Christmas Day in London

Santa Rupert

Happy Christmas

Our first really lazy Christmas thanks to Simon and Tania!  We were collected by car and taken to their lovely new flat in Stoke Newington and then treated to lots of champagne, a delicious meal, and excellent presents!   It was very relaxing to be so well looked after.  We were hardly allowed to lift a finger.  After lunch we watched a film together and then managed to squeeze in some dessert.

Tania searches in the fridge...

Simon and Peter relaxing

Laying the table

Simon and Rupert were very understanding about the non-arrival of some of their presents owing to my blunder.  I addressed the parcels to me in Norwich, not realising that the post office were forwarding everything!  So some of the presents will be waiting for us back in Texas.  Oh dear!

Christmas chaos!

We arrived back in Norwich on Friday morning and although it is now only Sunday morning it already feels like a week, we have not stopped running!

The trip to the supermarket for the bare essentials on Friday was a sharp reminder of the small scale of many things here...in comparison to the US and Texas in particular.  The car park for which you need a ticket to get in and out lest you should overstay your alloted time, was heaving.  Although there were supposed to be spaces they only revealed themselves when you happened to be driving past someone who was leaving.  It took a few circuits to find a space.  Never seen a supermarket car park in College Station that was anywhere near full!   Inside was also heaving with glassy eyed patrons using their trolleys to block the aisles!   We dived in and out.  Now I'm regretting we didn't stick it out as we now have to go again tomorrow and no doubt it will be even worse!

On Friday evening a friend came round with supper - a delicious lentil and sausage casserole. On Saturday we did various catch up chores and I hauled out the mottley collection of wrapping paper and started on the presents.  As usual I discovered things I had already bought that I had forgotten about and remembered things I have ordered that don't appear to have arrived yet.  There are a couple more possible delivery days before Christmas and after that they'll be cunningly converted to New Year presents!

On Saturday evening our friends up the road came in for a drink and then we went to friends across the city for a delicious meal and much too much wine!!!!  What with jet lag and dehydration we both had a restless night, but it was worth it!  It's been wonderful to catch up with three sets of good friends in two days.

Now we are up and breakfasting and getting ready to go to a drinks party at lunch time.  It's all go!

Hurry, hurrry...

...while stocks last!

Award ceremony and banquet

Well, a busy day yesterday at the American Geophysical Union Fall Conference...

A late start with a small breakfast at Starbucks followed by a trip to collect Peter's certificate and lapel pin and then we met up with Bob and Mary for lunch and caught up with their news.

Loyal supporters!

Peter went off to get changed into his DJ before attending a rehearsal for the award ceremony and I went with Mary to look round the exhibits in one of the vast meeting halls while Bob dropped into a session or caught up with people he knew.  I had to go back to the hotel to change and then we all met up again with other friends at the ceremony.    It was a very slick affair with a lot of people being honoured.  Afterwards we milled around and then made our way to a nearby hotel for the banquet, attended by about 800 people.  The food and the service were amazingly good considering the logistics!  A bit of dancing...and then back to the hotel.

On the big screen...

Peter and the President Elect

Didn't he do well!

Apparently there were a total of 25,000 people registered for the conference, so it wasn't surprising that we later found out about other people we knew who were there!

We left San Francisco this morning and are now back in College Station. 

Tuesday in San Francisco

Mel's Drive In again for breakfast, then a trip to the Cartoon Museum to see an exhibition of Ronald Searle's cartoons of his time in the US. As usual, very cruel.
 This, not by Searle, caught my eye!

Oh, how true to life!

Then on to a Chinese 6 course lunch with the bio-geophysical people attending the conference followed by a trip back to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, to see the Hockney exhibition which we missed yesterday.  A big exhibition of water colours, charcoal drawings and oils all very recent.  Much enjoyed.

Hockney

Another day, another museum cafe! 

Then a short break before going out to dinner again! 

San Francisco

San Francisco miscellany...

Signing in for the conference

Mug shots

Art museum - closed for rebuilding! 

Interesting flowers.  Orange phlomis??

Christmas tree

Fire escape as seen in the movies

Breakfast at Mel's Drive Inn

Whatever next! 

Jewish Museum with Liebskind additions

De Young Museum - closed!!!

Conservatory of Flowers - closed!!!

The botanical gardens

Large Egret

Lunch…Pozole Roja with trimmings.  Hot and spicy…
As usual I've forgotten to take a photo before starting to eat! 

Forgot to say...

…that the gizmo from the insurance people arrived.  I plugged it in and it gives three little polite bleeps to tell you it's working…and then you drive very carefully!  The hardest thing is judging how much to slow down for traffic lights.  There's a long orange so the temptation is to keep going before it goes red rather than break sharply in case it goes red.  So far the gizmo has given me the thumbs down twice.  A rude loud bleep after sharp braking.   I don't know how much leeway you have, and of course they don't tell you.  The spooky thing is that it's transmitting to head office or to someone in a dingy back office.  We got an email thanking us for plugging it in.

P.S. Very strange.  I re-read this entry and realised I had typed 'telegram' instead of 'email' in the last sentence.  When did I last get a telegram?

Spoke too soon!

And now it's FREEZING!  Heating going full blast and CNN full of news bulletins from places with unseasonable ice and snow.  All of which means that Dallas airport is at a standstill and there are no flights from College Station because no planes have come in in order to go out and my travel plans to join Peter in San Francisco were scuppered yesterday.  I went to the airport twice - fortunately it's an easy 10 minute drive from here - and eventually got swapped to a different airline (choice of two!) for a flight from Houston today, Saturday.  Unfortunately there were no seats on the shuttle bus early this morning, so I had to change my ticket again and am now waiting to go to the airport to get the shuttle to get the later plane to get to San Francisco!  Only a day late!  My case has been packed all this time and everything in it will need ironing!  Moan, moan, moan!  The joys of travel…

However, it is a bit warmer in San Francisco and Peter has booked dinner tonight at a Greek restaurant...

Back in the pool!

Yeah!  The temperature has gone back up again - 72F at the moment - so it's back to swimming this week.  The water temperature this morning was 85F.  Bliss!

Sunday in Dallas

On Sunday we went to Dealey Plaza to see the Kennedy memorial and then up to the 6th Floor Museum in the old school book repository from which he was shot.  A quietly moving experience.  Very good displays and panels, an excellent audio guide and a slow moving and serious crowd of mostly Americans.  We learned a lot.

Kennedy Memorial

We purchased a picnic lunch and set off back to College Station and found a very well designed rest area where we rested and ate.   The traffic on the roads was very heavy and frequently came to a standstill (Thanksgiving weekend is when everyone goes somewhere else to visit family) so as soon as we could we struck off across country on quieter roads.

Greetings from Dallas

Thanksgiving on Thursday at the home of friends of my swimming/book group friend Lynn.  Peter and I gatecrashed a group that has been meeting up on Thanksgiving for years...now three generations together - children and grandchildren...and they made us feel completely welcome!  Turkey and all the trimmings.  It could have been Christmas but no crackers and silly hats and no flaming pudding!  Lots of delicious pies though.

Grilled chilles…I forgot to take the picture before tucking in.
Peter is eating what's left and I had half his clams.

Friday we set off for Dallas for the weekend and after finding our hotel room (suite) negotiated the Dart system and took the 'train' to Mockingbird Station to the Angelika, a version of Cinema City.  We saw 'Nebraska'.  Peter gave it 8 out of 10 (a little slow in places) but I gave it 10.  Thoroughly recommended.  It got a round of applause from the very interactive and appreciative audience.  We talked about it long over supper at a nearby restaurant Central 134 - also highly recommended.  It had the slightly artificial atmosphere of a hotel restaurant but the food was excellent.  I started with a plate of small grilled peppers with a red pepper sauce and Peter had clams in a delicious broth.  We both followed with bavette steak on a pea puree with heritage carrots and fingerling potatoes.  All very good...and a good bottle of Italian wine.

Bavette steak

Actually 'Nebraska' was our second film of the week. Things seem to be improving on that front.  We also saw 'Philomena' which we both gave 9 out of 10!

The hotel opposite

Christmas decoration made from car parts

We spent Saturday at the Dallas Art Museum, a completely confusing building - we had to ask how to find rooms constantly, but very enjoyable nonetheless.  We started with a special exhibition of Hopper drawings showing how he prepared for many of his paintings.  Then a spell in the cafe for coffee then off to explore the other rooms.  Back to the cafe for lunch and then finally across to the sculpture collection opposite.

Here are some of the things we liked, in no particularly order.

Artfully arranged water fountains

 

Waiting for the gizmo...

We had to get new car insurance last week.  Apparently we were mis-sold insurance (no prior history of US car insurance in the previous 6 months) and the policy was cancelled.  The poor woman who sold it to us was sacked!

The new insurance is more expensive (surprise!) but here's the thing.  They are sending us a gizmo that plugs into the car somewhere near the steering wheel and records how you drive over a 30 day period.  The higher you score (for smooth driving, no sudden braking, steady speeds etc) the more you get off your insurance - up to 30%!  If it arrives soon the car will actually be stationery in the airport car park for a good proportion of the next 30 days...

A cold Sunday in Brenham

It was cold on Sunday and the wind was damp and penetrating.  For want of something better to do before the concert in the evening, we drove to Brenham where a farmers' market was advertised.  We've been to Brenham before and enjoyed wandering round the old downtown area, but yesterday was no day for loitering outside.  We purchased beans, small sweet peppers, Longhorn beef mince, Longhorn smoked beef sausage and some local cheese and left them in the boot of the car, which was as good as a fridge, and then went in search of lunch.  We spied somewhere that looked busy - Smitty's - and took shelter there.   The menu turned out to be anything fried!  So Peter had a hamburger, which he insisted on eating with a knife and fork, and I had chicken fried steak…BIG mistake.  I believe it's a southern delicacy.  Maybe it was the way Smitty ruined it, but it was HORRIBLE.  A bit of meat that had been pounded to within an inch of its life and covered in what looked like breakfast cereal and fried.  I must have ingested a week's worth of salt!

Smitty's was a family restaurant in the front and the bad boys lurked at the back where there were televisions on every wall, slot machines, pool tables and dart boards.  How about this for a television screen!

They also demonstrated a sense of humour…I think!

It says "We don't dial 191"

Owooooooo! 

On the way back to the car I spotted something in a window that perfectly summed up what I thought of lunch!

Reveille

Miss Reveille

Now, having read the title of this post, you're probably thinking…wake up call.  Pronounced 're-valley' in the UK, 're-vayee' in France where it comes from and 'revel-ee' in the US.  And Reveille (revel-ee) is the name given to the collie dogs who are the mascots of Texas A&M.  Just one dog at a time and the death of a mascot is a serious business.  See the web page for a recent memorial service.  The dog is often respectfully referred to as Miss Reveille, Miss being a curtesy title in Texas and used in conjunction with someone's first name.  So at swimming I am sometimes referred to as 'Miss Ruth' and sometimes as….well, never mind.

Apparently (and I heard this at a dinner party, so…) when the dogs die they are buried within sight and sound of the vast football stadium, Kyle Field,  and with a view of the score board through an archway.   At some point it was decided to move the mascot cemetery for some reason and they (still talking about the doggie remains) no longer had a view of the scoreboard, so during the games someone stood in front of the graves writing the scores on a chalk board and holding it up for the dogs to 'see'.

Kyle Field 

Now an electronic score board has been installed opposite the burial place…

Other traditions are that if the dog barks in class (they go where the handler goes) the class is dismissed and if the dog goes to sleep on the handler's bed, the handler has to sleep on the floor.    This place is full of traditions…you couldn't make them up!