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.

Sunday In The East Bay

Driving from SFO to Berkeley, the radio plays Peaches And Herb, Chic - Le Freak, and Blondie. Where else this wonderful collection of music from my childhood ?

The good news is rain, as California in the throws of a three-year drought where the Sierra-Nevada snowpack is at 15% the normal level.

So I walk down Vine Lane (rain) to Peet's which opens 6AM on a Sunday.  The usual intellects and freaks there, making me feel pretty good about the place.

High School Standard

No rubber suit here

Katie Ledecky, who we saw win gold in London, set the American high school record yesterday in the 500 yard freestyle in the trials of the D.C. Metro high school swimming championships. Her time of 4:28.71 under her year-old national high school record of 4:31.38 and also lower's Katie Hoff's American record of 4:30.47 from 2007. Ledecky is 16 years old.

Ledecky's splits:
24.68
26.47 (51.15)
26.86
26.96 (53.82, 1:44.97)
27.13
27.37 (54.50, 2:39.47)
27.30
27.51 (54.81, 3:34.28)
27.87
26.56 (54.43, 4:28.71)

Katie's pal Susan now the CEO of Youtube. 

Off to California in 30.

Doppler Effect

Madeleine turns 12 tomorrow. I have every day of her life in my mind's eye and can move forward and backwards since her birth. When I look at her, I see all these years combined in her eyes and smile. It is something unique to us and that I treasure.

Sonnet arrives home a fabulous mess - tube strike and rain.  She has a photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar complete with makeup and hair stylist and wardrobe adviser - she chooses Armani (darling).  She is photographed before her mannequins, inside the museum, to hit the newsstands for the April issue. Madeleine: "Wow. Mom needs to come with me to listen to my trumpet."

Me: "You know, Sonnet was a ballerina." [Dad's note: dinner table, Sonnet working late]
Aneta: "Oh? what is that?"
Me: "It is someone who does ballet. Dancing on tip toes"
Madeleine: "Yeah. She did it until she was 12."
Eitan: "Why did she stop ?"
Madeleine: "Mom said it was because her feet grew."
Me: "That's not the only thing that grew."
Eitan:
Madeleine: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Let's just say she lost her balance."
Eitan: "Ha ha!"

Nordic

Uspenski Cathedral

Helsinki to Göteborg to Stockholm in 24 hours, meeting with a few pension funds and other investors. Usual stuff.

I like the Nordics - there is a winter sensibility here missing from London or the Continent. First off, the city gets on with snow. Taxi drivers hit excessive speeds, the airports don't shut down and the roads are clear. People dress sensibly before stylishly (unlike Eitan who refuses to wear his winter jacket most winter days because, you know, the other boys don't wear a winter jacket).  But mostly I like the people who are friendly and a bit different.

Me (on phone): "How was your day?"
Eitan: "Ok I guess."
Me: "Anything interesting happen?"
Eitan: "Not really. We had a test. In sex ed."
Me: "That sounds awkward."
Eitan: "It wasn't very difficult."
Me: "Did you cheat and touch your willy?"
Eitan: "Ha ha!"
Me: "Well whatever you don't learn in the classroom you'll pick up by trial and error."
Eitan:
Me: "That was a joke. Sort of."

Outta Here

The rush and tumble of daily life (as Sonnet says). Madeleine bolts for stage school where every Saturday she has an hour session each of drama, music and dance. Each term there is an end-of-term performance where the little darlings put their skills on display. Madeleine's ambition to be an actress. Like Serpico.

And in other late-breaking news, I am off to Finland in an hour.

Dippy The Dinosaur

Dippy

King Edward VII gave "Dippy", a 26-meter Diplodocus, to the Natural History Museum in 1905.  I think he looks like Dino in the Flintstones.  But Dino a Snorkasaurus.  You know, a sauropod.

When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, post school, I would find myself at Jeff Morgan's house watching Gilligan's Island followed by Star Trek and ... the Flintstones reruns, which otherwise aired on 'prime time' from 1960 to 1966. Hard to believe people watched cartoons while eating TV dinners but there you have it.

Jeff's brother, Louis, had cancer so his parents were never around which suited me and Jeff just fine - unsupervised afternoons, junk food ..  candy .. . as much television as we could handle.  We were modern day Tom Sawyers. That's what it seemed like back then.

Me: "What happened at school today?"

Madeleine: "Nothing."

Me: "Anything interesting happen?"

Madeleine: "No."

Me: "Let's try something different. You choose a subject. You know, something you want to talk about."

Madeleine: "How about 'can I leave the dinner table?" ?"

Me: "Ok, It's a start."

Self Portrait XXXV

Charlie Shrem, the CEO of Bitcoin exchange company BitInstant (backed by the Winklevoss brothers) and a well-known voice in the virtual currency community, charged with scheming to sell and launder $1 million worth of Bitcoin to users of the illegal drug website Silk Road.

The Manhattan Federal Court deems the 24-year old Shrem a flight risk and sets bail at $1 million, puts a tracking device around Shrem's ankle, and remands him to his parents' house in Brooklyn.  They must be like, WTF ?!  Raise the kid with good values - check.  Feed and clothe the little bastard - check. Pay for private college - check, check, check. And the payback ? Mom is picking up Charlie's dirty clothes again.

Cold Shower

One of the things I notice about getting older, other than an inability to keep up with Eitan running, is that I am now more clumsy revealed by several recent falls caused by mis-judging stupid situations including a dangerous one on my bike. I also have lost some of my sixth sense like when you drop a pencil and your hand is there to catch it without thinking.

To counter this, and I have no idea if there is any scientific merit here, I take freezing cold showers alternating with hot water. It certainly gives me a goose in the morning.

Box Dress

11 fading fast

Madeleine soon to turn 12 and we consider her celebration. I push for a party but neither kid comfortable with that at our house. Could it be the cow suit ? But anyway, I have to remind myself that this fabulous kid is not the same age as her older brother. She holds her own just fine.

In other news, Hollande mans up and - finally - Trierweiler is out.  It's hard to sympathise with Hollande, the putz, but Trierweiler sounds like a complete whack job. I have some insight into her type having also found myself trapped in the company of an insecure, opportunistic and ambitious (Asian) woman - may her career RIP.  From humble origins, Trierweiler forced her way on to the scene, damaging people along the way, without failure, until now. Hollande should have seen the signs well before the inevitable crash.

Cash Flows

Eitan walks to the coach which takes him and a bunch of local kids to school.  He looks like he could have an HP-12C or a bond table tucked inside his coat pocket.

And the boy has expressed an interest in business. Who can forget the methodical planning behind the bakery business which netted our neighbors, Helen and Martin, as customers? Or Eitan's attempt to sell my old Sony VAIO on eBay which I discouraged since it's missing a couple of important keys and the battery life about nil. He bemoans the Internet for squashing the paper-route (having listened to my glorified stories of delivering the long-gone Berkeley Gazette) and now he puts his Great Brain to work on books or, specifically, how to get them from the pulping skip to Africa.  These are all excellent initiatives.

Madeleine plays field hockey, a new sport, which takes over from net-ball, which comes to an end this month.

Functionalism

Danish 'functionalism', which began in the 1930s and spread outwards, relied on rational architecture making use of concrete, iron and glass, preferably to meet social needs.

The Bellahoj Svommstadion fits the bill, constructed by the City of Copenhagen, Culture and Leisure, Copenhagen Properties KEjd, who designed the building in 2005. It's also a magnificent aquatics complex with 50-meter swimming pool, diving well and spectator stands all sunk in industrial cement and supported by by white steel beams.  Floor to ceiling windows allow a view of the pool and the outdoors.  I feel like a million bucks doing my back and forths.

Copenhagen for meetings, home for dinner.

Women at Goodyear factory in Northern France shaking the President's hand: "It's not soft, your handshake !"

President Hollande: "Neither my hand nor my head. And I'll say nothing about the rest. "

Low Skies

Richmond Park jog

Britain's top sugar watchdog, Ian Macdonald, is on the Coca-Cola and Mars payrolls, never admitted by him and only recently made public thanks to a Channel 4 investigation.  Ian chairs the government panel examining the impact of sugar consumption on health; his recommendations later this year will frame the national guidance.  But I'm sure there's no conflict.

Lena Dunham, who is all out there and gnarly on her hit show 'Girls' and promotes 'anti-glamour' for more realistic images of women in the film and media industries is seriously photo shopped in next month's Vogue magazine. On the online fallout, she tweets: "Some shit is just too ridiculous to engage." Unless, that is, you have a twelve year old girl in your house.

Our last-night dinner party a success at 15, including kids, though we learn that our Spanish friends Alberto and Lucrecia returning to Madrid.  Now we have even more reason to visit a wonderful city.

Skate

Penny boarding

When I was about Madeleine's age I had a penny board, also known as a skateboard, which I practised in the backyard of 1530 Euclid. Unfortunately our block too steep, and trafficked, to learn it properly.

We are with Veronique and Marshall, whose pal, the CEO of BP, caught by Marshall last summer throwing water balloons from Marshall's 7th floor roof deck with Houston, Marshall's 16 year old son. Central London, mind you.

Tony visits for a walk in Richmond Pk and in town for the Davos pre parties (Tony a member of the Dean's Council at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University). Tony a 'recycled entrepreneur', his expression, who's first company, Morris Decisions Systems, a NYC-based PC dealer and network systems integrator, #9 on Inc. 500 in the year before its acquisition in the 1980s. Since, he has been a formidable investor in vc. We share a number of interests.

Me: "How was the walk?"
Madeleine: "Good."
Me: "Was the dog behaved?"
Madeleine: "Yes."
Me: "Were there a lot of people in the park?"
Madeleine: "No."
Me: "Can you answer all my questions with one word?"
Madeleine: "Maybe."

Engine Hall

So .. . back from Paris in time to see Madeleine's net-ball game at her school against some team (I don't know, she doesn't know). Emanuel wins, 11-3.

I am in Paris for the Astorg New Year's party which is at a trendy nightclub in the 9e which we take over for the affair. The evening entertainment around a hypnotist.  Weird in a very French sort of way.

2013 attendance at the British Museum sets a record with 25,000 people a day, on average.  The Elgin Marbles have never been so popular.

Me: "What's your homework ?"
Madeleine: "I have some Spanish thing.  I have to write about our family. In Spanish."
Me: "Oh?"
Madeleine: "Yeah. Like 'we have a dog' or 'mom has brown hair.'
Me:
Madeleine: "And 'dad has lots of hair.' "
Me: "Good. You're learning."

Swimming Day

Homework Sunday

I spend Saturday at the Mountbatten leisure center in Portsmouth, a wonderful new swimming complex with a modern design including an undulating wooden roof covering the 50-meter pool. The Shakespeares attempt qualifying times for 'the Surreys' regional swimming championships. Madeleine just misses the 50-meter freestyle in 34.45 while Eitan has the 100-meter (1:04.14) and 200m freestyle. Eitan: "I didn't get much training done recently over Christmas so I wasn't very fit."  

The drive to Portsmouth about 90 minutes through Surrey on the A3. We arrive home late but in time for me (and Sonnet) to catch some of the NFL playoffs.

Mr Normal

Dough boy

When things go down a good scandal in order and France's Hollande gives us just that, shagging a Fr movie star 20 years his younger. In past, the French turned the blind eye to their leader's dalliances but Fonzi changed all that, rubbing the post-crisis struggling nation's face in it, with the sexy and talented Carla Bruni. No, Hollande promised to return some respect to the highest office (even though he ditched his longtime girlfriend and mother of his children for a hot tempered editor at Paris Match but whatever)

France could use some presidential virility but pictures of the famously hen pecked Hollande taken around the corner on a moped and hustled into his sexual den wearing a motor helmet to avoid detection, well, a bit too much.

The President's popularity now in the teens and no wonder : it has been a mess from the start. It poured rain on his inaugural march down the Champs Elysee (he, refusing umbrella). Then the plane  on his first diplomatic mission struck by lightening (Germany, flight turned around). Of course there was the tax-the-rich fiasco of 2012 and, today, France the sole country in the Western World not forecasting growth while 54% of the workforce in public services. No fun here.

"I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers, but I finally chose politics."
--Francois Hollande, President of France

Photo from AP and Getty Images

USA COLORADO DENVER

`Well, it's Friday night.  Back in business.

There's a good vibe in St Pancras as I return from Paris. First real Friday, post-holidays, and people are happy: life mostly sucks about now but, hey, we made it thru the week. It's worth something.

The kids back in school and into their routines : up at 6:30AM or 7, out the door for respective trips east and west by coach or train.  This morning Eitan has swimming practice, Sonnet works on labels. Madeleine creates an itinerary for a date with mom including Whole Food for sushi followed by Anchor Man 2 (movie).

Me: "This dog doesn't listen to anybody."
Eitan: "You've made Rusty what he is - dumb and stupid and all over the place."

Me: "Gee, thanks a lot."

Wildcard Game

Sean Alexander is tackled

I prepare for some NFL football and tonight it is the 49ers v the Packers, a good rivalry, being played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, despite A) record shattering cold temps and B) the Niners 12-4 and the Packers 8-7-1.  The playoffs have begun.

Sonnet befuddled by American football btw - what is the point of grown men battering each other, she ponders? (Dad's note: this is exactly the point). But then, one would expect this opinion from an art major from Smith College.  I recall '94 when we saw the Bears play Washington State at Memorial Stadium, her first Div 1 football game (the Bears lose on the final play), seated close to the field and next to the cheerleaders. "Perky", she said.

The kids and Aneta have friends over, which I comfortably sleep through (it is the afternoon).

Hip Hip

The rain comes down - another once-in-a-hundred-years storm batters the UK - raising a 'severe weather warning' from the Met Office and assembling the elite government "Cobra" team who respond to national emergencies. It all sounds pretty macho to me.  The BBC weather people have a ball, warning us to "stay inside unless absolutely essential" and "your life could be in danger" and so on and so forth.

This is the fifth mega storm in the last four or five years, go figure. The convergence of high tides, winds and low pressure systems coming down from the arctic pole, floods the south and midwest, making life miserable for thousands of people.

Rusty sneaks under the kitchen table.
Me: "The dog is scared of me. He knows when I'm gonna brush his teeth."
Eitan: "Yeah."
Me: "Whenever I use that voice, the dog knows it's coming."
Eitan: "I know when you are going to give me chores, by your voice ."
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "And by the way you walk up the stairs."
Me:
Eitan: "And the way you open the door. If it's fast, without knocking, I know: chores."
Me: "I guess I had better change up. So you won't know what's coming."
Eitan: "Well I'm still not going to do them."