Vegas baby! Vegas!

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, vacationing in Vegas is cheaper than ever right now. Well, as you may have guessed, I'd already taken advantage of that.

View from my bedroom

THEhotel

In November, I found a great deal at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay so I drove up for three nights just before Thanksgiving. I stayed at Mandalay Bay during my very first visit to Vegas - Petter was there for a conference so we had a free room - but I'd never stayed at THEhotel before.

My bedroom

For those of you not familiar with it, like many Vegas hotels nowadays, Mandalay Bay has a separate tower in the back with more upscale rooms. I opted for the upgraded 740 square foot (68 square meter) corner V-suite. The living room faced west overlooking the desert and my bedroom faced north with a nice view of the Luxor pyramid and the strip; each room had a 42-inch plasma TV, and the marble and granite-surfaced master bathroom had a small LCD TV; a guest bathroom; a wet bar... I've never spent so much time in my room on a Vegas trip! On day 3 I took a long, hot bath while I watched The Hunt for Red October for the umpteenth time.

The livingroom

The bathroom

THEtp at THEhotel

In addition to pampering myself with a luxurious room I had three goals for the trip: enjoy the Vegas sights and atmosphere, have fun gambling and eat some really good food.

Vegas Sightseeing

As on every visit - I visit Vegas at least once a year - I love walking up the strip just ingesting the preposterousness of it all. It's all fake, but it's fake on a grand scale, and I love it: the black Luxor pyramid next to the white Excalibur castle; the New York Skyline (pierced through by a rollercoaster) behind the Brooklyn Bridge; the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe across the street from the Fountains of Bellagio; the Colosseum outside Caesar's Palace and the erupting Volcano at the Mirage; the singing gondoliers on the Grand Canal of Venice and the Wynn Waterfall; the Thrill Rides on top of the 1,149 ft (350 m) high Stratosphere tower...

Flowers at Bellagio Conservatory

Out of all these places, the one I never fail to visit is the Bellagio. I have to say that I never tire of the Fountains of Bellagio, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that I think they are one of the truly great achievements of mankind. In terms of manmade wonders of the world, the only one I've seen that surpasses them in terms of beauty and magnificence would be the Taj Mahal in Agra.

More flower arrangements and a watermill in the background

I also always make sure I visit the indoor Bellagio Conservatory, which is located just behind the lobby with the incredible glass flower ceiling by Dale Chihuly (2,000 giant hand-blown flowers in different colors). The Conservatory is a single large room that is maintained by 140 horticulturists and showcases meticulously arranged flowers, trees, water features, bridges, etc, according to themes that change five times a year. During this visit the theme was Fall Fantasy.

An ent in the background

Gambling

As a gambling venture, the trip was enjoyable but not as good as they have been in the past. I did well during a six-hour sting at in the Bellagio poker room, but gave it all back (and some more) at the Mandalay blackjack tables. Lesson learned: stick to poker.

Metal trees with built-in waterfalls

Fleur de Lys

I had three noteworthy food experiences during my stay. Fleur de Lys is a renowned San Francisco restaurant with a Michelin star, and Hubert Keller, the chef, has opened a second location inside the Mandalay Bay, so I decided to try that out on my first night. I selected a four course menu with accompanying wine pairings:

• Black truffle onion soup - a white Burgundy from the Les Charmes vineyard
• Pesto scallop with a crab-filled squash blossom - a rosé from Bordeaux
  
• Fillet and foie gras, potato purée, baby spinach and shallots over a red wine reduction - a right-bank Bordeaux
• Grand Marnier soufflée, creme d'anglais, elderflower ice cream - a Moscato d'Asti

I'm a sucker for truffles and while the Burgundy was not special it was a good pairing for the soup, so we got off on a good start. Speaking of truffles, supposedly, the Italian composer Rossini once said: "I have wept three times in my life. Once when my first opera failed. Once again, the first time I heard Paganini play the violin. And once when a truffled turkey fell overboard at a boating picnic."

The pesto scallop was excellent while the squash blossom was merely ok, but again the wine pairing was very well done. The main course was simply heavenly: the fillet was so tender it was like cutting butter, the foie was well prepared, and the creamy potato purée was out-of-this world. Finally, the soufflée quite good, but even more impressive was the wine pairing. The Moscato d'Asti arrived a minute or two before the dessert, and as soon as I put my nose above the glass I was hit by the scent of elderflowers. So, when the elderflower ice cream arrived it was a match made in heaven.

Overall, I'll say the experience was good. The service was impeccable and much of the food was very impressive but a bit too uneven. So at this price level I'm not sure if I'll return again. I have to say that they did a great job with the wine pairings, though. The wines themselves were fairly pedestrian, but in combination with the food they truly shined. It really shows you how much proper pairings can enhance a meal.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had the option of substituting the regular fillet for A5 (top-rated) Kobe beef. I would have loved to try that. The only catch: it was $30/ounce with a minimum of four ounces.

Burger Bar

The next day I went to Chef Keller's Burger Bar in Mandalay Place (the shopping center that connects Mandalay Bay and the Luxor) for lunch. It's a casual bar with gourmet burgers and a great beer selection. I had a couple of Belgian beers (a gueuze and a Chimay) and a Kobe-burger (not A5!) with a slice of foie and garlic fries. Unfortunately, an overall disappointing experience. The burger itself was pretty good, but I can name at least five places in the Phoenix area that do a better job, and the foie was at-best average. Not a bad meal by any means, but when I have a $65 lunch it'd better impress me. If you go, stick with the beer and the fries.

Aureole

On the last night I went to Charlie Palmer's Aureole: famous for its Michelin star, its Wine Tower and accompanying Wine Angels. The restaurant has a superb wine list and most of the wines are stored in a glass-enclosed four-story wine tower behind the bar, with the "Wine Angel Stewards, who gracefully ascend the tower to retrieve bottles." At this point I didn't feel like a formal sit-down dinner so I went to the bar and just had some appetizers. I started with a paté platter and a glass of riesling, and followed it with some foie-sliders and a half-bottle of 2005 Clos des Papes. The sliders were good but the wine was absolutely singing! A fun evening with friendly people on both sides of the bar - I'll come back here again.

2008 Music - Albums I listened to the most

I Just checked my iTunes stats to see which new albums I listened to the most in 2008. 

I only included albums I'd added in 2008 (so they could be older, but they're new for me in 2008) and added up the Play Count of all songs on each album. (I love pivot-tables.) Here's the list:

1. Hanne Hukkelberg - Little Things
2. Portishead - Third
3. Duffy - Rockferry
4. Katie Melua - Piece By Piece
5. Lhasa de Sala - The Living Road
6. Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
8. Oh Laura - A Song Inside My Head, A Demon In My Bed
9. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
10. Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim

Observations:

• The top 6, and 8 of the top 10, are female singers
  
• Fleet Foxes is the only album still in active rotation on my playlists (will likely keep climbing)
  
• Just outside the top 10 (#14) is Frida Hyvönen's Silence is Wild, which I'm still playing a lot. Had it come out earlier in the year it may have cracked the top 5 
  
• At the beginning of the year I'd only heard of three of these artists (Portishead, Lhasa de Sala and Gnarls Barkley)
  

I had a bit of a music re-awakening in late 2007 after a number of years of stagnation (mostly listening to artists I'd known for a long time) and I'm happy to be back!

The story of a bottle, a lasting passion, and an evening with friends

A decade and a half of waiting ended this Saturday.

It's no secret that I have a passion for wine. This is the story of how it all started. 

It was the summer of 1993 and on a ferry between Kiel, Germany, and Gothenburg, Sweden. This was at the time when the exchange rate between the Swedish Krona an the Deutsche Mark made shopping trips to Germany very popular. My parents had found a last-minute deal on the overnight Gothenburg-Kiel ferry, and we booked roundtrip tickets (with a cabin) on two consecutive nights so we'd have a day of shopping in Germany. 

At the same time, my aunt, uncle and cousins (the Klingbergs) were already vacationing in Germany and were due to come back on our return ferry. We picked the dates to coincide, hoping we'd find each other (remember, this was before cell phones) and surprise them. It worked out even better than we'd hoped for; only a few hours after we'd arrived in Kiel we ran into each other in the shopping district!

This was before Sweden joined the EU, so there was still duty free shopping on the ferry, and since the Swedish taxes on alcohol were so high this was one of the highlights of the trip. Up until this point I'd always been fascinated by the world of wine but I didn't know much about it. My dad, who has also always had a wine interest but never the budget to buy fine wines, knew enough to recognize Mouton Rothschild as one of the five first-growth Bordeaux. 

Well, as you may have guessed by now, there was a bin of 1989 Mouton in the duty free store . I'd heard from my friend Anders Carlsson who had spent 1989-90 in France, that 1989 was supposed to be a great year in Bordeaux, so I was intrigued. 

The bottles were 500 Swedish Crowns - a lot of money when you haven't even started college yet! The shelf-talker recommended opening the wine after 1997. Well, I was about to start college that fall and scheduled to graduate in 1997 so I told myself I'd buy it and save it for graduation.

There was only one small problem, though. The import limit on duty-free wine was two bottles per adult, and we'd already filled our quota. So, when we arrived in Gothenburg, we went through the Red lane to declare our extra bottle and pay the import tax. The customs officer just laughed at us and said "One bottle! Between all of you? Move on!" I guess he had bigger fish to fry.

So, I put the wine in storage with my parents and went off to college. Well, a few years later I read another tasting note where they recommended waiting longer before opening it. So, college graduation came and went. For the next ten years I've been thinking about my wine and what the right occasion would be to open such a special bottle.

When I moved to Arizona in 2004 I started getting serious about wine: I bought a wine fridge and began building my collection. Having one really great bottle hardly constituted a collection! Since then, through the wonderful world of wine, I've found a group of good friends and we've formed a tasting group that gets together 1-2 times each month. Over the last couple of years I've slowly come to realize that these are the people with whom I should share my Mouton.

Jeff Nowak, Debra and Mark Gettleman, Melanie and Kevin Stoddard (and our server)

This past Saturday the six of us - and the other five's spouses - got together at Jeff Nowak's house for a Christmas/Hanukkah gala. Jeff's wife Jane had put together a phenomenal menu (see below) and everyone was stepping up with their wine contributions. So, I decided to bring a 1996 Dom Pérignon and my precious 1989 Mouton.

Lisa and Josh Ivey, Shelly and Scott Scherger, and Jane Wagner (Jeff's wife)

I opened the Mouton at home a couple of hours in front of the dinner to check that it was in good condition and to pour the wine into a decanter. (Most red wines improve with some air.) I was quite nervous when I opened it up - it would be a terrible disappointment if the wine was corked or damaged in some way - but I was quickly reassured by an onslaught of fresh aromas. I poured a splash into a Riedel stem and sat and smelled it for a good five minutes before I even thought of tasting it. Well, this bottle was open for business and did not need any decanting, so I quickly re-enclosed it trying to capture the magic I had unleashed.

Me and my Mouton

I can't do the evening justice other than saying that we had a fabulous time, and sharing the menu and a list of some of the wines we had.

The food:

• herbed cheese crostini
• seared ahi tuna with thai mango jicama salad on toasted baguette
• brie in croute with raspberries
• mushroom leek soup
• chili seared salmon tower with layers of mashed potatoes, sauteed eggplant, mixed greens mango and tomato salsa with plum vinaigrette
• spiced molten chocolate cake and ginger ice cream
  

The salmon tower

The wines (my favorites):

• 1996 Dom Pérignon (champagne)
• 2004 Fevre Grand Cru Chablis 'Les Preuses' (white Burgundy)
• 1984 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape (red Rhone-blend)
• 1985 Leoville Barton (red Bordeaux)
• 1989 Mouton Rothschild (red Bordeaux)
• 2000 Lynch Bages (red Bordeaux)
• 2003 Lafite Rothschild (red Bordeaux)

All but Kevin thought the Mouton was the Wine of the Night. (He preferred the Lynch Bages.) The last two wines were also very good - espcially the Lafite - but much too young to fully appreciate at this point. When realizing that, Jeff exclaimed (in classic Jeff form): "I swear to God! This is the last time I open a 100-point Lafite for you turds!" (About a year ago we got together for poker night and Jeff went out of the tournament early and got bored and went to his wine locker and brought out a 1996 Lafite.)

Mark and Kevin expressing their love for the Lafite

Waiting 15 years before opening the Mouton was not easy, but it was well worth the wait and I couldn't think of a better group of friends to open it with. Not only are they wine geeks like me but we also have great fun together.

Flotsam and jetsam

It's been all quiet on the western front lately, but now I'm breaking radio silence after a nearly two-month hiatus. No real reason for going off the grid, just haven't made it happen lately.

So, what have I learned over the last eight weeks? Well...

• The period between the election and the new president-elect taking office is less than 11 weeks but feels like an eternity. (Thank you, still-president Bush.)
• During a robbery, telling someone to move to a different spot means you're also guilty of kidnapping and gives you about 15 years in prison. (Thank you, OJ.)
• Becoming the governor of Illinois makes you more likely to end up in prison (50%) than murdering someone does (48%.) (Thank you, Jon Stewart.)
• When opening a wine bottle, mistaking the vintage for the price tag can make a seeming $19.99 bottle of champagne actually cost you $389. (Thank you, The Dentist Brothers.)
• Oolong tea is good and green tea is ridiculous. (Thank you, Jennifer Stanchina.)
• The iPhone is actually as slick as can be. (Thank you, Captain Obvious.)
• You should always strive to spend more time barefoot. (Thank you, Joy of Rediscovery.)
• The financial meltdown means that a vacation in Vegas is cheaper than ever. (Thank you, Housing Bubble.)
• James Bond becomes bitter and vengeful with age. (Thank you, Daniel Craig.)
• Keynesian economics are back. (Thank you, Self-Imploding Markets.)
• Without Woo-Girls, tiny cowboy hats would only be worn by tiny cowboys. (Thank you, Barney Stinson.)
• Southern California now catches fire every year. (Thank you, Rich-and-famous-people-living-there-so-we-have-a-reason-to-care.)
• Wearing your shirt with the back of the collar straight up is an effective way to broadcast your douchebaggery. (Thank you, Scottsdale Douchebags.)
• Living in the desert for four years makes you think gray skies are beautiful. (Thank you, Scarcity of Clouds.)
• Cyndi Lauper has a sense of humor. (Thank you, The Hives.)
• Facebook is great for finding old friends, but I still suck at actually keeping in touch with them. (Thank you, Unyielding Reality.)

And if there's only one reason...

...to live in this world

I'll find it

And if there's only one reason

To give of yourself

Ask the lonely and the dying

- All About Eve, Only One Reason

I went to a wine auction for charity last Thursday night. The event raised money for Hospice of the Valley; a local non-profit organization with a mission to "Bring comfort and dignity as life nears its end." An incredible organization that provides end-of-life care that focuses on comfort rather than curative treatment for anyone with less than six months to live.

Like last year, it was held at the Royal Palms Resort, just on the south side of Camelback Mountain. The event opened in the courtyard with a silent auction; about 30 lots with write-in sheets on a table in the middle, and hors d'oeuvres and wine stations along the perimeter. Several of my wine buddies (and spouses) attended: Jeff Nowak, Kevin Stoddard, Jock Wulffson, Rick Cecala, Tom Rough, etc. 

After the silent auction we all moved indoors for the live auction - this is where the higher end lots were auctioned off. Last year I made a wine donation that appeared in the silent auction, but this year I was happy to see my donation made it into the live section, even though my lot was the lowest value lot in the room. 

In addition to giving wine, many donors got creative: restaurants donated wine dinners, golf courses donated tee times, the Phoenix symphony donated season tickets and an opportunity to join the symphony as a 'guest percussionist'(!), wineries donated airfare to Napa Valley and private tasting tours, the winemaker Tim Mondavi (Robert's son) donated a wine dinner for eight guests with him, etc.

Overall a successful event, but it was painfully obvious that the financial crisis has put a damper on people's ability to donate, both in terms of the lots offered and how people were bidding on them. Last year there were several more lots at the very high end (off the top of my head I remember two different 10-day trips for two to Europe including 1st-class airfare and luxury accommodations) and all lots went 30-70%  above their value (people tend to overbid to support the charity) but this year most lots sold for just above what they were worth, and some didn't even collect that. Last year the event raised nearly $200,000 and I doubt that we'll come near that this time.

On a brighter note, my friend Jeff bought the season tickets to the Phoenix Symphony, so hopefully I'll be able to see him play percussion sometime next year

Mattias bore witness to the Tour de Fat; and he saw that it was good...

...And so Mattias set out on his search to find the beer of the bicycle of which Jenn Fisher had spoken this very Thursday Eve. Beyond the Lake of Tempe he joined his friends, and there was much rejoicing. Yay!

Brittany, Jenn, Mattias, Kim, Alex and Adam

Today, I made it to my first Tour De Fat, a beer and bicycle festival sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company. For those of you not familar with them, it's a Colorado-based brewery whose signature beer Fat Tire is quite well-liked out west. For you Pennsylvanians, I call it the Yuengling of the West. Overrated and unduly popular! Zing!

But I digress. And they make a number of other beers that I do enjoy. Anyway, every year, New Belgium organizes a tour of charity events to promote environmental causes and, most specifically, bike riding to replace the use of cars. This stage of the Tour de Fat was held at Tempe Town Lake and they couldn't have picked a better day. The weather was perfect: 75 degrees (24 Celsius) and sunny with a nice, at times even brisk, breeze.

Brittany 'Car-Tire' German

Unfortunately I was ill-prepared for the event and did not realize that there was a costumed bicycle parade earlier in the morning, so I arrived too late to see it. And, judging from the costumes people were still wearing it would have been a sight worth seeing. Next year!

The Main Stage

The actual festival consisted of an enclosed area with a main stage, beer tents, various booths and stations, and a mini-arena filled with all kinds of crazy, custom-made bikes for you to try. My personal favorites were the bike with the tires replaced by shoes fastened at the end of the spokes, and the octacycle. Ok - enough talking and time for more pictures.

Mattias 'Walking Bike' Jansson

Prashant made some new friends

Vinee on the Octacycle

Lori happy to have survived her Bikeride of Terror

Carpopalypse (Part 1): Funeral Procession for an Escalade

Carpopalypse (Part 2): Four Horsemen

Late lunch at La Bocca on Mill Ave: Amit, Chintan, Divya, Vinee, Prashant and I

Arizona cooldown musings

Every fall there is one day that is special.

It's the day when you leave your home and you're no longer met by a wall of warm air. For the first time in a long time the temperature outside is lower than inside, and after the long hot summer that is a novel and welcome feeling.

This year that day was yesterday. Just before midnight and just after a still evening rain, to be precise.

The days still feel like summer by any non-Arizona standard, but the nights are now wonderfully refreshing. We're entering that perfect time of year when it's pleasant pretty much all around - never too hot, never too cold.

I'd like to use one of my lifelines. I'd like to phone a friend.

Ok, kids, here's a game for you that I'm calling Spot the SNL-writer! I'm going to give you three interview exchanges. Two of them are from the actual Katie Couric - Sarah Palin interview, and one is from this weekend's Saturday Night Live skit.

Exchange #1:

COURIC: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Exchange #2:

COURIC: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you’ve said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

PALIN: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

COURIC: I’m just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

PALIN: I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring them to you.

Exchange #3:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy? Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say, I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the tax payers looking to a bailout.

But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Helping the — Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. Shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americas.

And trade we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive scary thing. But 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation.

This bailout is a part of that.

Think you got it? Not that easy, is it? Well, I cheated. All three are from the actual Palin interview, but many of her answers were used pretty much verbatim in the SNL skit. You know you're not at the top of your game when some of the funniest parts of a parody of you are simply quoting you.

On a related note, I'm still not sure who was more coherent: Ms. Palin or Miss Teen USA from South Carolina.

Fareed Zakaria, Robert Frost, Adam Smith, and Marcus Aurelius

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep

and miles to go before I sleep"

Hamid Karzai answered the question of whether he is planning to run for re-election as president of Afghanistan by quoting the American poet Robert Frost, indicating that his work is not yet finished. 

I was watching Fareed Zakaria GPS - an excellent show on CNN - and, just like last week, I was struck by the depth and breadth of the interviews. Last week, Zakaria interviewed Lee Kuan Yew (prime minister of Singapore from 1959-1990) who, at age 85, conversed with ease in depth about the US elections, the futility of nation-building, the conflict in Georgia, the Durand line between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the impact of global warming on Chinese farmers, etc.

This week, in addition to Hamid Karzai, Zakaria interviewed Wen Jiabao - the first Western interview with the prime minister of China in five years. Wen also spoke with impressive insight on a wide range of issues: the impact of the US financial crisis on China; China's role in Darfur, Iran, and North Korea; defending China's Market-Leninism by referring to Adam Smith's other work (The Theory of Moral Sentiments) and the 2nd century Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius whose work Meditations Wen supposedly has read over 100 times.

First, it is especially refreshing in the prevalent currents of anti-intellectualism here in the US, to see that there are new TV-shows that aren't afraid to take serious topics seriously. I've been a fan a Fareed Zakaria's for some time now, through his numerous appearences on The Daily Show and Real Time with Bill Maher, and his writing for Newsweek (where he was a beacon of light in a sea of mediocrity), so I'm happy to see that he's able to stay true to his intellectual depth on his CNN-show (whereas CNN is usually simply embarrassing with their Situation Rooms, their Lou Dobbs tirades, their Crossfires, their Wolf Blitzer insights, their Newsrooms, their talking-point shouting matches...)

Second, it is encouraging to see that leaders in other countries are allowed to be both intelligent and knowledgeable, and that they don't have to reduce themselves to the lowest-common-denominator inanities we've grown accustomed to here. Politicians have become so afraid to admit that they are able to speak cogently on complex topics that we never get to see it anymore, and we've almost become unable to distinguish between the ones that pretend to be unsophisticated and the ones that actually have intellects rivaled only by garden tools. Yes, Mr. President, I'm talking about you.

Whew - sorry about the rant. I feel better now. Sort of.

I miss Tina Fey

Palm Springs, a pool, and a tram

Last weekend was good. I took Friday off to just relax before my trip to Palm Springs, and turned it into a 4-day weekend. I drove out Saturday afternoon - a 4-hour monotonous drive west through the Sonoran desert. But, with an iPod full of tunes and XM-radio I was all set. One of the XM-stations (POTUS 08) replayed several of the speeches from the Democratic convention so I caught Al Gore's speech. Not bad at all. I think we're all wondering where this Al Gore was eight years ago.

Palm Springs is actually a bit of a misnomer for the area - there are a number of towns right there: Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Cathedral City, Indio, La Quinta, etc. Well, Mike and Angela's house was in La Quinta, in a beautiful private golf community, and the house was gorgeous. 4,500 square-feet (~400 square meters) with giant flat screen TVs everywhere, and a large Infinity-pool overlooking the 9th tee-box. See picture above.

So, how did I get to visit this incredible place? My former co-worker Mike Donofrio's wife works for a construction company that has a number of guest houses, and one of the employee benefits is that they get to book one of them for a week each year. In addition to me, it was Mike and Angela; his sister Christie and her 1-year old Maddie, and Angela's parents: Mr. and Mrs Boomhauer. Ok, not really, but Angela's dad sounded just like him even though they were from Virginia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomhauer

On Sunday, the rest of the crew drove down to San Diego, but I was more interested in exploring the area so I stayed back and checked out the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which is quite impressive. It takes you from ground level up through five different climate zones (desert to alpine) as it ascends to 8,500 ft (2,600 m) and the temperature dropped from 105 (40 Celsius) to 65 (18 Celsius) as we went up. The tram fits 30-40 people and has a rotating floor so you get to see every direction on the way up. Unfortunately, it was a partially overcast day so we through a cloud cover and couldn't see all the way up (or down), but once we got up above the clouds the weather was nice.

Oh, and each time we passed one of the towers (see picture on the right) the tram sped up for a second only to seemingly fall down for a fraction of a second on the other side, causing everyone to scream out loud. Exciting.

I also checked out downtown Palm Springs, which is quite nice, and had lunch at Tyler's which is supposedly the burger joint where the locals go. Very old school bar seating, a respectable cheeseburger, and a rack full of magazines - including the latest copy of The Atlantic Monthly. Hard to complain about that. And, as you may know, Palm Springs is very gay-friendly, so I thought this Marilyn-statue was fitting.

And, let's finish with a couple of evening pictures taken from the house in La Quinta.

Mile High Inspiration before the Desert Lightning Storm

I watched Obama's speech from Mile High Stadium in Devnver tonight. What can I say? Of course it was amazing. Anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention the last 18 months wouldn't expect anything less. But, before mentioning any of the details, I have to say that getting 80,000 people to show up for a political speech, in a swing-state, is pretty astonishing.

Barack Obama seems like he's a character straight out of an Aaron Sorkin script. Just like President Bartlett, he exudes an ideal. Too good to be true, perhaps, but that's not the point. In his best moments he's embodying everything we'd want a president to be: he is thoughtful and he is passionate; he is self-confident and he is self-examining; he is intelligent and he is inspiring. And, tonight was one of those moments.

After eight long years he makes us feel that there's hope again. It doesn't have to get worse every year. We don't have to let the economy run into the ground. We don't have to continue watching the middle class slide into poverty. We don't have to lose all of our friends around the world. We don't have ignore the need to save us from irreversible climate change. We don't have to let prejudice and close-mindedness hold back equality and freedom for all sexual orientations. We don't have to let ignorance, fear and superstition rule over reason, facts and science. But more importantly than all of that, he makes us believe that we can be better than the past. "America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone."

Switching gears entirely, monsoon season continues unabatedly here in the desert. For those of you who are confused, here is a primer on Arizona weather. Most of the year the wind comes in from the west, and the moisture from the Pacific Ocean stops at the mountains leaving Arizona dry and almost rain-free. During the later summer months, though, Arizona gets so hot that the air rises and begins to suck in moist air from the Sea of Cortez to the south, creating a monsoon season. It's the same phenomenon as in India and other places, but not as severe.

Anyway, we've had a lot of nightly rains and thunderstorms lately, and tonight we had a good one. About an hour after Obama's speech I could hear the wind howling and the whole building seemed to be creaking and moving with the violent gusts while the sky lit up like a press conference. It went on for a good hour and I captured some of it on video from my balcony (using my regular camera).

First, here's an example of the wind, the rain and how frequently the lightning flashed. Because it was very cloudy, the lightning isn't very distinct:



Second, after a while the wind calmed down and it cleared up a bit, which made the lightning more impressive (mostly the last 15 seconds):

Ernold Same awoke from the same dream

in the same bed, at the same time
Looked in the same mirror, made the same frown
and felt the same way as he did every day
- Blur, Ernold Same

Hmm. It's one of those days. Monday. Neither a very good nor a very bad day. It was just there. Going through the motions at work. Like a clown at a birthday party or a choir boy during the ceremonies at mass. Sticking with the routine. I don't know. I can't explain what makes this day different than all the others. Or more the same than all the others?

Enough wallowing - I had a good weekend... I played a round of golf on Saturday - the first one in about a year. My co-workers Jason, Amit, Sai and I got a 9:20 AM tee time at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale only a few miles north of Old Town. It's a nice course - most places around here are desert courses where you have to contend with cactii, brush and dirt as soon as you miss the fairway, but this is a more traditional course. Ten water holes and the one on the right - the par 3 #8 - is one of the more scenic ones.

Normally we try to get out earlier in the morning to beat the heat, but we didn't plan ahead well so we had to take what was available. The first nine weren't bad - we'd brought plenty of water and the morning isn't quite as hot- but the back nine was pretty brutal. In 110-degree (43 Celsius) heat it doesn't matter how much you stay in the shade - it's hot! But I played pretty well and posted a 95, and any day I go below triple-digits is a good day for me.

Next weekend I'm taking Friday off to make it a four-day weekend. We have Monday off for Labor Day. I'm planning to drive out to Palm Springs and hang out with my friend Mike Donofrio. His wife works for Toll Brothers (the construction company) and every year Mike and Angela get to stay at one of their properties for a week. (Last year they came to Scottsdale.)

Palm Springs is a desert community in California (on the way from Phoenix to Los Angeles) mostly known as a resort destination for the retired, rich and famous: five-star hotels, restaurants, golf courses, high-end boutique shopping, etc.

It is also the setting for Douglas Coupland's excellent book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (which popularized the term Generation X.) It tells the story of three friends who are disillusioned with modern society and decide to escape the rat-race and move away from it all into the Mojave Desert. There, forced to work as bartenders (described as McJobs - another term popularized by the book) their existence and outlook grow bleaker, and much of their free time is spent telling each other stories about their lives. A postmodern answer to The Decameron, with commercialization substituting for the plague, if you will. Anyway, hard to make the book justice, but it's a great (and easy) read - recommended for all!

It Hertz! Exactly.

Harrumph! As I mentioned yesterday, I left my cell phone in the Hertz rental car and by the time I got back there the car had already been shipped off to Logan airport. They said they would look for the phone when they cleaned it and call me at my hotel. Well, this afternoon I hadn't heard anything so I walked over to Hertz again and found out that they never found it. I'm pretty sure it was in there so either they didn't look very hard or someone stole it.

So, I'm still under contract and not eligible for any discounted phones (I think I want the iPhone!) until October. However, when I walked into the AT&T store here in Boston - to lock the SIM-card - they told me I could get a new SIM-card from them and walk around the corner and pick up a phone for $13.99 at F.Y.E. It's meant to be used for their GoPhone plans (no contract/pay-as-you-go/refill...) but they'll accept any AT&T SIM-card. So, I picked up a Motorola c168i and it's a surprisingly good phone: color screen, very small and light, all the common features... It's missing bluetooth, but I can live without that for two months.

If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal!

I'm sitting in my room at the Boston Park Plaza and it's been a long day. I got up at 5:30 AM (which is 2:30 AM Arizona time) and took a 6:00 AM car service to Penn Station, took a train to Hartford, Connecticut (with a connection in New Haven), met with a client from 10-3, took a shuttle to the airport, picked up a car and drove to Boston (in the rain), returned the car right next to the hotel, and checked in.

When I got to my room I realized I'd left the cell phone in the car - I hurried back but they'd already taken the car to Logan Airport. They've put a hold on the car so they won't rent it out without looking for my phone, but they closed for the night so at best I'll be getting it tomorrow. Annoying.

Better, though, was my dinner. My coworker, Priya, and I went to Legal Seafoods and had a really nice dinner. I started with a cup of the clam chowder (obviously!) and ordered a crab cake combo: one crab cake prepared using a magnificient, subtle, mustard sauce; scallops that nearly melted in my mouth; and perfectly cooked grilled shrimp. I really enjoy scallops, but it's the kind of ingredient where the quality of the product and the preparation make all the difference in the world. When it's good, it's heavenly, but all too often they can be chewy and uninspired. Today, they were as good as you can hope for. Likewise, shrimp are often overcooked and stringy, but these left little to desire.

Also, I need to return sometime with some wine buddies, because the wine list was phenomenal. Lots of great selections and many of them at or below retail prices. Typically, restaurants charge 2-3 times the store price for a bottle. At Legal, most of the less expensive bottles were priced well, but not out of the ordinary, but as I moved up in price I found many surprising bargains. A number of aged bottles in the one-to-several-hundred-dollar range were actually priced well below their current retail prices. Still a lot of money, obviously, but you're not going to find the opportunity to drink world-class wines in a nice restaurant at these prices in many places. Kudos to Legal! This wasn't the right night for it, but I shall return.

Mattias Mattias? Mattias Mattias!

I just spent a weekend in New York visiting my old college room-mate Petter, his wife Laurie, and their one-year old son Mattias. Big Mattias meets Little Mattias.

Unfortunately, Petter - the investment banker - was forced to work most of the weekend. Some utility wants to build a new transmission line and needs financing or something like that. But, I got to hang out with Little Mattias and Laurie, and had a nice relaxing weekend.

We took walks both days out here on Roosevelt Island (where they live), which is a very nice place. In case you're not familiar with it, it's an island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It feels like you've left the city - lots of greenery, playgrounds, tennis courts, etc - but you're still only minutes away from Midtown.

To many, the island is known for the lunatic asylum that used to reside here. Over the last 20-30 years the island has had a big upswing and many residential apartments and condos have been added. Petter and Laurie live in a new building that has a wonderful view of Manhattan and the East River.

On Saturday, Laurie, Mattias and I took the tram into Manhattan and walked around for a while. It was a beautiful day - sunny and neither too warm nor too cold. I checked out a few wine shops in Midtown: Sherry-Lehman on Park Ave (fantastic selection - verticals of first-growth Bordeaux, etc - but horribly overprices) and Crush on 57th and Lex (passionate and knowledgeable staff, and a great cooled room in the back). Laurie and Mattias went back (naptime) and I took the subway down to Astor Place to check out Astor Wines (big store with a good selection) where I bought a couple of bottles for the weekend: a 2007 Giacosa Roero Arneis (a nice little Italian white that I've enjoyed in previous vintages) and a 2003 Lagier-Meredith Syrah from Mt. Veeder in Napa Valley. The latter wine was quite a find - not only is it very difficult to find, but it was also marked down from $55 to $35. We enjoyed it tonight with a lamb stew and it showed very well.

I continued walking down to SoHo and immersed myself in the frenzy of it all - the people, the smells, the energy - before I ducked into a little place on the corner of Bleecker and Broadway for a late lunch. It was a charming little place with large open windows towards both streets. I ordered a truffled burger with aged brie, carmelized onions, with garlic fries, and had a Leffe to go with it. Unfortunately the burger was overcooked (nearly well done while I'd asked for medium rare) but otherwise a very pleasant experience.

On the way back, my subway train was diverted to a different track - apparently there was a message but I and about ten other people missed it - so I suddenly found myself in Queens. I thought about going back into Manhattan and trying again, but saw on the map that I was pretty close to Roosevelt Island so I took a taxi instead. $10 and 10 minutes later I was back.

Ok - catch you on the flip side.

Its goodness is a decision for the mouth to make

- Lu You, 12th Century Chinese poet (Song Dynasty)

I only watched part of the Olympic opening ceremony - these things normally bore me - but I have to say what I saw was very impressive. Some of the best visuals I've ever seen - here are some amazing pictures: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/2008_olympics_opening_ceremony.html

And, while the Swedish outfits were unremarkable, at least we didn't look like flight attendants being splattered with machine gun fire. Yes, I'm talking to you Hungary: http://z.about.com/d/fashion/1/0/w/4/3/82219961.jpg

The Screaming and The Dreaming

(Written Friday afternoon - while offline.)

I’m sitting 30,000 ft over New York City and we’ve just been told we’ll be circling for another 45 minutes due to congestion at JFK. And, this is after taking off about an hour late for the same reason. And, I’m sitting right behind an infant who has been screaming her lungs out for most of the trip, and my iPod ran out of juice about an hour into the flight. So, life could be better at the moment. But, she seems to have calmed down now so I’m hoping for the best.

On the brighter side, I’m in the middle or re-reading Neil Gaiman’s brilliant Sandman graphic novels. I just finished the eighth book out of ten, World’s End, and I’m reminded of what an incredibly rich world he has created, with complex, mysterious, appealing characters, many based on existing mythologies, but he’s made them entirely his own.

Sandman goes under many names, the most common being Dream and Morpheus. His charge is to rule the dream world, and his realm, The Dreaming, is inhabited by an interesting cast: Lucius, the librarian, tending to countless books filled with our dreams; Abel and Cain in the Houses of Secrets and Mysteries (Cain maintains the nasty habit of killing his brother, over and over again), to mention a few. Dream, along with his six siblings, is one of the Endless, each with a different responsibility: Destiny, Destruction, Desire and Despair (the twins), Delirium (formerly Delight), and Death. Besides Morpheus himself, Death is the most commonly recurring character, and what a character! Instead of the old man with the scythe, she is a goth-looking, but very attractive, woman. My personal favorite is Delirium. She is a young girl with several-colored eyes and hair, her body sprouts butterflies, frogs and flowers, and her speech is mostly seemingly incoherent nonsense, and she provides the stories with much of the subtext.

Argh, the child in front of me has started screaming again, and I’m finding it hard to concentrate. I’m done, for now…

Go East, Young Man!

I'm about to leave for a seven day, six night trip to the East Coast. I hope I don't end up on a deserted island with Harrison Ford, because that would be really awkward. "Oh. You expected Hot Blond Girl half your age? [Pause] Sorry. [Pause] I am half your age. No? Ok - I'll shut my trap now."

Anyway, work calls me back east so I go. Specifically, to Hartford, Connecticut, and to visit a client. I'm taking advantage of the trip and am heading to New York for the weekend to visit my old college room-mate Petter Skantze, his wife Laurie, and their 1-year old Mattias. Big Mattias visits Little Mattias. I'm leaving tomorrow and staying until Monday morning when I take the train up to Hartford for a day of meetings. Then, I'll get into a car and drive to Boston to visit another client. In Cambridge, actually, right next to the MIT campus, like many of the Biotech companies. I'll be staying two nights in Boston so I can meet up with some of the old college gang, before I take the train down to Philly to spend a couple of days at HQ before I fly home Thursday night. It's only my second visit back to Philly since I moved away four years ago, so I'm looking forward to it.

Stay tuned, boys and girls...

Oh, before I go, my cousin Åsa had her first daughter, Edit, a few weeks ago - there's a link to her blog on the left...

You don't have to be afraid, love...

...cause I'm a safesurfer, darling

I bought the Julian Cope album Peggy Suicide in 1991 based on a review in a British music magazine. I listened to the album over and over trying to appreciate the supposed genius. I listened to it and I listened to it and I listened to it. But I didn't get it. I put the disc back on the shelf, and a couple of years later I sold the CD in a store.

Some time ago I heard a song from the album again and this time I really liked it. Maybe, just maybe, I was even "getting it." So, I got the album again and have started to like it a lot more this time around. Today one of the better songs came up on the iPod when I was driving on the highway and I was really digging it. Safesurfer starts with a long instrumental crescendo: drums, electric guitar, and keyboards; slowly, slowly working up toward a frenzy, and almost three minutes in, Julian begins with about 30 seconds of spoken word droning over the musical madness before he launches into the repetitive, mantra-like, 2-line chorus for the remainder of the 8+ minute song. Impossible to describe, really, but genius usually defies caption.

Normally, I'm somewhat allergic to long instrumental sections, and if you enter into jam-band territory I break into hives, but this is a different animal. Very few artists or bands pull it off. The few examples that come to mind are: The Cure who linger for 2.20 before It's opening time, down on Fascination Street; Death Cab for Cutie who wait 4 minutes and 34 seconds before the opening stanza takes us to the brilliant You gotta spend some time--love, you gotta spend some time with me / And I know that you'll find--love, I will possess your heart; and Radiohead's hypnotizing National Anthem which starts with a mere 90-second intro but ends with 2+ minutes of reckless (and Thom-less) cacaphony.

If you were lucky enough to catch Radiohead doing National Anthem and Idioteque on SNL in 2000 you know what I'm talking about - two of the greatest performances I've ever seen. If that's not catharsis, I don't know what is.

And, we call it a kolonistuga... (Part 2)

Sweden is filled with sunstarved waterlovers.

Why? Here are the first three reasons that come to mind:

1) Swedish summers are short, highly unpredictable and often too rainy.
2) Sweden's countryside is sprinkled with over 97,500 beautiful lakes
3) Stockholm sits just inside a magnificent 24,000-island archipelago

On the days when the weather is nice and sunny, we rush out - like ravenous bears coming out of hibernation - to suck in every sweet, precious second of it. We eat every meal of the day outside and we drink our five-or-so daily cups of coffee outside. We work in our gardens at home, we go to our summer places in the country, and we take our boats out on lakes and into the sea. And, for a while, for a moment in the sun, everything is well in the world.

I was lucky enough to spend over two weeks in Sweden this summer and every day, except two or three in the middle, the weather was absolutely gorgeous: mid-70s (Fahrenheit, that is, ~25 degrees Celsius) and the sun was beaming. Traveling from a climate where it's sunny 300-330 days and the temperatures are very pleasant about nine months of the year, you'd think I wouldn't be so excited, but I could feel the energy in the air. The energy of nine million suncraving Swedes simultaneously getting their fix.

And, this leads us to two Swedish time-honored traditions: kräftskiva and kolonistuga. Let's start with the crayfish party (kräftskiva). Traditionally, Swedish crayfish harvesting was legally limited to not begin before August, and to prevent early harvesting it was illegal to sell crayfish earlier in the year. Each year in early August, Swedes would arrange outdoor kräftskivor to celebrate the start of the crayfish season. By the 1990s, much of the crayfish eaten was imported (frequently from Turkey, China or Louisiana) and now you can legally sell crayfish all year around.

Many Swedes, however, continue the tradition and don't eat any crayfish before August. Crayfish in Sweden are boiled in salted water, seasoned with crown dill and then served cold with bread, cheese, new potatoes, pickled herring, beer and aquavit flavored with herbs such as dill, St. John's Wort (Johannesört), and wormwood (malört). The flavored aquavit - or brännvin (literally "burnwine") - is an important part of Swedish summer celebrations (well, winter celebrations too, really) with a whole host of their own traditions. Depending on the occasion and the company, there may be singing, speeches and special names associated with each drink. Trust me on this. I'm not making it up.

As you may have guessed by now, we skirted tradition and we held our kräftskiva in early July. July 4th, as a matter of fact. And, we did it at my sister Karin's kolonistuga, which she and her boyfriend Fredrik bought earlier this summer. I had to look this up, and learned that the English translation is Allotment Garden. The concept began in Sweden during the late 19th century (earlier elsewhere in Europe.) At the time, the supply of fruits and vegetables to the cities was poor, and allotment gardens made it possible for city folk to have a small garden where they could both get away from the hustle and bustle and grow fruit and vegetables inexpensively. The land is either owned by the town or an allotment association, and each gardener rents an allotment.

Over time, people added gardening shacks and eventually small houses on their lots, and nowadays they are frequently as much used as small summer houses as gardens. Karin's kolonistuga doesn't have electricity, you get fresh water from a hose and there are shared bathrooms and showers, so it's quite primitive, but the lot is large and beautiful, and it's located adjacent to a nature reserve for bird watchers. Many people visit their kolonistugor during the day and go home at night, but Karin often spends the night in their 225 sq.ft. (25 sq.m.) 2-room house. Needless to say, I enjoyed our kräftskiva with brännvin in the kolonistuga very much.

Oh, but I haven't talked about the magical light of Swedish summer nights yet. That'll have to wait until next time.

Mattias goes searching for Batman and finds Bridie and Harlan instead

Ok - so I'm officially struggling with summarizing my trip to Sweden. Every time I start I mentally bite off more than I can chew and get nowhere. So, in the meantime, here's a little update from yesterday

I went to the movie theater to watch The Dark Knight yesterday afternoon. I'd intentionally skipped it the first weekend to avoid the madness, but it turns out that this weekend was also crazy and the show was sold out. So, I went over to Enotria - which I'd initially planned to do after the movie - and as soon as I walk through the door I'm handed a glass of red wine and everyone turns around and say 'hi'. I felt like an upscale version of Norm on Cheers.

Anyway, it turns out they were expecting me. Or at least so they thought. Tom and Kevin were sitting at the end of the bar (see June 22 entry) and Tom had sent me an email an hour earlier inviting me to join them. Well, needless to say, I hadn't seen the email so serendipity strikes again! We tasted a total of five different wines - all blind - and they were all very good, and two of them are particularly worth mentioning.


There is a well known Australian wine producer called Wild Duck Creek and their flagship bottling is called Duck Muck (for their Duck Muck Vineyard.) I've never had the chance to try it (it's very expensive) but, like Aussie shiraz often is, it's known for being massive and intense. Well, it turns out that for several years the owner let his young daughter, Bridie, make her own wine using one row of vines from the Duck Muck vineyard. The first year, 1998, she was 12 years old so he let her use the 12th row and make a Bridie's Row 12 wine.

Yesterday, Tom brought a bottle of the 2000 Wild Duck Creek Bridie's Row 14, and it was stunning! Unfortunately, the wine is almost impossible to find since it was made in such small quantities and never officially imported into the US. (Tom had bought the bottle directly from the importer of Wild Duck Creek wines - Dan Phillips.) So, unfortunately I may never get a chance to drink this again. I haven't found any production numbers, but Tom thought it was at the most one barrel which would mean ~25 cases in total. On the back-label, Bridie had written a message which included something like "the wine was aged in American oak for eight months before my dad needed the barrel and we had to move it over to a French barrique."

The other noteworthy wine was a Harlan Estate. Harlan - a Napa Valley Bordeaux-blend (same grapes as are used in Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc) - is one of the more famous California Cult wines that are both expensive and difficult to find. It's sold almost exclusively through the winery's mailing list and can be found in the after-market at astronomical prices. The only US wine that consistently demands a higher price is Screaming Eagle which routinely sells for thousands of dollars for each bottle. I've only tried Harlan once before - the 1999 vintage - and thought it was phenomenal.

I signed up for the Harlan wait list (to join the mailing list) several years ago and finally made it this year, but while I was waiting the price had increased from ~$200 to $450/bottle, so I did not buy any and summarily got kicked off the list. My original idea was to by 3 bottles - the standard allocation - and hopefully sell one for ~$750 on auction and essentially drink the other two for free, but with the price increase I decided to pass.

Well, Kevin generously brought a bottle of the 2003 Harlan Estate. It was very good but didn't live up to my previous experience. It was still very young and it will improve with age, but at the current prices I'd rather spend my money on other wines. But, I'm never complaining when someone brings one!

And, we call it a kolonistuga... (Part 1)

Well there you have it. I've officially run out of excuses. My body is back on Arizona time, I've unpacked my bags (mostly), and I've caught up at work. As much as you ever actually get caught up at work, anyway. So, it's time to document the trip.

But, where do I begin? Do I summarize, categorize and reflect individually on the major themes of the trip? (Family, friends, open water, sunshine, summer homes, outdoor meals, etc.) Do I chronicle the events as they happened, carefully following and illustrating the line on the map below? Do I pontificate on the fascinating, yet somewhat unsettling, feeling of being an outsider in my home country? Well, Captain Compromise (my superhero alter ego) says it's going to a little bit of everything.

I arrived at Arlanda Airport on a Friday evening and spent my first night in Sweden in my friends Alexandra and Erik's house on the north side of Stockholm, and it was a much appreciated relief after the usual grueling transatlantic jaunt. Early the next morning I caught a ride to my hometown, Kumla, with Alexandra, as she was going to visit the parents. Fortunate timing indeed.

Boarding M/S Gustaf Lagerbjelke

After spending the rest of the day just hanging out with the family and another night of uneven sleep to recuperate from the jet lag before our first (of many) excursions: a 3-hour Sunday afternoon boat tour on Lake Hjälmaren. We departed from Hamnplan in central Örebro on M/S Gustaf Lagerbjelke and slowly worked our way downstream the Svartå stream past the stately mansions along Olaigatan, past the beautiful Stadsparken (City Park) and Wadköping (more about this later), and past Stora Holmen (The Large Islet) and its mini-train filled with kids before going down the 7-foot drop in a lock manned by high school kids and then out through Oset into Lake Hjälmaren. Once we were out on the lake, lunch was served (Baked Salmon and New Potatoes and a glass of white) before we turned around and returned to Hamnplan

Oset on our way into Lake Hjälmaren

Ok - that's all for now. Stay tuned, kids.

What happens in Sweden stays in Sweden...

Well, not quite. It's just taking me a while to get my act together. All I've done so far is put together the itinerary of the trip on a map. Click "View Larger Map" below the map to see all the stops and short descriptions. Pix and prose to follow...


View Larger Map

The giant haze we call jet lag

As you may know, I returned on Monday from an 18-day trip to Sweden.

I've been meaning to post about/from the trip, but I haven't had the energy since I came back. This has been my routine for the last few days: I do fine during the day at work, and when I come home my body slowly sinks into standby mode for a few hours before I physically crash just after 8, fight it for an hour or so and then take off to the land of Nod until 2 in the morning, when I wake up and stumble around the apartment for a few hours (starving because I haven't remembered to eat since lunch) before I return to bed for a meeting with Morpheus in anticipation of the 6 o'clock alarm.

It's about 8:30 PM now and I'm doing a bit better today. Maybe I'll be back here tomorrow with some pix and stories from the motherland, but more likely sometime this weekend.

Heathrow Terminal 5 Observations

(Written yesterday - Friday - during my layover on my way from Phoenix to Stockholm while I was offline. Edit: I just noticed that the post appears as a Friday post. Well, it's 5 AM Saturday here in Sweden and still Friday in the US. I'm jetlagged and awake early at my good friends Alexandra and Erik's house, where I found an open WiFi connection.)

It’s 3:30 PM local time, and I’m at Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5. It’s a highly modern structure – lots of glass and exposed white beams everywhere. Lots of people hustling and bustling about between the duty free shops and the large, open waiting area with a strategically placed Starbucks in the middle, but it doesn’t feel crowded or stressful. Someone did a good job with the design.

On the other hand, they seem to be sticking to the annoying Heathrow system of not announcing your gate until the last minute and then you have to rush to your gate to make it. I don’t get it. On the brighter side, I no longer have to transfer between terminals 1 and 4, which used to be a time consuming ordeal with the transit bus and the ridiculously long lines to get through security. My last time here was on my way back from Mumbai to Phoenix and I had a 6-hour layover, but three of those were consumed by getting to the right terminal. Now I got to the waiting area in about 30 minutes after a short hop on an intra-terminal transit train and then a very short security line.

The flight here wasn’t bad – except that we sat on the tarmac for an extra hour before takeoff because they had two bags too many on the plan and had to sort that out. But, I bought one of those around-the-neck-pillows at the airport in Phoenix, and it really helped me get in a few hours of shuteye on the way over. Also, BA has upgraded the in-flight entertainment system so now you have your personal DVR and can start and stop any movie or TV-show as you please. They had also expanded the offering: 25 recent release movies and library of another ~25 older movies, plus 50+ TV-shows and a good number of music albums to listen to. Very nice, indeed.