Sunday

Ten year old Ben Price receives full credit for this series- unfortunately I don't know who it is, but man he takes an interesting portrait. This is the morning after and we kick outside by the organic tomato fields which supply Chez Penisse restaurant. There is a lot of hangover going on and some did not sleep. The fall sun is splendid and I am reminded that the best Norcal weather comes in September and October. More beer and vodka is drunk but I abstain thinking about my return trip to London this evening. The honeymooners will honeymoon at the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, where Sonnet and I spent ours 11 years ago. The day has that sleepy feeling similar to the school playground after the final bell has rung.

Wrubes

Steve I have known since age ten at Camp K&J and then King Jr. High. He introduced me to the La Coste alligator - or was that Eric Price? Regardless, we later teamed up on swimming though Steve always preferred water polo where his power shot was legendary. He once snapped the arm of a defending goalie during a high school match. Since Berkeley, Wrubes has photographed cities, models, retail and us while pursuing his creative and professional media career (he received his degree from the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara). In the mix, he and his wife Lucy spent two years in Rome living nearby the Pantheon; they now reside in Dallas, Texas with their beautiful, and beautifully photographed, daughter Stella. Steve frequently attends the Cowboys on Sunday and otherwise hangs out with the glamorous crowd. Life is good.

The Bride

David's bride Sarah moments before the deed is done. We love her. On Santa Cruz: the city has a population of aprox. 54,000 and is tucked into the northern edge of the Monterey Bay. In 1791, the Mission Santa Cruz was established - the twelfth in California. A university was built with a 'banana slug' mascot. Then, in the 1950s, surfing was discovered and the sleepy hollow became a mecca for surfers and middle-aged water hippies who arrived from the world over. Classic spots include Steamers Lane and three and four mile points - simply that distance on Highway 1 from the Santa Cruz lighthouse. Barnies are not welcome. Farther north at Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay are Mavericks which, on a good swell out of the Pacific, crest at 50 feet or higher. The break is caused by an unusually-shaped underwater rock. Mavericks Point was discovered by Jeff Clark in 1975 and he surfed the Giants for 15 years before the world caught up with him and them in 1991. The story is recently documented in Riding Giants. Driving to the wedding I see the Mavericks on a deserted day - rocky cliffs, kelp and angry froth greet the suicidals who revel in this action. Me, I prefer boogy boarding closer to a sandy shore.

"Surfing, alone among sports, generates laughter at its very suggestion, and this is because it turns not a skill into an art, but an inexplicable and useless urge into a vital way of life."
MATT WARSHAW, Maverick's: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing

Stripey

Guests begin to arrive from all over and Friday evening is spent drinking, eating, telling and re-telling fabled stories and more drinking. We retire around midnight - quite a feat given the number of parents (I'm solo and not complaining!). Some sleep in tents, others in hotels or with each other while I bunk up with Tyler and Sheila, Erica and Paul and Mike and Andrea plus their nine kids ages three to 11. It is not quiet. Molly, pictured, belongs to Tyler and is one gorgeous kid. She's bashful so I have to take a few quick snaps as she ducks behind her mum.

“There are two major products that came out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.”

Jeremy Anderson

The Mighty Citroën

David in his vintage Citroën , which has been lovingly refurbished by him including plush interior seating, a new sound system and restored original body work. The Citroën hangs remarkably low to the ground, perhaps only four inches, and when I comment on this Dave hops into the car to show me the hydraulics. The car miraculously raises about one foot into the air providing plenty of air space for depressions or bumps in the road. It is all class and perfect for the honeymoon get-away. Here is what I know about the Citroën: the company was founded by Andre, a Jew, in 1919 and is today part of the French Peugeot Group. It was the first car company to mass-produce a front-wheel drive car and its cars somehow just feel Frenchie. Famous models are 2CV ("The Duck"), the DS ("Goddess") and the CX - pictured.

Ultan!

I drive south on HW 1 Friday afternoon following a morning with Industry Ventures and Walden VC. Often The Great Highway is washed out or chunks have fallen into the Pacific but this trip is uninterrupted and in any case always spectacular. David Ultan is getting married. David and I have known each other since the fifth grade back in the day at Longfellow Elementary. Our teacher, Mrs. Riles, was an obese black woman who loved us and all her kids which included Boat People who had arrived from Asia barely speaking english. Ah, Berkeley - that would have been 1976-78. David and I at different times in our adult lives returned to Longfellow to find Mrs. Riles but she has since long gone. I arrive at the wedding house in the Santa Cruz mountains during the set up, which gives me a few free hours with the groom as we hustle food and booze to various strategic locations and David takes calls from his homies who are coming in. The food is prepared by former Chez Panise cooks and man is there a spread. It is all good.

Will Quist

Will recently joined Industry Ventures following a year playing professional water polo in Hungary (I have been helping Industry source investments and capital from London). Before that, he was an All American swimmer and H20 player at Cal where his 200 yard freestyle time of 1:37 qualified for the NCAA's. Will trained with Nort Thorton who still coaches Cal after all these years - I swam with Nort my senior year of high school when legends Matt Biondi and John Mykennan (silver medalist 400m '84 Olympics) were there. Now Will stuffs himself into some Banana Republic clothes and sources secondary deals for the fund. This photo of Will taken at the Industry Ventures offices of 750 Battery Street.

Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge is the bluecollar bridge connecting the East Bay's Oakland to San Francisco and the peninsula. Unfortunately for the 280,000 daily drivers, the regions affordable housing is on one side and Silicon Valley and jobs the other - there are only three bridges and everybody drives at rush hour creating the second worst traffic zone in America trailing only horrible L.A. The Bay Bridge opened in 1936 while the western crossing (pictured), from San Francisco to the island, consists of two suspension bridges end-to-end with an anchorage, plus three shorter truss spans connecting the San Francisco landing to the western cable anchorage located on Rincon Hill. The eastern span between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland consists of a double-tower cantilever span, five medium-span truss bridges, and a 14 section truss causeway. These east bay structures are scheduled to be replaced by an entirely new crossing now under construction though for the life of me I have never seen a construction worker during my umpteen visits these past five years. My photo taken this morning from Christian Wright's flat.

Editors

Christian, sporting his John Terry England T and England top, and I go to see the Brit-pop band The Editors last night at the Filmore. We follow our usual tradition of a five course meal at Delfina's on 18th and Valencia in San Francisco. The waitresses all know Christian and dote upon him making us feel well loved. The band is most excellent and reminds me a bit of The Cure with lead Tom Smith sporting a goofy curly hair thing that he places particularly throughout the show. Afterwards we hit the 24 hour donut shop and watch the England-Russia football game from last week (England wins - again - 3 to nil).

Ad

Adam, his business partner Scott and I have dinner at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. Adam and Scott are in New York by invitation to a film market to promote their new documentary "Satan and Adam." The film traces the blues duo of Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee and Adam Gussow, who were a fixture on Harlem's sidewalks in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Magee sings in a style that fuses blues with elements of soul and rap, plays electric guitar with withering intensity, and uses both feet to stomp out polyrhythms on a homemade percussion setup that includes hi-hat cymbals topped with tambourines and maracas. Gussow plays amplified harmonica in an equally fluent and original way. Together, Satan and Adam have, as journalist Richard Skelley noted, "redefined and shaped the sound of modern blues so much that 'I Want You' from their Harlem Blues debut was included on a Rhino Records release, "Modern Blues of the 1990s."

The balance of my day is spent walking around Mid-Town, meeting people at tall buildings with nice views. I catch-up with business school friend Spencer Wells whose hedge fund Silver Point now manages $9.4 billion and employs 250 staff. Spencer was the six guy and made Partner last year. Bravo!

Times Square

I have a busy day running around Manhattan but the best part is drinking a martini with Katie and Jeremy at Cafe Luxemberg on 70th and Broadway. Katie and I usually go there solo and sit at the bar eating bar food. Tonight I have a hamburger and onion rings then catch a cab to the W to grab my camera and take some shots of Times Square. I like the Evil Eye, pictured, looking down on it all. I now blog and watch a Soprano's re-run. About Times Square:

In the early 1900s, New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs moved the newspaper's operations to a new skyscraper on 42nd Street in Longacre Square. Ochs persuaded the mayor to construct a subway station there, and the area was renamed "Times Square" on April 8, 1904. Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway.

The New York Times moved to more spacious offices across Broadway in 1913. The old Times Building was later named the Allied Chemical Building. Now known simply as One Times Square, it is famed for the "ball" which "drops" from a tower on its roof every New Year's Eve.

Diprima

I have dinner with Steve Diprima and his family on the Upper West Side where they live next to the Museum of Natural History. Steve and I worked m&a together and I have known him since 1991 which is hard for both of us to believe, really. Steve split Wall Street finance to get his J.D. from Columbia and is now a Partner at Wachtel Lipton. We share running and he was on the cross-country team at Wesleyan. His marathon time is irritatingly faster than mine- 3:04 at Big Sur vs. my 3:11 at London - and we spend a lot of time discussing who is really the superior athlete. Steve's two kids Dominic and Tea are into football, baseball and music. Dominic plays the electric guitar and puts on a bright red afro to show me how to jam like Jimmy Hendricks or White Slip, a metal band I've thankfully never heard of. Steve is a Mets fan and happy about his prospects: the Mets lead their division by three with 17 games to go. Life is good.

JFK Express

I leave for New York this morning, saying a sad good-bye to Sonnet and the teary-eyed little Shakespeares. Brightening things up a bit, Eitan and Madeleine send me off with a presents-list: Eitan asks for pair of binoculars and a play-dough maker while Madeleine wants a "grown up ring" and a walkie-talkie. "It's for both of us," she confides to Eitan. I'm staying at the five-star W Hotel in Times Square which is decidedly cool, if average. Feel'n kind of gay. It's a perfect time to be in the Big Apple as the weather is cool with a touch of autumn and bright sunshine, lazy clouds. I jog Central Park with my camera and take this shot of the Time Warner Building; a crazy man yells at a crowd watching a rapper rap: "All sinners - and that means you mister! - are all going to hell," yells the man.

Swimmer

Eitan tries out, and succeeds, for the Wandsworth SC. Thanks to his lessons with Vortec, he is as good or better than most kids on the young squad. The kids race back and forth doing crawl, kicking and back-stroke. Eitan breathlessly tells me that he wants to be a "swim racer." Football remains the sport but he's giving swimming a go. Us parents sit in the stands fiddling with the Blackberries or reading. An 0830 start time is a luxury, for Pete's sake - it ain't swim practice unless it starts at 6:30AM, right dad?

I prepare for America leaving tomorrow from Heathrow. I will be in NY for several days then the Bay Area for David Ultan's wedding. Lucky me I will also see Katie in the Big Apple, Grace and Moe in Berkeley and other friends along the way. I will do some work but who ever remembers that?

Sonnet tucks Eitan, age 3, into bed: "I'm so lucky that I have you."
Eitan: "I'm so lucky that I have ice cream."

Madeleine from the back-seat: "I know a mosquito can't suck your bones, but what if it could?"

Madeleine, walking home from football: "Dad our side lost one to nothing but I still scored two goals."

Madeleine contemplates our relationship: "I used to not like you dad. But now I do."

Pitch perfect

Eitan and I are up early for sports. We walk early to the Bank of England sports club in Richmond where Eitan has joined the swimming team. From there we have an hour before football so we pack tennis rackets and do some drills in Palewell Park. Finally his favorite - football! - and he plays well following the summer break. All the boys, and us dads, are happy to re-unite and talk about the summer and property values. Middle age, baby.

I find my giant Snicker's bar in Eitan's candy chest. I ask him how it got there and he sheepishly tells me that he took it from the freezer. I say that if he can steal my candy, I can steal his - unless, of course, I find the Snickers bar returned to its place. He contemplates this seriously: is a giant Snickers in hand worth two from the pile? He wisely puts it back.

Eitan: "I want to play for Manchester United when I grow up!"

Before Madeleine's first try at Stage Coach, a performance art class, I tell her it's going to be great. Says she matter-of-factly: "It might not be, dad."

Lads Victorias!

England wins a crucial '08 European Cup qualifier against Russia last night with a commanding score of 3-nil. The star is Michael Owen, pictured, who scores twice - adding to his brilliant goal against Israel on Saturday and bringing his life total for England to 40. The record BTW is held by Bobby Charlton who put 49 into the net. It's hard to remember that 14 months ago Owen was painfully out of the World Cup with a busted metatarsal. The other surprise success this week is striker Emile Heskey who has returned from retirement, played brilliantly and received two standing ovations at Wembley- while pushing age 40! I recall watching Heskey play in the '02 World Cup in Korea at 7AM GMT due to the time difference. The locals drank breakfast beer, smoked fags and chanted"Donkey" every time Heskey was on the pitch. It wasn't pretty. Ethnic dislikes aside, England coach McClaren is going to have a difficult staffing decision to make when stars Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Owen Hargreaves and David Beckham return from injury. Logic might suggest: don't tinker with a good thing. Photo of a younger Michael Owen by the World Press.

NB Eitan and Madeleine are allowed to watch the first 30 minutes of the game, which otherwise begins past their bed-time. Eitan is desperate to hear the results this morning and dances when he learns the outcome.

Lars

When he's not kicking a football, Lars is running his hedge fund Holte Capital which he started in 2002. He is a multi-talented Dane whose skills include risk-management and ball control - Lars tells me his hackey record is 300 kicks. I've known Lars in London since 1999 when we played poker (his gambling habit moved to full-time). He was educated at Harvard undergrad and Harvard MBA - I tell him this is like having crab for your appetiser and main course.

Madeleine and Eitan had a school assembly yesterday where they learned about protecting our planet. Starting now, we will no longer use plastic bags for anything. The children were told that a plastic bag carelessly tossed into the Thames was found on a sea lion at Clacton On Sea - fortunately the fisherman took the bag off the poor fellow's head before he suffocated. Now, you see, it is personal and Madeleine wales: "The sea lions dad! You're going to kill them!" when she catches me red-handed at the groceries.

Inside St Paul's

I have a free hour and pay a visit to the Wren Cathedral (my photo from underneath the grand basilica facing the paupet). The present St Paul's dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major medieval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral.

The task of designing a the current structure was assigned to Christopher Wren in 1668, along with over 50 other City churches. His first design, to build a replacement on the foundations of the old cathedral, was rejected in 1669. The second design, in the shape of a Greek cross (circa 1672) was rejected as too radical, as was a revised design that resulted in the 1:24 scale "Great Model". The 'warrant' design was accepted in 1675 and building work began in June.

The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1677. The cathedral was completed on in 1708 or thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery caused London to burst into flames.

Katie, Sharon and Noa

Here's a cute photo live from the Upper West Side. I'm in Paris today following a scramble out the door to catch my 0700 train. Why is it that your bill-fold and keys always disappear when you need to get the fuck out the door? Between meetings I manage to sneak in a five-miler from Le Crillon up the Seine, circling La Cité and The Dame returning through the Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries - a run I have done many times before but always special. The Parisiens have resurrected their giant feris wheel at Concorde looking straight up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It is a beautiful city.

I discover that Eitan or Madeleine has stolen my cuff-links leaving me in a pickle for tomorrow morning. I am aware that the kids are hoarding their treasures which includes, among other things, twine, crystals, a hackey sack, last Halloween's candy (Eitan), coins in various currencies and a dvd player which no longer works. Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. And so too is value.

At Le Faubourg I watch the film "Anaconda" with J Lo and Ice Cube. Awaful but fun - I kinda want to see which celeb gets it first.

2!

Dakota turns two and we celebrate in Primrose Hill with her and a bunch of happy kids from the neighborhood and around town. An entertainer plays "pass-the-monkey" which I understand is a favorite of all English children but somehow missed our house. Dana prepares cupcakes to perfection and after all the action, we head for Primrose Hill for the view from the top.

At the party, I meet Stephen Robinson who until last year was a main editor at the Telegraph newspaper since 1986 and covering U.S. politics from Washington D.C. for seven years. Fun! We discuss the State of the Union, Conrad Black and the British tabloids which continue to tail-spin as readers and advertisers dessert. "The problem of course" says Stephen "is that there are too many broadsheets. But this is why consumers love Fleet Street- the selection." Stephen is taking the year-off to finish a biography for February '08.