It’s an exhuberant day, one that will be remembered for many decades. Watching Obama’s speech last night, I have to admit to welling up with tears, his eloquence again and again amazes and inspires me. The best part was when he reached out to those ‘who didn’t vote for me […]
It feels excellent to be back in the cafe after a week away. With Donna’s strong leadership, no one is looking to me to find out what to do next, she has all of our cafe staff understanding what their jobs are, and in my absence, everything flowed smoothly. That’s […]
We’re up at 6:45 am this morning, after a night of hearing about how enthusiastic these Brits are to see Obama win the prize. In the Independent, a headline dramatically intoned “Is this troubled nation ready for change?” Troubled? huh? I thought I’d reserve this moniker for Congo or Mozambique. […]
We tried hard to see a musician I’ve enjoyed who is from Manchester, but we did not succeed. We saw a poster for Mr. Scruff, who plays underground house style music. We followed the advice on his website and made our way to his cafe, called “The Cup,” a few […]
I’m sitting in the dim light of the Lister Arms pub, in Malham, Yorkshire Dales, after a 6-mile hike over hills, dales, stone walls and muddy fields that left Sam and I exhausted but happy. Our guide, MarkReid, literally wrote the books about walking here, he specializes in pub–to pub […]
Chef Nick Martin shows Sam how it’s done during our class at Lucy Cooks, a school where every day students can learn how to cook, bake and generally find their way around a kitchen. Martin’s cooked with the best, I asked him about some of the famous chefs like Gordon […]
Last night we watched an evening of British telly. One program was called ‘Eggheads’ and pitted a panel of gameshow winners against a weekly collection of challengers. Each week another 1000 pounds are added to the prize money….there was already 14,000 in the kitty, showing that challengers have had a […]
Johan Hoving in front of Coniston’s former copper mill, atop a hill we climbed on mountain bikes. This part of England is stunning, with rolling hills, distant snowy mountains, and cute villages. The roads are narrow and more than once we stopped and watched in awe as a giant coach […]
Today we did the Press trip Triathlon, starting out with a hike up a small mountain, then boarding canoes and paddling across Coniston Lake, and finally riding mountain bikes through the woods and up a steep hill. We did all of this as intermittent showers drenched us, and after tipping […]
Rain streaked the windows of our Airbus A330, rain pattered down, a sign of the weather on the ground in Manchester England where we landed this morning. We spent a fair amount of time in the non-EU citizens line where a man with a ponytail was being quizzed by immigration […]
I’m off. Not ready, nervous about what I’m forgetting, but I’m off. I head to Boston to pick up my traveling companion, Samuel Abbott Hartshorne, who will join me this week for a trip to the North of England. As much as I have traveled, I was embarrassed to say […]
