World Cup, Ibiza, Rest? maybe later

Well, a lot has happened in this little tournament since I made my purchase in Bath. Other than the boys getting knocked out by a fiesty side from Ghana it has been an absolute blast.

I was lucky enough to have a couple of my friends out here invite me along for the first game of the tournament, which of course was the USA v. England match. All I can say is that heads turned when I strolled into the sports bar with the American flag draped over my shoulders.

Behind all the banter the English folks are amazing sportsmans. There was plenty of talk thrown my way, but all good natured and pretty much everyone I met gave me a handshake or was more than eager to strike up a conversation about the match that was about to start. I was really impressed and don't ever remember feeling that safe walking into that stadium in the Bronx wearing my Johnny Franco jersey.

But the thing that I really loved is that these fans were downright rowdy. Everyone was jumping up and down, dancing, singing...the only sports atmosphere I have ever been in close to this was when the Giants were playing in the Superbowl. So, I got into it, and for the first time in my life I watched a full length soccer game on TV.

Right before kickoff one of the bigger bouncers approached me. I thought, "this should be interesting." He bent over and in an American accent said, "you got the right flag man, I'm from Chicago, lets do this," and at that moment, I knew I was good to go!

After 5 short minutes with the U.S. down 1-0 I was at the business end of classic English verbal abuse (all good natured! hah!). And when that U.S. shot bounced off the goalie's hand and went in to tie the game I must have jumped 4 feet in the air, it was AWESOME! The bouncer ran over and we went crazy celebrating. At one point I had the flag draped over both of our shoulders as we were jumping around and pumping our fists. I didn't see any other USA fans around, but I had a pretty good partner in crime here.

It was a great game even though the tie was a little disappointing but as the NY Post reported: "America 1, England 1: America Wins!" I was officially hooked.

I've watched as many games as possible (the big screen showing World Cup at the office helps).

This was the third game of the tourney; my British pal George and I both celebrating after England and USA won their respective games at the same time to make it through the first stage of the tournament.

I almost forgot, I fit in a quick trip to Ibiza, Spain last weekend. Work's been crazy, this was good timing.

Sometimes you just gotta relax!

Oxford, Canterbury, Bath, Bath

BEING LOVELY

Before jumping into the events of the past couple weeks I'd like to start out with a quick musing regarding the use of the word 'lovely'. It's used all the time out here for random things such as, "You must try their cheesecake, it’s lovely.” Random things like that can be lovely. It can replace all kinds of words like delicious, quaint, nice, gentle, pleasant and many others.

I was out seeing a comedian who pointed out something hilarious - if a British person is telling you about a friend of their's and their friend is fat they will ALWAYS say that they are lovely. For example if you hear a woman say, “you have to meet my friend Jane, she’s lovely.” this means that Jane is fat.

I can't really do it justice here but it was great. It might have been the fact that I finally laughed at the appropriate time at a joke in a comedy club in London. Telling jokes on the other hand, well I have one message for Americans - don't tell your jokes to British people. They're not funny for some reason, please trust me. I've had two really rough occasions with this and I've given up. You can kind of save yourself at the end if you just say "Heyyyyy, I'm walkin hea!" in a really NY cab driver accent (thanks Tia for putting me on to that one!), but this should be saved for dire emergencies and if at all possible just completely avoided.

So, anyways, where was I... ah yes, so I've been getting around the UK a little bit over the past 2 weeks.

OXFORD

I took a train out to Oxford 2 weekends ago to have a look and see for myself what was going on. Pretty interesting town. It was founded as a place of study in 1100, or something like that after the English were kicked out of the schools in Paris. They have buildings on the campus from every century. It's just generally a really smart looking place. The library at Oxford has over 9 millions volumes including 4 original Magna Cartas...now, I distinctly remember seeing porn in the magazine rack in the library at Cornell. I am not making that up. What would anyone do with a Magna Carta anyway?

Meals are eaten here, and yes it is Harry Potter style for all you wizard fans and fairies

area with grass, but there's no walking allowed on the grass at Oxford

I took a walking tour of the campus, this old church might have been the first building at Oxford, it might not, I forgot

Bill Clinton was a Rhodes scholar which means he earned a degree at Oxford. And then he was bestowed an honorary degree after becoming Prez so you know - I'm sure he was kicking himself when that happened for wasting all that tuition getting the real one.

These guys were pretty interesting:

Legend has it that they come down at night and go across the street to drink here:

The White Horse! We sometimes hang out at a place called White Horse in NYC. Our guide told us the great thing about pubs in Oxford is you may be drinking an ale in the same place that some of history's smartest people could have drank. You could be sitting on a stool where Einstein discovered the theory of relativity! I thought I’d check it out, and you know what...it WAS lovely!!

CANTERBURY

Last weekend I hitched a train out to Canterbury in Kent, against my instinct telling me to go sit and relax all day in Hyde Park. This was the first time I actually thought 'thank goodness its raining!' I also felt compelled to pay homage to a little place back in Huntington, Long Island that we all know and love:

After going to Israel last year I considered this to be the next important pilgrimage that I had to make.

Canterbury was a cool little place but my enthusiasm for walking tour participation was somewhat diminished. I knew I had about 2 hours before my self inflicted window of opportunity would be closed - so this meant I had to be more efficient. Instead of wasting time finding a map store or information centre I began my own walking tour right when I stepped off the train. As I walked the streets I made up little stories in my head about the town which were quite interesting and very entertaining.

Pee Wee Herman Creek (made up name)

Canterbury Cathedral (real name)

An herb garden outside the Cathedral (where I ate my packed lunch sandwich)

and...

2 hours was up.

BATH

I was out in Bristol yesterday touring some of our new school building sites. I am working on our bid team for the Southampton Schools project down on the southern coast and it was great getting on site to see the kinds of designs and projects we are capable of delivering. Not to mention, it felt good to get back into some work boots.

I took the opportunity to book myself a cheap place to say out in Bath for 2 nights since it is out in the western part of England right near Bristol. I can be very romantic with myself sometimes.

Bath has a relaxed atmosphere which you notice right away. It's also a huge rugby town. I spent Wednesday night watching rugby at a pub with a few locals. They taught me some rules, but I pretty much have it figured out - its basically just constantly running the option play from American Football. It might seem like I spend more than an average amount of time in pubs, but I assure you, my time spent in them is well below the national average.

After Bristol all day, by Thursday night my walking tour enthusiasm was down to 5 minutes:

Behind this wall are the Roman Baths. I peered over from the steps but had no time to go in. I was in a hurry and had to be somewhere...

The circus was in town!!! The 'No Fit State' circus to be exact, and they were here performing their current tour, 'Tabu'.

I saw this while on a run the night before. I stopped to listen from the outside and find out what was going on when a heavy set person wandered over to me. As I saw this human coming to me I thought excitedly to myself, "this could be a bearded lady!". It wasn't, it was just a bearded man. He was the circus' mechanic, responsible for making sure all transport vehicles were in tip-top shape at all times, an extremely important responsibility; If a truck couldn't make it to the next tour stop, it could be a show-stopper. I didn't catch the gentleman's name but when I asked how he enjoyed life on the road he told me he was 4th generation circus-folk. His great-grandfather started the tradition by building carnivals and so, life on the road was in his blood. It sounded pretty neat. My new mechanic friend went on to explain the show to me - it was singing, dancing but most importantly an acrobatic aerial show. It also had the audience standing and moving around the tent as the act was performed all around and above them. And all the music was played by live musicians in the house band. After a sales pitch like that I couldn't miss it. And it lived up to everything I could think of. Check out their video here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5kmsl_tabu_creation

It was incredible. I dropped off my resume on the way out.

I really enjoyed Bath, however it wasn't my first bath experience while in London

So, it was definitely a good couple weeks. Despite neglecting my current favorite past-time of sitting in Hyde Park doing nothing I was pretty glad looking back to get out and about. Now I'm sure most of you heard of this little soccer tournament that started today,The World Cup. It gets a little attention over here, to say the least. Tomorrow is England's first game. And as we all are aware, it has them pitted against the USA!! Which reminds me, I did have time to do a little shopping while in Bath...

See you at the pub

Where my Gdogs at?...GDANSK!

Hello folks, I know its been a long break between posts, which I apologize for, I assure you it wasn’t for a lack of activity.

I just returned from a little excursion to Poland last week and all I can say is - what a country!! The place really does rock. The reason for the trip was the SKANSKA Infrastructure Development Global Conference. I woke up last Monday at 4am for my flight only to get a call as I’m walking out the door. It was my buddy George from work telling me, “Mate, the ash cloud is back and the flight is cancelled." AHHHHH! What a disaster! I hadn’t fully comprehended the frustration of this ash monster until that moment. Luckily I was able to get on a flight for 8pm that night. Things were shaping up throughout the day and lo and behold - we were able to take off! Small crisis averted, and it made the landing in Poland that much sweeter.

I had known nothing about Gdansk before arriving other than what I looked at briefly online - it’s in Poland, it’s on the Baltic Sea and is home to the world’s longest wooden pier...and the Baltic Sea is pretty cold this time of year.

View of The Baltic from my room at The Sheraton, righteousness

The conference was very good. It was informative, interesting, and a great chance to meet folks from all the different units. I thought from the outset that this trip would be the perfect chance to take a dip in the Baltic, a childhood dream of mine. I dropped the idea to a few other men throughout the first couple days and momentum started to build.

Wednesday we had a late afternoon tour of the city followed by dinner out in Gdansk.

This place was bombed to smitharines in WW2:

but a real hidden gem these days...

The black structure on the right sticking out over the river is an old school crane form the medieval times. Originally built in the 14th century, the engine is a giant hamster wheel, powered mainly by giant Polish hamsters and lost children of tourists, just kidding...they feed the children to the hamsters.

Night scene - Gdansk

After dinner in town we headed back to the hotel. By this point it was clear that a dip in the Baltic was imminent. There was a heavy buzz of anticipation in the air at the hotel bar. The Skanska nation wanted it, so we delivered:

and The BALTIC WARRIORS were born

I must add that all Warriors hailed from the London office - this was a very

proud day for the UK division, to say the least. We all walked a little bit taller that week.

Thursday was the wrap up day and no event hosted by Europeans could possibly end without a proper going away celebration. I was asked/volunteered to participate in the skit competition between the Euros & the Americas, which ended up with me in the closing act singing a duet of Elvis Presley’s ‘Suspicious Minds’ in front of the whole conference...we blew them out of the water and in the end I was given a firm handshake by our UK Exec. VP (and hopefully the backpack-blazer incident is behind us, see previous posting)

Friday was go home day..for the average layperson. Not so for a Baltic Warrior though. George and I headed to Krakow for the weekend via the most ramshakle airplane I have ever been on.

What a beast

My seat was in the first row right behind the pilots. I literally could have tapped them on the shoulder. I’ve never been on an airplane before where I could lean over in my seat and watch the flight out of the front window. In flight beverages? Juice boxes were passed down the aisle after take off. I fully expected to look up at one point and see one of the pilots smoking a cig with his arm out of the window, and I was thoroughly disappointed when we landed on a runway instead of a cow pasture.

None-the-less, it was a smooth and impressive flight and now we were in Krakow. I shook the pilots' hands and hopped off. George’s buddy Marc had rented a flat for the weekend right off the market square. The square is one of the biggest outdoor markets in Europe. We were set.

I had to use this shot from the internet to do it justice. Home of the

world's finest pierogi, flaming duck and kebob

Us eating Kebobs in our flat. (apologies for all the pics of me in my boxer briefs on this posting.

It's just something I've become accustomed to living by myself out here)

Pope John Paul II was the Archbishop of Krakow before heading to the big show

- a source of pride for the Polish

I wandered up to Wawel Castle which really reminded me of The Vanderbilt Mansion on Long Island - famous for that scene in Crocodile Dundee. Wawel Castle would be a GREAT place to shoot Croc Dundee 4, and I'm sure they will, so...

here I am actually standing right on the future location of Crocodile Dundee 4. Unreal.

TAKE-A-SEAT...IS BACK!!

Four years ago on a distant gravel highway in the wilderness of Alaska two worlds collided. One an '81 Toyota Land Cruiser, the other a tandem bicycle named 'Achilles'. Some of you may remember the encounter:

The Crusier was on an expedition from NY to the Arctic Ocean and back (shoutouts to the Alaskan cross-country crew, you can see our work here: http://www.crosscountry-2006.blogspot.com/) while Achilles had just begun a journey from the North Slope of Alaska to the southern tip of South America.

Four years later the pilot of Achilles, our great British friend Dominic Gill has finally released the documentary and book that captured his epic adventure. These pieces capture Dom's incredible journey as he pedaled south in search of strangers to join him on the back of his tandem. The documentary is currently circling the globe in the international Banff Mountain Film Festival:

http://www.banffcentre.ca/MountainCulture/Tour/

His Adventure:

http://www.takeaseat.org

The book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-Seat-Tandem-Twenty-Thousand-Possibilities/dp/184596585X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273656741&sr=1-1

A review:

Dominic Gill's trip began as a personal challenge - to cycle alone across two continents - but became, thanks to the many people who either jumped on the back of his tandem on the way or looked after him, an exploration of what it means to be human and a celebration of the generosity of the human spirit.

Of course I couldn't leave out my contribution as being the first rider to hop on the back of Achilles during Dom's adventure:

Is this guy the man or what?

Dom had a book signing at a local pub here in London just last week. It was the first time we had been able to catch up face to face in 4 years:

It was an awesome time and after 4 years it really didn't seem like it could have possibly been that long. I spoke to Dom on the phone just yesterday so we could make plans to grab brunch tomorrow before he heads out. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: Hey Dom, just wanted to let you know your hair made it into the new Disney movie 'Prince of Persia'

Dom: Oh hey Charlie, your ears must have been ringing.

Me: No, why?

Dom: 'Cause I was just telling someone how you used to look so cool and now you look like a loser!

This was the type of exchange that made my 68 miles on Achilles so memorable. It was one of those events that stick with you forever. Do yourself a favor and check out Dom's next adventure which starts shortly:

www.domandernie.com

Follow it in real time through his website and updates. I promise you that you will start to greatly anticipate the days they grace your inbox.

I'm off to get some sleep before our 'meet-up' as it is now almost 3:00am. Also working on growing as much facial hair as possible before the morning comes. oh and by the way, if you get the book...I highly recommend pages 33-47

Queen for a Day

Hello folks. Sorry for the delay in updating - just had a little trip to Amsterdam last weekend, I forgot I had a blog.

So, anyways...this trip was great because there was no craigslist needed this time. I was going to meet up with my boo! Codi was flying over with her roommate Rachael to start a little European vacation of their own and I had been invited/decided to crash.

It just so happened that this little excursion fell on the Dutch holiday of Queen's Day, a little added bonus. My flight came in Thursday night which was Queen's Night (Queen's Day eve) and I had written down two addresses of the bed and breakast where I was supposed to meet Codi & Rach. There was some confusion to which was correct. We had sorted it beforehand but I completely forgot which one to use. I thought things out, ran a logistical analysis in my head and made the only logical decision - I would go check out the one in Red Light District first...

...man was I wrong...

Anyways, the second address was Bingo right on the money and the place was great. Not only was it centrally located but the owner lady left some cold Heineken in the fridge, an omen!

We all woke bright and early the next morning to get a head start on Queen's Day. We hit the streets around 10:30am (that's bright and early, isn't it?). Booths were starting to pop up, people were beginning to populate the city and there was a buzz of heavy anticipation in the air. We followed the general flow of foot traffic. To where we were headed, we did not know. We just knew it made sense, like worker bees returning to the hive. After 25 minutes or so we ended up at a clearing at Museumplein and this was clearly 'The Mecca'.

Listening to a Dutch Rapper was actually kinda cool, probably similar to taking in some

Pavorotti or Bocelli. You don't know what he's saying, but you know it's gibberish anyway,

so who cares! Plus everyones drunk! This is great!

It wasn't hard to see that this was one of the focal points of the festivities, but there was so much more. The whole city was a giant carnival. After walking some more we ended up in another park where all of the sudden we were in an episode of Oliver Twist meets the Twilight Zone. The park was hosting what seemed to be a normal fair until I noticed that every single booth was run by little kids. Like, really little! They were playing music, selling food, lemonade and stuff from their parents' house. I wasn't sure if this was sanctioned or not. These goods could be stolen! And who knows what was in the punch! I didn't want to find out so I just secured my wallet and bolted out of there. We hit the streets again (where we felt safer) and by this point Queen's Day was in full swing.

Elevated DJ's, 4 Euro Hotdogs

Party Boats!

I even offered to hold Codi's beer

At one point I thought I saw people bungee jumping off a crane, it didn't look like a very legit operation, probably some workers just blowing off steam.

An awesome and exhausting celebration. We covered a lot of ground over the next 3 days too. Oh, and the sanitation workers had gone on strike, I guess deciding this would be an impactful time to do so (just give 'em whatever they want!!!). It was noticed, to say the least, but there was one benefit:

They left these great walk-up urinals all over the place!! All the benefits of camping without having to leave the city! Amazing!

The city at night was real nice

The canal by night

And we hit some of the markets of course

This is just great

My advice on your next visit to Amsterdam: don't spend all day looking down, you never know where you'll find inspiration!

Awkward Office Moment

Nothing quite like an awkward office moment. After all, new office acquaintances are usually meeting under the strict conventions of manners, politeness, first impressions and that is what magnifies these instances of odd behavior. This is why these are great moments in history and must be shared, and so....

This took place earlier today. It was 5:30pm, I was packing up to leave. I shut down the computer and grabbed my blazer. All is well. As I’m walking towards the elevator bank the head of my department and the Executive Vice President are having a sit down on one of the nearby couches. I casually stroll by, and have the typical ‘have a nice weekend’ exchange that you would imagine an underling may have with two execs on a friday afternoon. In this same instance I am putting on my blazer in the flip-over-the-head-both-arms-at-once fashion and.....krap. I forgot I have my backpack on. And now I’m standing there awkwardly wearing my blazer OVER my backpack. And now these two men are staring at me and there is silence.

In an instant two possible options race through my head: Option 1 - recognize this slight wardrobe error, remedy the situation and laugh awkwardly? hmm, just doesn’t seem right. So in a split second decision I go for option 2 which is to ‘play it off’. I turn and go on as if nothing weird has happened, push the elevator button, casually pull my ipod out of my inside blazer pocket, cue up a good song and when the elevator comes I stroll in and disappear behind the closing doors, ready to begin my weekend, and of course, leaving these two execs mystified about the kid from New York who wears his backpack under his blazer.

My only question now is do I show up on Monday morning with the backpack still under the blazer in an effort to really sell this?? I’ll worry about that later.

The Family Jewels

at The Tower of London

As a male who has played with legos, I must say that checking out a real castle is quite a thrill. I actually may qualify to be a certified castle architect given the amount of hours I have trained in this field (also an expert in pirate ships).

This castle in particular - The Tower of London is quite impressive. The White Tower (in the center) was erected by William the Conquerer in 1078 on the site of an old Roman fortress. It used to be surrounded by a moat (the grassy part in the picture) that would wash out with the rise and fall of the tides of the Thames river.

Still protected by beefeaters (the guy's from the gin bottle).

Also, on a side note; for current events in the UK, we are in the midst of a Prime Minister campaign. The campaign period here is only about a month long, compared to the year and half in the states, so that is quite different. Last week was the first live broadcast debate in the UK between candidates.

Trivia (don't wikepedia this): who participated in the first general election presidential debate in the U.S.?

Answer: JFK v. Nixon (I wikipedia'd it)

That is Gordon Brown on the right, perfectly at ease wearing a pink tie, David Cameron in the middle (not sure what he's famous for) and Nick Clegg on the far left (literally & figuratively, I think) whose children are named Antonio, Alberto & Miguel. He must be far left. I think this makes him interesting enough to be elected, but we will see on May 6....

Something else they do here: you can get an ice cream cone with a 'flake' in it, which is pretty much just shoving a kit-kar bar into your ice cream, brilliant!