The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

For my last theatre experience as a resident of London, Megan and I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical. For those of you who were at Lorie and my wedding almost 10 years ago, you may recall we walked down the isle together to “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor. It is one of the big songs used in the play, and even gets repeated in bits a few times. That means I liked the music, and the play was fun – quite gay as you might guess from the 3 guys in drag pictured here, but it was fun. 

On Sunday I took some time off from work and met Geoff and Silvia in Chinatown for a Dim Sum brunch. Our timing was either poor or interesting depending on how you view it. That’s because it was Chinese New Year and the streets were closed (to cars) and packed with people. There were stands setup with stuff for sale, a couple of big screens, a band, dancing dragons, and probably a bunch of stuff I didn’t see. Thankfully, the wait for brunch was a normal 15 minutes or so and the food was good as always. While it was interesting, I didn’t hang out on the streets since it was a bit too crowded and I didn’t feel like dealing with it at the time. I’m glad I got to experience it though.

I will be moving back to Seattle very soon, and I hope to have more experiences like this one… 3 years ago I got to play a ski patroller at Winter Park in Colorado. My friends Keith and Lisl were real patrollers, so at the end of the day, Keith pulled Lisl and I up to the top of a few runs via a snow mobile and we all split off into different directions. The task was to “sweep” the runs to make sure nobody was left on the mountain as it was being closed down for the night. As you can see here, I “swept” the Gambler and Aces-n-Eights runs. What it really means is that I had two great runs all to myself at the end of a great day of skiing. That’s a great way to finish a day of skiing.  

Flying from Seattle to London today, I sat next to Richelle Mead who was coming to London for a book signing. OK, I had no idea who she was before or after she told me, but she explained that she writes vampire books for teens, which I know nothing about (vampires or teens). However, since she is a best selling author according to the New York Times and USA Today, I’d say her books are worth checking out. She tells me that her vampires aren’t scary, so if you are a teenager interested in some good fantasy books or you just like vampire books, then I suggest checking them out.

I am in Redmond/Seattle for a meeting with a bunch of people from around the world so Stephan from the Netherlands thought it would be a good cultural experience to go to a bar and watch the Superbowl game (apparently that’s American football). We had a small European mix there to watch it: Troels (Denmark), Christian and Henrik (Germany), Primo (Switzerland), Jani (Finland), Stephan (Netherlands), and me. I think that was everyone – sorry if I’m forgetting anyone. Thankfully Jani was up on the sport so he could explain what was happening to those of us who don’t follow it, even if he and the others thought it was funny that the American of the (me) group didn’t know as much as he did.

Last night I was out with a bunch of co-workers and one of them suggested that since it was January 25th, that I should have Haggis. Since this was from Fiona, who is Scottish, I considered it. She explained that on January 25, we celebrate Burns Night by eating haggis. No, we did not read Robert Burn’s poem "Ode Tae a Haggis", but I did end up having haggis on a bed of mashed neeps (so did Fiona, so it wasn’t just a trick). And yes, it was good! I think I got lucky thought, since it was thin patty, had mostly oats, and the meat flavor was minimal, which was good since none of us could figure out what “meat” was in it. Read this to understand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis

Today it was 1°C and felt like -4°C, but it wasn’t snowing or raining, so I decided to walk to and from work, which is about 2.5 miles each direction. This takes me from Cromwell Road in South Kensington to Victoria and through a neighbourhood called Belgravia, where many of the original Victorian style home have been turned into embassies and the horse stables (mews) are now single-family homes (as they are in all of London). In the 1700, the rural area was popular for robberies and for the aristocracy to engage in duels. Now though, there are high-end shops and very expensive places to live, which makes it an interesting walk. One embassy had police out front who carefully watched me walk past, as did a driver in a large black Mercedes Benz, but I was behaving myself (didn’t have Milo), so I didn’t get stopped for suspicious behaviour this time.

Unrelated: Lorie just spoke to the local Seattle government about neighbourhood development (that’s the South Lake Union neighbourhood in Seattle). You can see her in the video from the January 11th at the Seattle City Council meeting at 32 minutes into the video. Basically, she asked that people who live in the neighbourhood be included when new buildings get designed so we can end up with a nice neighbourhood, not a bunch of high-rises with no green-space around them. Unfortunately, the city council cares more about building for businesses than it does for making a great neighbourhood to live. The vote was 7-to-1.

Yes, it has been snowing a little bit in London (much more outside the city) and now it is pretty icy out there also. To fully enjoy it, I got off the tube a couple of stops early this morning so I could walk past Parliament (with Big Ben) and Westminster Abbey. As others freeze and bitch about the weather, I turn into a tourist! However, other than the grounds in front of each building being covered in a little bit of snow, there wasn’t much out of place. I think I should be in the Alps right now instead of the city.

The problems it causes in this unprepared-for-snow city is the biggest news item right now. This includes running out of grit, cancelled flights, bus routes being changed or some busses just not running, and a few tubes having delays (the ones that run above ground).

I missed last year’s ski season (first time ever) so thankfully my first time out this year was at Solitude with fresh snow and no crowds. We never had to wait in a single lift line and it snowed lightly all day, so I was still making fresh tracks at the end of the day. I was using a pair of fat skis (wide Rosignal Bandits), so even when I ran into crud snow, I did just fine. Hopefully we’ll hit Alta soon too.

And being the good uncle that I am, I also went sledding with Taylor and Haakon, plus the dog Ole of course.

My tailbone hurts from the sledding and my legs and back are sore from the skiing. I’m sure it’s the altitude, not my age!

I’m in Seattle for the month of December, and why not – Lorie and Milo live here. ;-)

So I now spend quite a bit of free time walking Milo again, but have run out of iconic places to walk him to. Yes, we walk in the cold rain since Seattle does get quite a bit of rain, but not as much as New York City (it must be true if Wikipedia says it). While hanging out in our loft, I do get to watch the King 5 helicopter take off and land once in a while (pictured).

Hopefully I can share some good skiing-related blog entries in the next few weeks!