: "You are not going to Hammersmith." [Dad's note: Hammersmith is urban]
Madeleine: "You let Eitan go by himself."
Sonnet: "Your brother is a year older than you. A year and a half, actually."
Me: "Plus you might be tempted to do some busking."
Madeleine: "So how about Kingston?" [Dad's note: Kingston is shopping mall outside of London]
Me: "Why don't you just go to our High Street? You could go to Boots and Party Palace. And there's a wonderful WH Smith."
Madeleine rolls her eyes.
Sonnet: "You're not going to Kingston Either. It's too far away."
Madeleine: "But it's on the train. It's only four stops from Richmond." [Dad's note: Richmond equals shopping]
Me: "She's got a point. It's a safe area."
Sonnet: "I will think about it."

Close Shave

Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, 1997

Me: "How was your race today?" (Dad's note: Madeleine runs a 3K race)
Madeleine: "It was so hard. I had asthma."
Me: "Were you OK?"
Madeleine: "Well I finished the race, didn't I?"
Me: "Asthma can be dangerous. And frightening - there was an adult there to help you ?"
Madeleine: "Yes, I finished and somebody got me my inhaler."
Me: "That's good to know."
Madeleine: "There was a stream and we had to jump over it and I almost fell in."
Me: "Woa."
Madeleine: "And I almost fell into a bramble bush."
Me: "Yep. Sounds like cross country."
Madeleine: "And I got to the finish and fell to the ground."
Me: "Quite an experience." (Dad's note: Madeleine in the top 5 finishers)

Barnes Railway Bridge

Facing West, from the Barnes embankment

The original bridge at this location was built in 1849 to a design by Josephe Locke followed by a replacement bridge, designed by Edward Andrews in 1895 for the London & South Western Railway. The original Locke span still stands unused on the upstream side. The bridge is still in use by the London overground rail and I pass it twice during a running loop from my office.

Goalkeeper

Madeleine is chosen goalkeeper for Emanuel's A squad.  She rolls with it.

Our gal takes a few minutes to kit up as the girls play the Harrodian School in Barnes which looks like a Ralph Lauren set, nestled between the river and the Barnes village (the grounds once a private estate until acquired, in the 1990s, by a local philanthropist opened an alternative school that concentrates on languages - Russian, anyone ?).

Madeleine is good in the box, too - she blocks six shots including a sequence of four which has us parents ooo-ing and ahh-ing from the sidelines. The end result: 2-2.

Grace nails six-for-six at my parents' Oscar party in Berkeley.

An interesting experiment: The world's 1,645 billionaires are worth $6.4 trillion at 2013 year-end, up from $5.4T in 2012.

Love

Glass cutter, SW London

Eitan's favorite bands (in no particular order) :
The Kooks
London Grammar
Bastille
Arctic Monkeys
The Vaccines
Passion Pit
Cold Play
The American Authors
The Gorrillaz

Me: "How about Justin Bieber?"
Eitan:
Me: "Do you listen to a lot of music?"
Eitan: "Yeah, quite a lot."
Me: "And how do you share music with your friends?"
Eitan: "We don't really share music. Most people like pop music, anyway, but I don't like the electronics and stuff.  I don't like the 'crappy pop music' as you might say."
Me: "I'm glad some of my training is sinking in."
Eitan: "It's not training Dad."

Sprezzatura

Why can't I have a cat?

Madeleine and I walk the dog then go for sushi. Over lunch we discuss pets (Dad's note: at Madeleine's age, I was somehow allowed a snake, a tarantula and three iguanas who each died an early death). Madeleine wants a cat and, momentarily, it was considered until Madeleine hit a wall: Sonnet. Plus Rusty would probably grab the thing by the throat and shake it to death, blood and fur everywhere. Ok maybe not.

Eitan in swimming action at the Univ. of Surrey for the Surrey County Championships, which are spread across five weeks. This weekend he swims the distance races : 1500 and 400 meter freestyles and the 400 IM in 19:42, 4:45 and 5:46, respectively.  Showing he is a multi-talented guy, Eitan now prepares tortilla de patatas.

Sonnet's exhibition gears up : today a five page story in the Financial Times Sunday insert.

Eitan on the tortilla de patatas: "I'm not really sure how this is going to work out." 

"Sprezzatura. It means nonchalance. It's the way in which clothes are worn - a mood, an attitude.  If you go to the financial centre of Rome on any given morning, you can watch this senses of easy elegance in action. Its a fashion parade."
--Sonnet, 'Moda Operandi' in the Sunday FT

Pow Wow

A discussion takes place around Madeleine's 5AM swim practise - it's either Friday morning or Sunday, which she dreads.  So Sonnet will take her since I am on a plane to Dublin for the day. Our gal now practises the trumpet putting the dog on alert.

Eric the turtle finally leaves the earth (Dad's note: Madeleine's pet died three weeks ago). His body 12 inches deep, under a stone-of-remembrance. Somber proceedings. The good news : Nelson's life expectancy another 30 years.

Me: "Say something about your turtle."
Madeleine: "Huh?"
Me: "Say something, anything."
Madeleine: "I don't know. He's a turtle dad."
Me: "That's all you've got?"
Madeleine: "He can swim."
Me: "Is he cuddly?"
Madeleine: "He's a turtle. Turtles aren't cuddly."
Me: "Fair enough."

More Weirdness

At the Courdault

I return from two nights in Berlin for the Super Return conference - the largest private equity gathering in the world with over 1,100 delegates including the good and the great. The highlight returning from dinner one night, 11PM, and finding Todd in the hotel lobby, in from Boston. We stay up late catching up.

Me: "Come on Rusty, you wanker."
Eitan: "Dad!"
Me: "What? What did I say?"
Eitan: "Do you know what 'wanker' means?"
Me: "Yeah, it's like what they used to call the guy who mixed the household butter. He was usually pretty low in the family hierarchy, so it's kind of a derogatory word."
Eitan: "Well that's not how it's used now."
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "It means 'mastrabation."
Me: "No, way. I am shocked."
Eitan: "Yeah, it's like, 'you're a wanker.'"
Me: "Boy it's a good thing you told me."

Cb Hounslow Blues

The Sheen Lions are back in action in their first game since December.  The wettest January on record, which has cancelled games left and right, has set the season back six or seven weeks.

Were it another week.  The Lions go down 4 nothing, opting to play against the wind in the first half (3-nil at half). The 30mph gusts wreak havoc on the defense and the boys only start playing as a team towards the end of the game, which brings them tantalisingly close, 4-3, as the whistle blows. Etian scores a PK and hits the bar on another, which proves to be the difference.  And that's football.

Kids back to school, Sonnet interviews with The Guardian, and I to Berlin for a conference. And so it goes.

Marscape

Sunrise, Mars (NASA)

When I was 10, 11 or 12 I remember pondering, "what will it be like when the year turns 2000? " And now : who will be the first to make it to another planet ?  Somebody must do it given the planet's dire flight path.

This morning I listen to  Elizabeth Kolbert interviewed by Terry Gross. Kolbert writes for the New Yorker and recently published 'The Sixth Extinction.' The amphibians (who btw survived the dinosaur wipe out) are being hit hard. Equally bad or worse: the oceans are acidifying which will roll back the barrier reefs where the aquatic food chain begins. And so on and so forth.

I'm with Shai who has been investing in green-energy since 2006 for Richard Branson. In short, he says, nobody cares.

"We are effectively undoing the beauty and the variety and the richness of the world which has taken tens of millions of years to reach ... We're sort of unraveling that. ... We're doing, it's often said, a massive experiment on the planet, and we really don't know what the end point is going to be."

--Elizabeth Kolbert

SuperDry Is Super Fly

Madeleine discovered brands last year but really she prefers one: SuperDry, which is like so now and Japanese. All the groovy cats have the SuperDry jacket, maybe a SuperDry sweatshirt and a SuperDry book bag.

In my day, which would by 1982-85, the outfit was an alligator shirt (collar up), canvas Sperry topsiders, Levi's 501s (shrunk-to-fit) and (for the real players) a Derby jacket. Of course I am working my way through these items again, age 46.

The kids have been on a one-week half-term break and Madeleine at school all week, all day, for theatre. She wasn't too happy when it looked like she would have two lines in "London Calling" ("one of them, like, two words") but now she's been assigned a monologue of some sort.  Eitan is invisible until 11 or 11:30AM when he stumbles downstairs for food.  I double-check that there is an air-hole as he is otherwise covered by his blanket.

The Meeting Place

Paul Day's sculpture, The Meeting Place, greets me and everyone from Paris at St Pancras Station, London. It is 9 metres tall surrounded by a frieze. I hate it.

Firstly, there's nothing unique or interesting about the couple - he's bald and wearing baggy trousers. As if. She looks like an investment banker.  What's to love here? Where are the idiosyncrasies that make the individuals rise above themselves creating something special even memorable? Not here.

Coming from Paris where the city drips with serious art, one would think one's introduction to London would give us more.

Living Large

California -> London -> Paris

Texting with Madeleine:
Me: "How was your day sweetheart?"
Madeleine: "Pretty good."
Me: "Who did you have lunch with?"
Madeleine: "Jack and Aiden."
Me: "The crew. Were you rehearsing all day?"
Madeleine: "Yep."
Me: "What's the name of the play?"
Madeleine: "London Calling."
Me: "Calling what?"
Madeleine: "I have no idea."

Bay Bridge Moonrise

Eastward

The new Bay Bridge, connecting Oakland to Yerba Buena or "Treasure" Island, finally completed in 2013 after ten years construction and $6.5b of investment. It is the the world's widest bridge, says the Guinness World Records.

The old bridge, to the right, was completed in 1936 and runs parallel to the new bridge. Not anchored in bedrock on the Oakland side, the bridge collapsed in the '89 earthquake - an image beamed around the world and now forgotten to many greater calamities.  Seeing the old thing gives me a shiver.  It is being disassembled, no easy task.

The bridge is white and modern and makes me think of Apple - good design. Plenty of room and well lit all the way.

Madeleine, reading, from the back of the car: "Do astronauts have to know how to kill each other?"

Me: "It's a good question."

One Day In The Bay Area

 The Educator

Brad's start up is funding operating costs for charter schools. He began factoring (advancing receivables) for the same clients several years ago and his book now $600m.

The CFO and the VC

Tim the CFO of Yingli Energy, the world's largest solar panel manufacturer, and Josh a Managing Partner at Matrix, one of the most successful venture firms in the valley.

The Architect

Doug responsible for US and global design at Adobe.

The Saxophonist

Dave's 'State of Mind', produced by legendary record producer Orrin Keepnews, was number one on the Jazz billboards for months.

The Technologist

Roger heads the bizdev team and an early guy at Box.

Misty Morning

Rob and Slon in Mill Valley

I'm up well before the crack of dawn and join my father as he prepares for the gym. It's not yet 4AM. Rather than lie in bed on London time, worrying about emails and other things I should be doing GMT, I drive myself to Inspiration Point, my mind's peaceful place, to do some running. Only it's pitch black other than the twinkling stars that break thru the fog. Not really safe give the fire trail's ancient tarmac filled with cracks but off I go. I am treated with sounds : frogs so loud that I think electric cable, an owl hooting, a coyote howling. Dream.

GGB

Facing southward

I'm with Kitty and Tim yesterday and their rambunctious kids, ages 2 and 4 - Tim the CFO of a listed solar company.  He tells me the U.S. generates more sun electricity than anywhere else, driven by govt tax incentives "that are working" and will be unnecessary inside three years.  California, for instances, requires its utilities to get 33% of electricity from renewables by 2020.

In the twelve months through October 2013, utility scale solar power generated 8.9 million megawatt-hours, 0.22 % of total US electricity. A long ways to go yet.