My latest trip back home to Chicago was totally retro:
My best friend from high school got married
I drank my first White Russian since New Orleans
I made Krusteez Waffles with my aunt, who used to make my sis and I pancakes on the campstove back when we were kids (does that mean we’re not kids anymore?)
I caught up with my good friend, Dawid, from UIUC
We ate Italian at Superossa, pizza at Papa’s Pizza place, and almost went to Ruby Tuesday’s (all restaurants we used to frequent but haven’t been to in years and years).
But some things do change. New additions include:
Mom’s new horse, Lass
Stephanie and Jolan’s new trailer in Woodsmoke
Mom and Dad’s new house on Gilbert Ave
Dad’s fab twice baked potatoes
And of course, we’re all drinking age now so let the Labatt’s beer flow.
And let’s not forget: I turned 30 recently. My family threw me a fantastic belated birthday party at Woodsmoke. Highlights include:
Thunderstorms and lightening - the rain set the mood for a nice cozy night in the hideaway
Keeping it simple with Chicago-style veggie dogs and cabbage slaw, thus allowing us to spend more time relaxing and talking rather than slaving away in the kitchen (though that can be fun, too)
Stephanie’s fantastic vegan chocolate and zucchini cake with whipped soy cream and berries - I even went back for seconds!
Presents! Everyone was way too generous, yet simultaneously sensitive to my minimalist packing style. They were also eerily in tune with my tastes - it’s amazing how well we seem to know each other despite living so far apart.
Mom’s impressive bird house skills - my birds get to live in a rocket ship!
Stephanie’s card - I won’t go into details, but her comments about Big Sur were spot on - it really is amazing how far we’ve come since last January
Just having a birthday party, with candles and singing and all the trimmings. I haven’t had one of those in years - it’s really nice!
Having all of us together in one place for a change - a rarity these days.
All in all a fabulous trip. I’m lucky I have such great family and friends to go home to.
I wish I could take credit for this photo… this was taken by Everett Christopher at Rachel and Dave’s wedding in Austin on July 12th, 2009. It’s always too cold in England for tank tops, so I’m glad he managed to catch this rare moment in tattoo freedom. It’s also appropriate that he got such a full-on view of the poblano pepper, which I had done in Houston as a tribute to my time in Texas.
How exciting is this? Tomorrow morning I head to Switzerland, the birthplace of my beloved Bircher muesli! I’m flying into Basel airport then heading to Interlaken for a long weekend of mountain walking and jaw dropping at the great Eiger. I’m very excited, and have two bowls of Bircher on the soak for the trip in. I’ll be back next week with stories of cereal and Swiss Alps. And in case you don’t get the Basel 2 reference, don’t worry about it - it’s a reference to my previous life as a banker. Can you imagine?
I’ve been having an awesome trip to the States this summer and have actually managed to keep up with uploading my photos. Above is one of the highlights from my trip to Woodsmoke a couple weeks ago.
Tim and I just got into Austin where we are staying in a wonderful house owned by our equally wonderful hostess. On top of being a retired massage therapist and all-around nice (and enviably hard) human being, she also home brews kombucha, a fermented beverage made from tea and live cultures. She left a jug of the stuff in the fridge for us (along with a few beers and some ginger ale) - what a warm welcome!
I’d never had kombucha before but it was the perfect tonic for after a flight. Slightly sweet and carbonated, kombucha tastes almost alcoholic, and I wondered whether I should be gulping the stuff down right before we were to meet some friends for dinner. I’ve since learned that kombucha is only mildly alcoholic due to the fermentation process (this brew was about 0.5% abv) and moreover, has a lot of potential health benefits. For example, since kombucha is made with bacteria cultures (much like yogurt) it is thought to aid in digestion. Other health claims include stimulating the immune system, preventing cancer and improving liver function.
None of these claims have been verified, of course, but the important thing is that it tastes delicious, is totally natural and is so refreshing, especially in this 100-degree Austin heat! It makes me want to try brewing my own when I get back to England.
Went to Highgate Cemetery last Wednesday, home of Karl Marx, Peter Perfect, Thomas Sayers and more. It was a spectacular sunny day. The highlight: the guided tour of the Western cemetery. Highly recommended. Add this to my Top 10 list of favorite things to do in London. It’s right up there with Sir John Soane’s museum and St. Paul’s.
This heat map by McKinsey classifies cities by their growth and diversity.
Interestingly, Bristol - a city that’s always given me good vibes - tends towards “hot spring”, a small, fast-growing hub on track to becoming a world player.
Kind of disappointed to see Chicago fall into the “silent lake” category - old, slow-growing hubs with a narrow range of large stablished companies.
London - a “silent lake” and a “shrinking pool”? Sounds like it’s time to head Northwest, or across the ocean to Brisbane or Ottawa.
McKinsey has partnered with the World Economic Forum to create an “Innovation Heat Map,” by identifying factors that are common to successful innovation hubs. As part of this effort, we have examined the evolution of hundreds of such clusters around the world and analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories. In the process, we have found patterns that suggest the critical ingredients required to grow, nurture, and sustain innovation hubs. At the same time, we have compiled thousands of data points that may be used to identify bottlenecks and benchmark the performance of cities, regions, and countries by measuring how they are evolving.
I’m back in London from my trip to Chicago and California. You’d think after eight weeks away I’d be raring to come back to London, but if anything, I now see more than ever that my home is somewhere else outside of London. I don’t know where, but I’m really excited to find out, and soon!
I can’t put into words how awesome my trip was without spending hours writing this. Let’s just say that I was too busy having fun to write about any of it in my blog.
I’m slowly uploading pictures from my trip to Flickr. You can see all of the photo sets from my trip here:
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