Archive for February, 2007

On ‘us Own

Saturday, February 17th, 2007
Neil hit the road big time this week, as he moves to LAS VEGAS!
Visiting Vegas in January with Big Bruv Alan for a few days R&R they met up with their friends, one of whom commenced to recruiting Neil to his company’s workforce, based in Vegas. He’ll be selling Mortgages in the US’s fastest-growing city, and we’re all confident he’ll do well at it.
So, he packed all that he needed into his Audi A4 and headed west Monday morning, the three of us in tears as he did so. We support him 100% of course but are sad to see him go. He’s sooooo close with Lynne and has become a good flying-buddy of mine. I’ll miss our political discussions and taunting of Bush and the boys. Hopefully skype-ing will fill the void somewhat, and I’ll have to learn to write more complete emails. As I write he’s approaching Tulsa Oklahoma, having already covered some 1,270 miles, he’s just short of the half-way mark. Snow blizzards slowed him somewhat but he tells me he tucked-in behind a line of snow plow’s and has now safely cleared the worst of the snow, reward enough for investing in the all-wheel drive Audi.
Here’s Neils route. He hopes to be there Thursday or Friday, and starts his training (in Atlanta!) next week.
Neil has a beautiful apartment waiting for him, pool and gym in the complex and adjacent to the mountains out there.
Now we’re on ‘us own. Oh well.

Bitter End – and back

Friday, February 2nd, 2007

When our friend and skipper Keith sold his Sailing School last year our almost-annual sailing vacations may have been in jeopardy, and much missed. But when Keith called and and asked if we were interested in chartering a new boat, a Beneteau Oceanis 523, and returning to the Caibbean for a week of sailing we jumped at the chance. We were soon headed to St Thomas for the ferry to Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We picked-up the boat from Nanny Cay, the home of Keith’s sailing school and,as this was our fourth visit to Torto, a place we were very familiar with.

Dinner for our first evening was at the popular Peg-Leg Landing pub and restaurant. The following morning we were off, and our party of eight friends slept aboard the 52ft boat for the week as we sailed between the islands that make us this unique part of the world, taking-in wonderful restaurants, the best snorkeling as we went and enjoying just-perfect weather.

The sailing itself was fabulous. We enjoyed good winds and took advantage of this new boat and its features, which included GPS and navigation system. It was roomy and comfortable, well-equipped all-round.
IMG_3797 IMG_3813 STA_3808 IMG_3747 IMG_3852

Highlight for Lynne and I was our return to Bitter End, Virgin Gorda. This sailing resort is at the far-end of the island chain, a 6 hour sail from Tortola and has been a favourite of ours for several years. A beautiful resort, with a mountain hike, swimming pool, Hobie-Cats for hire….we have a memorable 2-day stay.

Our itinerary for week included overnight moorings in White Bay in Jost Van Dyke, Cane Garden Bay in Tortola, The Bight at Norman Island, and Bitter End at Virgin Gorda.

Dolphins joined us on the sail to Virgin Gorda, playing in the boat’s bow wave and entertaining us for several minutes.

A very memorable vacation, and putting socks and long trousers on at the airport was very tough!

Many more photographs here

Dralion in Tokyo

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

Alan is in Japan for 18 months with the Cirque du Soleil show Dralion. You can follow his Nippon experiences in his blog here

Alan in Tokyo Dralion Lion Poster

The show opened this week in Tokyo after months of set-up and rehearsal, including the installation of earthquake sensing equipment to keep the audiences, crew and artists safe. Most of the shows are sold-out already, and the show schedule runs out to June 2008:

Tokyo: Wednesday February 7th 2007 – Sunday May 6 2007 (122 shows)
Sendai: Wednesday May 23rd 2007 – Sunday July 8th 2007 (63 shows)
Osaka: Wednesday July 25th 2007 – Sunday October 14th 2007 (111 shows)
Nagoya: Wednesday October 31st 2007 – Sunday January 6th 2008 (93 shows)
Tokyo 2: Friday January 25th 2008 – Sunday April 6th 2008 (105 shows)
Fukuoka: Wednesday April 23rd 2008 – Sunday June 15th 2008 (75 shows)

As in the past we keep in-touch via Skype video-conferencing, and it’s great to hear (and see him!), his stories and experiences.