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April 22, 2008
April 20, 2008
Uncle Wiggy
Sorry to have been out of action for a while. And thank you to Colette for noticing.
I've been back in the UK for a week for work and have spent much of that time in meetings, in hotels, on trains, at receptions, eating and drinking excessively and trying to survive several days without a mobile phone and only sporadic internet access. It was a good week to be back as my visit coincided with the London Book Fair, which meant that lots of my overseas colleagues were in town (hence the excessive eating and drinking), although the whole trip was pretty hectic as a result.
However, the trials of presenting at the International Board meeting were nothing compared to the mission I undertook on Friday. It was my god-daughter Sienna's third birthday and I was very chuffed to be able to make it to Oxfordshire in time for her party, at which I was tasked with the responsibility of a) ensuring no-one drowned in the swimming pool b) handing out ice-cream and c) controlling the CD player for pass-the-parcel and making sure that each of the 28 three year olds at the party had a turn to open a layer when the music stopped. Given that there were two parcels circulating simultaneously, this was no easy undertaking, particularly as the children's entertainer - the incomparable 'Uncle Wiggy' - turned up halfway through the pass-the-parcel, and the children deserted en masse to watch his show. However, I think the kids were fully justified in their excitement as it has to be said that Uncle Wiggy is a magician with a difference. A difference you may be able to spot below:
Meanwhile, whilst I've been occupied with birthdays and balloons, and trying to fathom why the removal of Uncle Wiggy's hair didn't totally freak out the assembled children, Simon has been rubbing shoulders with the great and the good in DC. Washington has been a hive of activity this week, hosting visits from the PM, the Pope and the three remaining US presidential candidates. Simon didn't get to meet the Pope, but he did get a glimpse of Gordon Brown. I'm yet to hear the details, but I'm hoping it was a more successful meeting than his last attempt. The PM visited Afghanistan in December when Si was in Kabul, and made a brief visit to the British Embassy, where all the staff gathered to welcome him. Si ended up at the back of the room with a limited view of proceedings, so climbed up on a chair to hear Mr. Brown give a short speech. All fine, until the PM made an impromptu tour of the room to shake hands with the assembled staff - and Si found himself stranded on the chair, unable to climb down, in front of the Prime Minister, with his crotch at Gordon Brown's eye level. I don't imagine this is a scenario for which there is an official diplomatic protocol, but Simon's response was to remain standing upright on the chair and ignore the PM. I think this was an excellent solution - ensuring that he wouldn't be recognised (from the waist upwards at least) at any future meetings and causing much hilarity amongst his colleagues.
Back to DC tomorrow, in time for the next instalment of the Clinton-Obama face-off on Tuesday, when the Pennsylvania Primary takes place. More soon from across the pond...
April 08, 2008
April 06, 2008
Tehran Tigers in Williamsburg
We spent this weekend in South East Virginia, about 150 miles south of DC, in an area known as the 'Historic Triangle'. This region comprises Jamestown (the first English colony in the New World, which celebrated its 400th anniversary last year with a visit from the Queen), Williamsburg (best known today for a historical recreation of the Colonial capital town) and Yorktown, where the British General Cornwallis surrended in 1871 to the American army led by George Washington, and supported by the French, thus effectively securing American independence from British rule.
The main reason for our visit to this part of the world was the Spring Route adventure race. Since moving to the US, Simon has become obsessed with sporting competitions which to me seem completely incomprehensible. This one was a six-hour challenge which comprised "20+ scenic miles of mountain biking, trekking, kayaking & backwater navigation", in the rain. Luckily, our friend Etienne, a French diplomat who we know from our time in Tehran and now lives in Washington, seems to share this passion, so he formed the other half of the 'Tehran Tigers' team. The Tigers were particularly keen to do well this year following an unfortunate mis-interpretation of the rules in last year's competition which meant that they were initally awarded, and then stripped of, the 2-man team title. (The less said about that little incident the better).
The support team - consisting of Etienne's wife, Agnes, their four kids and me - arrived at the course finishing point just as The Tigers were setting off on their final mountain-biking leg, so we passed the next hour and a half playing hide & seek until they returned. We welcomed our heroes home with shouts of joy (and relief, as it was pouring by the time they got back - witness the three bedraggled French kids in the photo).
We spent Sunday in Yorktown, exploring the museum and battlefields and finding out what fun it was to have one's leg amputated using only laudanum and a 'biting tool' for pain relief.
The results of the race came through at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the Tigers were not victorious this time around - something to do with 'over-confidence in the orienteering round' - but we will no doubt be back next year to support them again in their bid for the Adventure Race crown. We have since discovered that there are points advantages offered to teams containing under-18 and female members. To judge by his efforts to get young Esther involved in the weights training, I suspect that Simon may be pursuing a new strategy next year...
April 02, 2008
New York, New York
Start spreadin' the news, I'm leaving today...
I'm off to an English Language Teaching convention in the Big Apple this afternoon and probably won't have much access to blog over the next couple of days. Not that NYC is technologically backward, just that I'll be a bit busy attending conference sessions and am not sure that I can think of much that's entertaining to write about computer assisted language learning or the future of the verb. Back at the weekend...
March 31, 2008
Cherry Blossom gridlock
Spring has sprung in Washington! We arrived back in DC yesterday to find the city transformed into a mass of pink, white and yellow. The cherry blossoms, dogwood and magnolia trees are out, daffodils and tulips abound, the azaleas are blooming. Unfortunately, the crowds have come too. The area around the Tidal Basin in Washington boasts more than 3000 cherry trees, which were given to the city in 1912 by the then mayor of Tokyo. I foolishly suggested to Simon that we took a circuitous route home from Dulles airport, via the Tidal Basin area (near the Washington monument), to see the cherry trees in bloom. Unfortunately, I had not realised that the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival takes place in Washington between March 29th and April 13th this year, so we brilliantly managed to catch the full force of the tourist traffic on the first Sunday afternoon of the celebrations. Thus, we spent 45 minutes in stationary traffic on the banks of the Potomac, admiring the exhaust pipe of the car in front of us on what was actually quite a grey day. But just imagine how beautiful this would look on a sunny day without the traffic:
March 30, 2008
No one sits until the Nuggets score
Back in DC tonight, having had about three hours sleep – but it was worth it. We were staying in Denver last night with our friends Simon and Erin, who are great because:
1) Simon went to school with Si so has lots of tales about him misbehaving as a youngster
2) They have a tiny two-and-a-half week old baby (a real cutie called Kota), but still invited us to stay with them
3) They are big basketball fans and had booked tickets to take us to see their local team, the Denver Nuggets, in action. And baby came too!
The Denver Nuggets were playing the Golden State Warriors, who are based in Oakland, California (in the San Francisco Bay area) and it was a key match as both sides were battling for a place in the Western Conference playoffs. (There are two leagues, or 'conferences', in the American National Basketball Association, the Western and Eastern conferences, each of which comprises 15 teams. The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs, which culminate in the NBA Finals in June).
It was a great evening - the Nuggets' home arena, the 'Pepsi Center', is an excellent venue and the teams were revved up and raring to go (the spectators even more so). The whole evening is quite a performance, from the singing of the national anthem - at which absolutely everybody stood up, removed their baseball caps, put their hands on their hearts and turned to face the flag - to the half-time entertainment, the cheer-leaders and the 'Supermascot' Rocky. What I loved the most was the fact that the whole thing was so unapologetically partisan - even the announcer introducing the teams was totally biased, practically booing the non-Nuggets players as he introduced them.
The entertainment is as much a part of the game as the basketball itself - the Denver Nuggets boast an incredible array of supporting dance teams, both male and female, including the Dancers (pouty, wannabe Britney types), the Cheer Team (acrobatic gymnasts), the Hipser Girlz (large, black ladies), the Silver Hotties (the over 50s), the Mob Squad (hip-hop dancers) and the Lil' Bustas (under-14 hip-hop dancers). The blokes in the Cheer Team have the best deal of the lot - they get to hurl the twirling, tiny-framed gymnastic girls metres into the air, and admire them as they perform incredible somersaults and stunts.
Oh, and the final score? Denver Nuggets 119, Golden State Warriors 112. GO NUGGETS!!
March 29, 2008
Pikes Peak or Bust...
We spent today sightseeing in the area around Colorado Springs.
The region's most famous landmark is a beautiful mountain named 'Pikes Peak' after a chap called Zebulon Pike, who should count himself lucky as he never actually climbed it himself, although he was the first one to map it, in 1806. The mountain acquired national fame when the view from its summit prompted an English professor named Katherine Lee Bates to pen the words to 'America the Beautiful', widely regarded as America's second national anthem. (You would recognise it if you heard it, which you can do if you click here - apologies for the awful pipe organ).
Pike's Peak County was the site of a gold rush between 1858 and 1861, attracting an estimated 100,000 prospectors in search of their fortune. Many of them risked everything they owned to pursue the elusive nuggets, hence the famous slogan of the time: 'Pikes Peak or Bust!'. We visited the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs, which details the trials and tribulations of the gold prospectors, and also houses an elegantly restored 1903 courtroom - apparently the location for many a Perry Mason episode.
Our last stop of the day was The Garden of the Gods, an incredible geological formation just outside Colorado Springs. The rocks are a breath-taking sight, and open to climbers with technical permits - I had to forcibly restrain Simon from heading off to get his rock-climbing gear upon this discovery. The astonishing red colour of the sandstone is thought to be one possible derivation of the name 'Colorado' (i.e. 'coloured' or 'red' in Spanish). Stunning scenery, and we even had some sunshine too.
March 28, 2008
The Lord above and Rodeo...
We are staying tonight in Old Colorado City, just outside Colorado Springs, about 50 miles south of Denver. We headed down here in search of some better weather – sadly not to be found – but chanced instead upon the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, which more than made up for the lack of sunshine. This unremarkable warehouse building, located next to the main highway through Colorado Springs, is home to a massive collection of Rodeo memorabilia and was a quite a find. It is a strange, strange world indeed. To be honest, I thought rodeo was all about men riding bulls, but it transpires that there is SO much more to it than that. The museum contains an amazing array of saddles, straps, buckles, ropes, lassoes, medals, cups, crowns, programmes, letters, boots, shirts, jeans, neckties and hats, as well as videos of winning rodeo performances which Simon and I found alarmingly mesmerizing.
The annual National Finals Rodeo takes place in Las Vegas each year. Professional cowboys and cowgirls compete for $5 million prize money and the event attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators. As well as the award for the bull riding, prizes are given to for bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping and steer roping. And the best bloke of the bunch is awarded the coveted title of All-Around Cowboy. Those who win one of these categories are likely, at some future date, to be inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame at the annual ceremony in Colorado Springs, and to which this museum is testament. Encouragingly, you don’t have to be a cowboy to enter the Hall of Fame – commentators, rodeo association secretaries, clowns, stock contractors, contract personnel and other ‘notables’ are all eligible to be nominated. Even livestock can earn a place in the Hall of Fame. Over the years a variety of beasts, including Crooked Nose the fighting bull, Baldy the timed-event horse and Skoal’s Sippin’ Velvet the bareback bronc, have all been welcomed into this august society.
It turns out that the greatest Cowboy of all time was a chap called Casey Tibbs, of whom there is a HUGE statue outside the rodeo museum. Tibbs, who died in 1990, was world champion nine times ('world' used here in the same non-global sense as 'world series baseball'). He was feted by the masses, earned a telegram from President Reagan and even made it on to the cover of Life Magazine in October 1951.
The Hall of Fame houses a large collection of rodeo-related sculpture, painting and photographs and one of the most surprising things about the museum was how impressive some of the artwork was. I guess that flinging yourself horizontally against the back of a rearing steer makes fairly good picture. I loved this one, and the title even more so:
“I owe about everything I’ve got to the Lord above and rodeo”. Chris LeDoux. Photo by Randy Wagner.
Apparently, it is quite usual for kids to start training for rodeo aged three or four. They hold special competitions for the youngsters where, instead of riding horses or bulls, they climb aboard sheep and hang on for dear life as the mounted muttons race across the arena. How brilliant. I’ve got to find some video of that on You Tube...
