Lunch at the Gherkin in London

The Swiss Re Building in London is a well known landmark in the City. On one of my many trips in 2008, I got to visit the Gherkin as Sarah (university friend in picture below) now works for Swiss Re and invited me to the very top for lunch.. It is 180-metres (591-foot) in height, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.

Sarah is an actuary and works in the health dept for Swiss Re as a health consultant. She and I go back a very long way.. all the way back to our first year of university when we were both studying together. We lived together or in the same residence for three years and got up to a lot of stuff, best not divulged in any public forum. She is the mother of twins and shares the same birthday of Eva, also an old friend who has twins.. I was also her bridesmaid (as well as Eva's) and they finally met each other for the first time at our wedding this year!.

The views from the very top are pretty amazing and below is one of my favourite photos taken that day.. london bridge and the tower of London. not bad for yet another rainy day in London..

The food was good, lots of foamy reductions and the tiniest carrots I have ever seen. The cheese plate was excellent... so good that Sarah participated even though she was about 10 weeks pregnant! This time, no twins.

Crazy People: Planning a wedding from 20,000 km away

This blog posting is one of a series of ten that will describe our wedding planning and the event itself. It has been written specifically for those dear friends and family of friends who could not share the day with us... this series will be interjected by other curious and odd happenings in our lives and will always be written significantly long after the event.. enjoy!

Today is about 3 days to the year when John and I decided that we should have our wedding in South Africa. We were actually in Chicago, at a friends wedding when we decided this, not fully realising the impact on our lives (my life) for the next 11 months, such a project would create.

Well if it were not for the internet, great friends and the world's most organised bridesmaids (Nothando, Thevendrie and Eva), I don't think we could have done it. Between the decision on wedding location and actual week of wedding, I spent all of 7 days in Cape Town. The first weekend was in late January when Nothando (Notty for short) and I went to look at wedding venues. I had shortlisted 8 farms and we started early on Saturday and decided that after number 4, we settled on Vrede en Lust, a wine farm near Franschoek in the Western Cape.

After making our decision, Notty and I decided to have lunch at the restaurant in order to evaluate food. I ordered a salad and cheese plate and a bottle of wine.. the food was good, the wine crisp so we felt satisfied with our choice. Given the number of other couples who were at the farm that day, I knew I had to lock in our date as soon as possible - the weekend of Thanksgiving, which we hoped would suit all of our American friends and family.

The wedding industry, the world over (and I speak from experience), like the baby industry is not a hard sell... it is amazing how the price of a cake for a wedding is often 3x that of any other event.. its still the same cake.. so if I ever decide that I am tired of the male world of investing, it is in these two industries that I will start a business, perhaps something project management related, given how my skills have improved as a result of planning this wedding. Layer on that you are flying in from the US to plan the event and all you get to hear is the upsell.. "Madam, you should go with the Norwegian water for your guests as local bottled water is not very good! " You would be amazed to hear some of the lines I heard..

Not to mention when Sarah Jarvis and I decided to head to Nordstrom on a Saturday morning to look at wedding dresses. Dressed in our jeans and not looking at all as if we were big spenders or on a big budget, we were first told that we had to make a booking. Then through Sarah's smooth talking, the salesperson decided to let us try on a few dresses - starting price $4,000 - for a dress.. The salesperson then began contacting me on a fortnightly basis, sending me little notes and invites to events as I guess selling one wedding dress is as good as probably two months on the floor in any other department.. Sarah, she is still calling me..

Back in the US, 3 days after my first time in SA, John and I put down the first deposit on the farm. We felt that we were done for now.. All we needed to do was send out a "Save the date" and we could put our legs up and relax a bit... yeah but not for too long..

Welcoming change in the US

Finally after 21 months of hard work, Barack Obama has won the US president election. I have been folllowing the election with earnest, got John to buy me a few Obama shirts and in the last fortnight started wearing them in the rather republican suburb that we live in.. I dont think I won any friends doing this but frankly I did not care.

I am really proud to be in the USA on this very historic day. Obama deserved to win- it was one of the best run campaigns in a long time.. no infighting and definitely no issues on the cost of Michelle's clothing and definitely no questions about corruption charges etc.. (Take note JZ in South Africa and Sarah P).

I signed up on Obama's website in January of this year and even though I could not donate, I followed his ground up campaign with great interest. America needs a person like Obama, just like how South Africa needed Mandela in power in the 1990's. This man is capable of effecting change.. and at this point in time the US truly needs help...

Well done Obama.. here's to the next four years. And I am finally proud to be living in America.

Jane & Paolo's Wedding in Pantelleria

Wedding season arrived upon us in 2008 and kick off the season of weddings, we heading to the tiny island of Pantelleria for the wedding of jane and paolo. Let me tell you it took us a very very long time to get there, all as a result of a delay at Heathrow Terminal 3 - we ended up spending 2 hours on the runway, which then resulted in us missing our connection to palermo.

As a result we landed in munich, only to take a train to stuttgart to get another flight to palermo the following day. so unintentionally we saw a bit of Germany along the way and in one day flew from stuttgart to palermo to pantelleria and where we so glad when we finally arrived and to be greeted by paolo's dad..



















The night before the wedding we had dinner at Casa Roncaglia, Paolo's family home on the island. what a beautiful place and the view from the house even better.



















Jane looked stunning in her grecian dress and the speeches by the parents and by each other were very moving. Paolo's mom's speech was truly heart warming and there was many a person in the crowd that needed a Kleenex. The wedding celebrations took place at Hotel Mursia (more of this in my next blog.. need to go cook dinner).

Old Friends in London

So finally, I took 4 days off and heading on vacation. 4 days is 27% of my total annual leave days - can you believe that.. give me higher taxes, more holidays, free healthcare (even if its the NHS) anyday!!!!

We kicked off our vacation over the July 4th - Independence Day weekend here in the USA en route to Jane and Paolo's wedding (next blog posting) and flew to London first for a night over to catch up with old friends. We managed to spend the evening with Alex, Kaunteya, Taira and Mike. Mike arranged tickets (actually our own box) to watch George Benson. The golden oldie was excellent and brought back many childhood memories. sadly Mike had to work and could only join us for dinner.. Indian food of course as this is London's speciality. It was really good to be back in London and chill out with some friends.

I enjoy the oddities and anonymity of London - the ability to be a "bag person" or trolley person in the case and hang out where ever you want for the day and not be bothered.. Well in London, you have to be a relatively rich bag person!!! (with a good umbrella).

We also made it Laduree to sample some Parisian macaroons and proper cappacino and criossants for breakfast... all in all our 18 hour stop over was well spent and thoroughly enjoyed..

The Red Hat Ladies....companionship in America...

During our trip round San Diego with the Jarvis, we came across a group of women who are part of the Red Hat society.. Thy had decided to head down to San Diego for a day trip and we picked them up in Old Town (the so called Spanish old town when the Spanish first set up shop in San Diego).

It started in 2001 when a woman called Sue Ellen Cooper decided to buy herself a red fedora hat. She then read a poem called Warning and related to the poem so much that she decided to buy a deep purple dress as outlined in the poem. She then bought a few friends red hats and over time women in the fifties wearing red hats grew in number. This is what the founder has to say:

"The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan. We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next."

- Sue Ellen Cooper, Queen Mother

Given that life is constrained by rules, the Red Hat Society does not have any rules.. in fact it forbids them.. The rule it does have however is that if you are under 50 and want to join in, you have to wear a pink hat until you read your birthday (50) at which point you can don the red hats and purple outfits... Versace take a tip or two, there is a whole new market you can target..

Nothing like some unknown tidbits for you to start your day....

Queen Bea arrives in San Deigo

We have a new fan or should I say that Don Don (John) has a new fan and an ever growing ego. Queen Bea came to visit and it
wonderful to have her company (and that of her parents) for the weekend..

We ate lots, went to places (old favorites - Tartine and new discoveries -missions) and got to hang out with Queen Bea. She is getting so cute and turning from a baby that still clutches onto my breast to one that has developed an excellent method of ordering Don Don around to the point that he does whatever she says - I wish I could do that.. Now Bea all you need to learn by the next visit is "Don Don, clean up please" and "Don Don, computer games are a time suck"

Thanks to the Jarvis we headed out to visit our first mission and this mission is the first mission built north of the Border. Known as San Diego De Alcala, it was founded on July 16th, 1769 and is located in area that is now aptly referred to as Mission Valley - to fellow San Diegans, note that this not just the place where the shopping mall is!!


As you can see Beatrice and John hung out alot. He taught her how to play computer games, stick her fingers in her nose, wear his shoes, and she taught him her game of "Don, sit"


These two had a lot of fun together. I have no idea what makes John so interesting... it must be all the toys that he has... We both still mimic BiBi's (as she refers to herself) facial expressions when she says no... and hot... What is also great to see is the heathly appetite that Beatrice has. She loves fruit and vegetables and olives and blueberries... she is so easy to cook for..

Sarah and I did manage to sneak out for a bit on the Saturday to head to Nordstroms to check our wedding dresses. Sarah is great at convincing old saleswomen to allow us to try on dresses without an appointment.. We did try on a few and I realised that I need to lose all the weight I have put on (6kg as of today) since arriving in the US in order to look remotely decent in one of these dresses... liposuction and spanx here we come!

Brett & Amira come to Visit

At least a month ago (my blogging is abysmal), we had Brett & Amira Clarence visit us. Brett and I know each other from UCT - from the days of Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall - student residences on Upper Campus. Brett married Amira about 2 years ago - they live in Atlanta and Amira is from Khazakstan... see I am not the only South African who ventured out to super sized America.

I missed Brett's wedding and I was super glad to hear that he was heading over to California to travel on vacation and enjoy Yosemite and the beautiful coastline that California has to offer. The last time I saw Brett was in London when he was over for business and this was my first meeting of his wife, so I was super excited. We took them around and our first stop was Torrey Pines Nature Reserve.. Below is the view from Highway 101 as we approach Torrey Pines. I use this as a good advertisement to get all our friends to come visit us.. The nature beuaty on this end of the world is enticing.. andwe have summer all year round - really we do...

Torrey Pines at this point in time was a busy spot as the US Open (Golf) was starting within a week and there were many tourists who had already arrived. Trying to spot Mr Woods however was more difficult than trying to sight a tiger in the Indian Jungle. (very corny, I know)

We did however manage to get a photo of the four of us, thanks to modern technology. Brett, I will be sending you and Amira some photos in the mail shortly. It was good to spend the weekend catching up with old friends, discussing the election (note only one of us has the right to vote in this crowd) and getting updates about old friends. As part of parcel of our tourist routine, I did take them to La Jolla on the Sunday..

Now we all know that Brett (especially the UCT crowd) that Brett tends to be the crazy one amongst us. so he dons a pair of swimming trunks and heads down to swim from La Jolla Cove to La Jolla Shores, in freezing water, after having swum for an hour in the PAC pool... Thankfully Amira is the sane one and hung out with me reading the newspaper and catching up on our past lifes.

We hope you guys come again... soon!!!

It's all about NINE

This weekend marked my 9 month living in the USA. how quickly time has flown.. Well, in the past nine months, I have put on 18 pounds (8.1kgs)(9*2), devalued my earnings by close to 9% (dollar depreciation against the GBP combined with increasing inflation). I have been declined 9 times for some form of bank or credit card due to no credit history and taken 27 (9*3)flights out of San Diego airport to some other part of the US, Europe or Brazil. On the bright side of things, I have made nine investments in the renewable energy space, ranging from solar to ethanol (the non-food type), had nine visitors come to San Diego including Michael B, Brett, Markus and Sarah, discovered 18 new places to take visitors too and spent close to 27 days not in America.. Within the USA, I have been nine new places - Death Valley, Mammoth Mountain, Santa Barbara - CA, Spokane - WA, Seattle - WA, Daly City - CA, Broomfield- CO, Miami - FL and Dallas, -TX. I spend on average 90 minutes a day surfing the internet for international news (things are very localised in the US) - thank God for the BBC and following the elections.. its like reality TV on steriods.. I have not enjoyed living here. I still miss London terribly but more importantly, I have realised how good we have it outside the US - from access to the international world, friends & family, affordable healthcare, liberal views of women in the workplace and good cuisine.. America is not the land of opportunity anymore, it is now a land in full recession.. However, I believe in the promise of hope and "change we can believe in".. and as a result, I look forward to what the next few months will bring (including a reduction in body size....:) ).

Happy Birthday Madiba!

To turn 90 is a feat in itself but to have lived the life of Nelson Mandela and turn 90, is definitely worth paying tribute too. for those of you not in the know, the person responsible for changing South Africa will turn 90 on July 18th. To kick of this event, a celebration with other dignatories was held in his honor in London. This was followed by a concert in Hyde Park to raise funds for his charity "46664" - his AIDS charity. 46664 is the number that Mandela wore on his shirt while in prison on Robben Island.

Nelson Manadela should always be honored - what he has done for my country, has not been matched by any other African or third world developing nation. Its just a pity that those that have tried to continue his legacy have done such a poor job.

In 1994, Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years. He was elected president in South Africa's first multiracial elections in 1994, ushering in an era of optimism and reconciliation after years of international isolation and internal brutality. I clearly remember the mood in South Africa at the time of of the elections. There were those that bought 100's of cans of canned food, candles and batteries, thinking that civil war would take place at the end of aparthied and there were those that partied in the street.

On the night of the 26th of April 1994, friends of mine at the University of Cape Town ushered in the new South Africa with a party with an old/new south africa theme.. After a good dinner at one of our friedns homes, we all drove to the Parlimentary Buildings in Cape Town and waited to count down the minutes to enter the new South Africa. Some of us were interviewed by CNN - we were one of few multi-racial groups - we were all filled with a deep sense of optimism.. for a country that was isolated from the rest of the world for close to 30 years.

I am glad that Mandela was honored in London. The outdoor show in London's Hyde Park, hosted by actor Will Smith comes 20 years after a 70th birthday concert at London's Wembley Stadium helped press South Africa's apartheid authorities for his freedom.

Happy birthday Madiba, I wish we could still have you as President of South Africa - if only we could have someone like you lead our country into the first world, help alleviate the deepening racial tension and narrow the gap between the haves and have nots.

Santa Barbara - a weekend with the Jarvis

(Sarah and John trading junk food secrets)

Finally, we got our act together and headed out to Santa Barbara to see Zack, Sarah and Queen Bea.. It was truly wonderful to hang out with good old friends for the weekend.. We left on a Friday evening around 8pm and arrived in Santa Barbara around 11.30pm -which included an hour stop to buy some wine and flowers and eat some good Indian at a decent Indian restaurant in West Hollywood, next to the WholeFoods, where said flowers and wine were purchased.. As you can see we try to eat Indian food outside San Diego whenever we get the opportunity.

The Jarvis live in a beautiful part of California..It reminded me of Spain, as you head from Malaga to Grenada and from Bilbao to San Sebastian.. Santa Barbara has excellent olive oils - more impressive than the wines that come from the region. We toured a few wine areas, but my highlight was hanging out with Queen Bea, who is getting more interactive by the day. It was the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, which is a Mexican celebration of the Mexican victory over French forces. The date is now observed as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.. The above photo of the Jarvis family was taken at the Longoria wine store in Los Olivos - one of the small towns we visited on our wine routing expedition.

As you can see John has a new fan.. all blond little girls like John.. dont ask me why, but even Lara of the Lara/Nina Gush twin duo likes to hang with the John.. They must be attracted to the Latvian heritage that John has..

You have to love this photo of Beatrice.. so determined on carrying this big rock... soon Queen Bea, pretty soon. We hope that they do come visit us in San Diego pretty soon..

My first Baseball Game

A few weeks ago some friends of John where in San Diego for a conference - this town is the conference capital of California.. The big plus is that we get to see more friends this way and it actually got us to finally head to a baseball game..

In South Africa non-white schools during apartheid (which is when I grew up), we had 4 sports that we could play in our weekly 90 minutes of physical education per week - netball which was compulsory (and where I broke the fingers on my left hand when Margie tackled me); athletics; softball (as girls were not allowed to play cricket) and volleyball (you played if you wanted to meet tall Indian men!!). So for me going to a baseball game reminded me of those days when we would spend 45 minutes out of class (usually around midday) under the hot, boiling South African sun...bliss!

Baseball is similar to cricket only less complicated. More innings and much easier to get out - strikes and you are out.. The games was between the Padres (local SD team) and the Dodgers (LA Team). It was a 3 day match weekend (think if it as 3 one-day matches taking place consecutively over a weekend).

By the 6th innings (an innings ends when someone is out), I was bored.. but amazed at the same time by how much people spend (and eat!!!) on an outing to a game.. This is serious business with drinks costing north of $7 each and a hotdog close to $10. Not to mention the baseball caps, shirts, banners and calendars that are all up for sale.. Top tier entry tickets at $65 each.

The US is definitely a consumption driven nation, more so than any other country I have lived and worked in - well maybe not as bad as Kuwait as there is nothing else to do there than to shop and eat.

Will I go to a game again? Probably not.. Have I ever been to a cricket game? yes, but the last one was the world cup in South Africa in 2003, when India played against South Africa... which is always an exciting game to watch..

I did enjoy the mascot though and the impressive stadium that we were in.. If only the city of San Diego would invest the same amount of capital (estimated to be $500mn) on its roads..

Views of San Diego from Coronado Island

Spring is in the air (not that San Diego actually experienced winter),so it was time to go out and experience a different past of San Diego - much needed given that we live in North County which is very agrestic (like the community in the comedy called Weeds, where all the homes look the same and everything is very cookie cutter.)














The view from Coronado Island of San Diego downtown is rather impressive and definitely gives one the feeling that we do live in a large city. It is a large city, with 3 million people, however the city is very spread out, especially compared to London.
















I guess that over time we will get used to this sprawling town and its many little enclaves that make it unique and attracts a ton of tourists over the summer, which seems to have started about now..

Last night we decided to head downtown and experience the city life for a change. It was good outing, new york style pizza, old cinemas and lots of 20-somethings waiting for hours to get into the trendy Ivy bar where drinks start at $20.

I had a good laugh when I saw some girls out on a hen's night (kitchen tea, bridal shower, bachelorette party) dressed up very similar to the ladettes in Blackpool, out for a night on the town.. jean's sprayed on with muffin tops and all.. I may be very far from the UK but some things seem to be just the same the world over..

Death Valley...

So a fortnight ago, John adamant to get out of SD for the weekend, decided that we should head out to Death Valley, a national park about 5 hours away from San Deigo.



















Death Valley is a rather descriptive name for this place. There is not much to see other than super dry, barren land, large expanses of it.. The highlight is the fact that this place is considered to be the driest place in America. It also has the lowest elevationm 86m below sea level.
It also has salt pans. According to all the reports on this place, a few million years ago there was an inland sea in this place but as the are turned to desert, it evaorated into salt.



















These views above are probably the most dramatic in the park. Other than that there is not much else to see. Even the rumours about wild flowers coming into bloom was not as amazing a sight as we though it would be.

But we came, we saw and left..

Airports!!!!!

Its midnight, and I am stuck in an airport again.. Give me Heathrow (yes Heathrow with those nice BA or Virgin business lounges) any day over the not so great comforts of the airports of America.. where even first class domestic does not guarantee club lounge access. Can you believe that??? My flight is 4 hours delayed..and will only leave at 1.40am this morning to San Diego from San Francisco. I am en route from a red eye (overnight flight to the east coast sans my flat bed) to Jersey where I had a series of investment meetings and then returned back 12 hours later via SFO. never again... but it will happen again.. because San Diego is what Manchestor is to London (thankfully prettier) but one of those cities that is not just large enough to generate demand for direct flights.. Virgin has finally launched VirginAmerica (thank you Richard!!) and as soon as they start their direct flights from San Diego to the east coast, it will become my next best travel friend.. for a service oriented country, its hard to believe that Americans sacrifice the comforts of travel.. its time to take a leaf out of virgin's or british airways book and realise that service does matter and people are willing to pay that little extra to be treated like humans rather than cattle.

Great Indian in SFO

I just got back from spending the last 2 nights in San Francisco.. love that city... a mini London to some extent.. I had to head there for a conference and when I do get to head there I try to find new things to see and to meet up with friends.

So we have found the equivalent to having your local indian/pakistani place. For $27.00, we ate for two and there was plenty left on the table. The food is excellent, cooked by Mexicans, owned by Pakistani's.. finally a place that equals Lahore Kebab in London.. no alcohol here either but there is no shortage of good cocktail bars close by..

try this one.. Bourbon & Branch, a very cool Speakeasy.. and a definite step back into the 1920's. have to make sure I get to return to both of these places pretty soon..

and now I am back in San Diego, watching America's next top model.. and waiting for JK to come home.. for a change I got home before him.

A different slant on the RAND

So as part of my strange travels around the US, I come across small towns.. and on our way to Mammoth, we came across Randburg and Jannesburg, named wierldy enough after the infamous Egoli in South Africa..

these towns were initally created as mining towns for gold, based on the wealth created by gold in JNB.

In 1896, Randsburg was called Rand Camp, and Red Mountain was originally called Osdick. Johannesburg was established in 1896 as the planned service community for the mining camps. It is the only Rand-area town laid out with straight streets and right-angle intersections. All three towns still retain remnants of the past and have been able to maintain their unique ambiance through the efforts of renovation and preservation.

Its however very different from what we know as Johnnesburg. Would you ever find a swap meet (clothes exchange, the concept of bartering comes to mind) in JNB? My poor fellow South Africans would be surprised to see the lack of high rise buildings or cool cars for that matter.. a very different take on the heart of Africa.