Day: January 28, 2018

Week in Review – January 28, 2018

Back in New York again and getting a bit road weary.

My stay was booked through Friday at the Gild Hall hotel but I was able to escape the madness on Wednesday.  My last few days of Executive Platinum status on American Airlines was put to good use in getting me on a flight an hour earlier than planned.  This sign that I saw in Heathrow airport was on my mind as I sat cramped in a seat at the back of the earlier flight.

 

As usual, I was able to escape work for a few hours and enjoy some of the excellent jazz music that seems to be happening somewhere every night in New York.  The Tuesday night show at Birdland was titled “The Story of Jazz: 100 Years” and was presented by the Vincent Herring band.

Here’s the blurb from the playbill:

“A musical journey celebrating 100 years of America’s original art form begins with the African drumming and work songs that led to the birth of the blues ­– the basis of all jazz. The show moves through 1920’s Ragtime, to 1930’s Swing, to 1940’s Bebop, to 1950’s Cool. In the 1960’s jazz explodes with innovation: The Hard Bop of Miles Davis and Art Blakey, the Modal Jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Soul Jazz, the Bossa Nova craze, Latin Jazz, and Free/Avant-Garde sounds of Ornette Coleman. The program concludes with 1970’s Fusion and the many Post-Bop iterations from the 1980’s to the present.”

I really enjoyed the medleys from the Dixieland era (featuring lots of Sydney Bechet style clarinet) and from the 1950s with “So What” by Miles Davis.  I dragged my boss out of the office to join me and we were in the front row next to the band which allowed us to enjoy the interaction between the players.  Here are a couple of videos.  The first has the classic “Birdland” and the second features some very high register trumpet playing – it hurts my embouchure just listening to it.

The rest of the week has been quite relaxing and spent catching up with my long lost wife.  All the little daily routines – workout, coffee and crossword, watching “This is Us” and “Madame Secretary” – that I really miss when on the road too long.

On Saturday we saw the movie “The Post” with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.  I enjoyed learning about a historical incident that I didn’t know about.  The backdrop of the IPO of the media organization and the legal ruling against the New York Times publishing the Pentagon papers really made the decision on whether or not to publish by Katharine Graham very compelling.

Here are a couple of musical langiappes:  My favorite version of “Birdland” by the amazing Weather Report featuring the classic Jaco Pastorius bass lines and some great jazz rock from the 70s by the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.

 

Week in Review – January 21, 2018

I arrived in London on Monday morning for a few days of work.  The Tower of London was right next to my hotel and so after a nice rejuvenating swim in the hotel pool I went for a wander around the neighborhood.  Thai food was my choice for dinner and then off to try and sleep.

 

 

On Tuesday morning I woke up early but reasonably well rested for a day of work in Croydon.  A 15 minute walk to the London Bridge train station was quite brisk and refreshing.  It took me a few minutes to understand that I was headed to East Croydon and had to type that in to buy a ticket.  The new and fully automated station didn’t have anyone to ask for help.  The train journey was less than 15 minutes and the office was directly across the street from the East Croydon station – easy peasy.  Meeting the EMEA team face to face for the first time was very nice – I even got to play some ping pong in the newly modernized office.  The walk back to the hotel numbed my toes and my colleague informed me that those in the know wore thermal socks – not something I considered when packing for the trip.  Some clients took me out for drinks and dinner when I got back into central London and scotch eggs on the menu was a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday was spent in the central London office meeting colleagues.  The office vibe was much more pleasant and relaxed than that of the New York office and everyone was very welcoming.  Dinner was at Tayyabs which is voted the best Indian restaurant in East London.  It serves Punjabi, Northern Indian cuisine and I really enjoyed it.  The fiery lamb chop appetizer is not to be missed.  Paul, a Scottish friend, who lives in London and worked with us in Fort Worth for several months last year joined for dinner and was as entertaining as ever.  He was able to FaceTime with Diana after dinner and get her all filled of Italian vacation dreams – Paul was married last year at a villa in Tuscany and has spent a lot of time in Italy.

Thursday was back to Croydon for work and no issues with the train routine this time – maybe that puts me in the fast learner category?  I enjoyed a delicious Turkish dinner at Atesh in Croydon with George, a colleague who also has 3 sons about the same age as mine.  We exchanged some entertaining stories.  The lamb moussaka was some of the best that I’ve had.

On Friday I caught a quick flight up to Glasgow to help Elspeth celebrate her 50th birthday.  The flight landed just ahead of a snow storm and I was glad David had his Land Rover to collect me.  The drive to Stewarton was uneventful.  Here’s a map that shows the location of Stewarton on the West coast of Scotland.

 

You can see the lovely snow covered countryside in this video:

Gifts were opened and birthday cake enjoyed at 6 Merrick View and then we headed to the Brig O’ Doon restaurant in Alloway.  Mum described the drive from Stewarton to Fenwick as “horrendous”.  Snow was falling heavily and the road was icing over to the extent that many folks were abandoning their cars and walking into town.   Thank goodness for the Land Rover and David’s excellent driving skills.  After reaching Fenwick, the rest of the drive was smooth.  We parked next to the Brig O’ Doon that is featured in the famous poem, Tam O’ Shanter, by Robert Burns.

The opening lines known by all Scottish schoolkids are:

When chapmen billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors meet

Several lines from the poem are painted throughout the restaurant which was appropriately hosting a Burns supper that evening.  Here’s the part where Tam’s horse gets him across the bridge but loses her tail.

Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane o’ the brig;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the key-stane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi’ furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie’s mettle –
Ae spring brought off her master hale,
But left behind her ain gray tail;
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

And finally the advice to anybody inclined to drink too much:

No, wha this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son take heed;
Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think! ye may buy joys o’er dear –
Remember Tam o’ Shanter’s mare.

We had a lovely, leisurely meal and the ladies finished up with some fancy sundaes.  Many but not all of the abandoned cars had been retrieved by the time we made the drive back home.

Saturday breakfast consisted of some of my favourites made to order by my Mum – black pudding, fried egg and mushrooms.  Elspeth, David, Heather and Penny (cairn terrier named after Miss Moneypenny from James Bond) took me for a walk at the Whitelee Wind Farm near Eaglesham.

This is the largest Wind Farm in Scotland and is very impressive up close.  The turbine housing at the top is the size of a large caravan and you really don’t appreciate the scale until up next to it.  Walking in the snow and wind certainly blew out the cobwebs and I was glad to have Struan’s hiking boots.

 

Here’s a video of silly Penny trying to catch a snowball:

Mum made one of her delicious beef stews for dinner and then we watched some Grand Tour episodes with the car crazy David.

For Sunday breakfast I had my favourites again but at a much earlier hour so that David could drop me back in Glasgow for my flight to London and then on to New York.  I was pleasantly surprised by the food on the flight and particularly the oatcakes (one of my top foods) with cheese.  Immigration at JFK airport was a breeze but the car to my hotel seemed to take forever due to heavy traffic and bridge construction.  I watched most of the 2nd half of the football playoff game on the drive.

I finished Tom Hanks’ new book, Uncommon Type: Short Stories, on the flight and highly recommend it.  Each story starts with a picture of a typewriter from Hanks’ collection which features somehow in the story.  The quality of the short stories and the everyday characters captured in them was surprising – what a talented man.

A song by the Scottish band Deacon Blue, very popular in the 80s, was playing in the car on my drive to Heathrow airport and it transported me back in time quite effectively.  I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard Deacon Blue on the radio in America.