uncrushed by the wheels of industry

Back in't smoke today, celebrated with a trip to the office ultra early and picking up a prime parking spot. I seem to have side-stepped the effects of time zone changes, although I sometimes wonder if it's partly because I spend so much time working with the USA in any case.

Tonight, as an example, I thought my last meeting would be at 20:00, but it was then cancelled and replaced with a different one at 20:30. 'I thought you were based in the States', came the explanatory email later. Luckily, the replacement meeting gave me a chance to drive home in the gap, so I'm now feet up sipping tea before the 20:30 call starts.

So contrary to usual post holiday situations, I don't feel as squashed as the yellow stikman graffiti art which I've been noticing on some pedestrian crossings.

hot foot to the UK again

Nikki-ann commented about the shadowy blueness of the rashbre feet, so today I thought I'd better cover them up if they were going to sidle into another picture.

We didn't just stay by beaches during our trip; sometimes it was mountains, lakes or as evidenced by this one, even tennis courts.

Of course, the feet have been somewhat stationary for the last five and a half hours whilst we flipped back to London and I think there will be more of that whilst I take a snooze to let the soul catch up before re-entering the maelstrom (mailstrom?)

Cod navigation to Logan

Awaking to another beautiful sea view, we decided to round out the trip by heading for the very tip of Cape Cod, before that inevitable moment when we had to turn back towards the airport. A few days earlier we'd been in Cambridge Vermont, close to the Canadian border and considered that to be the most northern point of the trip, so this was a second opportunity to create one of those signifying moments where things flip around.

First a lazy breakfast looking out to sparkling sea, watching the seals amassing on the sand bars and then the final checkout from the timber boarded cottage overlooking the bay.

It was easy enough to follow the Route 6 to Providence and to take in the natural shoreline of the area but more challenging as we turned back towards Boston. Not the first part, where the 6 meandered us back to the mainland nor the next stage where there was still a clear route.

As we approached Boston again, I was reminded of the relative lack of signage and confusing directions which are my experience of American road systems. I guess we are spoilt in the UK with countdown markers, uniform sign style and place names before road junctions. America seems more hit and miss with direction signs and we drifted into some interesting neighbourhoods with indiscriminate double and triple parking along routes with only half hearted street names. I still havn't figured out the way North and South gets used. On the way to Providence (North of Cape Cod), the signs said South. At the end of the route it said North. Heading back, it could have said North (or even South again; it decided to say West).

I was sure we would eventually find Boston (we did - thank you John Hancock Tower) and from there navigated a surprisingly straight route back to Logan airport.

Right now I'm in the lounge waiting for the flight to be called. Next stop Heathrow.

later that same day

Some tough decisions today.

Should we spend the day on the beach maybe sipping the occasional pina colada and margarita, or should we explore further afield?

Rather sensibly, we recognized that the place we are staying is a 'destination' for many and it would be slightly odd to move elsewhere. And fortunately the sun awoke early and has been with us all day, so ambling between beach and swimming pool seems a sensible solution.

When I was first on the shore at daybreak, the tide had hidden a couple of the sandbars. Later in the day they were exposed, along with a selection of seals, who later decided to play around within easy reach of the shore's edge.

So I've had a rather relaxed day and even made some enjoyable inroads into the new Thomas Pynchon novel "Inherent Vice". I must save some for the flight, though.

early

Five thirty this morning and I was on the beach. Watching the sunrise. Vee-shaped patterns of birds overhead, a couple of noisy gulls and the sea. Savour the moment before walking the few steps back to the beachside cottage we're in for the last couple of days here.

Earlier yesterday we managed the statutory Taco Bell stop at a random spot on the 6 parked up next to a white car with a huge HDTV sticking from the trunk. We perused the menu and tried for the perfect order without getting tricked but once again had an extra Chilupa and some mystery tacos when the order finally arrived. I would have been slightly disappointed if we'd received exactly what we thought we were ordering.

This morning, as I walked back from the shoreline to the cottage, there was a point where the sound of the waves was overtaken by the hubbub of birds awakening in the nearby bushes. I'm holding my transition back to the hubbub until Monday.

in which I discover the roof garden

I found the apartment's balcony yesterday and even briefly sat on it whilst drinking coffee, but somehow missed the extra stairs going upwards.

This morning I realized they lead to the roof garden, which was the optimum spot for breakfast whilst also viewing across the rooftops of Newport.

I wasn't sure what I'd make of Newport, which I'd half expected to be modern and a little utilitarian. In practice, its packed with relatively old and well preserved buildings; even the apartment has a historical preservation order and the town had a plenty of shops, restaurants as well as the attractive harbor area.

We decided to take to the water later and enjoyed the views across to Goat Island, the way out to the Atlantic and as well as to the huge estates along the coastline.

Jacqueline Bovier (later Kennedy Onassis) grew up in one of the big houses we could see from along the coast line and which also hosted her marriage to John Kennedy. For us, though, overall today was a day to just absorb the bustle of Newport. Tomorrow we'll head for a resort for a couple of beach and pool style chill-out days, before returning to the UK.

Rhode Island

This morning's business meeting went okay, although the observation about pre and post meeting time is true; it's almost impossible to limit the time to just the call. I also discovered that I've been given some extra responsibilities during the call, but I shall need to park that thought until next week.

At least I could be smug in the knowledge that I'd (finally?) visited the Ben and Jerry factory before the meeting and am now an expert on how to make wavy gravy (make sure the waves are colder than the surrounding ice cream to avoid sinkage).

We've moved out of the mountains of Vermont during the day and headed along the Connecticut River, winding up in a rather well appointed apartment in Newport, Rhode Island. The apartment is about 30 seconds from the waterfront and right in the bustle of Thames Street.

But right now, its time to chill.

taking a break from the vacation

An early start today, but not because of vacation plans. I have an office meeting which has sneaked into my holiday.

I normally look at other people intent on blackberries, business cellular calls and laptops whilst on their holiday and think they should take the break and be 'in the moment' instead of chained to their commerce, so it's difficult when it happens to me.

Originally the meeting was booked at 07:30 my time, but now it has moved three hours later which makes it 10:30. I only found that out last night along with another message that it was important that I attended the call.

I will, of course, although it puts a dent into today's plans because I'll need to be somewhere suitable for a one hour call mid-morning.

Hopefully, the other people I see in these circumstances are similar to me and it is a 'one off' during their time away. Some how I suspect not.

in which it all begins to look alpine

Luckily my plan to visit the ice cream place was overturned. The better plan was to walk a trail in the first part of the day although there was fairly conflicting weather advice - rain vs sunshine. I carried a modest backpack and as we set off the indoor impression was of a cold and grey day.

As we got outside we realised the scale of the heat pinning us to the ground. It must have been the decor and the aircon that had lulled us into thinking it would be cool. True, some of the weather channels had been warning of the hottest day of 2009, but we were in the mountains of Northern Vermont, so thought this wouldn't affect us.

It just got hotter and hotter. At one point mid morning I spotted a wall thermometer on the side of a shed. It said 95 degrees. I don't really do Farenheit, but I know that 95 is pretty warm. So did my tee-shirt. Now we are not talking Joshua Tree or Death Valley heat here, but it was enough to catch us out and we changed our route and plans.

Ben and Jerry's would never have been first on the itinerary but now it became the Plan B option to head across to somewhere cooler for at least the peak part of the day. But ohmygoshthecrowdsthere. It was far too busy and an almost improbable jarring compared to the relative ease with which we'd moved about up to this point.

We decided to go for Plan C. That's the 'no plan' plan. And it worked a whole lot better. I'd already commented that Vermont was more like New Switzerland or New Austria rather then being bundled with New England and then, lo and behold, just past the sign for Inky Dinky Oink Ink, was another for the von Trapp residence.

We decided to take a look, and sure enough, these hills were still very much alive with the sound of music. It turns out that Maria and the gang had moved to Vermont and established a miniature version of Austria very close to where we'd been staying. Brilliantly located, well maintained, thriving as a hotel nowadays but also touching because of the little memorial ground where Maria and her siblings are buried.

Then further onward across the mountain peaks before deciding to head for the nearby lake, which also reminded me of the edges of Lake Lausanne in Switzerland.

Across the other side we could see the shoreline of upstate New York and our good fortune was to be able to sit with a Magic Hat #9 and a snack by the water's edge to watch the sun set before heading back to our current base at the Inn.

the one with the inn in vermont

This is my first time in Vermont, and I can't help thinking of all the movies and sitcoms where people from New York head up to Vermont for the weekend/to go ski-ing/to someone they know's borrowed cottage.

It reminded me of TV series Friends where Vermont was used to signify escape from Manhattan. And then, today, to my surprise, Pheobe from Friends appeared on the breakfast show promoting a new movie.

Meantime, the area seems kind of homely and cosy, with decor more suited to a winter environment than the heat we are currently experiencing. Whilst the coast was all lobster and seafood, around here its all dairy and home baked bread.

We're backpack-ready for a day out on the trails, cautiously with waterproofs as well as tee-shirts.

screamin' across the mountains

Sometimes the strangest things can excite.

We decided to head from the White Mountains in New Hampshire to the Green Mountains in Vermont.

As we cut across to tonight's stopoff, I can't help thinking that our really near neighbor* is Ben and Jerry's, the ice cream company.

We passed them shortly before we arrived at this Inn and I'm trying to think of an excuse to go back tomorrow for a quick look around.

*American spelling because they are American neighbors.

bretton woods

We are out into the proper mountains today. The Northern Appalachians and the White Mountains in particular. More of that when I have a chance to load some pictures.

Right now we are dancing the night away in Bretton Woods, which is the place where Keynes and a large bunch of diplomats and economists planned the economic reform and pegging of currencies which led to the IMF and the end of the gold standard.

The place is awash with finery and despite the passing of time, its not that difficult to visualise the setup for the creation of the dollar peg rate to gold.
Keynes' idealistic approach to the creation of a new index was outmanoeuvered by the United States, which wanted all the currencies to be pegged via the dollar, which effectively supplanted gold as the reserve currency of global economics.

It was clever thinking at the time, because the US needed to have an ongoing economic engine after World War II and getting all of Europe's currencies linked to the dollar and everyone using it as part of commerce was a way to keep the export engine running and access to all markets.

It worked for a while, but the dollar based scheme created some interesting disparities. The US could effectively trade at huge profits with developing nations and then send some of the profits to Europe as post-war grants. The US became capitalist in chief of the world.

Pax Americana.

Until in the late 60s when the Europeans bonded, Japan regained some economic strength and a war in Vietnam created new US challenges and a massive US balance of trade deterioration.

The USD to gold rate of $35 per ounce was ending and with it the fixed nature of a Bretton Woods global currency peg.

Fascinating to turn up at the location where these events played out and amusing to see that the various delegates would have been rather well catered for, judging by the locale and its rather opulent amenities.

Yes, I did also find the Bretton Woods speakeasy cave for a different type of music.