I've been selfish. I've been writing about my Whistler backcountry adventure, and neglecting to share the great adventures with Phil, Nick, Colin, Heidi, Wendy, Don, Emily and Thomas. In January, Phil and Nick and I rendezvoused in Vermont to ski at Stowe and Killington. Many selfies were taken. And after a stop in Oakville, Heidi [...]
I arrived, feeling nervous, at the meeting spot at the appointed time, 8am. There was no one there. A day earlier, I had made a trip to the grocery store to buy lunch for the outing. In the evening I had collected the required gear from the rental shop: backpack, shovel, probe, transceiver, touring skis, [...]
My bad. I just didn't feel like compiling a list of new music from 2021, so this is the first update since 2020 (1). I've also given up the idea of listing the best "albums". It's just a collection of tracks that caught my attention during 2022. Once again, your mileage may vary. No, your [...]
Beryl Amy Brannan Beryl Amy Brannan died peacefully at home on 13 November 2022, with her beloved husband William (Bill) Brannan by her side. She was 83 years old. Amy was born on 19 November 1938 in Gourock, Scotland to Margaret and Percy Clark. At the age of 19, she married Bill Brannan in Alexandria, [...]
In the fall of 2019, Heidi and I visited a pre-sale exhibition of modern art at Christie's in NYC. It was a revelation on a number of levels. First, there were just so many works on display by a huge variety of big name artists. Many had been in private collections for decades, and presumably [...]
The last time I was in the Prudential office in Newark was 13 March 2020. Today, I went back. (RTW = return to work). It was a miserable day for it: cold, damp, overcast. I had become very comfortable with my work-from-home morning routine: Wordle at breakfast, walk to the Hudson River, run up the [...]
That’s Alastair, Stuart, Oliver and Rob.
First snow. Hoboken Waterfront
Everyone knows COVID-19 disrupted our daily lives in 2020 and 2021. Here's personal proof. 2021 vs 20202020 vs 20192019 vs 2018# of workouts per month:samesamesameTotal # of ski days:down 10up 2up 2Total # of golf days:samestill zerodown 1Average weight (lbs):down 1down 1down 1.5Average # daily steps:up 200down 1400down 173Age (years):up 1 moreup 1 (again)up 1Total # [...]
Let's hope it's a good one.
For our last night we went to IN's home town of Cómpeta, to visit with her dad. We couldn't have asked for a better way to wind up our amazing Andalucian adventure. The next day we left AWB and IN who were heading to Barcelona. We returned the rental car at Malaga airport, and began [...]
Welcome to the city with pomegranates on every bollard. The first batch of pics is just snaps of us exploring the city. The second batch is the glorious Alhambra. Our delightful and enthusiastic tour guide, Beatriz, shows up in a few of the pictures. Since COVID hit, we were only her 4th English-speaking tour. The [...]
So long Cádiz, so long your azure sea and sky. Bienvenido a la Sierra de Grazalema y los pueblos blancos. We repositioned from the sea into the mountains, and took a tour of El Caminito del Rey: a walkway pinned to the steep walls of El Chorro gorge. Remnants of the previous, very sketchy, pathway [...]
We picked up a car and left Sevilla behind. First stop was the ruined Roman settlement Itálica a few km north, and recently famous due to its being a dragon den, or something, in Game of Thrones. Next up was the lovely city of Cádiz on the Atlantic coast, one of the oldest settlements in [...]
Below please find the first burst of pics from our just completed visit to Andalucía. First batch is out and about in Sevilla, with a couple from the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede, which started, like many churches in the region, as a mosque and ended up being the largest gothic church in [...]
In my mind, this is it… a taco truck on every corner should be everyone’s dream. In the Jersey City heights, it’s reality. In addition, you can get strawberry/rhubarb pie in October. Pure bliss.
There's a new kid in town: Jaume Plensa's "Water's Soul" on the Jersey CIty waterfront.
The office was closed because of COVID-19 and I needed something to replace my daily walks to and from the train station. So I started going for a walk down to the Hudson River every morning. On 6 July 2020, I started taking a picture of downtown Manhattan every time I went on Hoboken's Pier [...]
Day One - we stopped at Storm King State Park, and climbed the Storm King mountain famous for spectacular views of the Hudson River valley. The hike was strenuous, the trail was steep and rocky in places, but the views... the views were non-existent due to low cloud cover. We contnued up the river to [...]
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