I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. The flat is filling up. I’m a little worried that we’ll be mistaken for hoarders. Which is to say that I may be bounded in a nutshell. And, more practically, we’ll probably […]
Since 2008, Andrew and I have bicycled to and from work about 80% of the time. It’s about 23 minutes each way (depending on which lights we miss), which is a great, disconnected transition period between work and life. The marginal increase in physical activity has also been good for my waist line (and really […]
My jet lag finally hit last night. With a vengeance. Two days after landing, I found myself exhausted at about 8pm. I crawled into bed to read at 9, and was asleep soon thereafter. I had crazy dreams. One was about going to a rugby game, and having to climb up the outside of the stadium, […]
Oh dear. In my first suburbs post, I forgot to include the most deeply-seated of my prejudices: history. Viz., the history of London, which I studied for my doctorate. Though it may seem odd, I actually started studying early modern London because of my interest in modern American urban development, and before I got my […]
As so often happens, yesterday was the nicest weather we had all week in California. Andrew got up early and went for a run while I packed and listened to NPR. For the record, it took 3 weeks before I cracked and turned on NPR. Before that, I found myself unable to tolerate American news […]
Andrew and I are flying back to London this evening. I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been in America since the 14th of September, and if I’m not hanging out with my family (and I’ve spent almost the whole of the past fortnight without them), I don’t really have much patience for being away from London. […]
This is my fourth day in Silicon Valley. Apart from the weather being consistently British (sun and showers), its main impact on me has been a forceful reminder of my aversion to suburbia. This is the first of what will be several posts teasing out why I so dislike suburban development–particularly in America. Before I […]
I go back to work–an offsite week even–and I immediately stop updating the blog. Typical. I need to (and I will) carve out more time for thinking, reflecting and sharing though. And this is an important barometer of how that process is going. I’m in California this week for our team offsite. In another life […]
In my experience, there is nothing so suggestive of infinity as moments when the sea and the sky merge. It promises a world without walls, and limitless possibility. Sometimes that’s on beautiful sunny days. But I personally prefer when it’s the work of fog. This is what I woke up to today: I go back […]
It is both delightful and surprising that this village is one of the stops for trains between Vancouver & Seattle. I’d love to know the back story on how they wrangled that. The QFC here has the best champagne & port selection I’ve ever seen in a supermarket. So I bought myself a 1998 Comte […]