Fort Wayne, Indiana

An Englishman travelling to Fort Wayne often gets asked the question "why on earth are you going there?", and for good reason. My reason was to visit Patrick and meet his wife [Katie; super-nice] and baby girl [Sophia; super-cute].

FW is more than a bit strange, but also quite nice. There are large Amish communities around so all the malls and indeed the all-you-can-eat have hitching posts for horse and carts [which can be seen driving around, occasionally dragging speed boats]. Downtown has i think one 'old' building, and a cool Cindy's diner - prefab things of which there aren't many left. we had good breakfast [or 2nd breakfast for me] there, and i have the mug to proove it.

on arriving in FW one is greeted by announcements that fort wayne international airport welcomes you, and that a free shuttle is available for those wanting assistance in reaching their cars. fine. except the car park is about 100ft square so not really tha big, and the shuttle turns out to be a golf cart. oh dear.

i understand this more clearly when we go to the all you can eat. the fattest people i have EVER seen were there - often wider than they were tall. the food is obscene - about 40ft salad bar, double that for meat, and racks of veg swimming in fat. the dessert bit was equally outrageous. all washed down with unlimited dr pepper and mountain dew. hmmm. lovely.

patrick took me with a friend who collects, of all things, pinball machines, to a microbrewery pub in town which was cool. i flirted my way into getting a free glass to take home. it's so easy over there if you have an english accent it's almost no fun.

fort wayne fort is a curious thing. about 30 years old [or so the proud historian renovator told me] and not where it was originally [bc it flooded there]. but still locals hope it will put FW on the tourist map. we'll see.

sophia is a top baby - she can blow raspberries, doesn't cry much, and if she rolls onto her back seems to get stuck there. she laughs lots especially when she has hiccups. she likes to re-alphabetibicise patrick's dvds - we just don't know which alphabet she is using.

thanks patrick and katie for a lovely weekend

Chicago

American Educational Research Association Conference was in Chicago this year. Several blocks around whacker drive and michigan ave were filled with 15,000 badge-wearing conference-goers all week. Americans are super keen when it comes to conferences, racing up and down escalators and cramming into lifts to make sure they get to their 1,000th session of the week on time.

Oddly, even though in some hotels the conference rooms were between 3rd and 8th floors [in america-speak] there were only 2 lifts and no-one seemed to think of stairs - no signs, nobody asking the lift operators if there was an alternative. nicely the one hotel with lots of escalators conspired to confuse by not telling people what floor they were arriving at but instead using random and unexplained terms like 'this floor for the big ten rooms'. when i did find the stairs they were more fire-escape than floor-changing route, scabby, concrete, and often leading down or up to dead-ends, kitchens, store rooms or ventilation shafts. fat america - you have yourself to blame.

my presentation went ok, and I was introduced to some bigwigs in Higher Ed, which was nice especially when introduction extended to posh meals out.

Oxford people were there in plentiful numbers [three I think on the same Air India flight out; talk about basic - the crew gave us one drink and a hot curry then pulled the curtains round their galley area and spent the remainder of the 8 hour flight gossiping or sleeping; crap to start off then 2 toilets went out of order, the cabin lighting broke, and all the TV stuff got turned off; nice one Air India. but it was cheap...].

Of note from the week are:
1. The cloud gate or shiny pebble - sh*ts on manchester's thing near the Bridgewater Hall.
2. Getting drunk with Dan at Bennigan's and him showing me 'something I've never seen before' somewhere I shouldn't have been at 1am. But we weren't caught so no worries. It has to do with wires, lights and a skyscraper.
3. Art institute. Brilliant [but I only lasted an hour and then got arted out]
4. crazy weather - snow, rain, wind, hail, snow, sun

Week ended with a flight down to Fort Wayne [don't ask: read the next blog]

Not surfing in Wales

Glorious sunshine, blue skies, warm air... perfect for a week's holiday. Unless the aim is to surf, in which case the associated flat seas make getting a ride more than tricky. So it was when Jon and I (and for a bit Simon too) went down to Gower and then Pembrokeshire the week before Easter.

Here is a photo of the conditions at Gower (Oxwich Bay):

And here is what greeted us at Newgale, Whitesands etc:

Not the 3-4ft clean, glassy conditions we hoped for. V frustrating as every day we phoned PJ's surf report at Llangennith and heard (eventually) the bad news. I say eventually because on this peak rate number PJ enjoys speaking about as slowly as is possible, and uttering a multitude of semi-relevant statements about his "roving" nature (roving from his house to one beach it seems), before telling keen listeners what they want to hear. Anyhow, given the flat waters, we did lots of other fun things:

Went to Ramsey Island RSPB reserve and saw choughs, eagles, wild deer, ponies etc.

Went for a nice walk round St David's head.

Went snorkelling (good viz: crabs, starfish, fish, kelp etc)

Hung around at St Davids

Drove round to Porthgain and Llanhowell

And went coasteering (which was way fun - pictures to be added soon I hope)

More photos on flickr

Bodypump launch at Blackbird Leys

Having friends in Oxford City Council Leisure facilities has its ups and downs... not quite sure whether this counts as an up or a down, but I was roped into attending the launch of the new Bodypump tracks. Great, I said... tell me when and where. Thinking perhaps BoraBora, Tahiti, St Tropez, or even Summertown, I was somewhat dazed when I found out it was in the uber-glamorous location of Blackbird Leys.

Anyhow, several buses later and I was there on a sunny Saturday morning ready to go through the new tracks. They had a load of instructors there and the atmosphere was really good - lots of people joining in, including one batty older lady who kept yelling GO-GO-GO every time it was singles, and OW-OW-OWWWW every time it went super-slow.

Good one Pierre for organising it and putting Oxford on the map!

Laura and Steve in Oxford

Laura and Steve came to visit as well this weekend. The folk festivities unwaning on the streets we went into the Old Tom to grab a much needed respite pint. However by the bar was a grou of folk musicians. Some of the tunes were good. At one point a man was singing one song and it seemed the violin was playing a different one. We sat outside right at the back. Then we went to the Turf and had respite pint number 2.

Then we went back to the house, had a fire, tea, and a few more pints at the King's Arms. Sunday morning we walked over to Hampton Poyle in the sunshine. Rather nice. More photos on flickr, but a selection below.

Mum and Olly in Oxford

This weekend Mum and Olly came to visit for a (slightly overdue) Mothers' day celebration. Oxford was, rather alarmingly, virtually taken over by people with bells tied round their legs, feathers sticking out of their hats, and accordians. I learned later that it was the Oxford Folk Festival, but at the time I just thought more than the usual Oxford weirdness to see people walking round in groups with blacked-up faces.

We picked up some good grub from the French market on Broad Street, and headed back to the house. Here are some pictures of me with Mum and Olly.

More surfing pics (ish)

Thanks to Tom for taking and forwarding these to me...

Some more shots of me, Jon and Simon getting ready for our dazzling session at Llangennith