We spent halfterm in France, in the Calvados region in Normandy, near the D-Day landing beaches. This is Gold beach at Arromanches, one of the British landing beaches. The structures you see in the distance are the remains of a Mulberry Harbour, which was a temporary harbour constructed during the allied …
About a year ago, the lovely PR folks over at Keycamp asked if we might like to try out one of their caravans in France. As most of our holidays are at my parents house in California, we gladly accepted. Then came the long process of picking a destination! We finally …
Early on in my career in the UK I worked with an icon in the IT industry. EVERYONE knew my boss. He was tall with salt and pepper hair and always wore a pinstriped suit with a red hankerchief in the pocket. It was fun to take him on press lunches; we'd go to Langans and he'd point out semi-famous people that I of course, fresh off the Silicon Valley boat, could not identify. He was full of industry stories, and I'd hear of staying at Larry's house and what a jerk Tom was.
One of the things I learnt from my boss is there is two sides to every story.
On one of our trips into London in a cab that smelt of stale cigarettes, I told him about an issue I was having with one of my peers. For months I had been at logger heads with this idiot. He sent me rude emails. He didn't like any of my ideas, and had actually red-lined a brochure I had spent months producing. Most of us would take a few minutes in the coffee area to chat and catch up – but this colleague would rarely make an appearance. When he did, he'd make his coffee and leave, only muttering a quick hello.
Those that read my blog regularly know that my children aren’t the best eaters and that I was slowly turning into England’s version of Eyjafallajokull: catering to children and adults and picky eaters was going to make ME explode. Thankfully that all stopped last year. I now make one evening meal that we all …
But I don’t want David Cameron to be prime minister, my eight-year-daughter told me this morning, as we listened to Radio 4 discuss the hung parliament.
Why?
He wants to take away tax credits from children (I'm sure she has no idea what a tax credit is, but damn the man who wants to taken them from her).
AND, he wants to bring back fox hunting (she must have seen the “ashes to ashes” billboard on the way into London last weekend.)
When my grandmother was eight, she went on a trip to visit her grandparents in Switzerland. It must have been quite an adventure for the little girl who lived in the tiny California city of Santa Maria; a train ride across the United States to New York and then a week long sea voyage to France. The journey ended with an overnight train to Locarno, in the Ticino region of Switzerland.
Like so many other Europeans in the late 1800s, my great grandfather Frederico left his homeland to make a new life in America. Most immigrants couldn’t afford to go back to see family, but Frederico had made the journey once before; returning to marry his childhood love, Pia, “the most beautiful girl in the village.” Fourteen years later he returned again, this time with Pia and their four children. He wanted to show off his new family.
Have five minutes? Please watch this video … and hang in to the end, that's the interesting part. Hat tip: Wife in the North and Potty Mummy. Yes, this interaction topped yesterday's election news. This is very sad as British political campaigns only last a mere few weeks. I can see this …
What do you do when an ash cloud has you stuck in California? Go to the Apple Store and play with the iPads! Our local store has 25 demo iPads and last week there was a bit of a scrum to get your hands on one. It's really just an iTouch, with a fantastically …
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