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!

A Casual Weekend in London

No big news to report. Took a run up to Primrose Hill in Regent's Park, famous for it's view of Central London from the peak. People were out enjoying the weather and some rowdy football (soccer) fans were really enjoying a pub called 'The Globe' at the end of Baker Street...it looked really fun, if I had any money on me I would not have made it all the way to Primrose. I had to settle for getting hit in the arm with a flying piece of celery and continued my run.

(not my pic, sorry, did not have a camera with me, probably would have bartered it anyways for a few pints at The Globe)

OLD TRUMAN BREWERY MARKET

Now this tops my list of London attractions so far - a must see. Randomly went to see this place after a Sunday morning google search. A parking garage by week, a wonderful haven of funky clothes and art by weekend, and of course the best part being the international food section. I walked around the food stands for 30 minutes because I could not figure out what to settle on, literally any food you can imagine. Sri Lanka, Turkey, Spain, Thailand, Greece, China, Morocco, ANYWHERE!! And I really liked how each stand seemed to have native folks serving their dishes too. I'm sure I would have been happy with anything, ended up at the caribbean spot and ate something delicious. I do not know what it was.

The happiest place on earf. With very little effort, you will leave this market with something new and savory to eat and something totally sweet to wear. I recommend.

Bonjour!

We just finished a nice 4 day bank holiday out here, it was an unexpected surprise to have 2 days off and more importantly - the perfect opportunity for a quick scoot over to Paris. Last minute accommodations were hard to come by so I put my NYC apt. hunting skills to work. I found several ads looking for long-term tenants in a few central Paris apartments. I replied to a few that seemed like they were still vacant and made them offers to at least get a 3-day tenant in for a few extra bucks. If you throw enough lines, one's gotta bite and it worked - I got a response from a fellow named Julien (jzoo-lee-ON!). He said sure, it could work and gave me directions to meet him at his bar that night. So I hopped on the Eurostar and 2 hours later pulled into Gare du Nord station in Paris.

Armed with a phrase book I was ready to hit the town. I had a few hours to kill before the meetup so I got to walking...

First stop - Arc de Triomphe, I learned 2 things here: 1 - the 'Arc' was commissioned by Napoleon himself in honor of his Grande Armee and 2 - your not supposed to run through the traffic circle to get to it

Not sure what this is.

The weather was fairly rotten so I had to switch back and forth between poncho and no poncho. More than the rain the decision really came down to a matter of looking cool or not...I opted for looking cool and donned the sweet poncho as I walked the streets.

I eventually arrived to Julien's bar and met the guy right outside for the first time. He was a cool dude and passed the normal test (which is hard to apply on French people, just kidding!). We went in and he hooked me up with a beer. He told the bartender to keep hooking me and I met some interesting locals, to say the least. This was turning out to be alright. Now I know what your thinking, "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is." I was thinking that too but don't worry, I had one element working in my favor that evened out the situation...it was a gay bar.

So like I said, I met some interesting locals and hung out for a little until they closed up the place. I know what your thinking still, and I told you - I sized up the situation - Julien himself wasn't gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) and it wasn't his bar, he was actually the bar-back, but still got me hooked up with free drinks. I was relieved to find out he wasn't gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) because the apartment for rent was actually an extra bed in his apartment.

As it turned out it was a great place to crash - right in central Paris for three nights with the guidance of a real local plus free beer and coffee all for the cost of 60 euros.

I spent the next 2 days walking and walking and walking. The Louvre was a particularly interesting place, you could spend days there, perhaps, if you enjoy crowds and the B.O. I spent about 2 hours and saw plenty:

The Viva La Vida Cover!!

She actually is quite a dame

ummmm....your penis is showing

ok, so the real reason the Mona is kept behind a glass barrier is that the Japanese tourists deemed it was good luck to spit on it. That's what I was told, just reporting facts...Another fact - I could probably get close enough to spit on Mona quicker than I could get a beer at the Bowery Bar in NYC. I hate that bar (if you have a blog, you have to hate on something every now and then).

I've never seen a crowd like this in a museum, absolutely crazy. So, if this seems like the best piece of Real Estate in the history of museums, this has to be the worst:

LES NOCES DE CANA

which is French for 'opposite the Mona Lisa'

Just think, people spend all day with their back to it, what a rip off! In my opinion there should be a men's room or a cafe right there.

This is en empty case. I spent about 60 seconds pretending to be looking at something really interesting, at least 4 or 5 people who walked by stopped to try and figure out what it was, no joke. I had to get a photo, the most odd look came from the lady I asked to take this picture.

So that was the Louvre, there was plenty of other landmarks you can check out good photos on 'www.google.com'.

I had no time to climb the Eiffel Tower, not with the crowds but I got a free panoramic of Paris from the roof of Julien's apartment building.

Really awesome.

And the man himself:

Julien makes a STRONG cup of coffee, but necessary to power through as much of the city as possible in 3 short days. The last night we hung out and he made some dinner in the apartment (real good cook). We were joined by his neighbor, Natasha who lives next door and works as a translator. She is very cool, definitely an artsy personality with lots of awesome stuff to talk about. We all stayed up late drinking wine, listening to music, smoking cigs, telling jokes and talking about books and movies. Natasha is a Paris local but originally from Poland so we capped the night with shots of Polish Vodka. It kept me up for about 45 minutes. As I laid in bed trying to stop the room from spinning I had one thought, awesome weekend.

Me, Julien, Natasha

My humble abode for 3 nights

Crazy city, great city.