Sunday Jazz Brunch

We had a date today with our two pals from the London cigar bar!  This time we agreed to meet up in the Canary Wharf location of the club for the jazz brunch.  There is a woman seated on stage right - she was the singer but for the first half of the afternoon we didn't hear a word she sang because her mic was off.   I kept waiting for someone to tell her and couldn't believe no one said anything song after song…..

 These restaurants are Scottish so the seats are tartan, the walls have deer heads and they serve traditional Scottish fare.  All the things I like.  This one was newer and more open than the other one we went to for Bill's birthday (which readers will recall was when we met Alex and John.  We then went back another night and met them with Roy - the guy from the Speaker's Corner.)

 I have no idea what we are talking about here but the double finger ensures that I win the debate with Alex.  (I know - it's rude to point!!  Not really happy to see myself in action…)

 Alex is a member of this club so he asked if we could go check out the Jack Vettriano room.  Jack Vettriano is a Scottish painter known for his pictures of people formally dressed dancing on the beach with a man standing by holding an umbrella. (You'd know it if you saw it.)   I guess he is a member of the club and so they have this room of his original paintings.  He's a bit poo-pooed in the art world but very successful commercially.  

 After a long brunch, we headed down to the cigar terrace….

 I'm not crazy about the Canary Wharf area - it's very new and basically it's a giant mall surrounded by tall office buildings.  But it did look pretty all lit up as the sun started to set.

 As you can see, Bill doesn't need to point rudely when he speaks.  It was a mild day but we all had warm tartan wool blankets in our laps to keep warm.  While I obviously don't care about cigars, it is a cozy idea to sit under a heat lamp with a blanket and a glass of wine on a chilly day and watch the sun set.   Bill looks like he really belongs at this club, doesn't he?  I predict a membership in 2014...

Guest Post by Fletch

Dear Fellow Loyal Blog readers ( I think that is only me and DiDi),

I’m sure you have been as disappointed in the “content” of blog over the last several days as I have. The trip to Spain but was awesome, but it’s been downhill since then. If you’re like me, you count on this blog to lift you out of your humdrum existence and take to your spirit to new and exciting places with the vivid images and words so eloquently crafted by Jen. And then your soul is crushed to find that today’s entry has been penned by Bill and consists of a picture what he’s has for lunch and his new plaid jacket. In order to stave off one future day of this terrible fate, I have crafted a special “guest blog entry”. What I do on a daily basis isn’t as interesting as what Jen has to write, but in keeping with my theme of “More Jen. More Joey. Less Bill” I humbly submit this entry and this account of 24 hours of my life…

Bill’s job takes him to glamorous places like China and France. My job takes me to slightly less glamorous places. Thursday, (Wednesday night actually) I took the redeye (very glamorous) to…(wait for it)…MINNEAPOLIS!

Yes, I know each of you (actually only DiDi; see above) sits at home and wallows in your extreme jealousy of  my far flung adventure. Who among us wouldn’t want to go to Minnesota (gateway to North Dakota) in December? It’s a dream come true. In any case, as they say “you just can’t get there from here”, which required me to fly through Chicago. I snapped this wonderful photo at O’Hare bright and early at 6:30 AM. I was so pleased to find the temperature was going to be a “nippy” 7 degrees. How do people live there?

I arrived later that morning in the land of 10,000 lakes and made a few sales calls. That sure works up an appetite so it was off for a high end business lunch at the finest establishment in Medina Minnesota..Axel’s Roadhouse! Since I was with a customer, I resisted snapping the obligatory Bill “look at my food!” photo but I was able to capture this image in the men’s room. It reminded me of something Bill might have painted and I thought the positioning above the urinal was very symbolic. Look for this bad boy on your next trip to the Louvre!

I made a few more sales calls in the afternoon and then it was off to another customer event, but not before tying up traffic to snap a picture of the Minnesota state capitol building. I know this blog revels in pictures of old places so I thought I better include one.

There are two things people from Minnesota love; hockey and walleye. I had “walleye fingers” for lunch (don’t ask) so it was now hockey time! The most notable things at the hockey game were a) people in Minnesota take their hockey very seriously and b)they have a Zamboni (that is the machine that cleans the ice) shaped like a Target Shopping Basket. People ride around in it and everyone cheers. Take that soccer hooligans.

After the game, one of our customers wanted to take me out for a drink at a local watering hole to show his appreciation. I will say this for the locals, they talk real funny (“Dontcha know”) but they are really friendly and genuinely nice. In any case, we went to a bar called Mancini’s or something like that which was notable in that it is the last place Tony Curtis played a lounge show (or so I was told). It’s a lot of red leather, mirrors, and old people. The highlight for me was the live band which featured an accordion. You just don’t see enough bands with accordions in them these days. You haven’t heard “Stairway to heaven” until you’ve heard it played on the accordion.

My long day was finally over and it was back to the airport hotel for 4 solid hours of sleep and 7 am flight back home. Hope you enjoyed my guest post.

Humbly,

Fletch

Touring in Brussels

Merry Christmas from Brussels.

I took a tour with my work mates on a very cold night.  

It was lovely.

 Beautiful Brussels center.

 Note how the door doesn't line up right.  Funny how on this tour they celebrate how badly a building was made.  The architect was said to have tried to kill himself by jumping out of his oddly constructed building.  He was bullied in Brussels.

 These are little sculptures on the sides of former pubs.  See how the middle guy is slipping a beer through a window to a reluctant person.  Our guide told a story about how the guy on the right knows that the beer comes from water that is tainted by sewerage.  Or something like that... I was cold and not paying attention.

 Our tour guide said this little sculpture is symbolic of how they used to punish people who acted up.  They would stack up chairs in the pub and then put the baddie on top.  Like a game a Jenga they would pull out a chair until the offender fell on the floor when everyone would laugh at him.  More bullying in Brussels.

Strange people the Belgians.

 These are my work mates on the chilly tour of Brussels.

Beautiful, beer brewing, bullying Brussels.

Burp...

Lost Post #2

This is a post from 2011 that Bill drafted but as far a as I can tell, it's been lingering in the archives.  (Note that Fletch is called "Mike Fletcher" - - we were on more formal terms back then?)  Sadly I can't get the pictures any bigger - I can't believe we used to post such tiny pictures!!

______________

Mike Fletcher told us to come up with a top 11 list for our anniversary.

Since we have only three or four followers I'll take this suggestion, modified slightly.

Eleven trips we've taken, in no particular ranking because that would cause a debate (i.e. fight) on our anniversary.

* Pre-wedding trip to St Andrews, Scotland. We toured the countryside with Steve and Lisa, I golfed at St. Andrews and visited Balmoral Castle but it was closed.

* Wedding in Edinburgh. 13 of us pretending we were locals, eating haggis, drinking in the afternoon, Sinclair and Mother Entwistle were so close to hooking up.

* New York city with Diane and Stacey. Jennie broke out in nasty hives so the girls took Bret and Joey to inappropriate places in NYC. The kids loved it. It was a weekend that the orange flags by Christo, The Gates, were displayed.

* Family trip to Telluride, Colorado. It was our most active vacation ever as we biked down mountains and climbed up mountains all week. The Colorado trips with the McGann's were always fun.

* Day trip to Nantucket when the kids were little. Deathly ride on scooters capped a fantastic day.

* San Francisco. The McGann's joined us and we enjoyed the strangeness of a nude bike rally in support of something (energy?). Dozens of people riding naked up and down the streets of San Francisco was sweet.

* Sienna, Italy. Twelve of us rented a villa in Tuscany. I was really happy to bring my Mom. She wouldn't be able to take this trip today. One of our favorite moments were the meals we cooked together.

* Dublin, Dingle and Kilkenny Ireland. Snowed in in Dublin. Dubliners were very funny navigating the storm; horrific driving, wiping off their cars with a potato chip bag, laying down table salt for traction, snowmen that were loaded with dirt.

* New York city with Pete and Denise during a blizzard. At Gotham we had our best and most expensive meal ever; a seven course extravaganza. It was one of those random nights where everything fell into place.

* Yalapa, Mexico. A curse was put on our head by a raisin-faced centenarian Mexican, our luggage rode up a steep mounting on our way to our villa on the back of a a donkey, I killed a friendly scorpion with The Devil Wears Prada

* Paris for Jen's 40th. Dan showed us the city where he was living. We drank heavily in Bar Hemingway (last place Princess Di was at before she and Dodi were killed in the car accident) while a hot chick lit my cigars for me.

A Royally Good Day

Another day in Windsor, another royal sighting.  I'm always the last person to know anything in this town so I was just going for my usual walk when I strutted right into a parade route.  People were starting to line the streets at 10:00 for an 11:00 AM Homecoming parade of soldiers.  The big name on the agenda was Princess Anne (that's Charles' sister for those non-royalist readers).  Since I had an hour to kill, I went for my walk and then came back to find that there was still plenty of room to get a spot right in front.

She was very friendly with the other dignitaries.  

 As soon as the parade started, she stopped chatting and turned to acknowledge the soldiers.  The parade lasted about 90 seconds.  Basically, in the time it is taking you to read this, an entire parade is over and done with in Windsor.   This little batch of soldiers walked by followed by a little band and that was it!  People waited an hour for this?  Anne just turned around and went back into Guildhall.  I don't know where the soldiers actually went so perhaps they are going to meet up with her in the castle.  Anyway, it was nice to actually be at one of these royal outings for once - I've missed several Betty events in Windsor which are painful for me to think about.

The Lost Posts - #1 in what is sure to be a series….

I found a stash of old drafted blog posts - - I'm desperate because it's mid week, Bill is in Belgium and we've run out of Barcelona pics.  Then I found these.  Some of them were already published in other iterations.  This one didn't look familiar.  And it had no words - just a series of pictures.  

What story was Bill trying to tell here??  It starts with the usual - cigar and beer  - then shifts to his passion for golf (Tiger is like the Tom Cruise of golf to me so that shot, I'm sure, was a taunt!) and then….full out creepy.  

Passing time on the plane

Wouldn't you like to sit next to Jen, Dibley and I on a flight?

No?

The guy next to Jen felt the same way, I'm sure.

 These are our high turbulence faces.

 Dibley pretending there was zero gravity on our plane.

Barcelona Bits and Bobs

There are a lot of things you should see in Barcelona.  Bill and I only saw a few of them.  We tried to go to the Sagrada Familia (the famous Gaudi church) but there was a line around the block.  These are the moments when I'm glad Bill and I are compatible - we just looked at each other and said "Forget it!!"  Instead we went to The Pedrera and walked past The Batilo and agreed that we were Gaudied out.  His stuff is very cool but I think they are milking it with the high entry fees. A little Gaudi goes a long way.

This is the lobby of The Pedrera.

 The outside of The Batilo.

Once we got the things you are SUPPOSED to do out of the way - we could just walk all over the streets and enjoy the city.  Not sure what this big owl is on top of a building but I liked it.

I think my favorite things about Barcelona are the old narrow streets.   We spent hours wandering around the Gothic and the Born neighborhoods.  You'd think after 3 days we would learn the layout but we continued to find new alley ways and when we tried to find a store we were in twice before, we could not figure out how to get back to it a third time.  

One thing the Spanish need to learn from the Brits is that a tea pot should hold several cups of tea!!  We kept getting tea in tiny little shot glass sized tea cups and pots. Mas te, por favor!!

 Bill's mother's maiden name is Cassola so he had to pose near this little sign - 100% Cassola!  (We have no idea what this means….)

 One of our last (of many) purchases were a couple of sombreros.  I'm not sure that these look particularly Spanish but we look good, don't we?  

Art in Barcelona ... sometimes great, sometimes crap

Finding art in Barcelona is not difficult.  In addition to the unique architecture of Gaudi and those he influenced, there are many galleries and museums to take in great painting.

We went to the Pablo Picasso Museum.

It was interesting to see his early works.  He was more tradition as a detailed portrait painter.  He copied styles of the masters in later years.  And then, abruptly, he starts painting in shapes and cubes.  It's like he was dropped on his head and woke up a different painter.

I made my own attempt at a Picasso when I copied this painting.

"The Rape of the Sabine Women"

I changed the scene so they were fighting over a croquet tournament trophy.  I gave the painting to our friend Chris, who gave the painting to the winner.

My first commissioned piece!  Thanks Picasso!

 Inside the museum we stole some pictures, as we do.

Pretty ceiling.

 Jennie looking cute as she admires art.  What is she thinking?

".... I wonder how many steps I have? ... David Tennant .... D..a..v..i...d......T...e..n...n...a...n....t......I think I'll have a waffle today .... yummmm.... how many steps do I have now? ......"

Never mind....

 Picasso was prolific.  He produced over 22,000 works of arts.  

If I poo'd once a day, every day of my life, and made that poo into a work of art, I would not have created 20,000 works of art.  

Picasso not only painted, but also worked in  sculpture, mosaics, ceramics, stage designs and graphic arts.

 View from outside the museum.  In the orange tinted window you can see one of his paintings.

Going to an art museum gets you in the mood to find other works of art.  Here is a sculpture made to look like chain linked fencing.  I couldn't capture it very well here, but I liked it.  I wanted to climb it.

 This giant steel arm houses an eternally burning flame.

 The city has an abundance of artistic graffiti as well.  Although this one appears to have been desecrated with a sloppy swastika. 

We also found these little gems.  There were dozens of Christmas booths set up.  Half seemed to sell nativity scenes and half sold these logs with smiley faces.  Did each vendor feel pressure when the smiley log salesman came be and told them "You know, Theresa in the booth next to you is investing big in my smiley logs.... you'll want to jump in quickly before it's too late..."

These logs are the worst of Christmas.  Except for the fights in Walmart.  Those are worse.

Merry Christmas season friends.

Go find some real art to make you happy.