Snowmageddon in DC!

Quick, rescue teddy!

Marine Corps Marathon - the finish line!

Before I forget, the best part of the Marine Corps Marathon 2009 was, of course, finishing it. I knew this before 'the race' started, but somehow I was reminded at about mile 18, while what were formerly known as 'my legs' gave out. All of a sudden, the muscles above and behind my knees decided to rebel. My mind was supposed to override this feeling (mind over matter) but somehow the body proved stronger!

Anyway, I did finish and was mighty glad. I was then pleasantly surprised to learn the finishers' medals were awarded by the Marines themselves. Somehow the task now felt even more Herculean, and I was ready to bask in the brief glory of feeling like a Marine for about 5 seconds. Worth it? Well, I'm not sure I'm up for Marathon Number 4 just yet (I did the London in 2000 and New York in 2004). But it's definitely the best part to get a medal to make sense of those miles from 18-26, which remain a blur. Know any good knee doctors?

The man throws his hat in the ring!

Congrats to Sir Amit Goel, who is getting hitched today! The man resisted taking the big step for 35 years, but could hold out no longer. Have a good one, AG, and good luck riding that horse into the ceremony. 200 yards - you can make it!

As an Indian-American, the big man was thinking of hiring an elephant to arrive at his wedding. Apparently it costs $18,000 to hire an elephant. On the other hand, it costs $500 to hire a horse, still quite a sum. Amit is now a certified jockey in the Commonwealth of Virginia :-)

Congratulations, AG and Kelly!

Bruce Springsteen and "an immigrant song"!

Having recently received my Green Card, I particularly enjoyed this song. At long last, I got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Washington, DC last Monday. "We'll make our home in the American Land"!

Enjoy!

Brew at the Zoo

Last night I went with Katie to Brew at the Zoo at the Smithsonian National Zoo up in Woodley Park, Washington DC. What a good time! You basically walk through the zoo at night, while all the animals are asleep, and the day is cooling down, then for your $40 get handed a Brew at the Zoo stein, and then spend 3 hours sampling about 40 beers! And no, I'm not paid by the company!


We need more of this England! Add to that a pleasant hillside to lie back on, and lots of food tables of local restaurants (this is America, food has to be involved) and we had a good time. And being in a group of two, we were able to get around and switch tables fast!

All the details are here!

Australian Embassy evening

Last month I leanred about the "special relationship" not between the UK and the US, but between the US and Australia. In an evening visit to the Austalian Embassy I discovered the close ties between the two countires since the First World War that are very much alive in Washington, DC.

Of course, there was plenty of VB - Victoria Bitter - flowing freely. It's a drink with obvious connections to England, but one the Americans seems to have adopted as their own when they visit Down Under.

The evening was a celebration of the semester abroad a lot of Americans enjoy in Australia, in this instance the annual alumni of American students who were a part of the University of New South Wales, Sydney exchange!

You can just about make out the Ozzie flag in the background, and the Embassy has an interior ceiling lit up as the southern sky at night.

Sparring Partners!

Forget chess boxing, here's the real thing. Today is the Democratic vote in North Carolina and Indiana, after which we should be able to declare a winner. Somehow I think Hillary will fight on, though. John McCain must feel a little left out. I hope so. Clearly after this epic struggle, it'd be pointless to have Bush II take the White House. Am I rooting for Clinton or Obama? Well, I'd like the fight to go on, so at least one of them gets in!

Barack Clinton / Hilary Obama!

Wouldn't this just solve the problem?

Wouldn't this just be the perfect case? Clearly in the future - with DNA and facial surgery - the fusing of two humans will be possible!

It would certainly solve the current battle, and the losing candidate wouldn't even have to endorse the winner!

Whoever loses, recommending the victor has got to be embarrassing, but somehow I think the above politician - whichever way the vote swings - will manage after all the recent campaigning and hand pressing!

Nationals Park - brand new Washington baseball stadium!

So here's the new stadium for the Washington Nationals baseball team, built about as fast as the Empire State Building in New York City, and if you know your history, that's fast.

So Washington has now gone from having no baseball at all in the 1970s (the Senators left and became the Texas Rangers), to playing at RFK Stadium and sharing that stadium with DC United soccer team (the pitch/diamond literally revolves to change the sport), to having their own swanking stadium! That's not all. Now DC United wants a new stadium, presumably to be built on the same spot as RFK after it's demolished. Who doesn't want a new stadium?

Anyway, go Nationals (not Senators), and go United (DC and Manchester)!

For a history of baseball in DC, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington,_D.C._professional_baseball

Baseball in a glove!

Capital Rowing Club

Check out my new rowing club, Capital!

The club shares a boathouse - the trusty Anacostia Community Boathouse - with other clubs, but this doesn't stop any of the fun. Rowing is every night Monday to Thursday which makes it really flexible, but I can't help thinking that my Oxford days were far more competitive. There are regattas that I'm looking forward to, but it's a bit confusing to have the people in the boat change, and your own position in the boat change, every time. I miss knowing where I sit! That's the price, I guess, for trundling down to the boathouse only when you feel like it...anyway, I ordered my T-shirt so I gotta keep rowing!


Last night I had to cox for the first time, though, which was a minor disaster. I make three errors, all of which I excuse for my novice status. It's hard enough to steer and put your arm in the air to tell the coaches you can hear them. Anyway, I had to steer around a battleship and go through a bridge, but I swung close to the ship, then crossed the river, basically not hearing the coach properly. Then we did an "all 8" only to snag some guy's fishing line from the bank quite spectacularly, dragging it maybe 100 feet, until he was calling out. I could see it stretched out, very thin and green-looking, along the river, and it must have snapped and flung back or something. Anyway, the next moment we're off and I was supposed to overtake the boat in front - a dawdling 4 - riverside, but it swung out and I decided to undercut it (rather than swing further into the river). My mistake. The 4 should have stayed close to the bank, but with him edging in the river, and with the bridge coming up, we had to "way enough" or "easy oar" as I would say, confusing anybody.

So what happened? well, they had to swap me out of the boat. Kind of humiliating! But they put me in as a rower for compensation I guess, but on the other side. I've never rowed starboard before! (bow side). As you can see, all the rowing terms are different between the UK and US as well, and that doesn't help. suffice to say, I took it easy (universal term) rowing strangely with my right arm, and made it back. I just wanna row stroke-side!


Anyway, it doesn't always look like this, but when you cruise steady after a tough piece of rowing, and the boat sits up, it can feel like this.

Where was that picture taken anyway, the Amazon?

The boys club is done

Hello boys!

Goodbye boys! (Well, Blair for now at least. Roll on January 2009!)

The British School, Washington DC

The British School of Washington, DC, has moved to a new address to accommodate its growing number of students. The school is unique in using the National Curriculum of England to educate a diverse student body that is approximately 1/3 British, 1/3 American and 20% other nationalities. All the teachers are British and educated at British universities.

Check it out at http://www.britishschool.org/site/epage/32182_565.htm

The school has sister schools in Chicago, Boston, Charlotte NC, and Houston.

Roll on the Marine Corps Marathon, Man!

From zero to hero! Last year, I dropped out of Washington DC's marathon (for "lack of fitness") and chose the Bethesda Half-Marathon instead. But this year it's the real deal, bring on the Marines baby! I will happily put my body through the mill for one of those medals - why not, it's shiny, right! Okay, now I have to actually do some running. Hmmmm...

Check out the website http://www.marinemarathon.com/page11.aspx

This year you can even track runners online, picking up their shoe chip location, and see where they are / which mile they've reached on the course!

The Japanese Beatles!

Okay, The Killers concert I saw at the Patriot Center, Virginia, was strangely supported by no less than the Japanese Beatles, The Silver Beats! England, you've not nothing to cover this band of the 4 mop-tops from Liverpool. These lads - I believe John's real name being "Eric" - have got it made. Check out http://www.silverbeats.com/english/index.html for the full-Beatles experience, and I'm not talking the American college stadium the Beatles played speeded-up in the 60s - they couldn't hear their own music because of the screaming! The Silver Beats dressed in the classic Beatles white shirts and black waistcaots and sounded sublime. Ringo, Ringo, come down off the ceiling! Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry!

We embark on a triangle of cultural experience, England, when you see The Beatles in America played by 4 Japanese lads and The Killers and the strange world of US college tour music! You're not in Kansas Toto! You're back in the USSR with Tokyo always your ma-ma-ma-maaaa-minddd!!

Katie and Cherry Blossoms, Washington DC

Foggy Bottom, Sad But True

Dear England, Yes I live in a place called Foggy Bottom. Below is the diamond of the District of Columbia, aka Washington, DC. Foggy Bottom is the site of the old Historic District http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/Wash/dc20.htm

and the George Washington University, now offically the most expensive university in the USA for undergrads to attend, paying a whoppy $200,000 over 4 years. If you think that's worth it, you must be a Texan oil billionaire. True to its name Foggy Bottom is near the river, so if the money don't get you, the famous GW mascot hippo - the fabled river horse of George Washington's days on the Potomac - might! Put it this way, there ain't no river horse and due to GW's expansion there ain't much of the Historic District. But there's a lot of money in them there Board o' Directors hills! Check out www.gwu.edu for the glory of America's finest!

Foggy Bottom is named after an old DC gasworks. German and Irish immigrants were housed in nineteenth century laborers' houses no bigger than your London dorm room and now worth millions...As they say stateside, go figure!

Gobble Gobble W!

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Yes it's that time of year again when America likes to stuff its turkey inappropriately close to Christmas, and of course eat turkey. Here Mr. President (or perhaps we should say, after the recent defeat in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the rapidly outgoing president) receiving an unwelcome guest in his pants, without mentioning Karl Rove. Brings a whole new meaning to bird brain and s(h)itting duck. How do you like them apples?

I'm loath to take sides in American politics, but well, you'd have to be a turkey-gobbling idiot not to.