Some memories from our lovely week with Teresa
Monday, 20 October 2008
Monday, 6 October 2008
Mainly at the Zoo
We had a glorious weekend, Friday I finally managed to get out of the office at a sensible time and we took the kids to the park (earlier in the week I'd been leaving after midnight 3 days straight but we hit our deadline :-) The colours are all changing now and by the end of next week I expect there wil hardly be a green leaf in sight.
On Saturday we went to the Minnesota Zoo, a high risk strategy as it has twice been the site of child behaviour meltdown and appaling weather. This time however the clouds stayed away as did any tantrums and we had a fantastic day at an excellent zoo where the animals don't appear to be too cooped up. Met one of the consultants who has been doing some work with our teams and a really nice guy there with his kids, seen here with Dan. He was apologising for the 'American President Idol' competition going on at the moment masquerading as an election and asking what people in the UK think of it all. I have to say that for me it has been going on so long that I think it comes down to who you are less sick of by the time it comes to vote. It really has very little to do with who is the best politician, instead being who is the better on TV (which may be sole requirement of the president who knows).
While I'm digressing from the diary format of the blog it is probably worth noting that ever since we were coming here things have been collapsing, starting with the bridge which collapsed the day before we came and now the economy is collapsing. It really does feel like this is the beginning of the end of the American Empire not necessarily just because of the credit crunch but that is one of the reasons. From an outside perspective America requires huge resources to run and pretty much everything is very inefficient, such as:
Cars - diesel is extremely rare, so although petrol is much cheaper the cars are much less efficient so the over journey costs are still high. Because the automotive companies in the middle of the last century pretty much forced the closure of the public transport systems, there is now no alternative to the car, so if fuel costs continue to rise the average person takes a huge hit that they may not be able to afford.
Houses - Houses are usually timber framed and require regualar maintenance, people will often completely gut a house that is just 10 years old and replace everything and older houses are often just torn down and rebuilt. Without a constant stream of money to do this I can imagine swathes of the US becoming run-down very quickly.
Healthcare - The US has some of the best healthcare in the world, the standard of care where we are is fantastic. The only problem is that the system of payment for this is so convoluted and inefficient that it costs about twice as much as it does in other countries.
Litigation - US consumers are obsessed with suing, and US companies are obsessed with trying not to be sued. Everything at a corporate level has so much red tape to try to keep from being sued that I don't see how they can compete with companies from coutries that are less rigidly regulated.
Sales Tax - This is so complex that you probably think I was joking if I tried to explain some of the compexities, each state makes up its own tax rules too which further complicates things and not only that but each district and city can have different tax rates or rules. Again this adds a huge overhead to every business.
Personal Tax - Whereas in the UK people are encouraged to pay off their mortgage (esp since MIRAS was abolished) in the US people are encouraged to have a mortgage because they get really good tax relief on it. This obviously was designed to fuel public spending but increases personal debt which has helped lead to the current crisis.
National Debt - 14 trillion and rising - this is the elephant in the room of the US economy, the problem is so big that people just ignore it hoping it will go away.
These are just some examples that I can immediately think of; and I think because of the huge natural resources that America has for a long time they could get away with being massively inefficient, now that is no longer the case I don't know how well they will be able to adapt and what the impact will be on the rest of the world if the last superpower goes pop. I'm also not sure on what this will mean for politics and economics - a cynic might say that with the dumbing down of politics and the way that the medium of TV personality is the deciding factor for election - is Democracy really the best way of deciding who runs the country or will we see the evolution of a new political system better suited to our time. Also will free market economics be dealt a blow from which it does not recover, and what comes afterwards if so?
While we ponder the fate of the US, here are some pictures of our time at the zoo, the bears were my favourite.
Camels
Prizes for guessing what animal this is.
Grizzly bears play fighting - really impressive.
After the zoo we picked Teresa up from the airport, she is staying for a week. On Sunday we went into Uptown to Lake Harriet, these pictures are from the rose garden opposite the lake.
On Saturday we went to the Minnesota Zoo, a high risk strategy as it has twice been the site of child behaviour meltdown and appaling weather. This time however the clouds stayed away as did any tantrums and we had a fantastic day at an excellent zoo where the animals don't appear to be too cooped up. Met one of the consultants who has been doing some work with our teams and a really nice guy there with his kids, seen here with Dan. He was apologising for the 'American President Idol' competition going on at the moment masquerading as an election and asking what people in the UK think of it all. I have to say that for me it has been going on so long that I think it comes down to who you are less sick of by the time it comes to vote. It really has very little to do with who is the best politician, instead being who is the better on TV (which may be sole requirement of the president who knows). While I'm digressing from the diary format of the blog it is probably worth noting that ever since we were coming here things have been collapsing, starting with the bridge which collapsed the day before we came and now the economy is collapsing. It really does feel like this is the beginning of the end of the American Empire not necessarily just because of the credit crunch but that is one of the reasons. From an outside perspective America requires huge resources to run and pretty much everything is very inefficient, such as:
Cars - diesel is extremely rare, so although petrol is much cheaper the cars are much less efficient so the over journey costs are still high. Because the automotive companies in the middle of the last century pretty much forced the closure of the public transport systems, there is now no alternative to the car, so if fuel costs continue to rise the average person takes a huge hit that they may not be able to afford.
Houses - Houses are usually timber framed and require regualar maintenance, people will often completely gut a house that is just 10 years old and replace everything and older houses are often just torn down and rebuilt. Without a constant stream of money to do this I can imagine swathes of the US becoming run-down very quickly.
Healthcare - The US has some of the best healthcare in the world, the standard of care where we are is fantastic. The only problem is that the system of payment for this is so convoluted and inefficient that it costs about twice as much as it does in other countries.
Litigation - US consumers are obsessed with suing, and US companies are obsessed with trying not to be sued. Everything at a corporate level has so much red tape to try to keep from being sued that I don't see how they can compete with companies from coutries that are less rigidly regulated.
Sales Tax - This is so complex that you probably think I was joking if I tried to explain some of the compexities, each state makes up its own tax rules too which further complicates things and not only that but each district and city can have different tax rates or rules. Again this adds a huge overhead to every business.
Personal Tax - Whereas in the UK people are encouraged to pay off their mortgage (esp since MIRAS was abolished) in the US people are encouraged to have a mortgage because they get really good tax relief on it. This obviously was designed to fuel public spending but increases personal debt which has helped lead to the current crisis.
National Debt - 14 trillion and rising - this is the elephant in the room of the US economy, the problem is so big that people just ignore it hoping it will go away.
These are just some examples that I can immediately think of; and I think because of the huge natural resources that America has for a long time they could get away with being massively inefficient, now that is no longer the case I don't know how well they will be able to adapt and what the impact will be on the rest of the world if the last superpower goes pop. I'm also not sure on what this will mean for politics and economics - a cynic might say that with the dumbing down of politics and the way that the medium of TV personality is the deciding factor for election - is Democracy really the best way of deciding who runs the country or will we see the evolution of a new political system better suited to our time. Also will free market economics be dealt a blow from which it does not recover, and what comes afterwards if so?
While we ponder the fate of the US, here are some pictures of our time at the zoo, the bears were my favourite.
Camels
Prizes for guessing what animal this is.
Grizzly bears play fighting - really impressive.
After the zoo we picked Teresa up from the airport, she is staying for a week. On Sunday we went into Uptown to Lake Harriet, these pictures are from the rose garden opposite the lake.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Andy's big night out (after several big nights in)
Well we did it - approx 20 million man-hours later (many contributed by 2 imported slaves), a healthy dose of (blind) optimism from my dear business partner and a sprinkling of panic we delivered 2500 chocolate leaves as table favours for a charity gala dinner.
The best bit was that Nisreen and I then got to dress up and go to the dinner. (suffice to say I couldn't face eating my chocolate leaves and still have them - sorry Nisreen).
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Autumn Falls
Last week we had the last day of summer in glorious sunshine. The next day day the temperature dropped by about 10C and hasn't gone up since, it was absolutely as it someone had flicked a switch over to Autumn. Not that it has made a huge difference to me this week as I have been stuck in work until very late every night - apart from one evening when I went bowling with some people from work. One of the Carphone contingent that had moved over had bid in a charity raffle to do lawn bowling with the CIO/Intl CEO and so I went along to that and took Dan too. The bowling was just round the corner from us near the lake where we go skating in the winter. My boss also brought his son along and we were having hysterics at Dan's super comptetitive behaviour (where does he get it from). When we won points Dan would be shouting and taunting the opposition saying things like 'We're like burning fire and you're frozen ice' - you really has to be there but lawn bowling has never been so rowdy.
Went cycling round a different local lake with Dan today and we saw some sort of snake in the grass - literally. Although I've seen snakes before I think this was the first time I've seen one in the wild as it were and I was amazed at how fast it moved. I managed to nip out of work and get home to watch Dan get off the school bus after his first day at school. He seems to have adapted remarkably well, despite not understanding a word they say (as it really is all in French) and we've had no issues (so far) about going in.
We've also just started to help with the church youth group on Sunday evenings. This was our first week and it was mainly just getting to know them and it was mainly social - we spent most of the time playing ultimate frisbee which is almost like American football with frisbees - only a lot more interesting than American football. The 'yoof' are all quite into sports, or so it seems, and appear to be a really friendly bunch. Difficult to know how it will go at this early stage but it feels as though it's what God wants us to be doing which is the main thing.
Has a couple of film nights recently - we just got some comfy chairs for the cinema room so we are definitely set for Winter now. Watched 'The other Boleyn Girl' - nicely acted, looked good but hugely dissapointing screenplay. The book on the other hand was excellent (Philippa Gregory) and well worth looking out for. Also saw 'Once' which made up for it, very low budget feeling musical of sorts which was really watchable and had a great feel about it - very tempted to watch it again straight away which is pretty rare for me - definitely recommended, although as it is set in Ireland it does have a salty dialogue.
Went cycling round a different local lake with Dan today and we saw some sort of snake in the grass - literally. Although I've seen snakes before I think this was the first time I've seen one in the wild as it were and I was amazed at how fast it moved. I managed to nip out of work and get home to watch Dan get off the school bus after his first day at school. He seems to have adapted remarkably well, despite not understanding a word they say (as it really is all in French) and we've had no issues (so far) about going in.
We've also just started to help with the church youth group on Sunday evenings. This was our first week and it was mainly just getting to know them and it was mainly social - we spent most of the time playing ultimate frisbee which is almost like American football with frisbees - only a lot more interesting than American football. The 'yoof' are all quite into sports, or so it seems, and appear to be a really friendly bunch. Difficult to know how it will go at this early stage but it feels as though it's what God wants us to be doing which is the main thing.
Has a couple of film nights recently - we just got some comfy chairs for the cinema room so we are definitely set for Winter now. Watched 'The other Boleyn Girl' - nicely acted, looked good but hugely dissapointing screenplay. The book on the other hand was excellent (Philippa Gregory) and well worth looking out for. Also saw 'Once' which made up for it, very low budget feeling musical of sorts which was really watchable and had a great feel about it - very tempted to watch it again straight away which is pretty rare for me - definitely recommended, although as it is set in Ireland it does have a salty dialogue.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
The End of Summer
We just had Labor Day (excuse the spelling) weekend which means: a bank holiday weekend, the official end of Summer, and schools start the next week.
Dan will not start until the 4th as he is doing only half days, but he still gets picked up by a school bus which is quite exciting and its hard not to feel a little nervous for him as he (and all the other children) are on their own the minute they get onto the bus before going to a school whee they only speak French. If it wasn't for the fact that this will be Dan's 3rd school I'm sure we'd be even more nervous.
To make the most of the last long weekend of the Summer we went to the local beach, which is now closed (you can see the sign) but it was 32C/90F outside so as you can also see everyone was making the most of it.
And Becky continues to enjoy ice-lollies
And now that Dan has learned to ride his bike he loves being on it, we often go for rides together in the evening after I get back from work. The other day while cycling he said 'I love cycling, I'm never going to walk anywhere ever again'. However we had a school open evening at our local park and he was racing someone and came off his bike and got some spectacular bruises, cuts and grazes as well as ripping some of the plastic off of his helmet. In fact it was a bit of a bloodbath all round with several children having bad cuts and at least on requiring stitches.
What is fast, goes round in circles and is only really interesting if there's a crash?
a) Grand Prix
b) Dan on his bike in the driveway
Answer is a or b, so by that definition the clip below is not all that exciting.
Dan will not start until the 4th as he is doing only half days, but he still gets picked up by a school bus which is quite exciting and its hard not to feel a little nervous for him as he (and all the other children) are on their own the minute they get onto the bus before going to a school whee they only speak French. If it wasn't for the fact that this will be Dan's 3rd school I'm sure we'd be even more nervous.
To make the most of the last long weekend of the Summer we went to the local beach, which is now closed (you can see the sign) but it was 32C/90F outside so as you can also see everyone was making the most of it.
And Becky continues to enjoy ice-lolliesAnd now that Dan has learned to ride his bike he loves being on it, we often go for rides together in the evening after I get back from work. The other day while cycling he said 'I love cycling, I'm never going to walk anywhere ever again'. However we had a school open evening at our local park and he was racing someone and came off his bike and got some spectacular bruises, cuts and grazes as well as ripping some of the plastic off of his helmet. In fact it was a bit of a bloodbath all round with several children having bad cuts and at least on requiring stitches.
What is fast, goes round in circles and is only really interesting if there's a crash?
a) Grand Prix
b) Dan on his bike in the driveway
Answer is a or b, so by that definition the clip below is not all that exciting.
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