Wednesday Morning Coffee

The Last Cup...

2007-03-26T09:41:00.000+01:00

Things are changing for me here in London. I finally got broadband internet connected. We got a plan that combined the internet access and our phone plan, so now we are paying less than we were for dial up service.

The thing is that with this new ISP, I will be loosing my web space with plus.com. This means that I will have to move the location of this blog. I have decided that now is a good time to shut down Wednesday Morning Coffee.

I have several reasons for making this decision. The first is that I do not feel that I am doing a good enough job in keeping in touch with old friends. Keeping in touch by regularly posting news and commenting on a blog is great in theory. In practice, I don't post regularly, and most people don't have the time / inclination to check in. I have learned from painful past experience that you have to be extremely proactive to stay in touch with people once you don't live in the same town. So I am going to be more proactive with staying in touch, sending more personal emails, and making more phone calls.

Another reason for dropping WMC is that I want to start working on a website to promote my music. I am in the middle of recording an album and soon will need a web site to promote my album and performances. I could have both I suppose, but for now I want to focus my internet attention on the music site.

A final reason for giving up the blog is that it is feeling a little tired to me. I personally have not been extremely motivated to post, and as a result, I haven't really had a lot to say. I don't think I will be giving up blogland for good. I may start up a new blog after a while, when I have some thoughts stored up that I want to let out to play.

So for now it is goodbye to WMC. At the risk of getting on even more penis enlarging mailing lists, I am going to put my email address here so that if you want to stay in touch, and you are not sure if I have your address, you can send me an email and let me know. So here it is: johncelliot(at)yahoo(dot)com. WMC will remain here until plus.net removes my web space.

Goodbye for now...

JE

Grumpy...

2007-02-23T09:26:00.000Z

I haven't been posting much recently. Partly because I have been kind of grumpy over the last few weeks, and I try not to be too negative here in blogland.

A lot of the grumpiness is due to our lovely van which has been broken down. It all started with trying to fix one little thing which started a chain reaction making it undrivable for the past three weeks. I seem to have this strange connection to my vehicles which makes me physically unwell if they are not running properly. Today the last part that is needed to fix the van is arriving, so hopefully the van and I will be feeling better soon. Winter is almost over too!

To celebrate Valentine’s Day we went to see a play. It was a really well done romantic comedy starring Neve Cambell (she was in "Party of Five", not that I ever watched that show), Kristen Johnston (she was in "Third Rock from the Sun"), and Michael McKean (he was in all the Christopher Guest movies: "Spinal Tap", "Best in Show", etc), and Cillian Murphy (who I've never heard of before, but he was really good).

On Sunday we went to watch the Chinese New Year parade. It was very short (which is good because I loose patience with parades very quickly). After enjoying the parade we went in to see London's China Town. This turned out to be a mistake because it was really crowded (I think there were as many people in China Town as there are in the entire state of Idaho). We escaped China Town and went to see the London Science Museum.

Monday was my 31st birthday. We went to my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant and enjoyed a feast. I got some really good presents from Heather. She got me a big collection of "Father Brown" stories by Chesterton, a book chronicling one of Bob Dylan's famous comeback tours, a Bob Dylan record (for which I still do not have a record player), and some chocolate. With my combined Christmas and Birthday money, I bought a new digital camera. Nothing special, just something very portable and capable of higher quality prints.

I had to eat all of the chocolate fairly quickly because Lent began this Wednesday, and this year I am attempting to give up sweets. This includes desserts, candy, soda, and just about anything with added sugar. I am hoping that along with the physical sacrifice, I will be able to achieve some spiritual growth in the season leading up to Easter.

JE

Crunch time...

2007-02-06T09:45:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of posting recently. This year has been dominated by work so far. On the 7th of February I will have been with this company for 1 year. I am now getting to the “crunch time” for the design that I have been working on since I started last year. There have been a lot of distractions (other little projects and changes in the specifications) that have caused this design to really drag on. All of a sudden everyone is panicking about getting this project finished, so by the end of this month, we will be releasing all of the design details to our manufacturers. Personally, I welcome the additional pressure. A little bit of pressure seems to bring out the best in me and really helps me make the final push to get things done.

The downside of working hard and putting in extra hours is that I am completely drained by the time I get home. I have had a hard time getting motivated to work on my music and recording project.

In other more random news… I stayed up watching my beloved Bears blow it in the Super Bowl on Sunday night. The sad thing was that the game stayed close enough throughout that I had to keep watching until the end (3:30AM). There was always a chance that they might put a couple of drives together and get back into it. Sadly, this never happened, despite the best efforts of the Chicago defense, the offense never got going.

I got caught up on my sleep last night by getting to bed early. It was one of those strange nights when I heard noises in the house, but was too dead to realize what might be going on. This morning when I woke up there was a dead mouse in the middle of the rug in the living room. The noises that I heard were the cat scrambling around after a mouse and then proudly yowling about her catch, but nobody got up to admire it.

JE

Slow start to the year...

2007-01-16T12:13:00.000Z

Well, 2007 is a couple of weeks old now and it has been a slow start to the year. Nothing really worth mentioning has happened, but I thought I would write a little something just to stay in the habit.

We bought plane tickets for our summer vacation. We will be going to Cairo for a week at the end of May. This is a big trip for us as it coincides with our 10th wedding anniversary.

I have been trying to record whenever I get a chance. I am going through the process of recording scratch tracks of all of the songs I am considering for this album. There are a ton of songs in contention. Already they are starting to weed themselves out as they often sound different to me when I listen to the rough recordings of them. It is a fun process for me, but I have to be careful not to get too withdrawn. Last night I cooked dinner (and did the dishes) before disappearing into my studio until 10PM (hoping the food makes up for me being a neglectful husband for the evening). It's hard to make good progress when limited to 2.5hr slots. It feels like I am just starting to get creative when it is time to pick everything up and get ready for bed.

I have started the year with a renewed commitment to riding my bike to work. This commitment is fueled by the fact that they raised the price of a train ticket to London bridge. It now costs me about $10 every time I take the train to work, when riding my bike is free. The downside is days like today when I show up at work looking (and feeling) like a drowned rat and finding that the change of clothes in my backpack has been soaked through.

There has been one very exciting thing that has happened in the new year. Our local Mediterranean deli has reopened. It closed last November and I have really been missing it. It was my favorite shop in our neighborhood. I would stop in all the time for cheese, bread, olives, hummus, pitas, chorizo sausages, and other tasty snacks. It was torture for them to be closed over Christmas. But now it is open again and a balance has been restored to the food force.

JE

Not just another New Year...

2007-01-02T11:39:00.000Z

This year we went above and beyond the call of our New Year celebrating duties by going to watch the fireworks in central London. An event such as this requires planning with military precision. The biggest challenge is the transportation. After midnight, the trains that we would normally take to get home are not running, so we had to figure out how to get home on the “night-bus”. Yes, the night-bus is as scary as it sounds. The other challenge is finding a good location to watch the fireworks along with 350,000 other drunken Londoners. The final challenge is to avoid getting trampled on the way home after the fireworks are finished. We successfully completed all three challenges, and the fireworks were brilliant. I am really glad we braved it, but I doubt we will pluck up the courage to do it again next year.

As an added bonus, there was a live American Football match on television when we got home (at around 2:30AM). I was even more excited when I found out that it was the Chicago Bears vs the Green Bay packers in the final game of the regular season. I was so excited to watch the Bears play, having heard how good they were this season. Sadly, they were complete shite! I decided to go to bed at half time when they were loosing 23-0. So much for being unbeatable this season. From what I saw, I doubt they will make it past their first playoff game.

A few pics from our New Years adventure…

Christmas Parties...

2006-12-19T15:34:00.000Z

Last Friday we had three Christmas parties to go to. We only made it to two of them.

We started by going to Heather’s work party. It was held in the Central Library staff room in Kensington. It was really nice to meet all of the library people that Heather works with. Libraries seem to attract an interesting assortment of people who are generally well educated, laid back, and a little insane. The insanity seemed to be amplified by the booze that was certainly flowing. Apparently the main function of the Kensington Library Christmas party is to get really drunk. We made our exit around 8:00 before things got too out of hand.

Next we headed across town to my work Christmas party that was being held in a pub near London Bridge. The party was in full swing when we arrived and it was one of those great locations where you have to yell at the top of your lungs directly into someone’s ear to carry on a conversation. The combination of noise and exotic drinks left Heather not really remembering anyone that she met, but we did have a good time…

Our Christmas Tree Was Stolen!

2006-12-13T10:14:00.000Z

Before you get too worried, it was not the actual tree in our house that got stolen. Even if it was that tree, it would not be a huge tragedy since it is a 4ft plastic tree that we bought for £6.99.

There is a row of shops by our local train station: an Italian restaurant, a deli, a gallery, a chippy, a convenience store, etc. This area is the heart of Honor Oak Park. It had been decorated nicely for Christmas with lights on the lamp posts and a Christmas tree on the island in the middle of the road in front of the train station. It wasn't a great tree, but it was our tree. A few days after it was put up, I was walking to the train station and I noticed that the tree was gone. Well, it would have been one thing if it was just gone, but it was worse than that. The lower few branches of the tree were still there, but it had been sawn off about three quarters of the way down the trunk. Some dirty bugger had decapitated our tree! Welcome to Southeast London.

Merry Christmas!

JE

Open Mic Results...

2006-12-01T16:00:00.000Z

The open mic went pretty well for me in the end. The evening got off to a rough start when the road I was taking to get to Greenwich was closed off, and I got detoured onto the back streets of SE London. Luckily, I had Gerry (a long time SE Londoner who was playing conga with me) to navigate. He said he knew exactly where we were the whole time, but I was secretly starting to panic a bit as we spent an extra 15 minutes winding around some very dark streets. We arrived at the pub unscathed and only a little bit late.

Unfortunately, there were only about 4 other people there (all other performers). They put off the starting time for the evening, but there was still only a small handful of people there when things kicked off.

My neighbor arrived to cheer me on. This was especially encouraging because he has to listen to me practice though the floor (he lives upstairs), so his presence there indicated that my practicing is not driving him too insane.

A couple of guys from work came to check it out as well. Just as they were arriving, the worst performer of the night was on stage. The poor guy was alone hammering on an out of tune, distorted, electric guitar while howling out of tune unintelligible words. My friends from work admitted that they were nervous that it was me that they heard on stage as they were arriving at the pub. They were quite relieved to find me sitting at the back of the room waiting my turn.
Things seemed to improve from there. A few more people arrived, I made it through my songs without major incident, and there were a couple of really good performers towards the end of the night. It was a good step forward for me. Everyone was very encouraging about the performance (but you never really know how good it is).

Over the Christmas break, I will really start digging into some recording and hopefully set up some new and exciting places to play in the new year. New years resolution #1: Record a full length album. New Years Resolution #2: Perform more often. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself...

JE

McDonalds and Music for Thanksgiving...

2006-11-28T16:53:00.000Z

This year we celebrated thanksgiving by going to McDonalds. Nothing more American than a quarter-pounder with cheese (aka a Royale w/ cheese). The reason for this indulgence is that we went to a concert on Thursday evening. We both came directly from work, so didn’t really have time for a real meal. The concert was Josh Ritter opening up for Gomez. We were mainly interested in catching the opening act, Mr. Ritter, so we made sure we were there on time. The tickets said 7:00PM, so we rushed to get there before seven, but the show didn’t really start until 7:45PM.

I am a huge fan of Josh Ritter. I think his song-writing is incredible. He has a way of saying things that can make everyday common occurrences seem profound. His melodies are simple yet unique and timeless. I also appreciate the historic awareness of folk music past that continually rings through his lyrics and melodies. Perhaps one reason that J.R.’s music “resonates” with me so much is because we share a common history.

We both went to Moscow High School in northern Idaho (where my parents still live). I am a year older than Josh, so we never had any classes together and since I was only at Moscow High for part of my junior year and my senior year, we didn’t really get to know one another. The closest we came to meeting was playing on the water polo club one winter, but I don’t recall us ever having a conversation. I stayed in Moscow after high school where I went to University, making it about seven years that I lived there. That is the longest that I have lived anywhere, so Moscow is as close to “home” as it gets for me.

Moscow is a unique place, a liberal university town in the middle of a conservative rural state, surrounded by the rolling hills of the Palouse, it is removed yet not too far away from the rest of the world. I distinctly remember how slowly everything seemed to move when I moved there from Columbus Ohio. For a while, this slowness distressed me a bit, but now, living in London, I long for it.

I do sense the relaxed Moscow demeanour in Josh’s music. His songs seem to reflect the calmness and freedom of the northern Idaho countryside.

The performance (at the Hammersmith Apollo) was quite good. I think Josh and his band suffered a bit from being the opening act. The mix wasn’t great, making it tricky to hear the all important lyrics and acoustic guitar parts. Even so, the band was clearly very good and well rehearsed, and I enjoyed hearing the live spin on some of his old songs.

The main act, Gomez, was very impressive. There were three different front-men leading and singing different songs. They switched around instruments a lot and skilfully combined roots music with modern electronic effects. I would describe their music as bluesy rock with an alternative edge. My favourite thing about their music was the unique groove that they would lay down for each song. With two percussionists, two guitarists, bass and keyboards, they managed to lay down a complex breathing rhythmic structure that carried the songs along. Again, the mix suffered from hard to hear vocals and since lyrics are so important to me, I have to reserve overall judgement of their music until I have had a chance to hear some of their recordings and get to know their songs a bit better.

Tonight I am back at the open mic in Greenwich. My performance last time was okay (apart from forgetting one of the verses to a new song). I felt quite rusty, but it was good to get out and start performing again. The hosts of the open mic invited me to play a 30 minute guest slot tonight so I have worked up a combination of old and new stuff to perform. I have roped in a friend of mine to play conga with me, so if things get ugly, at least I am not alone.

JE

I have a beard...

2006-11-20T11:25:00.000Z

Beards are cool.

My dad has a beard…

Eric Clapton has a beard…

Sam Beam of Iron and Wine has a beard…

Ray LaMontagne has a beard…

I temporarily have a beard, but it is only until my chin heals enough that I can shave again. “Why would my chin need to heal”, you may ask. Well I’ll tell you…

There is a bike trail that I take for part of the way home. It goes through a particularly bad neighbourhood. It is quite dark now that winter is coming. As I was coming to a bridge that I ride under, I saw a group of kids off to one side. I didn't think anything of it, but as I got close, one of them stepped out with a big log and whacked me across the face with it. It caught me on the chin quite hard, but it didn't break the skin or knock me off my bike. I was stunned by the blow and I veered of to the side of the trail hitting the wall under the bridge and buckling the front wheel of my bike. I got off my bike and turned to confront the kids, but I quickly realised that there were eight of them and they all probably had knives. So I picked up my bike and carried it away. They didn't follow or try to do anything. Once I was a safe distance away, I called the police, but they couldn't come right away due to more pressing business. I walked to the nearest train station and took the train home. Later that night, the police stopped by our house and took a statement from me. I was quite lucky in many ways. Being hit on the chin was probably the best place because if I was hit any higher up, I might have lost teeth, or broken my nose, or had an eye damaged. Also, they did not attack or try to rob me once I was off my bike; they were attacking people purely for the malicious fun of it. So once I get my bike fixed, I will be taking the road at night and not the bike trail.

A couple of thoughts I have had since the incident…

The neighbourhood where this happened is Peckham, one of the poorest in all of London. It also happens to be the neighbourhood where our church is based. Our church is called Restore Peckham and one of its primary objectives is to be a community that meets the needs and reaches out to this area. This incident helps to confirm that this is the right place for us to be serving.

What happened to me is not an isolated incident. So many teens in England are completely out of control. It is one of the big issues discussed by the government, how to deal with the “yob culture”. You can’t listen to a newscast without hearing the term “yob” (the term yob originally came from a back-to-front slang for boy and is now used to describe any trouble making teen). Headlines are dominated by stabbings, beatings, muggings, bullyings, vandalism, drinking, drugging, fighting, all acts committed by teens. What created this huge void that all of these children have fallen into? Who is to blame: the kids, the parents, the schools, the police? Most importantly, what can be done to improve the situation? People genuinely fear their own children. The fear felt by the adult community simply serves to further isolate the children and thus the “yob culture” is self perpetuating…

JE

Brews and Blues...

2006-11-14T12:25:00.000Z

On Saturday, I went out to a local Restaurant/Bar called Bierodrome. As one might guess from the name, they specialize in beer. In this case, Belgian beer. They did have a very extensive list, but due to the fact that all the beers were quite strong, and the time allowed, I only had a chance to try three of them. I do really like Belgian beer, strong and sweet with all kinds of complicated flavours. If I had to choose my favourite beer country, it would be Germany. German beers just seem to have a certain authority that really leaves you satisfied after a glass (or two).

On Sunday night, we went out to a jazz concert. The band was called Oregon and the show was part of the London Jazz Festival. The most impressive thing about this band is that they have been together since 1970. All of the musicians in the band were world-class, and they had a unique instrumentation that made them stand out from the standard jazz quartet. The guitarist in the band played a classical guitar, and most of his parts seemed more influenced by classical guitar than jazz guitar. He laid a rich and flowing chordal foundation that the rest of the band built upon. Probably my favourite musician in the band was the percussionist. I’m not calling him the drummer because he was doing so much more than just banging on the drums. In addition to the standard jazz drum kit, he had a whole collection of different hand drums from around the world. Often he was playing the hand percussion with one hand and his drum kit with a stick in the other hand. If I could choose the ideal drummer for a band for me, it would be someone like him. The bass guitar played a standard jazz bass, but rather than just laying down the roots of the chords, he was often adventuring up and down the fret-board with intricate melodic lines. The fourth member of the band was a woodwind player. He mostly played soprano sax (one of my least favourite instruments), but he also broke out an oboe, a bassoon, and other flute like instruments. One of the highlights of the concert was when the band “made up a song”. At one point during this, the woodwind player was playing two flutes at one time, one in each hand, playing a harmony with himself. Overall, a very enjoyable concert.

Tonight I am heading off to an open-mic night at a pub in Greenwich. It will be the first time that I have played out in public since moving to London, so I am a little nervous. But it is about time that I started performing again. I have been putting up the acoustic treatment in my studio and work on my album is about to begin. I am hoping that as I start performing, I will meet some other musicians who will be able to help out with the recording.

Also, this afternoon I get my flu shot. I hate needles and I am afraid that the flu shot will give me the flu, but I have been sick more than ever since moving to London, so I am hoping this will help to strengthen my immune system a bit…

JE

Go-to Places...

2006-11-07T10:04:00.000Z

One of the hard things about settling into a new city is finding all of those “go-to” places. This process is especially difficult when in a foreign country because all of the “go-to” places that you want to find aren’t necessarily there. We have been going through that process since moving to London about nine months ago. Being such a large city, there is a lot of diversity and many options when it comes to choosing shops, restaurants and places to go. But due to its size and layout, London is also a very difficult city to get to know. All of the good places to go are tucked away down hidden alleys, while all of the bland, overpriced, overcrowded places are right out in the open.

I’ll give an example of a recent struggle. I had to find a new pair of indoor soccer shoes for my Wednesday night soccer. You would think that in a country that is so football crazy, there would be widely available shoe shops (perhaps some even specializing in football equipment), with a huge range of shoes to choose from. Unfortunately this is not the case. The big shops that are easier to find didn’t carry many of the style of shoe I was looking for, and the shoes that they did have cost way more than I wanted to pay. The smaller shops are only open 9-5 Monday to Friday making them very hard to get to due to work. So, I consulted the phone book and for some strange reason, none of the shops that I was interested in answered their phone, additionally they did not have an answering machine! Finally, last Friday, I snuck out of work early to go and explore a couple of the shops from the phone book. I found one that had the exact shoes I was looking for at the right price, only a few miles from my house, and they are actually open until 8PM, so I can go after work in the future. So now I have a go to sports goods shop, but it took me weeks to find.

The best way to find these go-to places is when you just stumble on them and that is exactly what happened this weekend. We were exploring a little market just off Oxford Street. As we were getting to the end of the market (and the neighbourhood was starting to look a bit seedy), Heather spotted a little Cal-Mex restaurant. We enjoyed the best burritos that I have had since Café Rio or Barbacoa in Salt Lake. The best part was that we both ate for less than £10! It is so hard to find good Mexican food here (perhaps due to the fact that there are no Mexicans in England). This truly is an extraordinary find.

A New Record

2006-10-27T09:40:00.000+01:00

I set a new record getting to work today. Thanks to following some other cyclists and a little bit of experimentation, I made the 5.5 mile trip in 20 minutes 15 seconds (keep in mind this is going through London at morning rush hour). This is the first time I have followed this magic new route, and I think I can even improve on that time a little. My previous record was 27 minutes to bike to work, so you can see what an improvement this is. For your entertainment, (or in case you ever need to get from Forest Hill to London Bridge) here is a map of the route…

JE

Note: there is a bit of a loop at the beginning of the route. This slight detour is necessary to avoid a giant hill!

Foggy Ideas...

2006-10-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

I find that wandering around in the great outdoors often causes my thoughts to wander in a spiritual direction. When I am confronted with the beauty of the real world as God created it, I find my faith growing stronger and I feel closer to Him. The flipside is that that when I am lost in the urban jungle of London, God sometimes seems a bit removed and remote.

With this in mind I learned a little spiritual lesson when I was hiking in Wales last weekend. The goal of the hike was to climb two different peaks in the Black Mountains. Usually when one climbs peaks, it is with the intention of getting a better view of the world below. This is what I was looking forward to, having heard that there were spectacular views of the countryside and the valley, once I reached the top. The trouble was that I was surrounded by fog for almost the entirety of the hike. Most of the time I could only see a few yards ahead of me. This limited vision really caused me to focus on the beauty that was at hand rather than the far reaching beauty that was spread out around. And on the rare occasion when the clouds did part, I found the view absolutely breathtaking.

My little trip in the Welsh hills is much like our spiritual journey through this world. How we long to see the big picture, to know exactly what God’s plan is for our lives. Wouldn’t it be great to be removed from time like Him, to see where we are going and where we have been all at the same time, to really see how it all fits together instead of being surrounded by the fog of this world. Of course we know it does not work this way. We have a direction, a hill that we have to climb, but we can’t always see where the path leads. It can be frustrating, especially for those of us that long for control over our lives.

God has his reasons for not completely revealing his plans to us. How would we as humans react if we instantly knew the fullness of His plans? We would not be able to focus, learn, and grow each day. Instead we would be distracted and overawed, unable to live the life given to us. Still I struggle with this concept, at times frustrated because I don’t know all the details.

Our Heavenly Father is well aware of the struggles of His children, and from time to time, He does allow the clouds to part. It is on these occasions that we are able to see more clearly and the beauty, complexity, and grace of God’s plans flashes before our eyes leaving us encouraged and exhilarated.

JE

Camper Van Trip #001: Hay on Wye

2006-10-16T12:09:00.000+01:00

We are back from our trip to Hay on Wye in Wales and I am happy to report that the van performed flawlessly!

All of the exciting pictures are here!

We left early on Friday morning. Sadly it still was not early enough to avoid the traffic getting out of London. We live in south-east London and Wales is to the north-west of London. This means that we have to cross the entire city to get there. It took about an hour and a half just to get to the other side. Once we were out of London, things went pretty smoothly (aside from some construction in Oxford that held us up for a while.

We got to the camp site around 12PM. When I checked in, I got made fun of for saying, “I have a reservation for a campsite”. They thought that was hilarious, “you want to rent a whole campsite do you, or just one pitch?” Oh well, I have gotten used to making an ass of myself, being a foreigner in a strange land…

We then headed into the town of Hay on Wye to grab some lunch and for Heather to get a preview of all of the book shops that she would be exploring on Saturday. After wandering around the shops and getting ice cream at Shepherds Ice Cream, we took the dogs for a walk and headed back to the campsite. We went to bed quite early, tired out from the driving and early start.

On Saturday, the real adventure began. I dropped Heather in town to hunt for books, and I headed off to the Black Mountains. Amazingly, it was not raining at all. The downside is that it was quite foggy and cloudy. As I headed up into the mountains, the visibility was very poor. I knew that there were some peaks that I was going to hike up, but I could not see them from the parking spot. I did have a map and a compass, so I headed off in what I thought was the right direction.

I had a little trouble finding the beginning of the trail, so I ended up climbing straight up the side of the first peak before I ran into the real trail. Since I could not see the views due to the clouds I was forced to focus on the landscape in front of me and it was really beautiful. The grass was so vividly green and very spongy, growing in little clumps were purple and yellow heather like plants, and there were small outcroppings of rock dotted about. The first peak I climbed was Hay Bluff which is supposed to look over the town of Hay on Wye. I’m sure the town was down there somewhere, but I could not see it.

The next peak that I climbed was Lord Hereford’s Knob (yes, I do find the name amusing). The clouds cleared for a couple of seconds to reveal an amazing view as I climbed. There were little herds of sheep and horses scattered around the hill side. Again I lost the main trail as I climbed and ended going up the steep hard way. On the way back down from the knob, the clouds cleared again and got to see some more views of the countryside. I believe it really is one of the most beautiful places I have been. The richness of the green grass, the gently rolling hills, and the bushy clumps of trees, the whole area seems untouched by time.

Once back in town, I got together with Heather again and found out the damage to the bank account (the downside of leaving Heather alone to go shopping while I go hiking is that I cannot monitor her purchases). That evening we enjoyed a pasta dinner cooked in the van. We had it with a wonderful bottle of red Spanish wine that was given to us by a friend of ours as a gift for some work that I had done on her house. Apparently you cannot buy this wine in England, but she likes it so much that she imports it. After finishing the bottle between us, I can see why she goes to the trouble, it really was nice. Hopefully next time she orders, we can buy a couple of bottles too.

We left for home late on Sunday morning and pulled over on the way to cook a quick lunch. The drive back through London was a bit smoother than when we left, but not much better. Though the bed in the van is quite comfortable, there is nothing like the comfort of my own bed. It was very sad to wake up to my alarm this morning and head back to work…

JE

Football vs Football

2006-10-11T14:37:00.000+01:00

Being an American in England, I often get asked the question, “Which do you like more, Football [soccer for you Americans reading this], or American Football”. When I weigh all the pros and cons, real football [soccer] will always come out on top for me. That is not to say that I don’t love American football too. So here are a few thoughts on the merits of the two different games.

Real Football
First of all, at least the name makes sense for this sport. With limited subs, the 11 players on each team have 90 minutes in which they fight it out. The clock is continuous, so the game can really flow. Once the coach has prepared the team with a game plan and a formation, he has little impact on the activity on the pitch. Every player has to be intelligent, fulfilling multiple roles; everyone attacks when in possession and every one defends when the opponents have the ball. The game is truly international, with great players coming from all over the world. In addition to all of the great local rivalries that exist in various countries, there are great rivalries between club teams from different countries. Every year the very best teams in the world battle it out in continental competitions. On a personal level, it is a great sport to play. Though it is not really “safe” (no sport is really safe for me), it is a great way to get exercise and you get a game going with only a small number of people.

American Football
Something happens when the air begins to cool in the fall and there are new smells outside. There is a longing deep down inside me that wants to sit on the sofa and spend the whole afternoon watching the pageantry of American Football. The games are like battles with the coaches as generals and the players like soldiers. Each side tries to carefully execute intricate plays as called by the coach. There are 50 soldiers on each sideline all covered in specialized armour to allow them to best fulfil their role. Though the plays are mostly dictated by the coaches, there is scope for individual brilliance each time the ball is snapped. The best plays are filled with feats of amazing athleticism. The battles become epic as the last two minutes on the clock are drawn out into 20 minutes. Every second a precious commodity and carefully protected through exploitation of the millions of rules of the game.

I have always been a fan of the Chicago Bears. When I first arrived to live in America (1985), Chicago was the first American city I spent time in. That season, the Bears won the Superbowl with larger than life players like “The Fridge”, Walter Payton, and Jim McMahon. Ever since then I have endured endless poor seasons, but from what I gather they are currently one of the best teams in the NFL again. Sadly, I can’t even watch them right now.

Go Bears,

JE

Barcelona, Boarders, Bus Repairs, Busy Days...

2006-10-09T10:36:00.000+01:00

A week ago this past Wednesday, I went to Spain for my first "team trip". Every year, the company that I work for takes all of the employees away for a couple of days of team building. This year the trip was to Sitges which is a resort town just outside of Barcelona. I usually hate the whole team spirit-go team go-malarkey that is involved with this kind of thing. It must have been the sun, the beach, or all of the free food and drink, but I did have a good time. It was also interesting to see what my coworkers are like when they have had a bit too much to drink (there are a couple of pictures of my boss that I would really like to put up here, but its probably best not to). The downside is that I came home with yet another cold.

When I got back to sunny England we had three boarders. My good old friend of original Wednesday Morning Coffee fame, Andy Wiebe, and his parents were visiting for two short days. We had a nice dinner out and went for a ride in the London Eye at night (which was brilliant). There was enough time for a quick cup of coffee Saturday morning and then they were off to the south to be with his wife, Suzy, and her family. It was much too quick, but great to see an old friend.

This weekend I was putting the final touches on our VW Bus in preparation for our trip to Wales next weekend. I got the fridge, sink, and heater all working properly and I got the stereo set up to play back tunes from my ipod (despite my disdain for MP3s, I think listening in the car is one of the best applications for them). We are going to Hay on Wye, a small town on the Welsh/English border. It is well known for being filled with used book shops (thus Heather's interest in the trip). It is on the border of "The Black Mountains" (which are neither black nor mountains). While Heather is hunting books, the dogs and I will be braving the wilds of the black mountains. Going at this time of year, we are practically guaranteed bad weather. It should still be a fun trip and I will fully document it here as it is the first real trip in our camper van.

JE

Wise Words...

2006-09-27T15:06:00.000+01:00

Tom Petty - one of my all time favorite musicians:
http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=760883

Rocky Anderson - mayor of Salt Lake City:
http://www.slcgov.com/mayor/speeches/2006%20speeches/SPdemonstration83006.pdf

I'm off to Spain for a day and a half...

JE

Small World #637...

2006-09-14T10:19:00.000+01:00

One cool thing about the big trade shows is that I get to see friends from my old companies. The pro audio world is actually very small, and the same group of engineers seem to circulate around the different companies. There are people at four or five different companies that I stop by to visit when the trade show circus comes to town.

Last Saturday, Heather and I were out in London. We were doing some shopping, visited a museum, and took a walk though Hyde Park. As we were heading back to the nearest tube station, I heard my name called from the crowd. At first I did not recognise the person, since he had lost his pony tail and also lost some weight since I had last seem him. Eventually it dawned on me that it was one of my old bosses from SLC. He had just arrived in London for the trade show and was out for a walk trying to stay awake. The chances of running into someone you know in London are very slim, even if you both live in the city, but to run into someone who is visiting from another country is really bizarre.

It reminded me of when we were on our “honeymoon road-trip”. We were in the gift shop at Mount Rushmore and we ran into Heather’s sister in law. We had no idea that she was going to be there. It was definitely a strange place to run into someone you know.

The interesting thing about that kind of meeting is how long it takes to recognise a person out of context. When you take someone that you know well in one place and you put them in another place, it somehow seems to distort their features. It’s like the places we live, work and reside are an integral part of who we are, and when we move to another different location, we are changing part of ourselves. Enough rambling…

JE

More MP3 Woes...

2006-09-13T11:13:00.000+01:00

I am sure that many of you who take the time to read this blog are sick of me complaining about MP3s, but I am duty bound to keep fighting against this audio abomination. Let me first try to explain why I get so worked up about this issue. My main gripe is that MP3s are “dumbing down” people’s audio expectations. The sound of quality recordings is destroyed when they are compressed into MP3s. As you know, I design audio equipment for a living, and I spend hours measuring, listening, and tweaking each design to provide the best sounding end product. Obviously the thought of “ugly” audio being pumped through my precious designs is quite upsetting. I also spend a lot of time recording music (though not as much as I would like). Again, hours are spent performing, recording, mixing and tweaking to come up with the best sounding piece of music possible. Obviously the thought of this music then being stripped of its vitality in the form of an MP3 is very discouraging. And the saddest thing about the whole issue is that I am sure people are forgetting how good music can really sound.

This week I went to a big Pro Audio trade show in London. While I was looking at all of the shiny new toys, someone asked if I would like to listen to “the world’s best sounding headphones”. Of course I was very excited by this opportunity. The headphones were plugged into an ipod nano. I sat down and selected a track that I recognised. After about 5 seconds of being assaulted by a wretched MP3 sound I pulled the phones off my head. “Is this an MP3 I am listening to?” I demanded of the salesman. “Yes, it is.” He replied sheepishly. I went on to explain that they surely could not expect to demo “the world’s best sounding headphones” using MP3 files. I also explained that you can store wav files (uncompressed audio) on an ipod, so there really was no need. The better quality the audio components used to reproduce a sound, the more obvious the artefacts and deficiencies of the compressed audio source will be. And with these headphones the music was absolutely unlistenable.

JE

Willesden Green

2006-09-12T09:31:00.000+01:00

Since moving to the UK, Heather and I have started a new ritual of collecting all of the lost change that we can find. It’s amazing how much money is lying around. I’m not talking about money in our house or car, but money on the street, on the floor in shops, or in train stations. Every September, we count up the “found money” and put it towards a nice dinner out. To add to the thrill of finding the money, we have a special piggy bank that we put the money in when we find it.

We have named this pig, Willesden Green. Heather started the insanity. One of the underground lines that she takes to work terminates at the Willesden Green station. The recorded announcement states, “This train terminates at Willesden Green”. It is said in this wonderful sing-song English accent, with the pitch going up on the “Willesden” and back down again on the “Green”. So now when money is found it is appropriate to repeat the “Willesden Green” mantra.

There was a bit of a sad incident this year. After taking the money from the pig, I pushed his cork back in, and he split in half! He broke into two almost symmetrical pieces. I couldn’t believe it had happened; it was almost as if Willesden was protesting the removal of the money that he had been holding for us all year. I promptly glued him back together again before Heather got home, knowing how upset she would be if she saw Willesden Green split into two pieces. This year we had a grand total of £27.29, a total that I had almost guessed exactly (my prediction was £27.32).

The second part of the story goes like this. Back in the old days, when we lived in SLC, we had a favourite restaurant. We would go to this restaurant every Friday, almost without fail. In the summer, and when the weather was nice, we would walk (it was almost 3 miles from our house). The restaurant, on the corner of 1500 east and 1500 south, is called Mazza. It is a Lebanese restaurant and it is owned by one of the nicest guys I have ever met (unfortunately, he is not so nice that he would give us his recipes before we moved). Every week, I would order the same thing, the chicken kabob sandwich with a side of hummus. And when I was extra hungry, I would get a side of fries too. It is almost impossible to put the beauty of this sandwich into words. It has big chunks of tender chicken, delicately spiced, skewered and then roasted over an open flame. It has fresh tomatoes, and Mazza’s own special pickles. It is put together on a toasted French roll, and seasoned with a beautiful pink aioli sauce. I would dip this beautiful sandwich into the rich smooth hummus that I got on the side. Heather, also being a creature of habit, would get the same thing every week. Her drugs of choice included a large side of baba ganoush, and a large side of potato harra. Baba ganoush is a spicy, smoky dip made from egg plant and potato harra is a fried potato dish consisting of chunks of potatoes, Anaheim chillies, garlic and a slew of other magical spices. Since moving to England, there has been a void in our hearts and stomachs where Mazza once resided.

This void may have finally been filled. Heather is moving to a position at a new library and this library happens to be in a neighbourhood filled with Middle-Eastern restaurants, one of these restaurants happens to be a Lebanese restaurant called Balbac. When this restaurant was discovered, it was a no-brainer that this was to be the place where we would spend our “Willesden Green” money. One of the beauties of this restaurant is that it is remarkably affordable for London, so our £27 really went a long way. The waiter / cook must have been astonished by the amount of food that we ordered (and then promptly consumed). Since it was a special occasion, and our first time in this restaurant, we really went all out. And although the dishes weren’t quite up to the incredibly high standards set by Mazza, they were all really good. We ordered: a falafel sandwich, a chicken kabob sandwich (almost identical to the on at Mazza except it was in a wrap instead of French roll), baba ganoush, potato harra, hummus, fries, and Lebanese salad. Our table was completely covered with plates of food and we were left with £7 in change! We may not make it to the restaurant every week since it is in NW London and we live in SE London, but we will be dining there often and London will feel a bit more like “home”.

JE

Very Sad News

2006-09-04T09:52:00.000+01:00

I woke to very sad news today. While I was eating breakfast, I heard on the news that Steve Irwin, the croc hunter had died. He was stung through the heart by a stingray strike to the chest. I couldn't finish my frosted flakes after hearing about it.

In recent years, I hadn't been watching his shows so much, but I remember when I first discovered him. I thought him completely insane and hilarious. True, his methods were a bit unorthodox and controversial, but there is no denying how much he loved all animals, and his work has benefited multitudes of weird and wonderful creatures.

As a tribute to him, I want to list some of his quotes that have become a part of my daily vocabulary...

"Danger, danger, food response!" - Used by Steve when being chased down by a komodo dragon. I use it often when a plate of food is placed before me and promptly devoured. I also like to use the shortened version, "danger, danger", when someone in the house may be in a particularly bad mood.

"Don't bite me in the face! Don't bite me between the legs either!" - Used by Steve when confronted by a rattlesnake. I don't really have a good application for this particular quote, I just like to say it every once in a while.

"Dragon poo!" - Used by Steve when tracking komodo dragons. Used by me to describe the cat's litter box.

"You're alright mate!" - Often used by Steve when holding a flailing snake by the tail. Used by me to calm my dog when she is freaking out during a thunder storm, or any time anyone seems to be getting unnecessarily upset about something.

The baby croc noise. Impossible to replicate here, but still one of my favorite croc hunter moments. He was holding a baby croc, mimicking it, and explaining how it was a distress call to his mother. I like to use this noise now to commiserate with people who are whining too much.

I'll miss you Steve.

JE

I am never flying from London to Paris again!

2006-08-25T17:44:00.000+01:00

We are safely back from our trip to Paris (pictures here). It was lots of fun and possibly the best trip yet. The funny thing is that we are not running out of things to see and do after visiting four times. It really is an amazing place. The best thing about Paris is the way it can take your breath away when you least expect it. You can be strolling down a quaint little cafe lined street and when you turn a corner you find a display of unspeakable beauty. It could be building, or a statue, or a garden, or a view of the city. It seems like there are millions of visual treasures just waiting to be found.

I won't go into too much detail about everything we did. I did that last year, it took me forever, and I am sure that nobody read it all. This year there is even more to report on. Again the inner nerd in us asserted itself and we wore step meters to see how many steps we were doing each day. It was over 30000 steps every day (about eight miles). When we weren't walking around we were eating, and we more than made up for the exercise with the food that we ate.

I would like to take a minute and talk about what a pleasure it is to take the train from London to Paris. Air travel has become such a headache (especially recently here in England). You now have to be at the airport more than two hours before your flight. You cannot take any reasonably sized hand baggage, and you practically have to be strip searched before you can get on the plane. The London airports are mostly outside of the city (especially the ones that the cheap airlines use: Luton and Stansted). This means that you either have to drive and pay extortionate parking expenses while you are away, or you have to take an expensive train from London to the airport (for Luton and Stansted airports, this is a 45 minute ride). Add to all that the fact that all of the London airports seem to be way over booked, and there are always delays.

The train was such a refreshing change. It leaves from Waterloo station in the heart of London. You only have to be there 30 minutes before departure. You carry all of your bags with you onto the train (they are all x-rayed on your way through security). You sit in a comfortable seat with plenty of legroom and nice big windows. The ride is smooth and quiet. There is a bar/cafe carriage where you can get coffee, drinks and snacks (I was especially excited about the Belgian beer available). You are transported to Gare du Nord in the heart of Paris instead of the sleazy Charles DeGaul airport that is way outside of the city. Instead of feeling utterly exhausted and dispirited when you reach you destination, you are rested, relaxed and ready to go. Instead of eating dinner and going to bed when we arrived in Paris, we were energised after dinner and went out to a really cool Jazz club.

The bottom line is that your holiday can begin the moment you sit down on the Eurostar train, but if you are flying your holiday won't begin until the day after the flight.

JE

I thought I had nothing to say, but then...

2006-08-18T13:18:00.000+01:00

I had a little loose change in my pocket today (this is very rare for me), so I decided to go to the local chip shop for a snack to go with my lunch. It appears that there is no end to the culinary delicacies that this country has to offer. The snack that I ordered today raises the bar yet again. I ordered the "chip roll".

Let me describe to you this stupendous gastronomic creation, simple in form yet ingenious in conception. Start with a soft white roll, cut in half and then butter both halves heavily. Next, create a cone out of a couple of large sheets of paper (they don't use newspaper any more). Place the roll in the bottom of the cone and fill with chips (big, fat, greasy, french fries). Then saturate the whole thing with malt vinegar and finish off with a generous shaking of salt. All of this for the low price of £1. Who says London is the most expensive place on earth!!!

I really enjoyed it about an hour ago, but now it is coming back to haunt me a little bit...

JE

Not Much To Say...

2006-08-18T09:37:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I have put up a new post here. I just have not had much to say since the excitement of the beer festival.

I have been doing lots of song writing. I had seven or eight new songs that I played for Heather the other night. After playing them all as a group I was really underwhelmed by them; there may be one or two good ones out of the lot.

I have also been reading quite a bit. Since I have had my arm injury, I have not been able to bike to work, so I have had extra time to read on the train, and I have been making time at lunch to read as well. I think the reading is what has been triggering the song writing.

Tomorrow we leave for Paris to celebrate Heather's 30th birthday. I am really looking forward to the trip, mostly because we are taking the train and we are not flying. As you have probably heard flights out of London are a bit insane right now.

Soon I will be starting to help with music at church. I am also really looking forward to this because I have been feeling a bit like I have been "burying my talents in the ground" since moving to the UK.

Matthew 25:25 "And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' 26 But his master answered and said to him, "You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 "Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 "Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' 29 For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NASB)

Yikes.

JE